Chapter 84 - Anticipated
Since the entire dinner plan turned into an awkward situation, Wan Yi Jun decided to give up on any activities that involved Ming Yue and Han Ze Min and took the rest of the guests for a house tour.
Even though Bing Wen invited Han Ze Min to tag along with them, he just refused by quoting that he was not feeling well.
Although Wan Yi Jun wasn't fond of leaving Ming Yue with his cousin after all those conversations, he thought she could handle Han Ze Min without anyone else's help.
As the eagle team members left the living room, Ming Yue returned to the kitchen, completely leaving Han Ze Min behind to rest. Just as her master expected, she had no intention to entertain the nosy guest.
She thought Wan Yi Jun's personality change was the only thing that shocked her. However, watching how irritating has Han Ze Min has become, she had to change her mind.
Her childhood friends are never the same- time has indeed changed all of them.
Ming Yue's train of thoughts broke when her ears picked up a loud banging sound coming from upstairs.
"Did something happen to Han Ze Min?" She wondered and stopped whatever she was doing just to check upon him.
She quickly climbed the stairs and rushed in the direction where the noise came.
It was only when she reached the first floor, she learnt that the loud banging noise was coming from the second floor,
When she realized that the noise was coming from a prohibited area of the mansion, she understood Han Ze Min's intentions.
Apparently, the prohibited area of the Wisteria gardens was the second floor including the bedroom which she used when she lived in the mansion as Tsuki.
"Why does he want to open that room?" Ming Yue muttered under her breath and quickly walked towards Han Ze Min, who tried his best to unlock a room at the far end of the corridor.
"Where is this room's key?" Han Ze Min demanded as soon as his eyes caught Ming Yue's figure in the corridor. "Give it to me,"
"It's Key is with young master Wan." Ming Yue politely informed and looked at the door covered with several yellow coloured Talismans.
Those yellow Talismans were used as a protection charm for the people who live in the mansion from the spirit of the room's previous owner, who lost her life.
"These people feared that I might become a ghost and haunt their family? How ridiculous?" Ming Yue mumbled in her head and glanced at Han Ze Min, who appeared frustrated to the most.
His handsome face darkened like the gloomy sky before a thunderstorm as he kept staring at the talismans.
"If you want to take a rest, let me take you to the guest room on the first floor." Ming Yue suggested and pointed her palm towards the staircase,
Hearing her words, Han Ze Min tilted his head and stared at her without uttering a single word,
"How do you feel now? Does your head still ache?" Ming Yue asked in a fake concerned voice that eventually made the other person let down his guards.
"I want to lie down somewhere for a while." Han Ze Min informed her while gently pressing his aching upper arm. Since he tried to bang open the strong doors with his body, it started to ache a little bit when he stopped trying.
"Please come with me," Ming Yue led Han Ze Min to one of the guest rooms on the first floor. After making sure that he got no complaints about the room, she decide to return to the kitchen,
"Please call me if you need something," She reminded once again and gently bowed as if she was trying to seek permission to leave.
However, just as she turned to leave the room, Han Ze Min stopped her all of a sudden.
"Stay here, with me." Han Ze Min's barely audible voice sounded echoing in the silent room.
"Huh?" Listening to his vague answer, Ming Yue's shapely eyebrows creased in confusion.
Did she hear it correctly?
Watching her standing there with a blank expression on her face, Han Ze Min sat on the bed and patted the spot next to him.
"You can't?" He smilingly asked while gently leaning backwards, as if was waiting for her reply. "Or you won't?"
He didn't mean it,
He just wanted to tease her bit only to see a change in her poker face.
"It's alright if you can't stay with me in the same room. I was just joking." Han Ze Min flashed a witty smile and allowed Ming Yue to leave the room, but even after hearing his explanation, there wasn't any change on her face as she stood there, judging him.
"How come every single one of you demands something like this?" Ming Yue spoke after a moment's break, jolting Han Ze Min with a disturbing fact.
"Did he ask you to sleep with him?" He blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, only to receive silence in return. Does that mean his doubts were true? Wan Yi Jun and this woman, are they having some kind of relationship, something more than an employer and employee.
"What exactly is your relationship with him?" Han Ze Min inquired once again, unable to endure Ming Yue's nonchalant demeanour. "Are you his mistress...or....someone with benefits?" For some reason, it felt a little bit difficult for him to ask that question directly to a woman. But it was too late to correct his mistake.
"Mistress?" Ming Yue's lips curled into a self-deprecating smile and responded in an icy tone, "So that's the impression that I have given to everyone? And what's is this someone with benefits? Even if you said friends with benefits, I would have agreed to it."
"Wan Yi Jun is not a person who would commit himself to a relationship. So I thought whatever relation you two have, it must be something beneficial for both of you."
Han Ze Min explained without any reluctance. Though Wan Yi Jun tried to prove that Ming Yue is just a maid, it was evident that he got some feelings for her as he kept her away from his cousin's verbal attacks.
"He has everything but companionship, and you are in dire need of a saviour. So, anyone could figure out that you two are the perfect match."
"Do you really think your cousin would even degrade himself like that...to have a relationship with someone like me, a maid? You must be joking." Ming Yue let out a chortle as if she heard something stupid. "You are thinking too much, young master Han. I'm just a maid, and I take care of this mansion. That's it. So please take rest and let me do my job." Ming Yue stated as a matter of fact and turned on her heels to leave as if she had reached the last point of enduring his stupidity.
"You are his ideal type." Han Ze Min's voice made Ming Yue stop in her tracks as if someone had tied her legs.
Wan Yi Jun's ideal type that was the last thing she wanted to hear.
Watching her stood there like a statue Han Ze Min rose from the bed, with an evil grin on his face,
"You are the only one who is close enough to his ideal type." He walked closer to her in steady steps, as if he was trying to intimidate Ming Yue and seek out the truth from her. But Ming Yue on the other hand, didn't even move from her spot as she tried to come up with an answer that would stop Han Ze Min from interrogating her like a criminal.
Well, she was indeed a criminal, but the crimes he has been accusing on her, that was something she would never do.
"If you keep trying to pretend that you are just a maid, I swear you will never be able to step into this mansion as the daughter in law of Wan family." Han Ze Min paused for a moment and looked deeply into her cold eyes,
"Wan family might accept someone from lower class, an orphan, an immigrant as their daughter in law....But a liar, a traitor's position will be always beyond that boundary walls...So tell me the truth and save yourself the trouble."
Han Ze Min's ruthless warning pierced the most vulnerable spot of Ming Yue's heart like a sharp dagger.
The traitor's position will be always outside the boundary walls of Wisteria gardens - it was true...It was something she had experienced...
"What is your relationship with -"
"He has someone he likes," Ming Yue's answer was so sudden and short.
"Who?" Han Ze Min took a step closer and asked her in a heavy voice. It would have been intimidating and frightening for a normal person, but Ming Yue didn't flinch at his words or at his actions.
"I don't know, he just said that he has someone he likes." She replied in a clear voice without even a bit of fear.
"You don't like him?" Han Ze Min's question came quickly like a bullet,
"No."
"Are you sure that you won't change your mind in the future?"
"No."
Ming Yue's resilient answer has created a warm sunny smile on Han Ze Min's face as he took a step closer and stood just a breath away from Ming Yue...
"Then, go out with me."