Chang turned to her mom and smiled weakly, feeling akward after everything that had been said. As she removed the hand that was hiding her face, Chang noticed that her mother was looking at Jian on the other side of her with a knowing look in her eye. Looking at her mother, contemplatively thinking about the two's interactions.
"Hmm, how did these two get to know eachother and for how long have they been in touch? It has to have been for a good while already as Mom already has a nickname for him. She just doesn't do that with anyone or immediately.' Chewing her lip the more she thought about it, the more questions she had. 'Not just that, Mom brought up something about him not being able to protect me yesterday in the hospital. Why would she say something like that? Also why was she there? I never really got an answer to that. Hmph, these two have some explaining to do as well!'
"So mom how did you meet Jian, I never told you about him." Chang tried to casually probed her mom unaware of the man who narrowed his eyes at her at her words.
Liang JianAmal was irritated hearing her mention this, it had caused him some trouble due to her omission of the truth.
"Ahaha, I'm glad you brought that up, I thought you would never ask!" Her mother's eyes became crescents as she laughed.
Chang glanced briefly at Jian after her mother laughed. Dark eyes that had been probing the side of her face captured her eyes as she turned to him. His gaze darkened threatening to suck her in as a slow smile came to his face. Chang immediately averted her eyes in embarrassment and turned her eyes back to her mother, hoping she did not see the small exchange.
'No no, dont let him seduce you right now!'
Liang JianAmal was pleased with her reaction and it slightly improved his mood from being at the mercy of his mother-in-law. It was worth it for her. He continued to kneel down by her side, joining the discussion without leaving Chang's side. Nonchalantly, he put one of his hands on Chang's bare knee where the dress had exposed it, leaning his forearm across her lower thigh. Chang's eyes stared wide at the arm for a moment.
"So it was around Setember of last year when I first met Jian, he came to the house looking for you. He told me that he was one of your coworkers and had come to deliver some paper work for you. I thought nothing of it, as he had what looked like legitimate paperwork for you. So I told him that you were away on a business trip and would be back in a few weeks.
"Well a few weeks went by and he came over again for you. The second time he came I was definitely more suspicious, why would someone who works in the same company as you be looking for you. Would they not know where one of their own employees is?
"Jian conducted himself like a nice young man, but I found myself starting to worry that you may have been in trouble of some kind. I started thinking too that he was not who he had said he was. I refused to let him in and told him to come back in two days, as you had called and told me you would be home then.
During those two days, I called every emergency number you left me with, just in case I needed to get ahold of you. When I called your old boss though he told me you had up and quit at the end of July while you were still in China.
"Needless to say I started panicking, I called around in your company and tried to find anything about you or the young man who had come to our house looking for you. I learned that Jian over there for certin he wasn't who he had told me he was. Also that no one had ever heard of the name he gave me, and that most certainly didn't work with you.
"I started to suspect that maybe he had done something bad to you or you were hiding from him, because he was trying to hurt you."
Li Hua sighed supporting her chin with her hand. "So I did what any semi-reasonable mama bear would have done."
Chang saw that Jian was tightly pursing his lips from the corner of her eye. "So what did you do, mom?"
"I set a trap."
"A trap? What did you do?" Excited Chang sat straighter, ignoring the drawn face to her left.
Li Hua's eyes got more animated as she continued her story. "So the next day, around mid-morning he came again. I planned to capture him and make him talk and tell me everything I wanted to know!
"I welcomed him inside and told him that you would be there in about a half hour to an hour, due to traffic. He asked if it would be alright if he stayed and waited for you. I, of course told him yes and served him tea to make him off guard.
"I tried lightly probing, asking how he knew you, where he worked and stuff, yet all he gave me were the same lies I had already uncovered. I started to become even more sure that he was someone trying to find you and hurt you.
"So I went into the kitchen to prepare "lunch" for when you arrived. As I was working in the kitchen I took a glass and threw it on the ground to get his attention. As once I in the kitchen I armed myself with my trusted wok. You know the iron one that we used on the burgular." Chang nodded her head in affirmation, impressed with her mother's ingenuity. "So I lured him in with that and crouched behind the counter and waited for him to come to the sound."
Chang was astonished hearing her mom's story. "So then what happened?"
"Jian why dont you fill in some of the story from your side." Smiling like a fox Lihua looked at her son-in-law.
Grimacing at the excited look on Chang's face on what was a painful memory for him, the man continued where Lihua left off.