You Don’t Love Me Enough

There were a few more seconds of silence before the person on the other line finally spoke out. "Yao Yao," Chen Hao's voice sounded faint on the other line. He cleared out his throat once and spoke again. "I heard… my mother went to your place this morning."

"Yes," her voice softened as she heard the voice that she had not heard for a while.

"Are you alright?"

Li Qin Yao took a deep breath before she nodded and answered, "Yes."

"Did she cause trouble with you?"

"No."

Even if Chen Hao's mother did come to trouble her, Li Qin Yao would deny it.

"Sorry."

Li Qin Yao clenched at her phone a little tighter as she wondered whether Chen Hao was apologizing for their separation or his mother's behavior earlier in her cafe today.

There was another brief silence between them again as both of them were in a daze after not speaking to each other since their break up. Finally, Li Qin Yao spoke again. "Chen Hao, I heard from your mother that you have not returned home and did not show up at work. Where did you go?"

"I took a break from work and go on vacation in S Country. I have explained everything to my mother. I don't know why she still went to find trouble with you." Chen Hao paused and exhaled deeply. "I just need some time for myself."

"Well, whatever it is you're planning to do, you should give your mother a phone call and let her worry less."

"Yao Yao, I know that I wanted to be filial to my parents, but I did not realize that I have been too obedient to the point that I let my mother arranged everything in my life. From my studies to my career, everything so far was something that my mother had chosen for me. But still," Chen Hao let out a chuckle. "If I have to do things all over again, I know that I will choose the same path. I won't go against my mother. After all, my mother knows me so well. She will never leave me astray."

Li Qin Yao's eyes gradually dimmed and her lips curved into a small smile. A part of her was disappointed with Chen Hao, while a part of her was relieved that she had chosen to end their relationship earlier.

"Yao Yao, I have a question."

"What?"

"Back then, you told me that you don't confident that you can change my mother's mind," Chen Hao made another long pause. "Did you say it like that because you don't love me enough?"

Chen Hao's question and accusing tone turned her stupefy. Suddenly, Li Qin Yao felt her heart grew colder. To think that Chen Hao thought of her feelings towards him as low as that.

She chose to retreat because she loved him and did not want to make things difficult for him by letting him choose between her and his mother. However, he had doubted her and thought that she did not love him that much.

"Chen Hao. You have to know that even if I stay with you for the rest of my life, I will not be able to change your mother's opinion towards me because a person cannot change another person just because that person wishes for it. No matter how hard I try to change your mother's opinion, it will not work, unless if your mom herself who wanted to change. Besides, your mother did not like that I come from a broken family. Tell me how do I change that?"

"Yao Yao," His voice sounded weak like a whisper. Clearly, Chen Hao did not know that one of the reasons his mother was against Li Qin Yao was because of her family. His face turned slightly red from embarrassment. Chen Hao did not know that his mother was that superficial.

Li Qin Yao took a deep breath to calm down. "It's late. I still have to work tomorrow. I will not stay to chat with you."

Chen Hao stared at his phone. He did not have the chance to say goodbye before Li Qin Yao hung-up on him. The night blew. Chen Hao looked up at the sky and thought that the night was exceptionally cold.

xxx

Li Qin Yao woke up the next morning with a slight headache. After Chen Hao's call last night, Li Qin Yao could not go back to sleep. In the end, she spent most of her night rolling in her bed, thinking of her conversation with her ex-boyfriend. It was almost three when she finally drifted into dreamland.

When her alarm sounded this morning, Li Qin Yao planned to switch it off and continued to sleep. However, once she thought of her meeting with Liang Sheng and the upcoming battle with the QL Group's shareholder, Li Qin Yao knew that she had to get off her bed.

After cleaning up herself, Li Qin Yao left her room and headed to the coffee house. Although she knew that she could always call the room service to send her breakfast, Li Qin Yao thought that it would be better if she had her breakfast in the coffee house. At least, she would not feel alone.

Because it was weekdays, the Coffee House was not as crowded. There were a group of tourist and a few groups of men and women dressed in their business suit.

Li Qin Yao walked around the buffet table and poured herself a bowl of shredded chicken porridge and a hot cup hot soy milk before she headed to an empty table.

She took out her phone to send a short message to Liang Sheng to remind him of their meeting. She took a picture of her breakfast and posted it on her moments to let her mother know that she was having her meal properly. Then, Li Qin Yao ate her breakfast silently as she browsed through the news on her phone.

Suddenly, something blocked up her light. Li Qin Yao lifted her gaze and met Zhang Yu Han's familiar gaze.

"Miss Li, good morning," Zhang Yu Han greeted. "I thought you would be having your breakfast in your room."

"Eating here would be livelier," Li Qin Yao said. "Besides, I can go on a few rounds and try various types of dishes. The breakfast buffet in your hotel has a great choice of food. Everything on the buffet table looks good."

Zhang Yu Han stared at the girl in front of him in dumbfounded. Slowly, his lips curled into a smile. "I now understand why you were able to befriend my grandfather, Miss Li. You both like eating good food."

Li Qin Yao felt her face grew warm. "Well, eating good food can enhance your mood. There's nothing wrong with that."

"I didn't say that there's anything wrong with it," Zhang Yu Han said. "It's just that, it was not easy for anyone to get along to my grandfather."

Li Qin Yao tilted her head, wondering why was it hard to get along with Zhang Yu Han's grandfather. After all, that old man was too cute. Li Qin Yao stared at the man before her and said, "Well, Mister Zhang, if you haven't had your breakfast yet, come and join me. After all, I planned to stay here for a while."

A glint flashed through Zhang Yu Han's eyes as he heard her invitation and he quickly hid the smile on his face.