53_Better Girlfriend

"Why did you say that?!" Li Yao whispered in a hushed tone. Clearly displeased and shy at the same time.

Xu Cheng shook his head lightly and he excused himself to make rounds downstairs. He told Li Yao to take her time and he would come back to retrieve his phone later.

"What did I ever say? Dear..?" Mu Lihai was obviously playing with her. He even emphasized on the word.

Li Yao grunted lowly and she received no apology from him. Instead, he was having fun laughing on the other side.

"Why are you so reserved around your own boyfriend?" he asked, still holding back laughter. Li Yao wasn't like any other woman he came across. She was easily embarrassed but sometimes she could be bold in the unexpected of times.

"Stop it." she said, mentally rolling her eyes. But a small smile formed on her lips unconsciously.

"Enough with that. What exactly are you doing in the hospital? You said you were with your superior. That means you aren't with them now?" Mu Lihai questioned Li Yao. He noted that Li Yao had used past tense in her sentence earlier.

"Um.. actually I'm still with them. You remember about my mom's case? My superior decided to represent me as my lawyer. So we had a meeting just now when he got an emergency." Li Yao explained to Mu Lihai.

Mu Lihai didn't speak a word to her. He was deep in his thoughts before he finally spoke again.

"Is this the one with black tie and has little beard over his face? And around six feet plus tall?" Mu Lihai asked.

Li Yao was surprised when she could easily picture Head Attorney Wang just based on his words. How did he know the man?

"I know him. Very much." Mu Lihai said as if he really could read her mind. Li Yao gulped something down that she didn't know she was holding in. Was this man a hidden witch?

She remembered that Head Attorney Wang wasn't one of their legal team members to represent Mu Enterprise. When they had their official first meeting where she met Mu Lihai for the third time, only the head attorney of the first division was present.

And the way Mu Lihai said that he knew the man very much would be an overstatement since they hadn't met each other. But Li Yao just pushed it to back of her mind. She didn't probe about the things he said and she just left it at that.

Mu Lihai started to turn sour when he heard Li Yao acknowledged his guessing. So she really was with that man..

The first time he saw Head Attorney Wang, he knew that man was trouble. They way he looked at Li Yao was an obvious sign that he had feelings for her. Mu Lihai remembered that moment when he felt jealous over Li Yao being in another man's presence while not answering his calls and messages. He was dead sure if he didn't show up- that man would take Li Yao home in his car.

"Mu Lihai, are you alright?" he heard her from the other side and he let out a tiny sigh. She immediately became worried.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Nothing. I just.." he didn't complete his sentence and this made Li Yao frown.

"Tell me." she told him in a bit of authority in her tone. Mu Lihai was slightly surprised yet he was happy being reprimanded like this by none other than his girlfriend.

"I'm just jealous. That's all." he had no choice but to tell her. And as if on cue, Li Yao asked him back why would he be jealous.

"You're out there with a man other than me. I'm hurt." Mu Lihai feigned innocence.

"What are you talking about, you're so cute..!" and instead of trying to soothe the man back, Li Yao played with fire and ignited Mu Lihai's ego when she called him cute.

"Hey, I'm not cute! You are!" Mu Lihai didn't understand where this came from and he didn't want to know.

How could a man be called cute? He wasn't cute!

"You're acting jealous so you are." Mu Lihai could hear her stiffle her laughter and he got pissed. He let out a frustrated sigh and she then coaxed him gently. It took him so long before he could agree on not getting mad with her bribing him homemade food.

Before they finished talking, Li Yao said that she would be taking a taxi home today from the hospital and he also told her that he couldn't make it to fetch her because his work was piling up.

They said goodbyes to each other and from the far corner of the corridor, Li Yao saw Xu Cheng approaching. Him with his white robe was exuding cool manly aura. And from the surrounding, she could see that several nurses were oggling at the man like he was a rare specimen.

Li Yao finally realized that Xu Cheng actually had the face. He was handsome but the word 'cool' would suit him better, she thought. The way he carried himself was almost like Mu Lihai- one way or another.

Then she suddenly got an urge to ask questions. Xu Cheng was in front of her and she handed him his phone back.

"Um.. Xu Cheng." Li Yao started.

"Yes?" he raised a brow. Seeing that she had something to say.

"How was Mu Lihai before? I mean, before he met me." he heard her asked and he just smiled.

"Still remember Gaonan? Liu Gaonan." he asked her back. Li Yao put a lot of thoughts into remembering and she finally realized who that was.

"Oh yes, I remember." she nodded.

"He's a bit like him." Xu Cheng told Li Yao to which she frowned. Seriously? That guy, Liu Gaonan was a bit on the childish side, wasn't he? And Mu Lihai was sort of like him?

"I know it's hard to tell but Lihai was kind of a bad boy. He never really followed rules." Xu Cheng said and he snickered to one fond memory.

"He's so different now.." Li Yao realized that she didn't really know anything about Mu Lihai and his past.

He didn't open himself up or maybe it was because she didn't bother asking. She didn't even know the extent of his desease where he was sensitive to cold. A thought hit her- was she not a good girlfriend?

When Xu Cheng saw Li Yao's face turning sullen, he told her not to worry.

"It's because of that accident. After that, he changed." he told her, carefully picking his words as to not offend the woman. Li Yao didn't know that he was aware of what happened between Mu Lihai and her.

"Is that so.." Li Yao just nodded slightly as if a sudden realization hit her hard. She didn't know that an accident could affect both sides so badly.

Mu Lihai never complained about how he was suffering all these times because of the accident that plagued him at night. He didn't bother voicing his resentment at all. And she never did ask how he was holding on in all those years.

'I should be a better girlfriend.' she told herself with determination.