CH 9.1

Chapter 9.1

“What?! You’re staying in Taiwan?” When she found out about Dai Xingren’s decision, Zhu Xiang Lin almost collapsed. She had been hoping that with his return to Taiwan he would settle the divorce with his estranged wife and regain his freedom, but this development was totally unexpected. Even if Mo Chuan Ya refused to divorce, he was willing to be tied down by his arrogant wife and continue being  punished.

“Do you really think she still loves you? She just wants to punish you!” Zhu Xiang Lin stared at Dai Xingren, feeling the urge to awake him from his obsession with this woman who didn’t deserve it..

“I’ve told you, no matter what her reasons are, I want to stay by her side.” Dai Xingren answered.

She gnashed her teeth in frustration. “Dai Xingren, have you forgotten how she drove you away to America five years ago? Just because you cared about her health and signed the abortion consent form? She unreasonably blamed you for it! Think about it! Even if you do get back together one day, this will still happen again and again!” 

Dai Xingren’s eyes lost their light at her words. In fact, over these five years, he had more than once stopped to think what would he do if things were to repeat again. And he came to a conclusion: he would choose to do the same.

“You understand, don’t you?” Zhu Xiang Lin observed his expression, guessing he had his doubts. “So long she does not understand your feelings, you’ll have a fight over the same things someday.”

“This time it will… be different.” Dai Xingren tightened his jaw, not knowing whether what he was saying was to convince her or himself. “Now that I’m an attending doctor I don’t have to work three shifts. I can spend more time with her. And this time, I won’t let her feel lonely.”

“It’s not a matter of being lonely, it’s a matter of her not understanding how much you dedicate yourself!” Zhu Xiang Lin sighed in frustration. “Do you know why many health care workers prefer to marry their peers? It’s because only they understand how stressful it is to juggle family and work.” 

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It was Mo Chuan Ya. Standing gracefully not far away, she was dressed in a light colour cut out dress, outlining her slim and graceful figure. Her hair was embossed with a pearl-studded hairpiece, making her look spring-like.

When Dai Xingren looked at her, his eyes instantly glassened, suppressing an indescribable urge.

“Xingren, it seems that you are still the same as before, always giving women trouble.” His proud and sweet wife winked at him with clear eyes, unexpectedly mocking him.

He stood there in a daze, unable to understand her jibe. What he had understood and been affected by, however, was her smile. She had finally smiled once again, even if it resulted in teasing him. However, he wanted to see her smiling more often.

Mo Chuan Ya gazed deeply into his eyes  but for a moment before  facing away from him and calling out to another man. “Let us go, Qiao Xuan.”

Dai Xingren was shocked, and realised that she was followed by a handsome man whom he recognised as the assistant to the Vice President of the Legislative of five years ago, Yuan.

“Do you remember me? Dr. Dai.” Qiao Xuan smiled and approached him with a friendly greeting. He nodded politely.

“Mr Qiao, it’s been a long time.”

“I’m working at the Ministry of Finance now, so if you have time, let’s have dinner together.” Qiao Xuan handed out his card, still as warm to him as he had been five years ago, and eager to be his friend.

He accepted the card and was about to ask what their relationship was but Mo Chuan Ya didn’t give him the chance.

“We’ve got work to do today, so I’m off!” With those words, she took Qiao Xuan by his arm and left without a backward glance, her pink silhouette marked in his eyes.

“The two of them… are not dating, are they?” Zhu Xiang Lin speculated in surprise.

“How is it possible?” Dai Xingren was suddenly angry. His eyes suddenly burned with jealousy, and unbearable feelings coursed through his chest. “Chuan Ya is my wife!”

He was immediately alert to the fact that he seemed to be unable to stand his ground. Even if they were still married, what did that mean? It had already been five years since they had been apart. He could only be considered a stranger. 

“What are you going to do?” Zhu Xiang Lin peeped on him and cautiously fanned the flames of his troubles. “It seems that your estranged wife doesn’t care about you at all.”

He gritted his teeth, his face tense. “I! Will! Get her back!”

______________

“You mean you’re using me to provoke your husband?” After making sure they were out of her husband’s sight, Mo Chuan Ya immediately let go of Qiao Xuan’s arm. Qiao Xuan looked at her and smiled slightly, teasingly.

Hearing him she chuckled. Just as she had after just mocking Dai Xingren for not understanding Zhu Xiang Lin’s feelings. “Hum, I don’t know whether he understands it or not. He is super slow!”

“I think he understands.” Qiao Xuan said. “Did you see the expression on his face just now? It was like he wanted to kill me.”

“Did he?” Mo Chuan Ya blinked, remembering the look on her husband’s face, and smiled again.

Qiao Xuan smiled at her and shook his head helplessly. “That’s why they say don’t mess with women, or you won’t be able to handle what’s coming to you.”

“I’m not that bad, am I?” Mo Chuan Ya gave him a fake look of displeasure, but in the blink of an eye, her pink lips curled in defeat. “Thank you, Qiao Xuan, I owe you one. Don’t worry, if you run for elected representative in the future, instead of supporting my sister-in-law Haitang, I will definitely support you.”

“You’d better be.” Qiao Xuan was half-hearted about this kind of empty talk. In any case, to get a promise from the Mo family’s daughter herself would really help him on his thorny political road.

The two had met during a dinner party two years ago. At that time, he took the initiative to approach her but she ignored him until he mentioned his connection with Dai Xingren, which piqued her interest. They then opened up and had a good conversation, and gradually realised that they shared the same values, and became close friends. They regularly met each other.

“What are you going to do next?” From a friend’s standpoint, Qiao Xuan was very curious about how Mo Chuan Ya would manage her marriage. “Rumours outside say the two of you may end up in divorce. I don’t think that’s the case, is it?” 

“I won’t divorce him.” Mo Chuan Ya said with a firm demeanour. After a small pause, she continued. “But I’m not going to make up with him either.”

“You want him to pursue you again.” Qiao Xuan was subtle enough to see right through her intentions.

Mo Chuan Ya smiled sweetly, then exhaled in frustration. “I do, but I don’t think he’s so green he can’t understand it?”

“If he doesn’t get it, he’s really a fool.” Qiao Xuan concluded indifferently. “I think he’s definitely going to do something about it.”

___________________

Qiao Xuan’s expectations were sound. After this “stimulus”, Dai Xingren really became pro-active. He no longer only stayed at the “He’en hospital” as the attending doctor of cardiovascular surgery, but created opportunities to meet his wife from time to time. Whenever he had a break, he would look for his wife’s whereabouts in the hospital. Strange to say, as the chairman of the board, she obviously didn’t have to come to the hospital every day. But she was often in the office, or else in the playroom of the children’s ward, playing with the sick children these days.

He enjoyed watching his wife playing with the children. She would sing along with the volunteer mom and tell stories to the kids, and she had a talent for acting, often making the little kids laugh with her vivid role-play.

Whenever this happened, he would always stay staring through the window in fascination, only to suddenly be awakened by a radio call.

During lunchtime, she would also go to the staff dining room and eat with the medical staff. In order to dispel the rumours that they were not getting along, he would deliberately sit at her table and eat together.

Although she occasionally felt embarrassed in the full view of the public, he did not care at all and insisted on being with her.

He would make small talk with her, asking about her newly adopted kitten as a lead-in to some hospital trivia, and she enjoyed listening to the wonderful anecdotes during his voluntary medical practice in the third world countries, which he shared with her one by one.

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“It seems you lived a very fulfilling life back then!” She finally interrupted him sourly once during one of his braggings. He was at a loss for a moment, not knowing how to respond to it, but finally, he had to confess. “I did gain a lot out of that time.” Whether it was the improvement of medical skills or the broadening of his horizons, he had learned a lot.

“It’s good that you got something out of it.” She smiled back at him, a small one, yet full of certain self-satisfaction.

He guessed that she was happy for him.

“And what about you? How have you been these last five years?” He asked her rhetorically about her life. “Why are you not a journalist anymore?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have any dreams. Whether I’m a journalist or the hospital chairman, it doesn’t make any difference.”

“But I remember you telling me you’d never take over the family business.” Isn’t the hospital part of the Mo family business?

“This hospital… is different.”

“How is it different?”

She looked away in silence.

He stared blankly at her sad flank and a thought struck him – was it because he was a doctor that she wanted to take over the management of the hospital? Was it for him? He wanted to ask, but her sharp gaze stopped him. He could see, even with his nerves, that she would not like him to pursue the issue. So he stopped asking, but his heart fluttered all the more because of it, reaching for her so impulsively that he couldn’t control it.

Edited by: TsumiHokiro