159 One step at a time...

Jia Li lifted her sweater and shirt inside the washroom to inspect her wound which seemed to have opened up. That man's elbow had hit her squarely at the place where Fu had given her a knife wound.

Taking deep breaths, she pressed wads of tissue paper onto the cut gently. She didn't want any delay in her leaving the country, even if that meant drinking up the pain. She righted her clothes and stepped out of the washroom to go look for a chemist shop at the airport.

A couple of painkillers, cotton wool and some tape would see her through the long flight to Tunisia.

"Watch out!" it was the man from before.

He was standing right outside the ladies washroom. Thankfully, she didn't bang into him again. Her wound wouldn't have survived another jolt.

"If you are here to apologise, there is no need," she said to him, neutrally.

"Apologise? Why would I apologise?" he looked at her with a frown.

He was an infuriating man.

"If not to apologise, are you here to use the Ladies washroom," she finally snapped.

"No, I came to hand over an ungrateful person's lost passport. Seems like I shouldn't have…you are bleeding!" Hui suddenly saw the red colour bloom over the woman's white sweater.

"It is nothing. Just an old wound. Thank you for bringing my passport to me. I am really grateful," she said in a rush and tried to grab her passport from his hand.

"Err, do you need any help tending to that, uh wound? Did I cause that to reopen?" he surprised himself in asking the question.

Maybe it was his guilt at judging the woman's earlier reaction harshly or her current face pallor. He didn't know why he offered the help, considering that he normally ran away from getting involved in other people's mess.

To his relief and surprise, she refused and thanked him again for his help.

He stood there, looking at her retreating back, thinking that she was different from the usual gamut of her species.

Enroute Moganshan

"Tell me you found something," Tang spoke urgently in the phone to the man he had hired to trace Jia Li's whereabouts.

"Her phone is off since yesterday and hasn't been switched on since then. She accessed her bank account this morning at 8am in Moganshan," the person said.

Tang breathed a sigh of relief. He had found her and he wasn't going to let her go this time. He smoothed the divorce papers which were kept next to him. He wanted to show them to her first before sending them across to Mei Zhen. One step at a time…

Wang Residence

"Dad, I have seen a condo, not far from office. I am planning to shift there real soon," Wei announced at the breakfast table.

His father didn't react to this but Mrs. Wang spluttered in anger.

"What is the meaning of this? Why do you need to move to a small apartment when you have everything here?" she questioned angrily.

"I want to prepare everything and be ready," he said cryptically.

"Be ready for what?" she asked impatiently.

"For Jia Li's return. You made it amply clear that you dislike her and are unwilling to accept her. To avoid any sort of friction, I have taken this decision," he replied calmly.

Mrs. Wang was ready to burst a vein in anger, "Wei, how blind can you be? She is utterly, completely unworthy of your devotion. She has…"

He interrupted her.

"I think if we are to coexist civilly as a family, we should learn to respect each other's preferences and boundaries. You clearly told me about your dislike for my woman and I respected that. Hence I will be keeping her away from you. I informed you about my love for her and I expect that you would respect that and refrain from saying anything which maybe offending to another person," he told her.

Mr. Wang looked at his son's unnaturally calm demeanor. He was worried that Wei was submerging his hurt behind the polite façade. He would have preferred had Wei ranted, shouted and screamed the whole place down, much like Tang. He won't let him turn into this shell of a man. He needed to speak with Wei, one-to-one, father to son.

Wei was about to climb in the driving seat of his car but stopped. His gaze went to the seat next to him. Recalling the intimacy of the day before, his heart despaired. He went to the other side, opened the door and ran his hand softly over the seat, trying to capture Jia Li's lingering essence. After a few moments, he ducked his head and started to move out. Right then, his fingers brushed over something cold on the floor. He bent further and retrieved it. It was Jia Li's missing phone, the one that had caused her to come down the stairs and overhear his conversation with his mother.

"Look at you sitting so quietly in my hand after causing havoc in my life," he uttered the words in a broken voice.

"Oh god! I am talking to a god damn phone. What is wrong with me?" he covered his face with his palms.

"One step at a time…come on, Wei, you can do it. One step at a time…"