Talia and Asher saw Luo Bai weeping and ran to him. Asher arrived before Talia because he was a fast runner. He carried Luo Bai and asked him where he was in pain while checking his body and noticed blood gushing out from his belly. He knew his nephew very much to know that he would never shout if it was not serious.
Talia trembled at the sight of the scene that was displayed in front of her. "A...A...Asher, l-l-look on his t-shirt", she ended her stuttering hastily. Turning his head in the direction in which she pointed, Asher's facial expression darkened.
"Luo Bai, what happened?" in Talia's ears, it sounded more like a threat than like a question. But what surprised her was that he said it so calmly. Oddly calm. Something felt fishy. She felt like there was something ongoing in between those two but she couldn't put her hands on it.
After several seconds of deep thinking, Luo Bai finally decided to speak. "Lola jumped on me and unconsciously opened my wound".
Without letting him finish speaking, Asher lifted his t-shirt and frowned. "From where did you get this wound?" Asher busted in anger. He could not bear to see his nephew hurt.
Luo Bai was clearly in pain but was holding it back. He loved him so much and seeing the large wound on his belly hurts him greatly.
"I got stabbed by seniors in school who wanted to fight with me but I refused. And when I got stabbed, I directly went to tie a piece of dry soft cloth on the wound in order to stop more blood from gushing out of my body." Luo Bai said apologetically not daring to meet his uncle's gaze.
Asher sighed and stood up carrying Luo Bai in his arms. He brought him to his room having the intention to clean him up. Talia looked at Asher's room door closing before returning to the parlor.
Talia searched almost the whole house before finding the materials necessary for cleaning. She intended to clean the blood from the floor and the chairs.
"You were not obliged to clean it, I could do it myself", Asher said oddly silent. This was not the Asher she knew. The one she knew was flirtatious and always had a mocking or seducing smile.
Nothing related to the expression he had now. "But I wanted to do so. And you can't tell me what to do or not?" Talia said in confidence.
Sigh, how could Asher forget how stubborn this wild cat could be sometimes? His lips slightly curved upward and he went prepared to go back to his room when Talia stopped him with a call.
"Asher, bring Xiaobai to my room so I can take care of him. Even though I'm neither a doctor nor a nurse, I still work in a hospital and I still know major first aid".
Asher couldn't bring himself to disappoint her, when she brought herself to ask him directly, gingerly and cutely.
And thinking about it, she was right. She had more experience than him in the medical field as she worked in a hospital.
He nodded and went to carry Luo Bai to Talia's room. After putting him to bed, Asher came down and sat down on the chair opposite where Talia was sitting. "Asher, how many girls have you already brought into your home and in the room I'm occupying?" Talia blurted out.
This question had been tormenting her for a long time and she felt the need to know it now. Asher looked at her with a complicated gaze before answering "You are the only girl I ever brought to my house".
Talia felt uneasy because the question she asked was kind of inappropriate, personal, and intimate. His reply sounded like a man explaining to his jealous girlfriend. Feeling awkward, she decided to go to bed. "Good night then".
"Good night, Talia", Asher responded and went to sleep too. Back in her room, Talia lay on her bed and tried to sleep but she couldn't. Every time she closes her eyes, the image of Asher drying his hair after the bath will appear in her mind.
She got worked up as she tried her best to stop thinking about it. After a long moment, Talia finally drifted to sleep. To a long sleep. A very long one.
* * *
At the Groove's mansion,
Jace had been with Milli since they arrived. The doctor said that she was anemic. He did not understand why he got worked up when he saw her in that state.
'Maybe I just don't want somebody to die near me. Yeah, that's it.' he thought and decided to wash away all uninvited feelings.
Then he saw her waking up and coughing very loudly and dryly. He reached out to the carafe of water and poured some for her in a glass.
She seemed to have not noticed him yet, because of the frown painted on her face when Jace handed her the glass of water.
She took the glass and started drinking it as if she had spent 2 days in the desert with no water. Then she started choking as she swallowed the water roughly. Jace reached out to her hand and took the glass away from her.
He took a handkerchief and cleaned the drops of water that spilled on her while she was coughing. Milli blushed as she thought it was kind of intimate and inappropriate between a boss and an employee.
Jace refilled the glass and instead of giving it to Milli, he fed her the water. She had no choice but to accept his kind help and drink the water with him. When she finished drinking, he cleaned her lips softly with the handkerchief.
Then he stood up and headed to the door but before going he spoke to her, "Get ready and come down for breakfast. I will be waiting for you. We have something important to discuss".
'Something important? What can it be? I don't remember doing anything wrong. Could it be that he knows my illness? Oh my! Soon it will be the end of me. Then people shall start talking about me in the past tense.' she stopped thinking when she received a call.
"Hello? Helloo? Hellooooooooo? Uhhhh? He hung up. *Sigh*", after answering, nobody spoke on the other side and finally ended the call. She went to prepare herself.
After getting ready, she went down the stairs and went in the direction of the dining hall. She came to this house several times to give or take documents, so she knew the people living and working here pretty well. She also knew almost every part of the house.
Sitting on the chair facing Jace, she yawned and he easily noticed that she was faking tiredness. He shook his head in amusement. She had poor acting skills.
But he suddenly remembered that they had something important to talk about, so he went directly to the point "Milli, are you the illegitimate daughter of Jorge Adams".