204 Clueless!!

Tang began by narrating the incident with Mei Zhen and her new beau at the restaurant.

"Wait a minute. Let me understand this clearly. You are trying to tell me that it was Uncle Xie who took you there with the intention of exposing Mei Zhen!!! Why would he do that?" Wei nearly shouted in the phone, enough to make the pigeons fly away in fear.

"Calm down, I am telling you everything. Apparently, my father had been upset with Mei Zhen since the day that he discovered the fact that she had been involved in the incident with Fu. In his words, he had chosen not to react then because he wanted to understand if she was planning something else which could harm me and the Xie family. With this motive in mind, he had stayed close to her, even to the extent of defending her in front of me and the rest of the world. While he was keeping tabs on her movements, he stumbled upon her new love interest, instead. He was very well aware that she had been causing major obstacles and delay in the divorce process. Hence, he decided to bring me into the picture to confront her after he had enough proof about her liaison with the new guy. He also made sure that Mei Zhen's father was made aware of few home truths about his own daughter. We signed the divorce papers and submitted them early this week," Tang explained patiently.

"Wow! I actually never saw this coming. First of all, congratulations, if that is an appropriate thing to say under the circumstances. Does this mean that you and your dad are bonding now? Wait, have you moved back into the Xie mansion?" Wei asked the questions, one after another in succession.

Tang smiled at the surprise in Wei's voice. Wei's reaction was quite similar to his own when he had discovered the truth behind his father's actions. It had taken him some time to let it sink in. Yes, they were in a better state today than they had been in the past many years but there was a chasm of hurt which still existed between them. It would need a lot more time and willingness on the part of both father and son to bridge that gap.

"No, I haven't gone back to the Xie mansion and I have no intentions to do so, in the near future. As for the relationship, let's call it work in-progress for now. Now, enough about me. You go back and concentrate upon your father's surgery. I will connect with you tomorrow evening," Tang told him and disconnected the call.

Pulling open the first drawer in his desk, Tang brought out the already familiar folder. Mr. Ming had come back with detailed report on Jia Li's whereabouts, even tracing her movements from when she first left Shanghai. His first thought had been that Wei was in the same city as hers… was it fate or coincidence? But then he decided not to let that affect him or govern his actions. His main focus was on Jia Li, not the people around her, they didn't matter in the larger scheme of things. He wasn't going to let any insecurities get to him this time round, well, he was going to try!

He flipped past the written notes, most of which had information about where she was working and residing currently. The second half of the folder consisted of her pictures, clicked at random places. Tang had had the report with him since the past forty eight hours. He received it on the day when he had woken up with a bad dream about her screaming in pain. He had read and re-read the entire thing enough number of times already to know everything by heart. But the pictures… he simply couldn't get enough of them. He took them out every ten minutes to stare at them. And a soft copy of those now existed on his phone too, to carry them everywhere with him.

But he was clueless about what to do next!!!

Their last parting had been extremely bitter. He was worried that Jia Li would blow a fuse when she saw him next.

Her words still rang clear in his mind – "I just want you to know that a part of my heart will always belong to you but the rest of me will hate you forever. If I don't set eyes on you ever again in this lifetime, it still won't be enough."

Those words haunted him, day and night. Her angst and disappointment in him had come clearly through those few words. But he hadn't taken them seriously enough back then. He had been so sure of himself and the power of his love that he hadn't given the much needed respect to her feelings.