"Hi, is everything alright at work? Sorry, I have been caught up at the hospital till now," she picked up the phone and spoke.

Wei was relieved to hear her voice. After the showdown with his mother, he had been too upset to call her. He didn't want even a whiff of what had transpired between his mother and himself to reach Jia Li. She was skittish about his feelings towards her already. If she got to know that his mother didn't approve of her, she would completely freeze him out within a nanosecond. Hence he had stayed back in Shanghai, tracking his mother's movements as well. Despite of his warning to her, she may attempt something foolhardy and he wasn't going to allow that.

Jia Li was the single most precious person in his life and he wasn't going to let his mother's archaic notions or Tang's amnesia driven love to stand between him and her.

"Just some work related emergency which has been taken care of now. How have you been holding up? Did anyone try to give you anymore grief?" he asked her.

Before she could answer him, Tang's arms slid around her back, startling her.

He spoke in the same ear where she held the phone.

"The food is getting cold, my love. Come back to the table. Everyone is waiting," he said huskily.

Jia Li stepped sideways to move out of his arms and gave him a knowing look, "I need five minutes to finish this call. Please tell everyone else to carry on."

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "ok, if it's that important, I'll wait here with you."

She gave an impatient snort for his childish behaviour.

"Wei, I am in the middle of lunch. Will call you back as soon as I am done," she said apologetically and ended the call.

"You are behaving like a petulant child. It is irritating me," she scolded him.

He flashed his eyes at her, "as long as I prevented you from talking to that slime ball, I don't care even if you get angry with me. I told you that I don't like him. He was giving proprietorial vibes towards you at the hospital and that's the one thing which I can't tolerate."

She shook her head at his statement and went back to the table, with him following behind.

Acute jealousy and frustration coursed through Wei's veins when he heard Tang's voice. He tried to banish the image of Tang standing close to her, saying those words to her as if she belonged to him. He cursed himself for taking it slow with Jia Li all these months. He had thought that there was enough time for him to court her. He should have stepped out of the friend zone much sooner and pursued her hard much earlier. Never mind, it wasn't too late now. As soon as the situation with his mother settled here, he would go back to Moganshan and not leave until he made Jia Li fall in love with him.

After bidding farewell to his parents, Jia Li turned to Tang and Chu, "let me know if there is anything that you guys need. Else I also need to go home, change and leave for the inst.i.tute."

"I am not staying here. I want to come stay at your house," he said.

She looked at him with shocked eyes, "what do you mean by that?"

"I wanted to stay back in Moganshan to spend time with you, not at some hotel. So unless you are s.h.i.+fting to the hotel room with me, I am not going to stay here," he explained to her with exaggerated patience.

Jia Li looked at Chu in consternation but the latter simply shrugged her shoulders with a "I can't help it" expression.

She looked at him and said firmly, "you can't come at stay at my house. One, it is inappropriate. Second, I am hardly there at home anyways. I understand that you are feeling a little lost in the surroundings but you have to respect the boundaries of others as well."

"Oh…you have gotten so touchy in the past few years. Someone would hear you and think that I intend to pounce upon you the minute we go to your house. You may have forgotten it but I am still recovering from my injuries and sporting a cast on my hand. So put out any and every nefarious thoughts which are swimming in your head currently."

Jia Li was embarra.s.sed by his words and also by her own over reaction. She should have known that he was joking.