Forced by fate – Destined to be his Wife

“Afternoon, Zhengy, what are you calling me for?” Rhea answered brightly, immediately on the second ring, and raised ZhengLi’s hopes briefly.

“Are you with Linlin and TangShi?” he got straight to the point. Too overwrought for niceties.

“Nope. I have a lunch with them next weekend but right now I am in London again. Busy working, what’s up?” Rhea was in the process of having her hair styled for a fashion shoot, sat with her feet propped up in a studio while being tended to by various assistants.

“Shit. It’s nothing. I just can’t get hold of them and need to. Don’t worry about it.” He looked up at the ceiling and pinched his nose, trying to curb his growing angst. A headache forming right at his temples.

“You sound stressed, what is it? Why do you need them? What’s going on?” Rhea’s own concern peaked, aware that ZhengLi sounded emotional which was weird for him and knowing of the two girls, TangShi would always answer. She had never been one to monitor or ignore calls. Rhea had always found her to be a fast answer or text responder in their days of hanging out.

“It’s nothing. I’m in a meeting and they went out for the day. Probably left their cells in the car or something.” He waved it off, acting like it was unimportant, not wanting her to be worried too and tried to sound upbeat.

“Call me back when you get hold of them. I’ll try too. You have me a little bit worried.” Rhea knew him well enough to sense he was trying to brush it off, but his tone had told her right off that he was genuinely concerned.

“It’s fine, don’t. I have to go. Have fun in London and we’ll catch up when you get back again.” ZhengLi didn’t hang around waiting for her to interrogate him further and disconnected the call before she said goodbye. Pacing again and trying Linlin’s phone even though he knew it was futile. He checked the time, scrolled his calls and messages to the first one he sent and felt stupid and obsessive when he released it had barely been an hour and twenty minutes. He felt weird for being this way and laughed at himself and shook his head. It was hardly to the stage of reporting them missing or having reason to think they had fallen off the planet.

“Love is making me crazy. This girl has me so messed up. What am I doing?” He walked to the nearest wall, backing against it and slumped as he blew out air and stared at his blank screen trying to rationalize. Maybe this was a fallout from their fight and he was being extra emotional because he felt guilty and it really was nothing. Yeah it was stupid to leave their protection behind, but in reality Cai was probably hiding in his art school. He knew he was keeping the whole marriage date thing from Linlin to stop her getting hurt and angry. Not wanting her to feel insecure or sad that his family wouldn’t see her as worthy and yet it was right there like a large black hole, consuming him and making him feel like he was cheating on her.

Her being mad and ignoring him was only adding to the weight that he was keeping a secret and he hated it. He’d always been an honest and straightforward type when it came to women, and this was the first time in his life he wanted to be with only one…. for however long she let him. He shouldn’t be hiding anything from her especially as he knew in his heart, Linlin was the one. He had fallen in love with her the first time she marched into his life with that stroppy, little sassy attitude, and scowling glare, in the parking lot of the family dinner and had only fallen deeper with every meeting. Somewhere along the journey he had become completely hopeless for her, even if sometimes he didn’t know how to express it or show her, and he had fucked things up with the whole Rong Cai thing.

“Any replies?” YuZhi appeared at his side, his tone tight and tense, startling him with his sudden appearance and glanced over YuZhi’s shoulder in wide eyed surprise.

“Ummm, meeting?” he raised his palm in question. Shocked YuZhi would walk out of something so important.

“It’s done. They agreed to the proposal right off. No hesitation. The contract signing is in two days once all parties read them over.” YuZhi was relieved it was so straight forward and pulled out his cell to try TangShi himself. It rang out and he narrowed his eyes at ZhengLi. “The driver, the guard?”

“They ditched them both. Do you know where they were going today?” ZhengLi questioned, watching YuZhi’s face turn grim and then fall in horror at that news. YuZhi immediately picking up his cell to try again, only this time with a furrowed brow and much more urgent manner.

ZhengLi knew there was no way TangShi would ignore his calls. These past few days they had both been glued to their phones, texting each other whenever they were apart. After breaking up they were back in that codependent and needy faze of staying together and in contact way more than necessary. Worse since they found out she was pregnant a couple of days ago and YuZhi was like an overbearing, overprotective prison guard, who fussed over her every movement.

YuZhi shook his head, scrolled his cell and pulled up the tech department manager of Leng group. Mind set on finding her now he knew this and no longer playing around. All his fears and doubts rising in one frenzied sweep.

“Hey, It’s YuZhi. Can you pinpoint a cell for me? I need a location right away, like now. I’ll text you the number.” YuZhi waited for the agreement and assurance they could trace it as long as it was on and sent him the number right away. His pallor pale and his heart rate rising to scary levels.

“Are we overreacting like two crazy stalker type boyfriends? It’s only been an hour and half since they lost contact.” ZhengLi asked in genuine confusion because this wasn’t how either of them ever acted.

“The fact we both feel like something is wrong is a huge neon sign for me. We’re not the types to have this kind of gut instinct without reason. I could strangle Tang for ditching the fucking guard. What the hell is she doing?” YuZhi hoped to god they were wrong but something told him they weren’t. ZhengLi could do nothing except try his cell again, nodding for YuZhi to follow him as the board room started to empty beside them and they headed for the exit at speed. Both men glued to their phones and endlessly trying their girlfriends numbers.

“If it turns out they were at something like a spa and we’re spam calling silent phones like crazy men, they will never let us live this down.” ZhengLi threw back drily, propping his phone under his chin.

“I’d rather be overprotective than ignore and regret it.” YuZhi frowned at getting her answer phone finally after ringing out and left her a brief message.

“Hey, babe, it’s me. Can you call me back pronto? I’m worried that you’re not okay and it’s making me a little crazy. Text if you can’t call, just respond… please, okay? I love you.” YuZhi hang up with reluctance and followed ZhengLi out into the main area of MinXo Corp then followed him to the elevator for the underground parking. Barely acknowledging the greetings from staff as they left as both were preoccupied in their own thoughts.

They stood quietly, texting, side by side as they made their way down to the basement floor and walked to the car in utter silence. Both engrossed in their cells, when YuZhi’s phone ringing broke the eerie quiet and he jumped.

“Hello?” He answered it without looking at the screen, in haste and desperation and then frowned at the voice of Mr. Lee the tech manager.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

“We have a location pretty easily. I will text the address to you. The cellphone doesn’t seem to be moving so your person will still be there, Mr. Leng.”

“Thank you. It’s much appreciated. Send it.” YuZhi hung up quickly and scrolled his phone as the incoming text beeped, showing him a map location with an accompanying address and he glanced up at ZhengLi in confusion.

“It’s practically here.” He pointed west, through the wall of the elevator and showed ZhengLi the screen. “That’s nearby right?” Showing the marked map of streets they passed in coming here and were basically a ten-minute drive away.

ZhengLi took it and nodded. Both men rushing out of the steel box and heading for the car in haste. Neither said a word as they jumped into ZhengLi’s four by four and he got them going to find the location pronto. The sooner they saw them with their own eyes and knew they were fine, the better.

“It’s by a lot of café’s. Maybe they left them in the car and we’re being stupid.” YuZhi was scrolling the location on the internet, pulling up street views to get a feel for the place and could see it was a popular area for small food shops and trendy boutiques that seemed like Linlin’s style. His nerves calming that maybe they really did just leave their cells on silent to eat or in the car to have a break. He did tell TangShi he would be incommunicado for two hours. Maybe she figured an hour or two without her cell wouldn’t do any harm. Somehow he felt better having the location and knowing it was nearby and explainable. Even if he was angry at her for being careless.

“Either way we will find them. I’m hungry, so worst case scenario, Linlin can buy me food.” ZhengLi too was less uptight at having a real place to go check for them and make sure all was okay. His tight and tense gut not really releasing but glad to be actively doing something. Hopeful that this was a dumb and pointless trip.

“Shouldn’t you be paying, seeing as you’re in the doghouse?” YuZhi pointed out, motioning down an alley for ZhengLi to turn as he followed directions on his map.

“I guess. Although for making me this stressed over something that seems like it’s nothing, that girl owes me big time. She has no idea how dependent on her I am and she can’t go off grid like this and make me worry about her.” ZhengLi admitted, honesty shining through, his stomach churning at the thought of anything ever happening to her.

“You’ve got it bad. Maybe you should think about taking her on marriage dates instead.” YuZhi pointed out with sarcasm, scanning the streets they passed for signs of Linlin’s car.

“Trust me, I’m working on it. You don’t just propose marriage to a wild playgirl like her without first preparing her for it. Linlin isn’t like other girls and marriage might make her run away if I spring it on her.”

“Wait, what? You’re seriously considering proposing?” YuZhi blanched at him in shock. “I thought this was just a mutually exclusive fun thing until you got bored.” He really was surprised. ZhengLi had sworn to never settle down and never get married in his life so it was hard to swallow this when he just came out with it so brazenly.

“I love her. I don’t think I’m capable of ever getting bored of her. I think I’m pretty much stuck for life, and I’m not exactly complaining. I don’t know what I would do if I lost her. My life wouldn’t recover if Linlin left for any reason…… those two weeks apart really screwed me up and I missed her like crazy, trying to figure out how to fix it.”

“You’re an idiot.” YuZhi prodded him in the shoulder, shaking his head at his best friend. “Don’t ever let my love issues fuck with yours again. I don’t need that kind of loyalty and it’s no wonder she feels insecure. You have to try harder or you will lose her.”

“I know, okay. Can we just focus on finding them and you can lecture me later? I don’t think this horrible feeling will subside until that sulky little diva glares at me face to face.”