Wang Lan
It was about five in the evening, and Lan was going through their monthly budget with Ming. They were almost at the end when Ming's mobile phone suddenly started to ring. Ming excused himself and answered the call, it was from Theo.
"Ming, Kris has gone into labour."
Theo suddenly spat out those words without even giving Ming a chance to say hello. Ming was dumbfounded,
"Kris's what?"
Ming shouted, forgetting that Lan was in front of him. As the words 'Kris' reach Lan's ears, a blurry image of a man with a pair of jet-black eyes, flash across his mind. The image is gone as soon as it came, leaving behind a headache to Lan. Ming caught the reaction of Lan and understood his mistake. He gathered himself and asked,
"How do you know?"
"Leo called Tyler."
Theo replied and continued,
"I'm going home with Ty now. Came as soon as possible."
Theo hung up without giving Ming a chance to reply. Lan looked intently at Ming as his friend had always been a calm and collective person.
"What's wrong?"
Lan questioned Ming as he had observed that the way his best buddy was acting now, was kind of weird. Ming looked at Lan and opened his mouth to say something, but then he closed it again, in hesitation. Ming knew very well that he should not tell Lan about Kris now, but if Kris had gone into labour, Lan was the only one who could give him strength. Ming was about to open his mouth to ask Lan to come with him, but as if Tyler had read his mind before Ming could say a word, his mobile phone pinged, indicating that he had received a text. Ming opened the text, it was from Tyler,
'Don't even think of telling Lan. Remember what Kris said, believe in them.'
It said. Ming sighed and put his mobile phone back into his pant pocket. He looked at Lan and said,
"One of my friends have gone into labour, I must go now. Can you wrap this up by yourself?"
Lan looked at Ming with an awed look on his face, and questioned him back,
"Friend went into labour? When did you make girl-friends?"
Ming was at the loss of answer, he opened his mouth and closed it again, thinking. He finally looked at his watch and understood that he was running late.
"I'm in a hurry, I will explain it another day, ok?"
Ming hurriedly said and ran out of Lan's office, leaving back his bag and jacket.
"Ming-"
Lan called out to his friend but he was already out of the office. He looked down at Ming's jacket and shook his head. He could not understand his friend's behaviour this time. Ming had been acting weird since he woke up, it was like ha had something to say, but could not say. Whenever Lan tried to bring that subject of their hide-and-seek information, Ming looked uncomfortable, so they eventually had to drop the topic. Lan let out a long sigh and went back to his work.
The sun had gone down and Lan's body ache started to intensify. Ever since the midday, Lan had started to feel a dull ache all over his body. It was spreading through his body and it felt like his internal organs were ripped apart. As time went by it gradually intensified. Lan was a hundred percent sure that he was physically well, but he could not explain the reason for this ache. He was about to close the files and head home when his mobile phone suddenly pinged. Lan took his phone and opened the text box. A loud groan escaped his lips as he saw the sender, it was a text from Li Mian.
'Don't forget our dinner tonight. I'm already at your place. Come quickly.'
It said. Lan sighed and closed his mobile phone. If having dinner and discussing their problems meant that he could stop his mom from prying him to go on dates with the snake girl, it was a win-win for him. He shut down his computer and grabbed his car keys before heading downstairs, to the parking lot. Lan got in his car and drove straight home. He could not explain it, but he loved the house that he lived in. That house carried the same warmth that he felt when he was asleep, warm and comfortable. He knew that the warmth and the sense of comfort-ability were not due to the presence of the snake girl, it was due to someone else. Lan had tried to find out about the owner of the house, but what the documents said was that this house belonged to Ms Li Mian. Deep down Lan knew that it could never be true, such a simple house would never belong to a spoiled princess, it would belong to a kind, warm, loving, and caring person like the one that he laid his head on, in his sleep.
When Lan reached his home, he stopped the engine and locked the car before getting inside. Li Mian's sports car was already parked near the house. Lan wanted to get back the spare keys from Li Mian, but he did not have the right as this house lawfully belonged to her. Lan opened the door and entered the house. Li Mian was already at the door, ready to welcome him.
"I can't believe that you agreed to have dinner with me."
Li Mian said in a coy voice, battering her eyelashes. Even Lan could identify that those lashes were fake, he simply could not understand why this girl was playing so hard to get him.
"What did you want to talk about?"
Lan asked her, walking towards the kitchen. He entered the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to get a water bottle.
"Let's talk about it over dinner, shall we?"
Li Mian said, following Lan into the kitchen. She could clearly see that Lan was going to end their discussion as soon as possible, but she was not going to let him.
"Ok."
Lan said and walked to the dining table. Li Mian had already laid the dinner on the table with wine. Lan did not like to drink, but today Li Mian was determined to make him drink this wine, as it was the first step of her plan. Lan sat down on the table and looked at the still-standing Li Mian with a questioning look.
"Well, sit down."
Lan said in an annoyed tone. Li Mian gave out an awkward smile and sat down in front of Lan.
"So, tell me, what do you want to talk about?"
Lan questioned again, impatiently. He wanted to end this discussion as soon as possible and kick this girl out of his house, well literally her house. He just had a bad feeling about this meeting and the pain in his body was making him dizzy. Li Mian cleared her throat and started,
"I understand that you are not interested in me. So, let's just be friends. Ok?"
Lan was surprised by this statement. He never expected the snake girl to back down so easily. He offered her one of his signature smiles and said,
"Can you tell my mom that you are not interested in me, then I will definitely consider you as my friend."
Li Mian just smirked, Lan was falling into her trap just as she wanted. She quickly changed her smirk into a small smile and replied.
"No problem. Then let's toast to our friendship."
Li Mian raised her wine glass, but what Lan raised was his glass of water.
"Aren't you going to celebrate our friendship with me?"
Li Mian asked innocently, signing to Lan's untouched wine glass. Lan laughed and replied,
"I don't really like to drink alcohol."
Li Mian was not ready to back down. So she smiled at Lan and said,
"Then, how about this? If you drink with me today, I will give you the spare keys."
Li Mian knew that Lan loved his freedom and Li Mian having the spare keys in her hands was a headache to Lan. The offer was quite tempting, and Lan fell for it.
"Ok then, don't go back in your words later."
Lan said as he raised his wine glass.
"Cheers."
They both said and drank their wine. What Lan did not know was that Li Mian had already mixed a tonic to his wine. Unknown about this, he drank almost all the wine in his glass. After that they had a friendly talk about each other, Lan felt that maybe Li Mian might not be actually scary and spoilt princess in reality. They talked for about two hours and as time passed by Lan's body ache started to gradually fade away. He originally thought that it was because of the wine, but little did he know that it was the tonic that Li Mian mixed with Yunlan's wine, starting to take effect, making his nerves go numb. Lan felt cold and lonely. His head started to spin and everything he saw was in double. He finally understood that something was not right. Li Mian could not manage to hide her laugh, when she saw the helpless, drugged Lan, totally under her mercy. When Lan saw Li Mian's laugh, he sensed that she had everything to do with his current condition.
"You.....What did you do?"
Lan whispered, hardly spelling the words. Before these words could fully leave his lips, the darkness surrounded him, making him feel like he was falling into a depthless dark pit.