Chapter 297
Since Raelle had nothing else to do during this flight to Meiji, she felt kind of uncomfortable. Apart from the time, she'd be sleeping she had never been so leisurely. She always had something to do even if it was just bickering with Hyson. She looked in her laptop bag and finally found a book that she had kept in it for who knows how long. But it was good for now.
Seeing how she started reading the book, the team leader Anna went back to her seat and found that the other member of the team named Hailey was staring at Raelle for a long while now. Anna snapped her fingers before her eyes startling Hailey who looked up at her and smiled sheepishly, "Team leader."
Anna took back her seat and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Hailey cleared her throat, "All this time, I felt like we have been following our Missy's doppelganger. Only now that she pulled out a book to read did I come to believe that everything is fine here. That's certainly our Missy who likes those boring books."
Anna was amused by Hailey's words, "Be careful of what you say. It's not our job to comment on our boss."
Hailey waved her hands saying, "Team leader, I have no opinions about Missy. She is different but she is nice in her own way. It's just that today, I feel like she is acting not like herself. Have you ever seen her playing hooky?"
Anna knocked on her head, "Stop talking nonsense."
Although she said that, even Anna found Raelle's actions quite unbelievable. The way Raelle made plans in her life was something known to all of them. Today's actions were hard to understand for her. Acting on impulse had never been Raelle's style but she as just the leader of Raelle's bodyguards couldn't comment about her impulsive act.
However, she knew one thing for sure. This impetuous Raelle seemed a lot more human than the one who worked on the dot. This spontaneous version of her was surprising.
As the flight landed at the airport, Raelle followed her team of bodyguards. Since she only brought four members, now in her team were two females and two males. All of them walked out of the airport and Anna sent one of the boys to find a car immediately. Soon, an off-road SUV stopped right in front of them.
Since Raelle didn't like strangers touching her, all of them tactfully allowed her to take the passenger seat. Raelle had no opinions about that. Since they had been around her for years, there was a tacit understanding between them now. Even if Raelle didn't talk much now, they could understand what she wanted.
It was late afternoon when they landed in Meiji and they had to spend another two hours or so on the road to get to the hotel where Shui Xian was staying. In Raelle's presence, none of the other four dared to talk. There was complete silence in the car as they set off towards their destination.
Raelle was about to take out her book once again when Shui Xian's words rang in her mind, 'See the world with your own eyes. Stop searching for the world in these books.'
She closed the book and put it back. Tilting her head, she gazed outside the window to see the world that her husband seems to fancy a lot. She didn't know what she could find outside the window but she knew that both Shui Xian and Hyson always had a look of curiosity to explore in their eyes whenever they looked outside the window. She never understood that curiosity but she was willing to try. She was willing to experience it herself.
The view in Meiji seemed to be eye-catching. It was a beautiful sight outside the window. The dense forest on the sides of the road gave one a feeling of being all alone in nature. The air was fresh and relaxing.
While Raelle was observing the view outside the window, suddenly the car came to a stop. Raelle turned her head to look at the boy who was driving. With a solemn look, he got off the car saying, "Let me see what happened."
He alighted down and opened the hood to check it. Smoke flew out from inside and made him cough. Seeing that, Raelle also followed and alighted down the car. As she came to stand beside the one who was checking up on the issue, she said, "This car won't go ahead."
Aiden who had been checking the issue looked at Raelle and nodded, "It's my negligence. I should have checked everything before getting the car."
While Anna was about to open her mouth to lecture him, Raelle raised her hand and stopped her. Then she checked the time and looked around. There wasn't even a single car on the same road. "How long?"
Aiden immediately answered, "We have about ten kilometers to go now."
Raelle nodded her head and said, "Let's hit the road. We have to get there before the sunset."
"Huh?" All of them were dumbfounded and only came to their senses when they saw her taking out her laptop bag.
"Team leader, are we supposed to let Missy walk for that long?" asked Aiden.
"Do you have a better decision? Even if you do, it won't work for now. She had already decided now," answered Anna and all of them also followed suit.
Walking for about ten kilometers was really not a big deal to Raelle. And she had no problem with it either. Rather than waiting at the side of the road to wait for another car or to ask for life, she'd prefer to just keep going. Wasting time wasn't her style anyway. And there was nothing wrong with a little walk.
Perhaps, today was really not her day because all of a sudden, the sun that was glaring soon hid behind dark clouds and even before they could make sense of what was happening, a heavy downpour caught them off guard.
"Missy, we should find a shelter," instructed Anna worrying about Raelle.
"Scared of the little rain?" inquired Raelle.
"Never," answered Anna.
"Then keep going," said Raelle.
"I'm just worried about you," stated Anna with concern reflecting in her eyes.
"There is no need for that," replied Raelle. "I'm not a porcelain doll and neither did my Opa raise as one."
Anna pursed her lips and decided not to continue persuading her. It was quite obvious that Raelle wasn't gonna listen to them at all.
However, today was the day, Raelle Xiang experienced in person why they say haste makes waste. This was her first time doing something unplanned and it wasn't going well. Today was really not her day. Because as they say, when something can go wrong believe, that it will go wrong. She was going through that now. Everything was going wrong just because she came to a hasty decision of looking for her husband.
There had been still about five kilometers when the rain started and Raelle was drenched completely by the time she entered the town where Shui Xian was staying. Because of the muddy puddles, most of her clothes were not only wet but also dirty. She was hugging the bag of her laptop against her chest tightly. Although the bag was waterproof, she still didn't use it to shield her head. Apparently, the data in her laptop was a lot more important than herself.
"Ask for the directions," said Raelle when they entered the town.
One of them stopped a man walking by to ask the directions and then followed the directions to end up right where they were.
"Are you playing with us, Caleb?" asked Anna in rage. Her heart was already in her throat from the time the rain started. Walking might be piece of cake to Raelle since she had been trained from a young age but she couldn't just allow Raelle to stay in rain for so long. What if she caught a cold? Mu Chenyan would skin them all alive!
"Team leader, I just followed the directions that man gave me," Caleb seemed to be quite innocent in this case. It was hard to say who was playing with them. Whether it was the man who gave the wrong directions or the heavens who were against Raelle today.
It took them fifteen minutes to find the hotel and even before Raelle could walk inside, she saw Shui Xian standing at the entrance of the hotel with his eyes stuck on his phone screen. He seemed to be calling someone but since the call wasn't going through, he was frustrated now.
Raelle walked over and standing under the stairs that led to the entrance, looked at him and called out, "Hubby!"
Shui Xian's whole body visibly stiffened when he heard that voice. For a moment, he didn't dare look up but when he slowly lifted his eyes, he was left dumbstruck.