My Husband is the Emperor : I Woke Up With a Husband

It was strange. Something about the man hooked Li Lian in a strange way that she couldn’t name what was wrong with her. But she indeed find it enjoyable beside him because he wasn’t one of those men who would use the chance to harass a woman, in which, she had faced many times throughout her life.

Her black eyes continue to shadow the man’s silhouette until his head seemed to move from the faint moving shadow and she realized that she had been staring him more than necessary. Pulling her eyes away, she cleared her throat, "So, why are you here? I doubt those girls caught you here too, right?"

"I was here to meet someone," answered the man and Li Lian hummed, she wondered if she could ask more or if it was intrusive but the man continued as if knowing her polite hesitation. "It was the son of someone who is working under my company."

"Company?" Li Lian asked, sensing the man’s silence, "I thought you were younger; your voice sounds youthful."

A breeze-like chuckle brushed her skin even with the distance where a body could lay between them, Li Lian find herself minding every little breaths or sound that came from him and it had her wonder if this was the side effect of losing her sight in the darkness?

"Did I say something wrong?" Only know did she knew how difficult it is to find other’s intentions behind their words without peering their expression.

"No; I was wondering if you thought that everyone who have a company is an old man?" Oh no, did she sound like that? "If you are, I should betray your ideal then. I am still twenty three."

"I see... I am twenty two," answered Li Lian, schooling herself for being judgementful. "I don’t mean to say that everyone who had a company under are old. It’s just that I form some kind of image in my mind when talking to you and it just came unexpected..." Li Lian closed her eyes, what was this explanation? "Anyway, I was-"

"Tell me about that imagination," asked the man whose voice bloomed with more curiosity. "Did you imagine how I would look like?"

"Well... a little?" Was it wrong?

"How do I look?" The man’s voice was like a carrot and Li Lian felt like a rabbit who had been enticed by it that she can’t help but wonder what to say rather than rejecting to tell him when she had plenty of chances and right to do so.

"Youthful?"

"And?"

"Handsome, still in early twenties," which was right but Li Lian who wasn’t able to see him didn’t know of it, she could only feel the man’s body shake with chuckles. "You laugh a lot," she pointed.

"I was thinking how kind of you to label me as a handsome man when you don’t see me. It would be upsetting if I betray your expectation by appearing less handsome than your imagination," the man’s reply was smooth, "Also, you might be surprised but I am someone who rarely smile. That part of me often worry my grandmother. I wondered once whether I am defective."

"Defective? You are not a robot," Li Lian left a light chuckle as the man’s reply came as naive to her. "As long as you are happy, I guess laughing less is normal. No one is defective in this world; we just have things we can’t do and things we could do. My grandfather often tell me that each people shines on their own method. Just like how stones shone from different polishing method. Maybe you have something better in you than laughing."

"Like crying?" The man joked.

"I was going for other things than crying... and worrying the elders is often the younger generation’s walk of life. If you look at it in a brighter side, we might have entertain our grandparents by keeping them busy with us," at the end of her words, Li Lian can’t help but chuckle. "But tell me, why are you here?"

"I thought I told you what I came for already?" He asked but saw her shake her head.

"I mean why here— in this dark place where no one is here? It’s lonely without anyone’s company, right?" she asked and silence ensued. Like a drop of water fell on a still water, waves of tension appeared on the room that Li Lian could feel even though she wasn’t so sure of it.

"Lonely, maybe I was," the man’s reply broke the tension and Li Lian felt relieved. She was locked in the room for who knows how long it would be and she wouldn’t want to have create a friction that had the possibility to snowball into something worse than a bicker.

"If I am not too intrusive," drawled Li Lian.

"You are not," the man answered kindly.

"Why were you lonely?" asked Li Lian, wanting to know and maybe helped this man. Now that she thought about it again, he had been the one to lock himself inside the emergency staircase, unlike her who was locked as if it was his idea to lock himself inside to stop others from coming to him which she could sense how lonely it must have.

"I can’t tell," came a toneless chuckle from him as if not to dampen her mood. "At one point I want to be alone and I found myself here. I just heard about few things that make me asked myself questions. Is it strange that I feel lonely without knowing why?"

"Loneliness wasn’t a choice either, maybe you have never asked yourself questions which why you don’t know why you are feeling lonely," the man didn’t reply and she said, "What’s the last thing that make you cry?"

The answer should be the easiest but for some reason the man’s reply was slow almost as if he was pulling the deepest part of his memory that he couldn’t remember. "It must be since my parent’s death. Almost a decade soon."

A chord struck Li Lian’s throat when she heard the man’s word when she didn’t speak due to the sudden loss of words, it was him who spoke, "Surprised?"