Imperfect Desires

"Team leader Yan! Team leader Yan!"

Yan Ying who had finally managed to doze off for a while swatted the hand which was trying to wake her up. 

"Team leader Yan!" 

The person who was trying to wake her up shook her shoulder again. 

"What's going on?"

"Dr. Chu, team leader Yan is not waking up," the assistant looked at her boss and voiced out the problem she was facing now.

Dr. Chu didn't know what to say to that. This girl was hovering around like a fly for the whole night and now that the sun was rising up, she finally decided to sleep? "Ying, the reports are done!" his voice was only loud enough to get to Ying who suddenly rose to her feet jumping around.

"Where is it? Where is it? Give it to me!"

The assistant looked at Dr. Chu with admiration. She had been trying to wake her up for the past ten minutes but she didn't budge and the Dr. had to just say one sentence she was up.

Ying didn't notice all this weird reaction, she instantly snatched the report and ran off. Coming to a quiet corner, she took a deep breath. No, she took several deep breaths to calm herself before she opened the envelope. 

//Possibility of paternity: 99.9999999%

Ying was left staring at that last statement with wide eyes. Her body was frozen stiff now. She had expected this result and yet she had denied it a million times in her head. But the reality couldn't be denied. She couldn't deny what was before her eyes now. Or could she?

"Ying, I've been looking for you everywhere!"

Yan Ying looked up to see her aunt walking towards her. Director Fei was scowling as she stood before her niece and crossed her arms against her chest. "The moment I stepped inside the building, I've heard your name so many times that it's getting on my nerve now! What have you been up to?!"

Ying looked really calm now. She looked up at her aunt, Su Feifei, and answered, "I'm going through different stages of grief."

"Oh?" Her aunt, Su Feifei raised her brow slightly. "So, what stage are you on now?"

"Denial!" she answered immediately.

"You're still on the first stage then," Su Feifei shrugged her shoulders casually. 

"The first stage was, shock," Ying retorted. "I just moved to denial but I think along with denial, I'm touching the stage of anger as well."

"If you kept talking like this, I'm gonna throw you off the building!" Ying took a step away from her aunt who instantly grabbed her neck and pulled her to her side again. "Tell me what's with this grief and all? Who or what are you grieving?"

"Zizi cheated on Aunt Ai," said Ying with a sad face as her eyes looked like she was about to cry. She looked like someone who found out her own father had cheated on her mother. But technically, she had no blood relation with Xin Zimen neither with Wen Ai. And still, she was feeling really hurt with this new discovery.

"Huh? Chief, cheated on sister Ai? You mean Chief Zimen, right?" Ying nodded her head in reply. Su Feifei laughed at her face hysterically. "Xin Zimen... Xin Zimen is... He is a cheater? Hahaha!" Su Feifei couldn't help herself. She found this so funny that she was clutching her stomach now. But seeing how Ying was scowling with anger, she stopped. "You're not kidding?"

"Of course, not!" Ying replied seriously. "I have proof now!"

"Let's sit down and talk," said Su Feifei with a frown and brought Ying to her office. "Now, tell me what's it all about?"

Ying took a moment to collect her thoughts before speaking, "Zizi asked me to find someone about half a year ago." She still could recall that day vividly. "First I didn't think about it much since he only said that finding that person was very important to him. But the way he looked made me believe that he was indeed desperate to find that person."

"Who is that person?" 

"Carina Novell," answered Ying and noticed how her aunt frowned again. "Does the name ring a bell?"

Su Feifei had a thoughtful look on her face, "It sounds familiar. Oddly familiar. Where have I heard it though?" As if something clicked in her mind, she ran off to find her laptop and searched through it before she clicked a photo and turned the screen towards Ying. "Is this the woman you've been looking for?"

Ying looked at the group photo which was quite old. There were 5 women in the photo, Wen Ai, her mother Su Xixi, her aunt Su Feifei, Carina Novell, and someone she couldn't recognize. She stared at the photo for a long time. She even forgot to blink at all. All the ladies looked quite young and vibrant standing in New York Times Square. 

Ying was having difficulty coming up with words, "How do you know her?"

"I don't," answered Su Feifei seriously and while Ying was confused, she elaborated, "Carina was Sister Ai's friend." 

"WHAT?!"

Su Feifei didn't get her big reaction but she still continued calmly. "I only met her during this holiday. Sister Ai had friends from all around the world. She was truly a social butterfly. Anyways, she met Carina on one of her trips and they instantly clicked. I don't know the details though."

"You, mom, and Aunt Ai grew up in the same house. How were you so clueless about her?" Ying really couldn't believe that her aunt was this useless. She didn't even know the details! Even though Wen Ai had grown up in the Su Family because she became an orphan at the age of seven and after that, Su Family took care of her since Wen and Su Families had been very close from generations. To Ying's mother or aunt, Wen Ai was like a real sister. 

This was one of the reasons why Xin Zimen valued Ying so much. 

"Oh, I'm sorry that I was too busy trying to catch up with my sisters. They both had always been the best. I was always running after them that's why I usually didn't even pay attention to what they were up to." Su Feifei grumbled her years of complaints. 

"Forget it!" huffed Ying before tugging at her hair. "Let me process the fact that my Zizi cheated on his wife with his wife's best friend. That's like the most classic story of novels and dramas."

Su Feifei's eyes widened at her reaction. What did she just say? "Ying, are you watching too many dramas?" Ying looked up at her aunt. "You think Chief actually cheated on Sister Ai with that Carina Novell?" Ying blinked her eyes, giving her silent agreement. Su Feifei held her shoulders and shook her body violently. "Have you lost your brain?" 

She really couldn't believe the way her niece's brain was working right now. How could she even assume that on her own?! 

"I haven't lost my mind! I'm speaking the truth!" Ying pushed her hands away. "Zizi did fell for her western beauty and cheated on my beautiful aunt Ai. They even have a love child." Now, she was ready to bite someone with that snarky mood of hers. "I have the DNA reports with me!"

Su Feifei scoffed at her as she didn't even look at the DNA report and said, "I don't care what that piece of paper says because trust me, everything you just said sounds like a big joke to me which by the way is not even funny." Ying was quite surprised at her aunt's reaction. "Look, I don't know what you've found out. But let me tell you the reason why Sister Ai chose to marry Xin Zimen of all the people."

Ying raised her brows and looked at her aunt in anticipation. She had heard from her mother that Xin Zimen and Wen Ai never loved each other but they somehow still found each other. 

"Xin Zimen can't love. He's incapable of loving anyone in this life!" Ying's whole face was scrunching in confusion. "That was Sister Ai's bizarre reason to marry Xin Zimen. A man who couldn't love. Who didn't even know how to love. And who was unwilling to love as well."

Ying honestly had never heard an even more bizarre reason for marriage. No wonder everyone always said Wen Ai and Xin Zimen were a pair of weird people. Even their reason for marriage was super weird. 

Su Feifei stood up and looking at her niece she added, "As for Carina Novell, I can assure you one thing. Xin Zimen can kill that woman but he can never love her. Because if there is someone whom he hated the most in his life, then that person would be Carina Novell!"

Ying's feelings were indescribable at this point. She was in utter shock. It was hard to say what she felt. But one thing was sure, she needed some serious answers now!