She was a solid metal wall.

"Ayang..." Mei-Mei's voice fractured a little, concern coated them. "Why are you....."

"Daddy, are we going home?" The little boy by Yue's side asked a question.

Mei-Mei had not questioned her husband yet on why he was holding her friend's hand when the child called her husband daddy!!

For a second, she thought she had misheard him, after all he was not the child's father. He could not be, Yue had a husband.

She laughed and reached out her hand to tousle the child's hair. But before she could touch him, Yue pulled the child way.

Mei-Mei did not take offense to it, after all she was a mother too and did not allow people to randomly walk up to her child and touch them as they pleased. "Child, don't joke around like that. You should call him uncle not daddy, your daddy's name is...."

"Jun Meilin!" Mo Liang roared.

He did not stop at raising his voice as he called his wife, he shoved her back as well and she fell to the ground. The sound of cameras snapping pictures became rampant, it was accompanied by bright flashes of light.

Mei- Mei's right hand crushed the flowers that she had brought her husband with so much joy in her heart.

"Ay...Ayang..." Mei-Mei called for her husband softly. Her voice trembled as disbelief echoed in all of her bones. Her mind could hardly string together a thought to figure out what had just happened.

Mo Liang recalled that there were cameras around so he apologized loudly, "Mei-Mei, why did you step on my foot. I am sorry that I pushed you back but I was startled. I did not recognize you as my wife, look at the way you are dressed. You look no different from a beggar, did you come out like this on purpose? Do you want people to think that the Mo family doesn't treat you well?" He removed his sunglasses and looked her over. "Wait, are you still sick?"

Others next to them were eavesdropping, when they heard the words sick, they summed up automatically that it explained her whole diminished physical appearance.

Mo Liang let go of Yue and helped Mei-Mei up, his fingers dug into her shoulders as he whispered, "Don't create a fuss here, you have embarrassed me enough. Why couldn't you just stay home?"

He backed away and smiled at the cameras, waved once and started to walk ahead. Yue followed him with her child. She was dressed in blue jeans, a white shirt and a doctor's gown completed the outfit. Her long shiny black hair flowed down to her shoulders and sat obediently there.

Walking side by side with Mo Liang, she looked as if she belonged by his side naturally__more than the sickly looking Mei-Mei.

Mei-Mei clenched her hands and took a deep breath.

"Don't cry, don't give anyone the satisfaction of seeing you break." she muttered to herself.

This was not the first humiliation she had suffered for him or at the hands of his family. Ignoring the whispers of others around her, she stepped on the flowers she had brought Mo Liang or what remained of them and walked towards the exit on her own.

The news of her humiliation hit the internet before she entered the car to drive herself back home. She couldn't help looking out at the sky and wondering which flying car her husband had taken.It was probably one of those that was being escorted by flying police cars.

In an era where most people that could afford it had abandoned ordinary vehicles for self driving ones or flying ones, she was still one of the few that drove an old model car which required her to actually drive herself. The flying cars or self driving ones at their home had all been claimed by her husband's family.

Mei-Mei took a deep breath and started the car, driving straight home. She lived in a villa in a suburb that was called Shuyi West. The house which she had purchased with her own money had long been taken over by the Mo family, even the certificate of title had been changed to Mo Liang's name.

As soon as as she stepped inside the house, she was dragged by her mother-in-law into the kitchen.

"What a useless thing you are, you don't know what is good for your husband. Instead of staying home and cooking for him, you just had to run out and embarrass him on national TV on the day of his heroic return. Who told you to go to the airport?"

As she washed her hands to start kneading the dough to make crab dumplings from scratch she answered, "Mother, Mo Liang is my husband. If a wife doesn't welcome her husband back, who will?"

"Wasn't Tang Yue there?" her mother-in-law blurted out.

Mei-Mei whirled around and faced her mother-in-law, Mrs. Sun. She was eating dried melon seeds, dumping the the husks everywhere she passed.

"Mother, Tang Yue is not your daughter-in-law, I am. She has her own husband....."

"What husband?" Mrs. Sun asked and run her tongue over her teeth. "Yue's husband died sometime within the first two months when they were on the mission. I thought you were her friend, how could you not know this? When she comes over for dinner, you better not mention the dead."

Mei-Mei's hands froze for a moment, leaving the dough untouched. In all the time that she had been talking to her friend and her husband via voice and video calls, none of them had mentioned the matter of Yue's husband dying. This was such an important thing, how could they keep it hidden?

She thought about the coffin which she had seen being rolled out at the airport, was it Yue's husband?

Mrs. Sun looked at the dishes being cooked and decided to taunt her daughter-in-law in front of the maids. "What are you dallying around for, better hurry up. Liang and Yue will be back within an hour, they had first been taken to the palace to receive their reward from the emperor. You used to think only your Chi and Jun families could contribute to our great empire of China but look now, our Mo family is going to rise in the ranks too."

Mei-Mei did not respond, she had developed a thick skin over the years. No matter what her mother-in-law threw at her, Mei-Mei was a solid metal wall.

"You have been with my son for ten years, but you could not even give him a son. If it was not for your good background back then, I would not have allowed my son to marry you." Mrs. Sun continued.

The maids dipped their heads lower, they felt sorry for Mei-Mei but they wanted to keep their jobs so they held their mouths firmly shut.

Forty minutes later, she finished cooking, run to the bathroom and took a bath. She also gave her daughter Mingzhu a bath and dressed her well.

By the time they arrived downstairs, Mo Liang had arrived indeed, and with him was Yue and her son. Mei-Mei was just in time to hear his next words which caused her blood to freeze.

"Mother, I am back, I brought Yue and our son Mo Hao."