Chapter 335 - Insane

Huang Jia completely wiped down everything in the powder room before she attached herself to the wall, trying to find sense in the words that she could barely hear. It was not like she was really understanding anything. Everything was just mumbo jumbo inside her head.

She knew she was just assuming some of the words as when she tried to form coherent sentences, none made sense. But suddenly, there was something that was breaking in the other room. 

It made Huang Jia's heart beat faster and she scrambled to fix herself, throwing herself against the door. Right on time, someone just came out of the other room, looking around.

"Can you please help us here? I broke a plate," said a tall man whose eyes were behind thick-rimmed glasses. 

It seemed like luck had found Huang Jia. She nodded at him.

"Thanks," he said with a smile and disappeared back in the room.

Huang Jia's legs almost felt like jelly. There was definitely something happening inside that room. She knew there were lots of people inside with the variety of voices that she was hearing earlier.

She wheeled the cleaning cart that was outside the powder room. She wanted to not look at first, so as not to be suspicious, but her eyes could not help but roam around the place. 

There were about a dozen people inside. By the looks of the decorations along the wall, it had served as a living room before. Great, another living room. Just how many are there inside this house? she asked herself.

But this room's purpose had already changed from entertaining guests to be somewhat made for work. Most of the sofas where pushed to the walls to make a huge space in the middle where row upon row of tables were, computers lined the top.

Then papers. 

There were paper everywhere. Some were crumpled on the floor. Some were taped to the wall. Some were on the huge whiteboard.

Huang Jia snuck a glance but she could not understand what was written. What was she supposed to look at first? There were too many arrows and words on it!

The guy who called her pointed to the floor near the corner of the room where there were half-empty dishes on the table. Somehow, there was a small buffet for their meals. "Don't take anything else. Just please sweep the floor and possibly vacuum the glass."

She was about to answer when she remembered one of Ms. Shao's rule to not talk to the people in the house. She had to be invisible.

"Well, if I were invisible, that would be really helpful right now," she grumbled under her breath as she slowly swept the floor with a broom. If she were invisible, she could've easily taken notes with what was happening. But alas, she was only human.

She was taking her time gathering the broken pieces. She needed to stay in this room long enough to get something out of this whole shenanigan.

She remained quiet, hoping that someone would say something that she could pick up. But all her ears got were the busy typing on the keyboards and the soft hum of the airconditioners.

Huang Jia took a chance and let her face look around the room. She gasped because there was something on the projector. A drawing.

The first thing that she noticed were that the elements did not seem to fit together. Then the red rose in the middle. There were arrows pointing to the different elements—

"Hey!" said the man who was now frowning at her. "Are you done there?"

She immediately bowed her head and nodded, folding unto herself. She should not come of as someone who could be a threat. The man stopped walking a few paces, probably studying her if she would be someone who would talk about what she saw in the room.

Huang Jia stopped breathing.

"Tsk," said the man with an impatient shifting on his foot. "Just please get out."

She bowed once more and pushed the car out of the room. She did not dare take another glance as she made her way out. She knew that the man was staring after her, making sure that she was really leaving without another look at the drawing.

Once she closed the door, she was ready to take a deep breath of relief when she felt a straight pain to her cheeks. She quickly pressed her hand to the spot, easing the sting.

She looked down at the small woman.

Ms. Shao had slapped her. "What are you doing in that room?"

Huang Jia was mortified. She didn't know that the old lady would be capable of hurting someone. Sure, she looked like she could kick you out, but not actually do it.

"A-a… one of them broke something inside just as I was finishing up in the powder room. There were glass shards on the floor. I swept it up."

Ms. Shao looked at the now closed doors again. "What did you see in that room?"

She vigorously shook her head. "I didn't see anything."

Ms. Shao pointed at her face with a wrinkled finger. "You're lucky because you're the only who could continue on your trial. The other two already broken pieces of expensive vases. And you came highly recommended."

When she asked Mr. Dong about why she was chosen—among the many people that owed him money—he answered that she was the only one with the cleanest record. Huang Jia swallowed. Her life was hard but it had been normal.

"I'm sorry," she said as this was the only thing left to say. 

"Do not go in the rooms again. Do you understand?" Ms. Shao said in a stern voice. "You don't know the people that you are dealing with. You don't know what they are capable of."

Huang Jia only raised her head a little, gritting her teeth. Sure, the Qings might have power and she might not know the extent of that power but they did not have her son. Mr. Dong, he was a man that Huang Jia knew. He was someone who took people's hands and feet as payment for their debts.

She was not going to let that happen to her or to her son.

**

"You are seriously insane," Liu Meilien said with her eyes rimmed with red. She had been crying for the good part of the hour. She wiped her nose. "I am going to tell your brothers."

Qing Lok only sighed as he zipped up his bag. "No, you're not. We already had this conversation, Meilien."

She shook her head. "I can't let you leave! I can't just let you walk in a possible trap that could end your life! I can't!" at the prospect of Qing Lok dying sent a huge knife to her heart, pushing more tears to her eyes.

Qing Lok stared at her, thinking if she was just acting to make him stay. But that was not possible, was it? But she was also a good actress. She took acting lessons. She probably knew a thing or two to make herself cry.

His mind whispered again, "Can't you hear the guttural sound of her cry? Do you think that's fake? What kind of person are you, Lok? Are you really going to let your girl cry?"

He took her hands in between his. "You can't tell them, okay? They're just going to stop me."

"You should just wait for their decision—"

"That's why I can't stay here. I want to make decisions on my own. Isn't that what you want to do with your life too? We had been surrounded by a.d.u.l.ts our whole lives. It's about time we take matters into our own hands and be a.d.u.l.ts ourselves."

Liu Meilien blew on the already crumpled tissue. "What if you die when you leave?"

"I'm not going to die," Qing Lok smiled at her. If he said those words with confidence, surely she would believe him. Maybe he would even believe himself.

"How do you know that?" she cried again.

"Because there is nothing there," Qing Lok said. "I'm just going to check out the place."

"You should bring people with you."

"I'm going to be fine." He kissed her forehead and finally stood up. He had to leave now. "Come on, I'll take you home."

He knew that it would be easy to sneak out of the house at this hour of the day. Feng Xuan and Qing Chen would be in the office and Wuming and Addison would still be cuddled up in their bed.

Everyone else in the house would be busy with the cleaning. 

Qing Lok chose the least flashy car—which was still a flashy car--and got in. Thankfully, Liu Meilien's crying ceased to sobbing. She remained quiet the whole ride and gave him a fierce hug when she was supposed to get out.

"Come back to me," she said. "Or else I am going to go there and drag your ass back here in Chengshi."

He caressed her hair and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "Looking forward to it."