Chapter 354 - A friend’s advice(2)

Edward Wu remained unmoved and strongly disapproving as he said, "that was from three years ago and I never liked her, not that I knew her or cared to. In fact, her face is a little fuzzy in my memory but I don't remember being very interested in knowing her, I always thought that as a friend to you that was okay but the whole dating didn't sit right with me. Who knows how a coma can change a person."

Lei Zhao couldn't quite believe his ears if he had been asked, he would have said they were friends of a sort, " she's fine, I promise. She and Yan Mei get along so well and I've even given her back her job" but the moment he said those words, it hit him about how wrong they sounded

Edward Wu dropped the snifter in his hands on the table, leaned forward, and pinned him with a glare, "let me get this straight, she's your ex-girlfriend but she lives in your house, the same house your share with your wife, she's friends with your wife and works with you in the office?"

It sounded so wrong when it was spoken out loud, Lei Zhao winced at laying out facts that made things look even worse for him. "You make it sound clandestine when you say it like that"

"Because it is" Jun Mo pointed out, his voice impassioned.

"I love my wife," Lei Zhao felt the need to point it out

Edward Wu nodded easily but waves it aside to make his point, "I know, you know, your wife knows, probably even Yue Yan can see that but what about the rest of the world?"

"Dammit" Lei Zhao exploded

His friend remained unmoved by his sudden show of anger, "You'll have to just let her find a place of her own, and a new job"

"I can't do that to her" he answered, it seemed extreme to cut off an old friend for what felt like saving his own skin

"Sure you can, if she keeps working here even living by herself, nothing has changed. If you think people are overreacting now? Wait until that happens." Edward Wu pointed out unkindly before getting to his feet and going straight for the mini-bar. 

A sudden silence descended on the room, broken only by the clink of ice in the glass and the sloshing sound of liquid pouring.

Someone knocked on the door and Lei Zhao asked them to come in, the door opened to reveal Yue Yan in the doorway. "Please come in," he said when he noted her reticence to enter his office because she saw a visitor with him.

Lei Zhao got to his feet and introduced the two of them. "Edward, Jun Mo meet Yue Yan , Yue Yan this is Edward and Jun Mo, you guys outta know each other."

If Lei Zhao had hopes that Edward and Yue Yan would hit it off or even like each other one bit, that hope was brutally dashed on the rocks of reality. Yue Yan's face was painfully polite as the two of them shared the briefest handshake in the whole of human history.

" I just came to drop a few things that needed your signature urgently" she informed him

"Thank you, Yueyue, please drop them on the desk, I get to them as soon as possible."

"Of course" she murmured before walking up to his desk and dropping the slim envelope on the table before turning to walk out.

Jun Mo's eyebrows remained arched, the look in them was much more accusatory before it completely cleared off. 

"Whatever guilt you think you have about that, you need to let it go. You're too blind to see it but you're about to ruin your own life." Jun Mo murmured 

"Come on Jun Mo"

"Do you remember how life works again?" His friend asked, drawing him to a pause.

"Of course I do " his voice was testy

"No," Jun Mo replied, his head shaking in dissent "you've been the Golden boy for so long you don't realize a huge no when you see it"

"Don't be like that, poor Yue Yue "

Edward Wu scoffed into his glass "Poor Yue Yue, you even have a nickname for her, and she's your assistant, I bet the both of you drive to and from work together."

"As a matter of fact yes"

"You poor fool" the tone pitying

Lei Zhao couldn't describe how much that time grated on his mind "careful"

"You be careful, you're about to throw away the rest of your already perfect life for some sort of guilt or hero complex for poor yueyue" Edward pointed out, his voice acidic.

Lei Zhao has no idea how much he envied him finding love and getting married. Even though he was cold hearted, deep down he wanted to find love too. Suddenly his secretary's red face  flashed across his eyes. 

Edward Wu shook his head to get the image out of his head. That woman was really messing him up.

"Nothing is going wrong" Lei Zhao maintained

His friend was having none of that "Not yet it isn't but the gossip is only going to get worse"

"Yan Mei doesn't subscribe to gossip," he tried again

Edward merely eyed him with a look that said he was being especially stupid about the current situation. "She doesn't need to, it only needs to feel people pity her from left and right before it gets to her. You know how this works, no one is interested in the truth, especially if it looks anything like that."

"What do you mean?"

"Figure it out but do so really fast before you start losing things you can't afford and I don't mean your business." 

Lei Zhao was startled at those words, he couldn't stop the coil of worry it unfurled in him "Is it really that bad already"

"Everyone was worried, now I am. Yan Mei is a better human being than any of us, she doesn't deserve this or what is going to happen if you don't do something. If you didn't allow your guilt to cloud your reasons, you would have seen that already." Edward pointed out, his voice grave with implications

Lei Zhao did not argue about that, not when every single truth hit him with the force of a speeding train. The arrangement had been innocent enough but life was not exactly kind and he should know that if he hadn't allowed the guilt to cloud his reasoning. He could only offer a weak "I see your point"

"I knew you would, I love your brother and I still think that crash was the worst thing that ever happened but you don't have to pay for the rest of your life, you can't pay a debt that's not yours by burning up your world," Edward replied his voice low with a lot of unsaid words

"I understand, I'll start making plans"

"Fast"

Lei Zhao sighed and promised, "already on it"