Chapter 1041 A Little Bit of Love
After drying Little Jun, Jiang Ying Yue carried her son to his colourful bedroom and dressed him in the new pyjama set that Grandpa Lu bought for him. The old man often showered the toddler with presents. Jiang Ying Yue was helpless about it.
It wasn't only Grandpa Lu who bought presents for her son. Almost everyone did. The household staff would sneak treats to Little Jun on a regular basis. It was fortunate that Little Jun inherited her body type and converted most of everything he ate into strength and energy instead of pure fat.
Her son was already starting to display an above average level of strength compared to kids his age. This prompted her to begin teaching him to be gentle as much as possible so as not to hurt anybody including himself. Now that Iris was pregnant and said pregnancy had made her even more delicate, Jiang Ying Yue would always remind her energetic son to take it easy around his Mama Xiulan. So far, Little Jun always listened to her.
Her son was a good child and she was so proud of him. Most importantly, she was also immensely grateful to the many people who loved him.
"Meow!"
Jiang Ying Yue glanced at the slightly open door. Popcorn trotted inside the bedroom and landed on the bed and began playing with Little Jun. It was only about five minutes later that Ice Cream arrived when Little Jun was already fully dressed in his cute and fluffy panda pyjamas. As usual, the fat grey cat huffed and puffed while dragging her round body across the floor before leaping to the bed with a loud thump.
"Popkohn! Ash Kweem!" (Popcorn! Ice Cream!)
Jiang Ying Yue smiled at the three wrestling on the bed. Well, only Little Jun and Popcorn were rolling around while Ice Cream curled on top of a pillow watching the other two with clear annoyance.
After reading them a bedtime story, Little Jun was fast asleep along with his two cat cousins. Jiang Ying Yue carefully extricated herself from her son's embrace. She planned on taking a shower in her own room and returning to her son's room to sleep together with the three cousins. She kissed her son's forehead and headed out, careful to keep quiet as much as possible.
While she was in the hallway, her phone vibrated indicating a call. Her heart leaped after seeing the call display. However, she didn't notice what her heart did. Or more specifically, she pretended not to notice.
She answered the call. "Hello?"
"Good evening."
"Good eve—," she cleared her throat, "Good evening, Mr. Lin."
"Please call me Yehan. I already told you this before."
"Ah. Y-yes. Mr. Y-yehan…."
There was a soft sigh on the other end of the line but Jiang Ying Yue could almost see the man's gentle smile. "I guess that would suffice for now, Ying Yue."
She felt heat spreading all over her face and neck. She quickly ducked her head, attempting to hide her blushing face from her colleagues patrolling the mansion and any staff walking in the hallways at this time.
"Is that too forward of me?" Lin Yehan asked, his tone as gentle as always.
"Uhm…."
"I guess it is. I apologize. Alright, how about I call you Miss Ying Yue instead to match how you're calling me as Mr. Yehan?"
"Uh…that's okay, I guess."
"Perfect!"
Jiang Ying Yue didn't know how to respond. Fortunately, she didn't need to because Lin Yehan continued speaking.
"Calling each other Mr. Lin and Miss Jiang is too formal and distant. We're considered friends now, aren't we? No, we're actually closer than friends—"
Her eyes widened. What did he mean that they were closer than friends?!
"—because of Third Brother Liwei and Third Sister-in-law Xiulan, our relationship should be more like somewhere between friends and family. Little Jun also considers me as an uncle."
Oh. So that was what he meant.
She pressed a hand on her chest to calm her suddenly racing heart. What the heck was wrong with her, getting excited for no reason?
'Get a hold of yourself, Ying Yue!'
She cleared her throat and asked, "Mr. Lin—I mean Mr. Y-yehan, why did you call me? Is there something that, uhm, I can help you with?"
"Oh, right. I was getting to that but got distracted." He chuckled. "I know it's a bit late already—"
"No! Not at all!" she said in a hurry. "I mean, uh, it's not late for me. Actually, it's still early. You're not disturbing me or anything like that…uhm, so yeah…."
'Stop babbling and embarrassing yourself, Ying Yue!" she scolded herself.
"I see. It's good that I'm not disturbing you." She heard Lin Yehan take a few breaths before telling her, "I called because…." He paused and sighed.
His obvious hesitation made her nervous. This time, she didn't babble out of nervousness and stayed silent to wait for what he had to say.
"Miss Ying Yue, what I'm about to say might upset you but I believe that it's your right to know. That's why I called even at this hour."
She continued to wait in silence.
Finally, he told her the reason. "The defamation lawsuit that I filed against Long Hui has now been assigned a date for its first court hearing. It's next week. I'll send you the details if you're interested."
Jiang Ying Yue froze upon hearing her ex's name.
"I heard that President Long Tengfei sent Long Hui far away in a remote place but the hearing will still continue even without his presence. I just want to let you know that I intend to pursue this lawsuit no matter what because I find what he did not only to me but most importantly to you extremely unacceptable."
The memories of the character assassination that Long Hui did to both her and Lin Yehan in public flooded her mind. Tears sprang in her eyes but she forced them back, not allowing them to fall. She already cried so much because of Long Hui. Too much. The man didn't deserve any more of her tears.
Her silence must have made Lin Yehan assume that she still had misgivings about the lawsuit against Long Hui. "I'm really sorry if this is upsetting you. It's understandable given that he's the father of your child but…." He sighed again. "I need to be honest with you about my stance in this case. I can't forgive what he did to you…to both of us. No, it wasn't only the two of us who were dragged through the mud so publicly. As he's both your child, Little Jun will always be involved in this mess no matter how hard we protect him. The attacks on Third Sister-in-law Xiulan and Third Brother Liwei have also been very vicious because they have obviously taken your side since the beginning instead of Long Hui who's Xiulan's blood brother."
"I know." Her voice was a whisper.
Lin Yehan waited for her to say more but she didn't.
"So what I wanted to say is," he said after the moment of silence, "I'm not going to withdraw this lawsuit even if you—"
"Go ahead."
"—ask me to—huh?"
"I said go ahead, Lin Yehan." Determination flashed in her eyes. Her posture also became straighter even as she gripped her phone tighter. It was a good thing that her phone was provided by Iris and it was virtually indestructible. If not, it would already have been cracked and damaged by her pure strength alone.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Alright, Jiang Ying Yue." He sounded happy as he followed her example and called her full name after she called his full name. Although it was still obviously more formal than just calling Ying Yue and Yehan, at least the formal addresses Mr. and Miss were dropped, creating more closeness between them.
Jiang Ying Yue didn't notice any of this because she was too preoccupied battling her complicated emotions. No matter how hard she tried to brainwash herself to stop loving Long Hui, she couldn't deny that there was still a little bit of love left for him.
But that was about it.
A little bit of love.
Long Hui already killed most of the love she had for him with all the hurt he had caused her.
"Lin Yehan."
"Yes, Jiang Ying Yue?"
"Please keep me posted about the lawsuit."
"Of course."
They didn't keep talking for too long after this.
"Good night, Jiang Ying Yue."
"Good night, Lin Yehan."
The call ended.
It was only then that she realized the change in how they addressed each other. Shyness swept away all the negative emotions roiling inside her. Heat spread on her face and neck again. She knew that she was red as a tomato right now.