Chapter 156 - I have to take care of you

"Xiao Lei!" Han Ye yelled out in frustration. He quickly got up and chased after her. When he caught up to her, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back roughly as he snapped, "What are you looking for like a madwoman!" 

"Let go!" Xiao Lei snapped. She pushed him away again before looking around maniacally. However, the man she was looking for was gone. "No!" she yelled while clutching against the hidden compartment of her jeans jacket tightly. She had dreamed of seeing the man again someday, and of a day where she could kill him herself. 

"Xiao Lei..." Han Ye called out softly as he looked at her with a worried expression. He was worried about her swollen ankle, but she appeared to have no feeling of pain whatsoever. "Who were you looking for? Tell me. I'll help you find." 

"A man..." Xiao Lei murmured before running to the end of the block and looked around the corner of the street. Like a crazy woman, she then turned around repeatedly as she tried to look for the man. When she could not see any signs of him, she yelled out in frustration, "Argh!"

"Xiao Lei..." Han Ye placed his hands on her shoulders and gave her a shake. 

She glared at him with anger-filled eyes and tightly-clutched fists, as if she could not recognize him, and it took Xiao Lei a few seconds to realize who she was looking at. 

She wiped her face roughly with her hands before looking up at Han Ye with a sad expression. When she saw the look of confusion and curiosity on his face, she sighed softly. Shaking her head, she then mumbled, "It's nothing... Let's go..."

Without waiting for Han Ye's reply, Xiao Lei slowly limped away toward the car. 

As Han Ye watched her back while she limped away from him, he had a feeling that she was burdened by something heavy... Glancing at where she was standing earlier, he wondered what and who was it that caused her to run across the road like that. 

"Was that someone related to her parents' deaths or her disappearance?" Han Ye thought. His eyes narrowed as he muttered to himself, "Or both..."

Despite what everyone was saying, he felt that both events were not independent of each other. 

"Han Ye, are you coming?" Xiao Lei called while waiting by the side of the road for the pedestrian light to turn green.

When he heard her calling for him, Han Ye pushed the thought aside for now and immediately turned around before jogging to her. They waited until the light turned green before slowly walking back to Han Ye's car. Once they were back in his car, Han Ye asked while starting the car, "Are you really alright?"

"I'm fine," she answered brusquely while looking out the window. Even as they drove away, her eyes were still on the side mirror as she continued to stare at where the man disappeared to earlier. 

Since she did not appear to want to talk, Han Ye decided to let her alone with her thoughts for now. During the entire journey home, they did not say any words to one another; only the soft melody of instrumental music that was playing in the background. 

Back at their apartment, Han Ye watched as Xiao Lei keyed in her password. 

Xiao Lei sighed and looked at him with a smile. "I'm fine, really. I thought I saw someone I know... That's all."

"You called him Mole... Man earlier..." Han Ye asked while looking at her face carefully. 

Xiao Lei hung her head as she muttered, "I don't know his name. I only remember the moles on his face."

"I can help you look for him if you give me more details... Ziyan is pretty good at tracking people." 

Xiao Lei shook her head. 

"I'll ask him anyway." 

Xiao Lei looked up at him. For a few seconds, she merely blinked and did not say anything else. When Han Ye raised a brow at her, she asked with a slightly curious tone, "Mr. Han, are you always this caring to your underlings?" 

"No. But outside of work, you're not my underling." 

Taking a step closer to close the gap between them, Xiao Lei then asked while looking up at him, "Then what am I?"

Han Ye thought for a moment before answering, "A neighbor."

She looked around the other apartment units before saying, "I don't see you talking to the other neighbors..." 

"You're different," Han Ye mumbled. He wanted to say that, "I promised Yuexue to take care of you... Even if that happened when we were kids, I won't break it." However, he did not, not without revealing that he knew her from a long time ago.  

"In what way?" Xiao Lei asked. 

Han Ye smirked before answering, "You're the mother of my boss' future niece and nephew. I have to take care of you."

"If that's the case, I'm glad then." Xiao Lei smiled.

Han Ye thought that she would turn around and enter her room. 

Instead, she stood there while a complicated expression appeared on her face, as if she were debating with herself in her mind.

After a while, she adjusted the crutch to better support her weight and thought for a moment before she said with a serious tone, "Han Ye, earlier, I'm not trying to be mean to you or to purposely avoid talking to you or anything, but my son is at the age where he starts to think about man and woman... and I don't want him to spend his time thinking about the wrong things, nor do I want to give him any false hope."

"Xiao Lei..." Han Ye frowned slightly. He was confused as to what she wanted to say to him.

Xiao Lei shook her head and smiled slightly as she continued, "I believe my husband will return one day, and I have a feeling that he will return to us soon, and I don't want Zhihao to let go of this belief. Yunjie will be back, I will have to leave here soon, and our lives will go back to normal. Even if he doesn't return before I give birth, I'd still be leaving this place and go back to my own life. I don't want to depend too much on you to the point that I'd be unable to live by myself again.

Han Ye wanted to say something, but Xiao Lei placed her hand a few inches away from his face to stop him from speaking so that she could continue speaking her mind out. "And besides, since you're with Angela Zhang now, I think it's better if we don't stay so close to each other. After all, there's no woman who won't be jealous if their man keeps hanging out with another woman."

Han Ye knew that she did not want to rely on others too much. Even when they were kids, Xiao Lei preferred to do things by herself. She never relied on people to help her with her homework or art project. 

Han Ye recalled that once, during a robotic fair, he and Little Wu Yuexue found the then nine-year-old Little Fan Wushuang crying in one of the school toilets while hugging a trophy. She had won first place with her miniature robotic butler, and others said that her parents probably hired someone to build it for her.  

At that time, Little Han Ye and Little Wu Yuexue had patted the younger girl on the head to console her. They knew how much Little Fan Wushuang worked back then and how many days she stayed up all night to learn about robots. 

"Han Ye? Did you hear me?"

Xiao Lei's voice caused Han Ye's mind to snap back to the present. 

After a few seconds of blinking, Han Ye nodded. "I understand. I just wanted to be a good neighbor and friend to you since you have no one else. But if I'm making you and Zhihao uncomfortable... In that case, I'll try my best not to go give Zhihao any wrong impression."

Based on what he could tell from her life up until this point of life, he could tell that she had been trying hard to provide for her son.

Looking at Xiao Lei who was still looking up at him, he wanted to reach out and pat her head and to tell her that it was alright to rely on him. Yet he did not. After a moment of hesitation, he broke eye contact. 

He was about to walk away before stopping again. Looking at Xiao Lei again, he smiled and said, "Then... I'll see you at the office tomorrow." 

Xiao Lei nodded. 

They both looked at each other for one more second before turning away in unison. She went back into her own apartment while he walked into his. Both of them closed the doors with heavy hearts, yet none knew what was the meaning behind it.

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