Chapter 34 - Mother's Suspicion.

When the door opened, Suyin was expecting to find Heya, but it was an unfamiliar face that appeared in front of her. 

"Hi!" Suyin greeted. "Is Heya in?" 

"She is. But she is not feeling too well so she's asleep right now." Sara said as she looked her over. Suyin was indeed pretty. If she was a bit taller, she would have perfectly fit as a model. But to her, Heya was prettier than this gir. She wondered why Heya thought otherwise. 

"Oh! That's bad." Suyin said with a sad expression on her face. "There should be like a doctor here right? Have you sent for him?" She asked. 

"It isn't a really big deal. She is just a bit sea sick. I'm sure she'll be okay when she wakes up in the morning." Sara replied with a smile. 

Suyin finally smiled in relief before her eyes narrowed to look at her her. "You... are?" 

"Wang Sara. Her sister in-law."

"Oh! I've heard about you! It's a pleasure meeting you Miss Sara or Mrs. Li, whichever you prefer. I'm Yan Suyin." She extended a hand.

Sara shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you too miss Suyin. You can call me Sara."

"I'll be sure to let Heya know you dropped by when she wakes up." Sara dismissed her politely. 

The girl did nothing wrong to her, but she couldn't help but feel a bit withdrawn towards her after knowing her relationship with Zhu Liang and how everything affected Heya's mental health.

"I'll just return to my room and check on her in the morning. Good night." Suyin smiled before leaving. 

'She really is nice.' Sara thought as she closed the door and returned inside. 

Heya looked relieved to see that Suyin had left. If only the girl knew why she was huddled up inside her room like this, she was sure Suyin would hate her. 

"Thank you." Heya said with a strangled voice. She had cried too much that her voice was now low and cracked. 

"I'll stay here until you fall asleep." 

********

As she ate, Reen looked at Kyle who looked a bit uncomfortable. She knew he wanted to ask her something but he was finding it difficult to do so, maybe because he didn't want to annoy her. But the more he remained like that, the angrier she got. 

"She returned to the room." Reen informed him. 

After trying to clean her dress in the restroom and noticed her dress was pretty much ruined, plus she was already in a bad mood with Kyle's behaviour earlier, Joreen decided to return to her room instead. It was late and she wanted to go to bed to sleep off the anger she felt.

Reen suspected that Kyle had a thing for Joreen. Almost all the conversation they had tonight centered on Joreen. His reaction to the waiter earlier and how he kept staring at her didn't escape Reen. It wasn't difficult putting these things together to arrive at a conclusion.

"I didn't ask." Kyle said, feigning indifference. 

Reen got even angrier and stood up. She didn't say another word to him instead she walked away with the mind of getting to her room as soon as possible. 

On her way there, she bumped into the waiter again. It was the first time she was seeing him without a tray or wheeling a cart. He was heading towards her so they locked eyes. He looked uncomfortable and turned around immediately, ready to flee. 

"Hey! Wait." She called and hurried to meet him. He pretended like he didn't hear her and increased his pace, she also increased hers.

"Wait up!" She called with a frown when he kept walking ahead. 

She accidentally tripped and fell on the floor. Thankfully, she had her hands to support her as she landed but she still felt the impact. 

"Ouuuch!" She winced. 

That finally got his attention. He stopped and turned around immediately. When he saw her on the floor, he panicked and hurried towards her. 

"Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?"

"DO I LOOK OKAY?!" She snapped at him in anger which startled him. "Why are you running away from me?" She hissed and tried to stand up. 

He offered her his hand to help her up but she eyed him and helped herself up. Fortunately, she didn't sprain her ankle but she felt a little discomforting pain which he noticed. 

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry Miss." He kept bowing his head as he apologized genuinely. 

She ignored him and began to head towards the elevator. 

"I'm very sorry." He continued and followed closely behind her. 

He was running away earlier and suddenly he was following her like a puppy? She rolled her eyes. 

"Forget it." She turned to look at him. "I wanted to apologize on behalf of my friend for what he did to you earlier."

He looked a bit surprised but the look quickly changed to a curious one. "Friend?" He asked with his gaze on her face. 

"What?" 

"Hmm... I thought... he was your boy--friend?" He asked with a bit of uncertainty in his voice, trying not to annoy her. 

"He is. So?" She asked. She was really angry at everything right now. All she wanted was to go to bed and hopefully, she'll be fine by the morrow. 

"Oh..." He looked a bit crestfallen as he nodded. 

Reen ignored him and took the elevator. 

********

Two people stared at each other. One looked curious while the other one had a suspicious look on her face. 

"So talk to me." She said to her son.

"What am I supposed to tell you?" Hoy asked her. 

"Keep your voice down." She shushed him and looked at the bed on the far end where her husband was sleeping. It was already past midnight and everyone had returned to their rooms, feeling pretty exhausted, but she wanted to have this conversation with her son as soon as possible because she felt like the more she ignored it, the more it was making her want to go crazy. 

"Is there something going on between you two?" She asked softly. 

Hoy knew who she was talking about so he shook his head, "Nothing is."

"Do not lie to me! People are beginning to suspect. And I saw you two with my eyes. Should I go ask Joreen instead?" 

"Do not get her involved. You are only going to embarrass her." He said with a sigh. It was just the first day here, yet his mother was already troubling him like this.

"So what was that about?" 

"You know how Joreen is. Well... she likes to hug people—" 

His mother noticed how his face coloured slightly and squinted her eyes as him. 

"Be sincere with me... do you like her as a woman?" She asked with bated breath, waiting for him to say no. 

Silence filled the air for a moment before the answer came, "Yes."

When his mother's eyes widened in shock, he quickly added, "I do like her. And she's obviously not a man. So I should like her as a woman right?" He joked before adding with a small smile plastered on his face, "You are worrying too much. I'm too busy with work to think about other things especially something as absurd as that." He assured her. 

His mother didn't look convinced but she was a little bit relieved. "I think I can finally breathe now." She said while touching her chest. 

"Do not introduce Joreen to any boy. I'm not sure she is ready for it." He added quickly. 

This made her look at him suspiciously again.

"I won't if you promise me you'll befriend a girl on this trip. I saw that girl with you earlier...." She tried to remember her name but Hoy supplied her with it.

"Bai Aishu." 

"Yes! That's her name." She smiled and gave him a suggestive look that made him sigh. 

"I promised to look around the ship with her at dawn." He informed his mother who became excited. 

Bai Aishu's father was an acquaintance of his father. He was quite close with Aishu at one time many years ago but nothing happened between them. Seeing her tonight had left him surprised so they spent quite sometime together trying to catch up with each other's lives. Since Hoy was naturally a taciturn man, she did most of the talking and had asked for them to hang out the next day. He didn't see anything wrong with it since he was here on a vacation and everyone was expecting to see him with a woman. This would also move his mother's suspicion away from himself and Joreen and let the poor girl be. He didn't want them to embarrass her with any questions.

"It's good then. I'm glad you're finally having fun." His mother said happily.

Hoy had planned to talk to his mother about Joreen and ask her to give her a little lecture on how she was supposed to act with the opposite sex but he didn't want to raise the issue with her anymore. He wasn't sure he could trust his mother with her. 

Talking to Joreen's mother, Cixi would be a bit awkward so he made up his mind to talk to Sara instead.

"I'll go to bed now."

"Yes. Sure." His mother stood up and saw him to the door. He bowed once before leaving the room.