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I sit bolt upright. Holy crap. I can’t believe that Auntie Jiayi is willing to meet up with me after everything that’s happened. I quickly type out a response.
Thank you so much, Auntie. I’ll be there.
I stay home from work and spend the morning bustling around my apartment, trying to pass the time by doing various chores. Several times, I think of Shang and how cleaning is his hobby. And now I can’t keep my mind off him as I clean. I rehearse what I’m going to say to Auntie Jiayi.
I arrive at Lamian Paradise well before eleven and perch nervously on my seat. This is even worse than waiting for my finals to begin. When Auntie Jiayi arrives, I jump out of the chair and greet her awkwardly, unsure if she would want a hug from me. Luckily, she does, enveloping me into her arms. I close my eyes and will the tears back. It’s a close battle, but I win.
We sit down and I pour some chrysanthemum tea into Auntie Jiayi’s cup. “Thank you so much for meeting me, Auntie.”
Auntie Jiayi nods. “I am curious about what you have to say. But before that, I just have to ask: Why?”
I lick my lips before replying. I’ve rehearsed this a dozen times, but now that Auntie Jiayi is sitting in front of me, looking concerned and sad and so terribly present, all of my carefully crafted words have dissipated from my mind. “I didn’t want to disappoint my father,” I say finally.
“Ah.” Auntie Jiayi takes a sip of her tea. “I understand this. I’ve been wondering, you know, ever since we found out about it. Because you seemed like such a nice girl, not someone who would lie to us. But there is one other reason why you felt you had to do what you did.”
I look at her quizzically.
“The fact that you’re a woman, and you’re right: There would’ve been nothing you could say to win my brothers over if you hadn’t lied to them. I know this is a fact. I grew up with my brothers, and I have had to lie and go about things in sneaky, roundabout ways to be heard by them.”
Guilt coils like a snake in my belly. “Thank you for saying that. It still doesn’t excuse what I did, but I appreciate you acknowledging that part of it. I’m so very sorry.”
“I know,” Auntie Jiayi says simply. “I can see it on your face. You’re not someone who is used to lying.”
“No.”
“Another question: What about my son?”
I didn’t think I could feel any worse, but I do now. Oh, how I do. “I think he’s probably done with me. I don’t blame him, by the way.”
“Not that,” Auntie Jiayi says, waving a flippant hand. “I mean, what you two have—or had—what is it?”
I’m so taken aback by this that I blurt out the answer before I realize it. “Love.” There it is, raw and true in its simplicity.
Auntie Jiayi smiles, and her eyes crinkle at the corners, just like Shang’s. In that moment, she looks so much like Shang that a knot forms in my throat. I take a sip of my tea to try and clear it.
“Ah, I knew it,” Auntie Jiayi says. “Because I could see in Shang’s face also, you know. I have never seen him so happy before.”
“I haven’t been that happy before, either,” I say quietly. “But it doesn’t matter now anyway, because I told you, he’s done with me.”
“Oh, that.” She flaps her hand again. “What rubbish. Of course he is not done with you. He just needs some time to sulk a little. He can be quite sulky, you know, that Shang.”
I laugh. “Good to know. To be fair, though, if I were him, I would be very sulky, too.”
“Oh yes, of course. If I were Shang I would thunder everywhere. But never mind, he’ll get over it.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Okay, so now tell me, what is this urgent thing about James and Wutai Gold?”
I lean forward and tell Auntie Jiayi everything I overheard last night. I’m surprised to find that Auntie Jiayi doesn’t seem in the least bit shocked by the news. In fact, she hardly reacts at all until I finish speaking. Then she says, “Hmm.”
That’s it? I’ve just told her about a whole conspiracy that her nephew has cooked up to stab them all in their backs and all she says isHmm?
“You look surprised,” Auntie Jiayi says.
“Yeah, I kind of am, because I was expecting you to, I don’t know—”
“Be angry? Be shocked?”