When Hu Lei went downstairs, she found Zhong Feng waiting for her with a stern expression. She was taken back to the initial days when she met him. She wanted to run away and hide from the evil emperor because it would only be a matter of time before she had to confess her sins.
She knew that he knew about her knowledge of Yamazaki Akira. After almost a year of marriage, they had come to understand each other even more. Even a single glance or a subtle smile could speak volumes without a word.
The guilt in her heart became thick and suffocating as she faced Zhong Feng. But she did not bring up the underlying issue.
"I have to call Housekeeper Li to bring a couple of maids and the chef over. I just realised that I cannot bend enough to spread a bed. Our guest might have to sleep on the floor if we do not get some help." Hu Lei laughed a little awkwardly.
Zhong Feng could see that Hu Lei was trying to gloss over the core matter. He lifted his refined sword-like brows as he stared at her. He did not intend to prompt her verbally to confess the fact that she had hidden something important.
"We should also get Dr Shui to come over. That lady might be injured, and she seems a little disoriented. We have not had such an exciting morning since we moved to Azure Woods. Should we have some tea to calm down?" Hu Lei was flustered by the lack of response from Zhong Feng.
After a while, she pouted as she felt a little wronged, even though she was the one in the wrong. She could not bear it when Zhong Feng had that expression on her face. Even though he looked composed, she could tell he was a little hurt by the fact that she had concealed something from him.
The guilt grew with every second. She chewed on the plump bottom lip of her mouth for a while with a lowered head before she looked up to Zhong Feng again. She capitulated under the weight of her remorse.
"I'm sorry, Ah-Feng. I should not have hidden something like this from you." She said.
In reality, Zhong Feng had noticed that Hu Lei recognised the name of the young woman who had appeared on their residential property mysteriously. However, he did not know the true importance of the information.
He ȧssumed that it was someone that Kaito and Hu Lei knew from Japan. However, when he heard the phrasing of the apology, he felt like the matter was more important than he thought. He became a little more serious, even though his expression did not change.
However, before he could get to the bottom of the technical issues, he needed to deal with his naughty wife.
"Then, why did you hide it?" He asked.
Hu Lei pouted a little more. "I was worried that you would not be able to let it go."
Zhong Feng became a little confused by the words. "What do you mean?"
Hu Lei stretched her hands, which were sticking out of the bear onesie paws, and grasped the refined hands of the man before her. The coolness of the hands caused Zhong Feng to hold those hands a little more tightly.
Her face and tone were earnest and had a hint of pleading for understanding.
"You have always worried about me. And you always put my needs above yours. If something happens to me, you do not even get a wink of sleep. I know that your concern is a sign of how much you love me. But you have to remember that I love you too."
"I worry when you are worried. I don't want to see you burning the midnight oil, thinking of ways to protect me. I want us to spend our free time being with each other. I want us to go on dates, cuddle up on the couch watching TV and eat together."
"When I found out about Yamazaki Akira, I knew she would become another point of the investigation into IHA for you. I did not want to keep wasting more time than we needed to on external factors. I felt like we won and finally had our happily ever after. If I told you about her, you would keep expanding the investigation."
Hu Lei sighed. "I just did not want you to waste more time on the International Health Alliance. You have already put so much into protecting me. I guess I hoped that our happily ever after would be us sweetly riding into the sunset forever."
Zhong Feng's face eased a lot after hearing everything Hu Lei said. Then he chuckled lightly. His laughs were still rare. He was just not a laughing person. But every time he did, the world would feel like a brighter place.
"You are a silly little lady." He rubbed the head before him.
Hu Lei immediately became a little hedgehog, all puffy and prickly. "You are the silly one. And don't use that patronising tone on me."
Zhong Feng laughed again, unconcerned about the little temper tantrum.
"We can't ride off to the sunset forever. The horse would get tired and hungry at some point. And the sun will set at some point. We would have to stop somewhere for the night, sleep, take a bath and eat." He said with a contemplative expression.
Hu Lei felt exasperated by this response. "It is a figure of speech for our metaphorical happily ever after."
"Don't you think that the endings of fairy tales are always a little vague? It is not where things come to an end for the characters. In most cases, at the point where the happily ever after is written is the place where the real adventure begins." Zhong Feng pulled Hu Lei into his arms, despite her puffy protests.
"If the endings of epic love stories were as bland as people imagine, it would be sad. I think our happily ever after is both our boring life and the surprises that the world will keep tossing our way. And I think that you would be bored if we were to truly live an ordinary life."
Hu Lei thought about the words and felt a bit enlightened. She always said that her dream was to live an ordinary life, but she could not deny that she liked her thrills. If she was truly not interested in a dramatic life, she would not have become a fiction author.
And she did not dare admit it because her past life had brought her a lot of pain. But Zhong Feng was right. She did not only want her epic love story. She also wanted an epic happily ever after. She wanted to have lots of thrills with her handsome husband and her Little Treasure.
And her saga, it seemed, continued with the adoptive daughter of a woman who was keen on torturing her. Moreover, it looked like her so-called senior brother had ignored her warning and left a lot of explosions in the wake of his disappearance.
But somehow, the thought of dealing with the coming problems made her smile.
"Let the saga continue." She said with the flair of a middle-school boy with the chuunibyou syndrome.
Zhong Feng looked at the lit-up face and wondered if he should worry about the fate of the world.