Stoop So Low

~Jardin et Blanc

Liling glanced at Li Hao's deserted expression and turned back to her almost empty plate,

'Just speak Liling' she thought inwardly letting out a huff

"Are you okay? who were you on the phone with?",

"My mother. She found out about the marriage and asked us to go home for dinner tonight"

Liling bit down lightly on her bottom lip feeling guilty, was she really that unapproachable he would rather feel conflicted than tell her?

"It's fine, she was going to find out eventually," she said. "Besides, I don't mind having dinner at your parent's house. I'm going to visit my brother, I don't know if you want to come, that way, once I'm done, we can go get presents for them"

"You don't need to get them anything"

"yes, but it's rude turning up empty-handed", She polished off the little left on her plate and made to stand up

Just then she felt a little tug at her sleeve and looked down at Little Bun's pleading eyes. She already knew what he wanted, he didn't even need to do anything. She bent down to his height and held his hands,

"Of course, you get to come too, " she said, ruffling his hair slightly and watching as his eyes lit up.

******************************

~City Y Hospital

"Liling!"

"Huh?" she turned back to see Shen Ru briskly walking up to her,

"Liling, Hey. I was just wondering if we could...….", She trailed off mid-sentence as her eyes drifted to her boss and his kid standing just a few steps behind Liling,

She turned back to Liling with widened eyes and a questioning look on her face,

Little Bun tugged on his father's sleeve and wrote something on his tablet, Li Hao let out a huge sigh, and then they both walked off together,

"What on earth Liling, why was Mr Li here?"

"Nothing important really", she said as she walked into the hospital,

"You can't just say that and expect me to believe you, he was with his freaking son for goodness sake"

"Like I said, nothing important", they continued talking as they walked to Xu Ming's private room, "That reminds me, I need to ask you something"

"Don't change the subject"

"I'm not, I just find out something. 2 years ago, Mr Zhang gave us that extra task, and you turned him down right"

Shen Ru let out a dismissive chuckle, " What are you going on about, you know very well he's assigned me lots of tasks before, how am I supposed to remember all of them"

"You know very well what I'm talking about", Liling's eyes were deadly serious and Shen Ru knew the look all too well,

"Alright, yes, I did, I just needed the extra cash"

"You...did?", She stared incredulously at Shen Ru whilst shaking her head. "You accepted it even when we both agreed we wouldn't. How could you stoop so low?", Her voice reduced to a pained whisper at the end, and tears glistened in her eyes,

"Low!, are you being serious right now?", Shen Ru's usual personality was gone and in its place was an angry glare, "So what if I stooped low, well at least I'm not the one relying on favours to get myself promoted"