Mark of the destiny

0"Is he sleeping?" Suyin asked the nurse in a soft voice, mistakenly waking up Zeng from his sleep. He instantly sat pressed the remote to elevate the bed, worry laced his handsome face.     3

"Your X-Ray?"     

"No fracture, no blood clot, no concussion. Just scraped elbows which will probably take longer for the scars to heal. You better compensate me properly," flashing her beautiful smile, she walked to his bed, "Make space for me," Shocked by the sudden request, Zeng fumbled for a second before scooting to the side and lifted the blanket.     

"So, what should I do to compensate you?" he gently touched the white bandage on her elbow.     

"Not much, teach me how to skid,"      

"Keep dreaming. That's risky." He rested his head on her shoulder, enjoying the rare moment. Don't know if he'd get the opportunity again. "Ask something else,"     

"Then--" she pressed a button on the remote control to draw the white curtains. "--tell me everything. I promise to listen to you with all my patience and time. I'm here with you until you speak your heart."     

"Can I take back my words? Teaching skid was a better option."     

"No. You already declined that." She heard him sigh several times and reached to rub his arm up and down. "It's okay, take your time."     

"Will you believe me?"     

"Try me, ge" Zeng wrapped his arm around hers possessively, she could see he needed a little more push. "Okay, let me start with a story first. You may join in between....." he hummed in response.     

"It's a story of a girl and her elder brother. Let me name her Susu and her brother, Ze. Cute names, right?" she asked and once more he hummed in response.     

"Su was Ze's little sweetheart. Just like every typical elder brother, he was strict but caring. Ze had this rule where the right to bully Su was exclusive to him. If someone else tries to do that, he/she'd be beaten black and blue. And many times that happened! Hypocrite Ze!"     

Suyin felt her shoulder shaking and glanced at Zeng. He had his face pressed in the space between the pillow and Suyin's shoulder, trying to suppress the laughter.     

"Yeah, they had this sweet and sour relationship. Once Ze and Su went to the house of their elder cousin, K, on his birthday. That cousin was annoying, he never liked the brother-sister duo and used to bully them in front of his friends."      

Zeng's mouth pursed into a thin line. This annoying cousin was none other than Song Kun. And he'd never forget what happened that day.      

"That day was no different," Suyin continued, " K was gifted a brand new sports car by his father as a birthday gift and he left no chance to show his car to everyone. Su being the little girl was attracted by the sparkling red beauty and marveled it by running her chocolate stained hand on its shiny metallic body.      

It enraged K, fuming mad, he threw a slap on Su's face in front of everyone. Filthy girl, look what you have done. Do you have any idea how much it costs? K yelled and pushed her. She cried and cried.... Her eyes looked around in search of Ze."     

"To her shock, one second K was a meter away from her and the next he was thrown over the bonnet, howling in pain. His nose bleeding, soiling his car more. Ze placed himself between Su and others, he eyed the red mark on her cheek, the bruises on her knees-- the next second he picked the potted plant and threw it on the windshield. That's for hurting my Su, Ze said. What an angry young man Ze was!" Suyin mused, and Zeng looked up from her shoulder.     

"Really? If I was an angry young man, what were you?" he asked, "Let me remind you what you did after that.... So the story goes like, the angry Su first ran up to K who was trying to stanch his bleeding nose with his two hands and wiped her runny nose with his expensive tie." Now it was Suyin's turn to laugh. "How old were you?" he asked.     

Suyin bit her lips, "I was nine, and you were fourteen."     

"Yes," Zeng continued, "Then she challenged K in her cute voice, 'you just wait. One day my ge will have a fleet of cars hundred times better than yours.' then she looked at his red car, 'and he will not only buy me a car better than this but also teach me how to drive.'... And then.... Ze was beaten black and blue by K's friends." he finished.     

Suyin pouted her lips, "Yeah, I know. Ze got seventeen stitches at that time. And when Su saw her brother in pain, she couldn't stop feeling guilty. It was all her fault. But... But on the other side, Ze was having his own guilt. It bothered him that he failed to protect his sister, and now everyone in the house was blaming her. Ignoring the pain in his body, Ze cupped Su's little face in his hands, and said, 'I'm sorry I let you get bullied. But today I make a promise to you...."     

Suyin opened her mouth to repeat the promise, but Zeng beat her to that, "I promise to be there when you need me. I promise to hug you tight when you are lonely. I promise to wipe your tears when they fall. I can't promise to fix all your problems, but I can promise to face them with you."     

Suyin bit the bottom of her lips, taking over the story, "Yeah, that was the promise. Word to word. And every time little Su turned to her brother because of the very promise. It was not only the promise, but Su's trust, belief, and faith in Ze." She took a deep breath, "But things changed.....Little by little, the promise started to fade away. Yet, deep inside her heart, Su still believes that Ze would be there for her. And one day something happened..... A monster came into Su's life and bullied her." her voice was breaking as her thoughts returned to the scariest night of her life.     

"She was left deeply hurt, mentally, and physically. She wanted help, support, wanted to talk to someone, complain, cry, and do everything that could lessen her pain. And the only person she could think of was Ze. But Ze..."     

"No no no..." Zeng bolted up and faced Suyin. He knew what she was referring to, "Ze was always there for Su. Ze is and he will forever be."     

Tears rolled down Suyin's eyes, "Three hours. I kept on calling you for three hours, and when you answered it, you scolded me for constantly disturbing you and not handling my own problems. You didn't even listen to me once! After four days, you message me telling me you won and now I can talk to you."     

"No..." Zeng shook his head wildly, "I couldn't recall that. I know you won't believe me, but I just can't recall talking to you like that. I can't even recall the time when you called me while you were facing the medical council trial and my nephew was sick. Truth be told, I wasn't even aware that the baby was this sick, and you were facing the trial. Had I known, you think I would have stayed there for the championship? Trust me, Susu, there are things happening to me that I'm not even aware of. In fact, I only realized that something was wrong with me when I heard your version of a story from mom."     

Suyin's silence scares him, she looked unconvinced and he just doesn't know how to make her believe. "You can ask about it to Fei Hong and even my assistant. They will tell you. Remember, Hong's incident when she was kidnapped? According to her, I invited her for lunch at the Paradise restaurant, but I've no memory of sending her any such message. Why would I do that knowing it would be risky for Hong to come out alone in that situation? It was my assistant who told me about the setup when I enquired about her."     

"Your assistant?" Suyin questioned, "Does he know everything?"     

"Yes, he's with me for the longest time and is my trusted one. He knows I keep forgetting things and reminds me most of the time," Zeng said.     

"Hong was with you for the past few days, did she also sensed you keep forgetting things?"     

Zeng shook his head, "No. But she never said that I keep forgetting. In fact, we have dinned together several times these days, and I didn't miss our appointments. She was just confused and concerned when I keep saying 'I don't know' and how things turned worse between you and me."     

Suyin, "So it was only your assistant who said you do things unknowingly?"     

"No... I have realized it too. For instance, I wanted to buy a pub in LA. Everything was settled, and when I was about to sign the papers, I had an ugly fight with the owner.... that I couldn't recall."     

Suyin's nose wrinkled, "And your assistant told you about the fight?"     

"I saw the Video. It was me who instigated it."     

"Show me the video," Zeng looked around for his phone but couldn't find it. Suyin passed her own. "Is the video saved on the cloud?" Zeng nodded and played the video for her, feeling embarrassed Suyin would watch him using abusive words. On the contrary, Suyin zoomed on Zeng's facial expression. Her brows scrunched together.     

"Suyin, ask him if he ever felt sudden dizziness, extreme fatigue, antisocial acting out, panic acts, concentration loss, nausea, uncontrollable urge to cry.... or anything?" She heard Dr. Jeff's voice in the Bluetooth device attached to her ear.     

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