If the Deep Sea Forgets You

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The meeting about signing the contract with that multi-national corporation went smoother than he had expected. Both parties had been communicating for a week when he had finished settling the complete document. He had traveled overseas to do the handover of the work to the staff of the legal department of the other party and to understand better about how their company usually worked, together with a few other lawyers from the law firm. They had signed the contract with a two-year duration on the last day.

What he did not expect was to see Xia Qingyi waving at him from afar at the airport on the day he flew back.

Mo Han walked towards her, with a few other lawyers that had gone on the trip next to him.

"Why are you here?"

"To pick you up from the airport." Xia Qingyi laughed.

A few of the lawyers next to him were previously recruited from outside by Mo Han, and had never seen Mo Han's younger sister. They were a little distracted when they saw a girl smiling prettily suddenly appearing in front of them, and they looked at Mo Han.

Mo Han introduced her to them. "This is my younger sister."

"Oh! So this is the younger sister of yours that I always hear people in the law firm mentioning! It's definitely better seeing you than hearing about you!"

Xia Qingyi glanced at Mo Han before she waved at him while smiling. She said a soft, "Hi."

Mo Han said, "Did I tell you the rough time of when I'm coming back?"

"I found out after asking Liu Zhiyuan what time you'd be back."

"When did you arrive?"

"Hm… not long ago. I've only waited for a while." Xia Qingyi asked, "Can I go to your law firm directly later? I don't have classes and I feel really bored alone."

The lawyers standing next to Mo Han watched as they chatted happily and kept smiling.

Mo Han said, "It's still the same old rules. Don't cause trouble and don't disturb them from working."

"Okay… okay… I know your same old rules." Xia Qingyi said.

After they had returned to the law firm, many people in the law firm were very surprised when they saw that Xia Qingyi had come. It had been about two months without seeing her at the law firm if they had been counting. For a very long time in the past, Xia Qingyi would always come here directly after school. She would occasionally do her homework, read books or play with her mobile phone in Mo Han's office as she waited for Mo Han to get off work and go back home with him.

Xiao Zhang, who worked at the front desk, had sparkles in her eyes when he saw Xia Qingyi. She quickly greeted Barrister Mo before she pulled Xia Qingyi to ask her about many things.

Xia Qingyi was very happy too as she sat there and chatted with her for a long time. The most they had said was. "During the period when you just stopped coming, Boss worked until very late every night. He didn't even leave any free time for himself." It had even made her think that Xia Qingyi had fought with her boss.

Xia Qingyi merely shook her head with a smile as she said that she had gone on a trip because something had happened at home during that period and she had only just returned a while ago.

When it was nearly 5 P.M, Xia Qingyi was still chatting with the people she knew in the law firm when Mo Han walked out from his office and said, "We'll end work early tonight. I'm treating everyone to a meal."

The people in the law firm suddenly howled crazily as the room filled with cheers.

The staff next to Xia Qingyi touched her shoulders and said, "Look! You didn't believe me when I said that good things will happen to our law firm whenever you come."

She laughed amongst the crowd, amongst the cheers and other things.

From a distance away, she saw Mo Han.

That man who was also smiling and looked handsome and spirited in his suit.

It seemed as though there was no more sound from everything around her.

She saw him walking towards her.

"Let's go? Didn't you say that you wanted to eat with us?" Mo Han asked.

Xia Qingyi looked at him. "Let's go."

Mo Han had made a reservation at a restaurant that had a very artistic style. There were about 30 people from the law firm and they were separated into two long tables in a big room, yet it did not seem squeezed at all.

It might have been due to the fact that it had been a while since they had a group gathering, as the people eating at the table were all very excited. Compared to them, Mo Han really seemed like he was in a different world as he merely watched them talk quietly while looking down to eat occasionally. However, Xia Qingyi, who was sitting next to him, kept chatting nonstop with one of the female colleagues that was sitting next to her.

In the mean time, a new lawyer in the law firm who was sitting opposite of Xia Qingyi kept covering his mouth and laughing like an idiot. His eyes never left her as his heart itched to do something. Mustering all the courage he had, he picked up a wine glass, wanting to get closer to her, "Mei Mei [1. Mei Mei is the same term as younger sister, though it can be used to address a younger female who is unknown or not close with you], do you want to drink?"

Xia Qingyi was still chatting with the person next to her when she suddenly heard a stranger from the opposite side suddenly call her like this. She froze a little and did not answer as Mo Han, who was next to her, said before she could reply, "She doesn't drink. I'll have her drink."

Xia Qingyi looked at Mo Han. He had already stood up and taken that glass of wine as he finished it in one go.

Liu Zhiyuan, who was sitting at the long table, had heard the commotion over here as he shouted from afar, "Mo Han's younger sister really can't drink. She acted weirdly after she drank a glass of alcohol last time. It was so funny that we nearly died laughing."

There were others at the long table that had gone for the gathering that time and had remembered what had happened after hearing Liu Zhiyuan's words. They all started to snicker. "I know… you can't really blame this on her… with so little alcohol, she got so drunk that she was not the same afterwards."

Xia Qingyi was the only one who looked at the people around her with a confused face before she looked at Mo Han and asked him quietly, "What did I do after I got drunk that day?"

"Nothing much, you just acted a little crazy."

"What kind of craziness? Why can't I remember anything?"

"That was why I'd told you not to drink any alcohol outside and just tell others that you're allergic to alcohol."

"Then tell me how I acted crazy? I'm panicking because I don't know anything."

Mo Han turned to look at her as he smiled. "Think about it yourself slowly."

Xia Qingyi rolled her eyes at him as she turned to stop speaking to him.

Halfway through the meal, Mo Han had to pick up a phone call that seemed to be something related to work. He left the long table to speak on the phone outside of the room. After Mo Han had left, the female colleague sitting next to Xia Qingyi suddenly spoke to her quietly, "Hey, do you want to know what you did after you drank alcohol the previous time?"

Xia Qingyi looked at her. "What did I do?"

"You'd kissed our boss, the lip to lip type." the female colleague opened her mouth wide to tell her, even though her voice was incredibly soft.

Xia Qingyi sucked in a breath, "Are you kidding me?!"

"How can I be kidding? What I said is real!"

"Impossible! Why don't I have any recollection of it?" Xia Qingyi did not dare to believe it.

"I still have the photo! Even though it's not the one with you kissing him, but it's about the same." the female colleague took out her mobile phone excitedly to find the photo she had taken that day.

It was a photo of Mo Han half hugging and half carrying her. Xia Qingyi could see that she was almost leaning in Mo Han's embrace. Mo Han had an annoyed expression on his face while his body was also leaning backwards. He only had a hand around her waist to prevent her from falling on the floor.

Xia Qingyi could feel her soul flying away in shock from the photo. She still did not dare to believe such a frightening thing as she kept sitting there blankly and stared at the phone.

"You didn't kiss Barrister Mo only that day. You also kissed Barrister Zhang sitting next to you." She pointed to a man who was drinking at the long table and said, "There… that person is Barrister Zhang."

"If Barrister Mo hadn't stopped you, you would have probably kissed all of us in the room." she said again.

Xia Qingyi was completely speechless.

"Hey… it's actually not much of a big deal. We more or less all do stupid things when we're drunk." The female colleague said to comfort her after seeing that she had been shocked by it.

"Mo Han… my older brother… did he say anything?" Xia Qingyi asked.

"What could he say? He was also scared stiff, alright? Do you know what you were doing before you kissed him? … You were counting over there, and we were all puzzled about why you were counting. In the end, when you'd counted to three, you kissed him. You didn't even see Barrister Mo's expression, he was completely blank."

Just as they were still chatting, Mo Han had returned from outside after ending the call. Xia Qingyi hurriedly sat straight and stopped talking to the female colleague next to her as she stared at the food in front of her.

Mo Han had not noticed her movement as he sat back on his seat. He glanced at her once before he picked up his chopsticks to eat. Xia Qingyi did not dare to look at him. She drank a cup of water in front of her to hide her guilt, though she ended up choking on the water, having drunk it too quickly. The water spilled all over her as she coughed nonstop.

Mo Han patted her back. "What are you thinking of? You're so impatient even though it's just drinking water."

Xia Qingyi waved her hand as her face turned red. She was starting to get relief from her coughing as she indicated for him to stop patting her.

The more he touched her, the more she would think about what the female colleague next to her had told her earlier. If there was nothing between them, she would not think too much about it. But Mo Han had just kissed her two days ago, and that made everything more complicated.

She had never understood why Mo Han had fallen for her in the past, though now that she had found out about kissing Mo Han a long time ago, she could faintly guess a bit. It was probably then that Mo Han had stopped seeing their relationship as a normal sibling one.

Now that she thought about it, it was her who had first killed off the sibling relationship.

Xia Qingyi's heart shivered once at this thought. She could feel all of her goosebumps standing up, which made her suddenly wake up from the sleepiness that she had gotten from the food.

When the meal was ending, Mo Han went to the front desk to settle the bill alone. Xia Qingyi felt too stuffy in the room after he had left. She went to the corridor outside of the room and paced around. Her head was still a little hazy as she relaxed and leaned against the wall. She squatted down. Her hand fell on the floor and she started to trace circles nonstop on the floor with her finger.

"Why did you come out?" Mo Han saw Xia Qingyi squatting down on the floor with her head down when he returned from the front desk. He did not know what she was doing.

Xia Qingyi looked up to glance at him once before she looked down again as she continued to squat instead of standing up.

Mo Han walked next to her. He squatted down as well and asked her, "What's wrong? Are you unhappy?"

Xia Qingyi lifted her head and looked straight into his eyes. She wanted to open her mouth to speak, though she did not know where to start from.

"You didn't drink again, did you?" Mo Han suddenly thought of it at the sight of her unusually red face, as he stretched his hand out to touch her red face.