Chapter 110 - Conflicted

Meanwhile, back in Imperial City, as Xiao Lei lay on her bed, absolutely bored out of her mind, she wondered what she should do. After she returned from spying on the "Murong Yu", she cleaned the house from top to bottom while she wondered if she should make a big fuss. 

On one hand, she still felt suspicious about that man despite the timeline not matching, but on the other hand, if she were to make a fuss, she was worried that she might cause an honest man to lose his job. At the end of the day, she asked Han Ye to help her keep an eye on that "Murong Yu" for now.

Han Ye told her that Lu Ziyan was gathering information about him, but that might take a few days. As for now, he said, "You should just rest cause you won't have much rest once the process begins." 

And she did as she was told.

Yesterday, she surfed the net using her new computer and played XBOX games from morning until night... She was so bored that she even bragged about her achievements in Forza Motorsport 7 by sending her high score to Tian Le, who praised her improvements. 

And today... she stared at the wall, the ceiling, and the TV for the entire day. For someone who spent most of her time working previously, this sudden freedom was... boring. 

She glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost 4 pm. She had been staring at the ceiling for 3 hours. 

Placing her hand on her flat stomach, she could feel a small rumble. "Urgh... Let's cook something for dinner." 

However, when she looked into the fridge, most of the meat was gone and she really wanted to eat some meat. 

Frustrated, she decided to go and take a walk around the neighborhood. Perhaps it was because she had not felt such freedom, both financially and mentally, in a long time, she got overly excited with her new surroundings and kept stopping at every little thing that fascinated her. In the end, she returned from the supermarket at 6 pm.

When she got back home with a few bags of groceries, she saw Han Ye pacing outside his unit with a complicated expression on his face. 

"Oh, he's early?" Xiao Lei thought. The past few days, when she watched the 10 p.m news, she could hear someone walking past her unit. Worried that it might be a stranger, last night, she decided to check. The moment she heard the sound of footsteps, she immediately rushed to the door to check outside.

The person she saw was Han Ye. 

She wondered why he was back so early today. Just as she was about to walk over, she heard him mumbling to himself. She could not hear the words, but it appeared to bother him as he kept sighing while he walked back and forth with his head down. 

"What are you doing?" Xiao Lei asked after a while. She had been watching him for almost a minute, and he did not even realize it. 

Han Ye looked up, and when he saw Xiao Lei, he shrugged. "I found out about something."

"What? That normal working hour is 8-5?"

It took him a few seconds to understand her words before he replied, "My boss wanted to go home for dinner tonight."

"Why are you pacing around like a drunk chicken?" she asked as she keyed in the password to her unit.

Han Ye sighed and glanced at the door to his unit before he said with a tired voice, "Let's talk in your unit."

Xiao Lei raised a brow but she did not say anything. When they were in her house, Han Ye looked at the stuff that she bought while she placed everything on the dining table.

With a frown, he pointed out. "Most of these are near the expiration date."

Xiao Lei was separating the stuff between fridge stuff and non-fridge stuff when she replied, "It's fine. They won't last until the expiration date anyway."

"What?" Han Ye suddenly chuckled. "Oh. Right. You eat a lot. You know you don't have to save and scrimp now, right? I'm sure the allowance that those two gave you is enough for you to get better food... and clothes too."

"I ate near expired food when I was pregnant with Zhihao and he turned out to be a genius. So..." Xiao Lei smiled as she added, "If it's edible food, it's good enough. Besides, even though these are near the expiration date, they are organic, so I didn't go against their wishes." 

In order to have a healthy baby, Luo Guangying and Callum told her to eat organic food as far as possible. 

"Fine... It's up to you," Han Ye murmured as he helped her with the groceries. Once they were done, he asked, "What are you cooking tonight?"

"Pork rib soup... and rice." 

"Is that enough?"

"There's only me, so I can't be bothered to cook multiple dishes..." She glanced at him and asked, "Unless if you want to join me?" 

He thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, why not. I didn't tell Ziyan that I'm leaving work early today, so he probably didn't cook for me." 

"Well, in that case," she smirked as she took out a pack of diced beef and said, "we should have better food. A soup and stir-fry beef."

Han Ye raised a brow at her before he went over to the fridge and took out two packs of bok choy and sweet potato leaves. "Eat some vegetable as well."

"That's a lot of cutting!" she complained. When she looked at his "I'm not giving up" expression, she groaned, "Urgh! Fine. I'll do the meat stuff and you prepare the stuff for the stir-fry bok choy." 

While the two of them prepared the meals with their backs facing each other, Xiao Lei asked curiously, "So... why were you pacing outside earlier?"

Han Ye sighed as he continued to dice the garlic for the vegetable dishes later. "Ziyan has been pestering me for the past few days. He wants to know if I found out anything about Angela."

"Why?" she asked nonchalantly. 

"Nature of my work. I get lots of invitations to the parties at Du Mansion as well as other prestigious places, and it'd be bad if my girlfriend tries to use me to get near anyone. Hence, a background check is necessary." 

"Oh... True. You have to be more careful. Then what are you worried about? What did you find out?"

Han Ye turned around slightly to look at her, but she was still focusing on cleaning the pork ribs. He then turned back and thought about it for a moment. 

"If you don't -" Xiao Lei murmured as she continued to wash the pork ribs properly.

He interupted her when he said, "No, it's not that. It's just that... She lied to me." 

"What?"

"She said that she broke up with her previous boyfriend amicably, but I just found out that she lied. It was nothing near amicable."

"What did she do?"

He chuckled and said, "Among other things, she scratched his car, stalked him, and threatened his new girlfriend..."

As he thought about how she was so gentle during the date, Han Ye sighed. "But she didn't strike me as someone who would do those kinds of things."

Xiao Lei thought for a moment before she said, "Well, a scorned woman could be crazy. Do you like her?"

"I don't know... She just... She makes me feel happy. So, I'm a little... conflicted. If I tell Ziyan, he'll tell me to end things with her... but I don't want to let this end just like this," Han Ye said as he brought the vegetables over to the sink to wash them.

When she heard him, Xiao Lei turned off the tap and turned over to look at him. Holding a rib in one hand, she used it to poke his chest as she said, "Coward Ye, why are you thinking so much? You're a man! Just do or don't do! If you feel happy with her, then give her a chance! If you don't try, how will you know whether she's a good or a bad person?"

"Yeah, you're-" Han Ye wanted to say something but he stopped abruptly. Something caught his attention. He then turned around to face Xiao Lei. He wanted to say something, but he was unsure of how to phrase it, so in the end, he kept staring at her. 

"W-Why are you staring at me like that?" Xiao Lei asked while she looked at him nervously. She then dramatically pulled her shirt together. "You know, I love my husband very much."