She never left

During that week, Jin Mingze has been busy with work and would only come home late in the night. The only time where he was able to spend time with his daughter was during the weekend.

Inside a large dining room, Jin Mingze and Yanyan were sitting at the dining table, facing each other. They were currently having their dinner together... well, it was actually only the father who was eating the food.

"Why aren't you touching your food?" Jin Mingze asked, noticing that Yanyan was just staring at her food with a gloomy look.

Yanyan didn't speak. She was quiet. She has always been quiet ever since Ye Shuxin left. She has been eating little but Jin Mingze didn't notice that since he was away most of the time.

This time, she was not eating her food at all.

Her father narrowed his eyes, placing his chopsticks on the side. "Yan'er."

Yanyan pursed her lips, she looked at her father before she turned her gaze back on her food. She poked it with her finger. "Yanyan touch."

"..." That was not he meant, okay?

He ended up sighing heavily. "Yan'er, eat your food."

Yanyan turned a deaf ear on her father's words.

"Jin Yan."

The little girl remained unmoved. Instead, she asked, "When is mommy coming home?"

Jin Mingze has been avoiding his daughter's questions for the past few days by going to work. This time, there was no way he can avoid her question. Even if he tried to move her attention somewhere else, she would still ask that question sooner or later.

"She's busy."

Yanyan: "Mommy never called. Even once."

Jin Mingze: "She's busy."

Yanyan: "Can Yanyan call mommy?"

Jin Mingze: "You don't have a phone."

Yanyan: "Yanyan will borrow daddy's phone."

Jin Mingze: "I don't have her number."

His little daughter ended up glaring at him with her pinkish cheeks puffed out. She didn't say anything, she was just glaring at him intensely.

"Touch your food."

Yanyan poked her food with her finger. Again.

"Jin Yan." He warned, his expression turned serious. It wasn't funny anymore.

Yanyan was brave enough to have a face-off with her father. She remained unbothered by him.

"Fine. Don't eat."

Thirty minutes after...

In the end, Yanyan continued to be stubborn and refused to eat. Starvation worked.

"Fine, I'll call her."

Yanyan's face finally brightened up, "Daddy said earlier you don't have mommy's number! Daddy is a liar!"

"Should I call her or not?"

"Call mommy! Call mommy! If daddy won't bring mommy here, Yanyan won't eat!" She got off her seat and ran away. She went to her room and locked the door.

Jin Mingze sighed helplessly. He took out his phone and dialed Ye Shuxin's number.

---

Ye Shuxin waited for Jin Mingze nearby the cafe she was working.

After a while, a black Maybach car stopped near her and the glass window was rolled down, revealing Jin Mingze's handsome face.

"Get in."

She entered without saying a word, sitting at the shotgun seat.

He did not say anything as well. He was peculiarly conscious of the woman sitting next to him,

The silence around them was so deafening for Ye Shuxin that she decided to break it by saying, "Have you decided on when to file for a divorce?"

He didn't give her a response. He was just looking ahead while he was driving.

"Mr. Jin?"

He hasn't thought much into it, really. He just remembered it now that she mentioned about that.

"Tomorrow."

"Ah..."

Once again, it became quiet.

He really wasn't the talkative type, was he?

"Chen Rui." He suddenly said.

"Huh?" Ye Shuxin looked at him in confusion.

He was quiet again but this time, he was contemplating whether or not to ask her the question he had in mind.

"Do you perhaps know someone named Chen Rui?" He finally asked.

Chen Rui? If she remembered it correctly, that was the name that he mentioned after they shared their first sex together.

"You mean your uh... ex-girlfriend?"

"Wife. My wife." He corrected.

"Oh..."

How stupid she was. Of course, she was his wife. Yanyan was the fruit of their love after all.

"Nope. I never heard her name or even met her. Why?"

Ye Shuxin didn't have any romantic feelings for him but for some reason, she felt a small prick on her chest when she thought about him loving someone else.

Fuck. Stupid feelings.

It would only bring her more pain if she fell in love with him.

Jin Mingze: "Nothing."

Ye Shuxin: "It's clearly not 'nothing.'"

Jin Mingze: "It's none of your business."

She knew that but she was curious, curious about his past with his previous wife. "You asked me in the first place so it is now my business."

But Jin Mingze closed his mouth as if rejecting her completely.

She sighed and crossed her arms. "What a prick."

"I can hear you."

She snickered, "I can hear you too. I'm saying it for you to hear."

"..."

Ye Shuxin pouted, "No wonder she left you. She must have enough of your bullshit."

Just then, the air in the car turned heavy. Jin Mingze's eyes turned cold.

"She never left. She died in an accident."

"..." His words hit her like a hammer and she instantly regretted what she said. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't know..."

Jin Mingze was quiet.

Ye Shuxin didn't try to speak to him again. Things went awkward and she was also filled with guilt for being reckless.