Chapter 169 - Maybe It’s Fate (1/2)

Madam Zhong looked at her blushing son and chuckled. Jing Yi only grew more flustered. He searched for anything he could say but found nothing. ”Mother, that … I … I also don't know why … I … I mean —”

”It's alright.” Madam Zhong patted his hand. ”It's obvious that he's very much in love with you.”

Jing Yi lowered his head. He had wanted to approach the subject slowly but now that terrible Senior Martial Brother of his had kissed him right in front of his mother! Hadn't he taken extra care and begged him to behave himself? How was this behaving himself?!

Madam Zhong smiled. It seemed her son wasn't ready to tell her about it. Well, he wouldn't get around it now. ”So, don't you want to tell your mother what happened? That Senior Martial Brother Qiu of yours, you met him five years ago?”

Jing Yi shook his head. ”No. We only met some days ago. It's …” He squirmed on the chair. ”It's a little complicated.”

”How so?”

”He …” Jing Yi pursed his lips. He didn't want to say it! He had just gotten home. He shouldn't talk about this with his mother. Not now.

”Jing Yi.” Madam Zhong's tone of voice was as rebukingly as it was indulgently. Jing Yi instantly felt soothed. ”Tell me. Aren't I your mother? Who will you talk about it with if not with me? And shouldn't your mother know what is going on? Or could it be that you aren't my sweet child anymore and are now going to start throwing tantrums? Aren't you too old for this?”

Jing Yi blushed again but this embarrassment was even worse than the one from being kissed in front of his mother. ”Mother …” In the end, Jing Yi could only sigh. ”Qiu Ling is … He's a little strange. Actually, when we met for the first time he asked me if I … if I wanted to marry him.” He turned away, unable to look his mother in the eye. ”Then he said he'd give me seven days to consider. I couldn't even get a sound out. But in the next days he …” He shook his head. ”He always followed me around, trying to hold my hands and calling me …” Jing Yi suddenly shut up. He definitely wouldn't recount Qiu Ling's shameless behavior in any more detail.

”Haish, what a big child!”

”Ah?” Jing Yi looked up, his eyes wide with confusion. ”You really think I'm throwing a tantrum?”

Madam Zhong laughed. ”I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about him. Did he really expect you to fall in love with him like that?”

Jing Yi wanted to agree with her but he bit his tongue at the last possible moment. He couldn't really say if it hadn't maybe worked in some way. ”Mother …” Jing Yi gripped her sleeve and furrowed his brow. ”How do I know if I'm in love with him?”

Madam Zhong blinked. It couldn't be that that direct approach had really worked, could it? On the other hand … If her son asked like that, then his feelings probably weren't too deep yet.

She contemplated a moment and then took her son's hands. ”When he asked you if you wanted to marry him were you happy?”

Jing Yi shook his head. ”Just stunned. I didn't know how to react. It was so …” He shook his head once more. ”It was just too sudden.”

”Mn. And now, how do you feel about him?”

”Oh … I also don't know.”

”No?” Madam Zhong watched his face, seeing how he fell into deep thought.