She had to keep the ball rolling herself, especially when she discovered that tempers were at an all-time high, or low depending on the person. Just like that, she had spent the entire day outside the office, putting out little fires and making sure things didn’t unravel too far.

The only highlight to her day was when Ying Sheng had come in to visit her. She seemed very happy and Yan Mei was proud of her. They talked about her relationship with Liam and school. It seems Liam was really her soulmate.

Ying Sheng had refused lunch in favour of light snacks, something Yan Mei had been quietly grateful for. The anxiety fueled nausea had not abated, In fact Yan Mei felt as if she was coming down with something, her whole body schedule and she couldn’t even blame it in the accident she had a few days ago.

She could, however, blame her sleeplessness and excessive tiredness on that but the excuse was wearing thin. She had functioned fine for the past three years despite battling nightmares, she didn’t understand the sudden change.

But she had quickly set those worries aside in favour of talking with her favourite cousin-in-law. Ying Sheng had a biting humor that only revealed itself to those she was comfortable with, Yan Mei had just the same temperament and it was no surprise that they were both in stitches as her visitor recounted a recent date.

The visit had been one full hour of laughter and banter until Ying Sheng had said her goodbyes promising to visit soon but not before Yan Mei had extracted a promise from her to visit more often.

The easy joy of that visit had stayed with her through the day as she dealt with problems that reared their heads at the worst possible moments. In that whirlwind, she’d forgotten lunch and rest in her mad rush and as a consequence was groggy, hungry and her skin felt thick with dry sweat she wasn’t sure what had the energy to wash off.

Yan Mei opened the door and looked around, the house seemed oddly forlorn and empty in a disconcerting. It could have been because the hallway lights were off, something that had never happened before.

Even if the bulb had shorted, the eagle-eyed housekeeper would have caught it by now and called the electrician. Yan Mei shrugged and moved to deposit her handbag on a table before bending down to remove her shoes and picked them up, heading straight for her room.

She wanted nothing more than to bath, eat a hearty meal and curl into her husband’s warmth for a night of sleep, she was so exhausted she didn’t think she had enough energy for nightmares. The thought should have been comforting but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

The empty feeling was starting to feel a bit eerie, a small tingle of foreboding simmering down her spine. She knew Lei Zhao should be home by now, even if he was staying late, he would have called to inform her; that was when she realized that he had not called her for the whole day.

Yan Mei debated getting her phone out and calling him as she rounded the corner into the living room. She looked up, puzzled at the prickling of her skin to see two yellow eyes floating in midair, focused on her.

The fear rose suddenly like a punch rising out of her and erupting into a shrill scream as she tried to move away, escape from those eyes that looked unnatural and malevolent.

She bit down on her lips but the shrill scream was still vibrating in the air around them. The click of a switch brought warm natural light flooding into the room and illuminating her would-be assailant.

”Jeez Yue Yan , you scared me!” Her voice remained shrill with excess adrenaline coursing through her veins

”Oh,” the exclamation was a tepid response to her outburst no matter how she looked at it. Yan Mei looked, really looked into those eyes that still had an amber cast and were looking at her with a level of apathy that was scary.

”Are you alright?” She asked, genuinely puzzled at Yue Yan’s strange demeanor, but her house guest just watched her for the longest time. The last time she had accosted her when she head just returned from work, they had enjoyed a heart to heart conversation between the two of them but somehow she doubted her intentions were quite genial, she had hand those doubts fro quite a while now

A smile flickered across her face and was gonna in a matter of minutes, if she hadn’t been looking right at her, she would have missed it. As it was, the expression did nothing to reassure her, in fact, the look had been filled with cruel amusement, so was the reply she received “I’m perfectly fine, happy even”

That was when Yan Mei realized she was still shaking, her initial fear hadn’t left her at all, somehow it had mounted until the shoes in her hands were vibrating against each other. That was when she noticed that the goosebumps prickling her skin felt like lightning arcs, sensitizing her body and making her hyper-aware of her surroundings so much that her body was tense for flight….or a fight.

She tried to master what she believed was an irrational response to exhaustion, a minor fright in the dark, and the moods of a depressed house guest. “Had a good day?” Immediately she said it, she regretted it, she saw a smirk swim into Yue Yan’s face, a condescending smirk that made her feel grossly inadequate.

”The best, I was able to make a lot of things happen, executing a good part of my plans.” The reply made her even more foolish because she was aware of the heavy undertones in the room around them, even an idiot wouldn’t miss that.