Chapter 157 - I'm on a dinner date

The next morning, Xiao Lei texted Han Ye to let him know that she would be late and for him to go to the office first. Han Ye stopped outside her apartment for a while before walking away.

Even when at the office, she did not talk much to him. 

While he was on the way to the meeting along with DX, Han Ye thought to himself, "She was right... She has to leave one day..." 

Despite knowing that, there was still a weird feeling that was bubbling in his heart, as if he did not want her to leave. 

DING!

The sound of a message came in. Han Ye glanced down at his phone and saw that it was a message from Angela Zhang asking him if he would be free the next few days. He quickly typed a reply before looking on his phone. 

With a sigh, he put the phone away while thinking, "It is normal for me to not want her to leave right? After all, she's my friend. It's just like how I care for Ziyan and Tian Le..." 

"Maybe I can tell her that I know about her identity?" he thought while looking at his iPad, which was displaying a series of information that he had to memorize before the meeting later. His finger kept scrolling up and down absentmindedly, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not focus on his work at all.

Placing the iPad aside, he sighed softly. Glancing at DX, he noticed that the man's mind was not there as well. The doc.u.ment on DX's hand was still on the first page.

"No doubt he's worried about Madam President Du..." Han Ye thought before looking away. The nearer they were to the due date, the more distracted DX was. Han Ye felt that he had to do more for the next couple of weeks. He might even have to reschedule DX's schedule again so that the latter could spend more time at home instead of traveling around. 

Knowing Kai Xin, Han Ye doubted that she would allow DX to push everything away just to be by her side. Han Ye took out his phone and looked at DX's schedule. Due to the importance of the scheduled meetings in the next coming weeks, DX preferred to do it face-to-face as he would be able to read the situation better. 

"President Du, regarding the meetings that are coming in the next couple of weeks, should I go by myself instead? This way you can spend more time with Madam President Du."

DX shook his head. "Those foreigners aren't easy to deal with. They don't know who you are. They only know who I am. Besides, these meetings took months to set up. If they don't see me there, they'd be offended and they might pick on you."

He then chuckled and said, "Your Madam President Du can't wait to kick me out of the house. She said that I've been hovering too much around her."

Han Ye chuckled. Anyone who had seen DX around Kai Xin could tell that DX was the kind of husband who would fret over every little thing. 

"I think Madam President Du is just playing with you," Han Ye said with a smile. He then said with a confident tone, "As for the foreigners, I can handle them, President Du. Otherwise, maybe we can readjust the meetings."

DX thought for a moment before saying, "We don't have to readjust. I can still attend the meetings."

"How about... Instead of setting the meeting at Du Corporation or Hotel W, I'll book places that are nearer to Du Mansion. That way, we can do all the preparatory work at Du Mansion, and you can go home much more quickly after that."  

Looking back at his doc.u.ment, DX nodded. "Alright. Then do as per your suggestion."

Han Ye nodded. He then made some notes on DX's schedules as well as his own. As he was looking at the online calendar, his eyes fell on a date. Han Ye's finger hovered above the date for a few seconds before he smiled and thought to himself, "14th August... Her birthday is coming up in a few weeks! I can surprise her then! Then maybe she would accept my help more and we can hang out without any problem."

....

The next 12 days passed by in a blur, and Xiao Lei found herself back at Hospital Imperial, where once again, she sat in front of Dr. Phillip's desk. While he was looking at her file, she looked at her left foot and kept moving it around to slightly exercise it. 

Dr. Phillip closed the file and crossed his legs. He then leaned back against the chair and said, "Ms. Xiao, everything looks good, and you're ready for the trigger shot." 

"Trigger shot?" she gasped. "I thought we're done with all the shots!" 

Dr. Phillip smiled. "It'll be the last shot for a while. This shot is a HcG shot, short for Human chorionic gonadotropin. It's a hormone that will help your eggs to mature. We have to time it so that you inject it 36 hours before the egg retrieval stage. And this is a very important step. The best time would be midnight tonight, at exactly 12 a.m. Then after 36 hours, which would be 12 p.m. the day after. After that, we can go through with the egg collection."

Xiao Lei nodded. She then asked, "I'll talk to Director Shenlong and Mr. Luo."

"You can just call them by their names. I do too." 

"Oh... I've wanted to ask this for a while now, but are you guys friends?" 

"I'm a friend of President Du, so I practically watched Callum grow up. As for Guangying, we met a few years back. Anyway, I've talked to them since Callum wasn't feeling well previously. He's fully recovered now, and they are both up to go. They have set aside the entire day for this."

Xiao Lei nodded. 

....

On the same day, Han Ye finally landed back in the country after spending a few days in Singapore. After an hour on the road, he was finally back at his apartment building. He was talking to Angela Zhang while dragging his suitcase behind him. When he walked past Xiao Lei's apartment, he had an urge to knock and say hi as well as to give her some of the Singaporean snacks that he bought, but in the end, he controlled himself.  

He figured he could give it to Xiao Zhihao later in the future.

He wanted to respect her privacy. Before he left for Singapore, they had barely talked to each other. Ever since the talk they had on the Sunday after the party at Du Mansion, their relationship was awkward at best.

When Han Ye keyed in the password to his apartment, he said to Angela Zhang through the phone, "Angie, I'm back at home. I'll talk to you later..." 

"Alright. I'll see you on Sunday then," Angela Zhang said with a smile. 

Before Han Ye left for Singapore, Angela Zhang had asked him out for a date, and he promised her that he would take her out this coming Sunday. It would be the only free day for him for a while now.

"Alright. Bye..."

After he hung up, he went into his apartment. It was already 8.30 p.m, but the house was in complete darkness. Turning on the lights in the hallway, Han Ye called out loudly, "Ziyan, are you home?" 

When there was no reply, Han Ye sighed and after turning on some of the lights, he went into his room. While unpacking, he gave Lu Ziyan a call and put it on speaker. 

"Hey, I just got back. Where are you?" Han Ye asked when the call was connected. 

Lu Ziyan cleared his throat before saying in a soft voice, "I'm on a dinner date."

Based on the constant chitchatting noise in the background, Han Ye could tell that Lu Ziyan was at a restaurant. "With Tian Le? Didn't he say he wouldn't be back for the next few weeks?"

"Yeah, he did, and no, I'm not with him." 

Han Ye's hands paused in mid-air before he asked, "Are you out with Xiao Lei then?" 

"No. Xiao Lei is at the hospital for her check-up. Guangying's driver will send her back later."

Han Ye nodded while sighing softly in relief. Since Xiao Lei wanted to maintain a distance, he had asked Guangying to send a driver over for Xiao Lei. He was worried that Xiao Lei might reject the driver and send the driver away when he was away, so he felt relief to know that she did not. 

After a while of silence, Lu Ziyan said, "Han Ye? If there's nothing, then I'm hanging up." 

"Wait!" Han Ye cleared his throat before asking sheepishly, "Is she alright lately? I haven't talked much to her." 

There were days when he wanted to send memes to her or pull pranks on her, but in the end, he chickened out. 

"She's fine. Just a little moody from all the injections, and she's been experiencing some headaches too. Nothing major. Why didn't you talk to her? I thought you guys are quite close to each other? By the way, did something happen between the two of you?"

Han Ye groaned silently. It was not like he could tell Lu Ziyan about it. "Erm, nothing... Then who are you with? Guangying?" 

Lu Ziyan rolled his eyes at Han Ye's cluelessness. "No. It's a date. I'm on a date." 

Han Ye frowned as he tried to think who else was on Lu Ziyan's list of friends. A few seconds later, he asked hesitantly, "An... Xin?"