"No." Midori was shaking her head. She stared blankly at the coffee table.

Just then, Lu Shaoting arrived. He processed the scene in the living room. His wife and her bestfriend looked like they were having a serious conversation. The little boy looked out of place.

He walked towards them, kissed his wife on the temple and turned to the little boy.

"Manta, Uncle Shao has new trains. You wanna see them?"

The little boy's face lit up and he nodded like a rattle.

Soon, Lu Shaoting was walking away, holding the little chubby hand.

The ladies, who were in a trance, finally snapped out of it, and the only thing they could do was to stare at the two who were heading to another room.

____________

"Son, we have decided to announce your engagement next month." Su Linyu was declaring it, not bothering about her son's opinion at all.

"This is outrageous!" Dan became furious and stood up.

"Verdan Zhou! You are not walking out of this conversation!" Su Linyu was mad.

Chairman Song tried to appease the two. "Mr. Zhou, please give my daughter a chance. Though your mother and I agreed on your engagement, we will still let you young ones get to know each other first. Please give my daughter some face."

Dan looked at Madeline Song, who was looking at her shoe, clearly embarra.s.sed.

He cleared his throat and sat back down. "You don't have the right to decide on this!" He said, turning to his mother with gritted teeth.

"I am your mother!" Su Linyu had a domineering tone.

"You had never acted as one to me! Not even for a single day of my life!"

Su Linyu could not help herself. She stood up and slapped him hard on the cheek. "You ingrate!"

Then she walked out of the room. An awkward silence made the room feel suffocating.

Luckily for Chairman Song, his phone rang. He made it sound like he was taking an urgent call.

He excused himself. "I'm sorry, Mr. Zhou, but could you give Madeline a ride home? There is an emergency situation in my company." Before Dan could say anything, the elderly man seemed to have the vigor to jog out of the room.

After the door was shot, thei nnocent look on Madeline Song was gone. She had an arrogant face with curved lips.

"Mr. Zhou, I am not sure what kind of issues you have with your mother, but I would still be grateful that you gave me face in front of my father. Seems like the aloof CEO of ZFC is indeed a gentleman."

"Don't even get the illusion that I will marry you." His tone was indifferent, but his eyes were furious.

"Yeah, yeah...rich boys have problems too. I get that. Say, I think, since we're in your house, the walls have ears. And here I am, having great ideas in my head. Can we go somewhere more private?"

Dan squinted his eyes. He stood up and walked towards the door.

Madeline Song was up on her feet in no time, striding to catch up with him.

_____________

After they have calmed down from the sudden information, Mei stood up as the kettle whistled. She brewed some ceylon tea and brought it to the living room.

"Oh yeah, how did you survive the s.h.i.+p wreck? We were so worried." She diverted the topic.

Midori took a sip from her cup. "Uhm...I was with Dan."

"What?! How unfortunate can you be? Did you know that that as***le punched Shao on set?"

"What? How did that happen?" Midori could not believe that he would hurt his friend for no reason.

"Well, he confronted Shao about what happened six years ago. When Shao recalled how he cheated, he accused Shao of telling lies to you! Can you believe it?!"

"Uhm...well..." Midori did not know how to explain.

"Shao went home with a bleeding lip. But you know what? Shao said that Dan looked shocked, as if he had no idea about what happened." Mei's expression became confusion.

Midori had a bitter smile. "Well, he didn't."

"What do you mean? Did he tell you that he was innocent? And you believed him?!"

"He was drugged. He was sleeping the whole time. He did not know what was happening."

Mei pouted and crossed her arms on her chest. "I don't buy it."

"He said it while he was delirious due to high fever."

Mei gasped. "When was this?"

"When the hijackers were firing inside the s.h.i.+p, he saved me. A bullet grazed his arm. When our liferaft drifted to an island, he pulled it and tied it securedly on a tree so we could stay on sh.o.r.e. It was raining. His wound became infected and he had a high fever."

Mei raised her hand to cover her mouth. She could not believe how a lot of things can unfold in a single tragic event.

Midori pursed her lips, then smiled bitterly. "If I had confronted them back then, I would have known that it was just a show by Ming Rus.h.i.+.

"That b**ch!" Mei was furious on recalling the sly face back in high school. Then she thought of something else. "So, how are you guys now? He was innocent, plus he saved you and kept you alive in that hijacking incident."

Midori blushed. "Well, we..."

Mei's eyes widened in antic.i.p.ation.

"We got back together." Midori closed her eyes and hugged a throw pillow, praying that Mei would not make her repeat herself.

_______________

After having dinner with much discussion on recent events, Midori managed to go home with Manta. She tucked the little guy in bed and went out back to Dan's place.

She punched in the pa.s.scode and entered the unit naturally. She stopped on her tracks, mouth gaping, when she saw the scene.

Madeline Song was clutching the collar of Dan, their faces almost touching each other.

Midori's figure took their attention. Dan was frozen. He did not want her to misunderstand!

Madeline Song was surprised, then she snickered. "Midori Xiu."