72 The Meeting

Ming Cheng, upon walking into the big room, trailing behind Lan Chang, noticed that the twins were stood at the proper kitchen entrance, side by side without moving or speaking.

Qi Qing looked determined and troubled, while her brother held a face that looked almost as if it were about to burst into tears.

Qi Tao stepped up forward first, and immediately bowed down to Ming Cheng, his voice high pitched and almost overflowing with caught sobs as he called out," I'm sorry for yesterday! Please forgive me! I'll do everything to make you feel comfortable and well!"

Ming Cheng startled backwards, not knowing how he was supposed to react to that.

Throwing his hands up almost defensively, he looked down at Qi Tao with wide eyes.

Qi Qing rushed forwards towards her brother and hastily performed her own bow, muttering out a similar declaration to her brother, before rising up much quicker and tugging at her brother's shoulder for him to rise as well.

After a moment of not realising that her strategy was not going to work, she turned her suddenly steely gaze onto Ming Cheng and furrowed her brows.

She made a rough mime to him that he needed to bow back to her now increasingly sobbing twin, and for a brief moment, Ming Cheng couldn't help but think of the other boy as a little pathetic for getting worked over something like this so small.

It was a disagreement and misunderstanding that would probably never happen again, nothing so great that would reduce the most happy person that Ming Cheng had ever known into a needy pile of sadness and tears.

A hand on Ming Cheng's back had him shunt his body forwards in surprise at the sensation, not at all expecting the tiny, little appendage to make contact with him at all.

Ming Cheng turned around to see Wang Yuan looking at him, his face mirroring Qi Qing's own visage, with his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly and the quirk of his lips turned down as minimally as possible, while also conveying his annoyance and frustration.

If Ming Cheng were a lesser man, then he would have pointed out that he was about to bow then, but had been interrupted by the smaller, silent child.

"I, Ming Cheng, accept your apology, and I also pledge to make you feel comfortable and well," Ming Cheng replied, his own stance now matching Qi Tao's own hunched over body, parroting the other boy's words back at him, while adding in a little flourish that he had heard from the other, more wealthy, adults that he had heard before, as they made their public apologies for whatever reason.

Qi Tao's head turned upwards, his back still remaining flat in the bow, and Ming Cheng found himself with a premium view of the other boy's watery eyes as he muttered the words, in a tone of light, tentative hope," Do you really mean that?"

Ming Cheng, in the middle of rising from his own bow, nodded hesitantly, not knowing what he was supposed to do, only for Qi Tao to throw himself at him, engulfing Ming Cheng's entire person into one great, big hug.