If the Deep Sea Forgets You

“You’ve finished your lessons, right? Where are you at now?”

“I just left school, what is it?”

“Haven’t you been wanting to eat seafood lately? I’ve finished up the things at the law firm, I’ll take you to the seafood restaurant at Dongdan street for dinner,” Mo Han spoke into the phone as he expertly controlled the steering wheel.

Xia Qingyi thought of Han Liang walking beside her and sighed. “Today… may not be convenient.”

“What happened?” Mo Han said in the phone.

Han Liang suddenly interrupted from the side. “Why can’t you go? If Mo Han doesn’t mind, I’m hoping that I can go with you too, I want to speak with Mo Han as well.”

Xia Qingyi glanced at Han Liang. Mo Han could only hear a man’s voice on the phone, but was unable to tell who it was. “Is there someone beside you?”

“Oh… uhmm… it’s the person we met on the street a few days ago,” Xia Qingyi thought about it and answered him in the end.

Walking next to her, Han Liang was rather unhappy hearing Xia Qingyi refer to him as that, and spoke into Xia Qingyi’s ear. “Let me speak with him on the phone, alright?”

Xia Qingyi shook her head instead. Covering the phone with her hand, she moved back a few steps and said to Han Liang, “There’s no need for that, we’re about to finish talking, I’ll introduce you to him some other day.”

Xia Qingyi did not take note of what Mo Han was saying on the other end. She bent down, covered the receiver and whispered to Mo Han, “I’ll hang up first, we can continue talking at home.”

Xia Qingyi hurriedly hung up the phone and said to Han Liang next to her, “I’m really going home, go back if there’s nothing else.”

Han Liang was a little angry. “Why are you so stubborn on staying here and refusing to come back with me? You’re the same as in the past. I’m bringing you back to your real home, your parents, your friends are all there! They’re waiting for you to come back everyday!”

Xia Qingyi took a deep breath, and looked at him seriously. “Han Liang, it may be hard for you to understand my feelings, but you’re just a stranger to me. I’d already told you that I have completely no memory of everything you said about the past. So to me right now, my home is the place I’ve been living at for the past few months. Han Liang, you can’t make me leave immediately and go to the place which you call home, but is completely unfamiliar to me.”

Han Liang seemed to have understood something, gave a long sigh and said, “Alright, I’m too impatient. But at least, let me take you back. Nian Nian.”

Xia Qingyi did not reject him again, and rode Han Liang’s car home. Even when she took the elevator, he followed Xia Qingyi and stood behind her.

Xia Qingyi did not speak and only quietly looked at the number on the elevator jump, until the elevator stopped. Xia Qingyi walked out and was in front of the house door in a few steps. She turned around and said to Han Liang, “I’ve reached home, you can go back.”

“Aren’t you letting me go in to take a look? This is where you’ve been staying at for the past few months after all, I want to know what kind of place you’ve been staying in.”

Xia Qingyi’s patience was reaching her limit. “This is not my house, it’s his. It’s not nice if I let someone else in without his permission.”

The smile on Han Liang’s face was rather strange and inscrutable. “Without his permission? You’re that obedient to him, honey?”

Hearing him call her honey in the last sentence made Xia Qingyi feel disgusted. She did not know why she felt like that, but it was the truth that her stomach had turned and she wanted to vomit when she heard that word.

Just as when Xia Qingyi was not sure how to answer him, the door behind her opened, and she looked behind her. Mo Han had not changed and was still wearing his suit that he wore to the office. Xia Qingyi looked at him, not knowing why he had suddenly opened the door.

Mo Han saw Xia Qingyi’s expression. He glanced over Han Liang, looked at her again and said lightly, “I heard voices at the door, I guessed that you might be back.”

“You must be Mo Han, Barrister Mo. I’ve heard about you,” Han Liang spoke.

“I’m flattered, I’m just a lawyer who takes on cases for people,” Mo Han’s voice was cold.

“Thank you for taking care of Nian Nian for these days,” Han Liang smiled.

“Nian Nian?”