It was hard in this case, given he had five years of seeing his friend suffer and no reason to doubt another version. The entire Xuchen family had backed it, and San had up and fled despite being once one of them. Yet he realized there had to be one, given how fierce Liling was concerning Meilei. She didn’t seem the blinded, misguided type to defend a murderer. She had also proven to be a blunt, straight-shooting, honest person who gave no shits what people thought. He didn’t doubt anything she said would be her heartfelt truth. He would be inclined to hear her out if she had another version.
She had nothing to lose. She had no lies to tell, and when he dismissed the truth like Kai did, she would have even more reason to treat him as a leper at work.
“Go on,” Tian leaned back against the door, confirming he wouldn’t. He crossed his arms, and his serious expression made her falter. He was listening anyway, without butting in and questioning much, and his expression gave her no hints of him dismissing it just yet.
Tian was emotionless, expressionless, and listened intently in utter silence, but Ling couldn’t read him at all, so she continued. Doubt creeping in about whether he was convinced or if he was the type to let you talk first before telling you that you were a liar.
There was a long, tense silence as Tian processed this, trying to be as neutral as possible as the scene flitted through his head. He wanted to match it to the version he knew from Kai and Minhui. The version he had been fed all these years.
Tian’s entire mood was sobered, and his heart was heavy with the realization that Meilei might have been the victim of this all along. Despite knowing another version for so many years, there was undeniable truth in this that somehow felt more right than what he knew. Both versions had merit.
Ling had memorized these events, word by word, ever since Meilei had told them so long ago. She had thought of it so often she had been practically able to conjure up the visual as though she were there. Wishing she could have gone back in time to save her friend from the pain that night inflicted. Twisting it up in her head and worrying over it. Five years ago, she had wanted to hunt them down and confront them for what they had done to her friend, but Meilei had begged her not to.
It shocked Ling to know Tian knew him, but then, it wasn’t implausible in the families of the rich. She had heard Tian grew up with the Xuchengs, too, and San had been part of their world.
Tian exhaled long and slowly, weighing things up and thinking it through yet remaining stone-faced. He wasn’t ready to conclude. There was a lot to unpack, and he tried to think objectively. He had swirling questions and a mind’s eye view of the San he knew, trying to understand his motives.
Tian seemed thoughtful, and Ling watched him slowly, her heart weirdly suspended in her chest as though she was holding her breath for a real reaction. It felt monumentous to finally tell someone on the other side Meilei’s truth and that his response could affect her deeply. She didn’t know why. His expressions were so unreadable it made her tetchy, and she raised a brow at him, questioning, ‘Well?’
“Where were you in all of this? Why, if you were her friends, did Kai not know you? How did you end up with her?” Tian was trying to rationalize. Before he could summarise how all these versions blended into one truth, he wanted the facts, the bigger picture. He knew there were always two sides to any story; the real one was somewhere in between. He liked to have a broad spectrum if he could find that.
He wanted to know why Ling was so adamant this was the truth if she didn’t come until after.
“Later?…” he coaxed her. Automatically questioning the pause.
Ling took a moment to calm the threatening tears and steady her raspy voice.
Tian’s expression froze at the unexpectedness of those words, and he blanched at Ling. Shocked at something he had never factored into this tale.
“She tried to kill herself?”
Tian balked and dropped his arms by his sides. Somehow, knowing Meilei took that extreme measure only added weight to what sounded like the truth. For a girl to have the kind of despair to go that far, she must have been suffering beyond his wildest imagination. Picturing her, and when he first laid eyes on her, he couldn’t imagine it.