Chapter 288 - Right Here By My Side

"Dad?" Xu Mey had to call out to get her father’s attention. Xu Cheng hummed in response. Xu Mey hesitated for a split second before voicing out her question, "Do you still... miss her presence?"

"Do you want me to answer you honestly?" Xu Mey looked at his inquiring gaze as if he was asking whether she’d really like to hear the answer which she might not like.

Xu Mey contemplated a bit in her mind and nodded her saying, "Yes... I want you to be honest with me."

"Very well..." Xu Cheng swirled the wine in his glass with his eyes following the movements of that red liquid in his glass. He inhaled a deep breath before saying, "To be honest, I really don’t know what’s wrong with my own heart. Does it still miss her? Perhaps it does... Or maybe it doesn’t..." Xu Mey was conflicted to hear his answer. "But I do know that I’m scared of knowing whether she remembers me or not... The idea of being forgotten is a lot scarier than her absence."

"She had been everywhere in all these years... My heart, memories, mind, soul... But she is not where she promised to be..." Xu Mey looked at her father waiting for him to continue. "Right here by my side."

Xu Mey pressed her lips together, not knowing how to continue this conversation. She ate her Salade niçoise in silence trying to sort out whatever she just heard from her father.

"That means you still love her," she remarked with a heavy heart after a long silence.

She heard a snicker from her father as he said, "At this point, I believe I’d never stopped loving her." Xu Mey was literally stumped to hear his answer. Didn’t he suffer all alone all this time? How can he still love her?

Xu Mey wasn’t inclined to believe that he wasn’t successful in forgetting her. Perhaps, he never tried hard enough, to begin with. "I think dad never really wanted to forget her and that’s why she’s still somewhere around you."

Xu Cheng didn’t refute, he simply gave her a small smile. "Xiao Mey, it’s not that I really didn’t try to forget her. But coincidences like today never let me forget her."

"What coincidence?" Xu Mey questioned with furrowed brows.

"This happens to be your mother’s favorite restaurant..." Xu Mey’s eyes went wide as he heard this sentence. She really wanted to question herself about why did she had to choose this specific French restaurant of all the places? "Now, tell me... How am I supposed to forget her when even the restaurant you chose randomly is the place of my memories with her?" Xu Mey had no answer to that question at all. She was the one cursing at her own choice.

Taking another sip from his wine glass, Xu Cheng added, "But you’re not wrong," Xu Mey lifted her eyes to face him as he went on, "I kept saying to myself that I want to forget her but unknowingly, there was a part of me which still yearned for her. I guess I tried to forget her while hoping for her return. That really makes me a pathetic person. Doesn’t it?"

Xu Mey wanted to nod her head but she refrained from doing so. She didn’t want to hurt her father more than she had done already over a single dinner. While Xu Cheng wasn’t paying attention, she even slapped her own mouth for choosing this topic for conversation. Seeing the look of longing and melancholy in Xu Cheng’s eyes, Xu Mey felt really uneasy.

"Sorry, dad! For being such an idiot. I shouldn’t have actually asked," Xu Mey was trying hard to apologize since she felt that she was the one in the wrong. She was being insensitive for bringing up such buried memories.

"I don’t mind... I always wanted to talk to you about your mother but you never gave me a chance-" Xu Cheng was about to continue when Xu Mey lifted her hand to interrupt him.

"Dad! I am sorry for asking but I asked about your wife. Not about my mother because I never had one. Let’s not argue on this." Xu Cheng pursed his lips knowing Xu Mey’s temper, he chose to listen to her. "Besides, I grew up very well without a mother." Right at this moment, her phone gave an alert for a message.

The message was from Jun Li Na and it stated: ’SOS! SOS! Get here right now! It’s an emergency. Something just exploded and I can’t tell you in detail over the phone.’

Seeing her frowning like that Xu Cheng asked, "Is everything alright?"

"I don’t know..." Xu Mey shook her head trying to understand that text. Thinking something must have been wrong with Jun Li Na, she shot up from her seat in a hurry and excused herself, "Dad, I’ll see you at the office tomorrow. I have to get somewhere right now."

Xu Cheng nodded his head in understanding and let her leave. Since he was also done with his dinner, Xu Cheng paid for the bill and made a call to his driver before making his way towards the exit. He was a bit distracted because of the phone call and didn’t see the person coming from the front and ended up colliding into her.

"Oh... I’m sorry! I wasn’t look-" Xu Cheng’s words got stuck in his throat as he looked at the face of the person who bumped into him.