Hadn’t he seen it for himself?
When he received Yuelin’s voice note, he heard her scream and ran across the garden where his family was crowding.
His sister’s lifeless body was on the concrete at the bottom of the stairs, her eyes open wide, devoid of light, and gazing upwards at where she had fallen from as though accusing a monster even in death.
Holding her back from what she had done, and she wasn’t fighting him.
He blinked it out of his head, pain spiking through him, making his entire body flinch in painful response like jerking out of a terrifying nightmare as he shoved it away.
His cell lit up as Qian’s name appeared in his text box.
Meilei was pacing the entrance foyer in a brisk and near hysterical manner. Even though her tears were still flowing, rolling down her face in a waterfall sheet of sadness, her expression was that of undiluted anger, and she was in a weird sense of numbness and rage. Working herself up, the longer it took for him to arrive.
Not really crying, yet utterly silently sobbing. Her mind raced at a hundred miles an hour to match her erratic breathing and excessive heart rate as she thought through every possible scenario from this.
She didn’t know if she should trust him saying he would take her to Yue, but she had no option but to wait for him. She had no doubts no one would let her in without his presence, no matter what they said. She was working herself into high levels of resentment and volcanic fury because they dared to do this. The more it turned over in her mind, the thought of her scared baby asking for her and needing her fuelled her wrath.
She wouldn’t take this lying down; if she had to fight him every step of the way, she would. She had never been one to stand up and throw herself into the fire, but for Yuelin, she would.
“Meilei?” As he walked into the low-lit doorway, darkness framing him from behind, Kai’s voice snapped her into aggressive action, like a bull seeing red at the mere hint of a human. All rational thought left her in the blink of an eye.
She turned and marched at him, closing the gap between them at speed. With all the inner bustling energy of a mother close to an explosion, she shoved him hard with two flat palms to the pecks that sent him reeling backward. Shock enveloped his face with the impact of her hard thwack that she would have this kind of outburst as he stumbled and caught the door edge behind him. Righting himself on his feet and too stunned to react. Meilei came at him with thunderous fury.
Meilei was explosive and rarely swore, but she was close to ripping his head off.
Kai righted himself properly, slightly winded at a version of her had never met, and dodged as she aimed another forceful shove. Not done with her aggressive tirade. He caught her wrist and spun her so her back ended up facing his way, capturing her in a deadlock grip instead. Wrapping his arms around her to hold her tight and crossing her own hands over her chest. It was the only way he figured he could diffuse this before she started beating him with her fists. She seemed like it would escalate to that.
Wandering staff looked their way, and Kai pulled her back outside with him to avoid a scene. Dragging her into the dark night air, which was cold for the hour, hoping it would help cool her rage. Struggling to keep hold of her while she butted and jerked and wriggled to get him off.
“Enough!” Kai jerked her hard down onto her feet more angrily than he intended, shocking her into breathless stillness. The harsh maneuver of a man about to lose his shit put her in her place. He pushed his cheek against the side of her head to hold her still while he tightened his grip and held her in a less fierce way to try and help soothe her outburst. It was more of a hug, although it still kept her immobile.
Her outburst was short-lived due to her already exhausted body and her last half hour of crying herself into this mess.
Meilei had been abruptly knocked back to sense and calm and instead sniffed and gulped at the air to try and reel it all back in. Her tornado-type rage, fuelled by the sight of him, dispersed as quickly as it began, and she cried softly. Her body went limp. Feeling useless and weak with how easily he overpowered her. Held in his arms for the first time in so many years, and it was both familiar and agonizing.
That was enough to ice her fire, and his hug broke her up inside at the familiar feel of him. It felt like a cruel punishment, worse than having him verbally scream at her. Her fight completely died.
Every second of holding her reminded him of five years of debilitating heartache, and he let her go without waiting on an answer. Suffocating with her proximity and unable to stand touching her a second longer once his focus was no longer on keeping her from flying at him. He released her as though she burned him.
Stepping away to put distance between them as she slumped into her weight, he turned his face away to pull back any visual expression of his inner pain. To regain control of the spiraling, confusing feelings it stirred up. Pushing it all away and trying to rid the sensation of her from his arms.
Kai tried to ignore her obvious despair and how her weirdly immature mannerisms hit him in the stomach with a low ache. Even though they were no longer kids, she hadn’t lost that childlike behavior that he used to love, and it hurt him to see that she could revert to that person he once fiercely wanted to protect.
Meilei spun on him with wide eyes, disbelief, anger spreading across her face, and the word liar poised on her lips. Kai didn’t need a translation of the look because it mirrored his feelings.
“Why did she do this?.. What did she hope to gain?” They both knew who was at the root of this, even without him saying it first. Kai was hoping Meilei could separate him from the equation so that this wouldn’t affect his access to Yuelin.
Meilei followed him with small, unsure steps, trying to expand her lungs and cool herself down. Trying to rationalize and believe that he intended to fix this even if her heart was still churning up in torn disbelief. She was starting to believe he hadn’t been involved, but Xuchen was one unit to her, and all of them were enemies.
Kai paused, so she almost walked into the back of him and sighed heavily.