I sat in my chair listening to them quietly, my eyes on her.

She had done so much for me, They both did. This is the least I can do for them.

 

the girl was pulled out of her thoughts when four heads turned to her direction. Blood rushed to her cheeks as she stared at them baffled.

 

"Our Hua lin hasn't spoke a word. Sweetie are you alright?" The old woman's concerned tone made her blush even more.

Her parents staring at her wide-eyed signaling her to answer the woman who sat across them with her 25 years old grandson, who stared at her adoring that blush for some reason.

She caught his stare and immediately shifted her eyes to His grandmother and started shaking. "I-I'm fine Mrs. Xi." She stuttered over her few words that she spoke. The woman pitied the young girl. However, she smiled warmly at her squeezing her hand which was placed on her lap to ease her. "Do not call me that, aren't we going to be a family soon? that's going to be nai nai for you."

 

Hua lin smiled back nodding when the waiter came with their orders. Her order was a dish that she chose randomly, since she's never been to such a restaurant. Heck! her parent's couldn't even afford a glass of water here.

 

Everyone started eating, exchanging small talks once in a while, praising the young man's choice of the restaurant.

Hua lin could only nibble her food, her mind is trying to absorb everything that happened at once.

 

She has always been the good girl that she was. Taking responsibility of her self at a young age, Doing her best to help her parents. After all, their financial state was getting worse in the past few years after her father was diagnosed with leukemia. His death was never easy for her and her mother. She forced herself to be strong for her mother. She had worked in so many jobs trying to help her mother.

Flash back:

 

"Hua lin ! what do you think you're doing? Volunteering huh?" She poked a finger to the girl's chest, she was holding herself back tryin so hard not to hit her.

"Don't make me laugh!" She was fuming by now. "Instead of earning money to feed your , you're wasting your time for nothing!"

Hua lin knew better then arguing her mother, since she was right after all. They were struggling at that time, the hospital kept asking for the rest of the un-paid fees, monthly rent, and the list goes on.

She started to lose her childish-cheeky self in this mess. She was missing her father, her mother was too. That's why all the never-ending scolds that she was receiving kept going more often after his death. She wanted to keep that special bond with her father on going. Especially in this time.

That's why she managed to free herself for two hours everyday and work in the orphanage near her neighborhood.

Her father used to take her there every Friday with him. It was the only place where all of her memories with him was kept safely. Their house was bankrupted along with everything.

"Don't tell me..." She wondered about the conclusion that her mom suddenly came up with"...You're trying to seduce some rich business man?" Her heart fell.

"Mother, do you think that I would such a thing?" She was taken aback with what her mother said next.

"Well I'm telling you it will never work, not when you look like this." She checked her from head to toe.

"You look like a 30 tear old single mother. Do you even see what girls your age look like? you're twenty for god's sake! look at yourself! is someone going to want to wake up to this every day? always stuck in that hair bun of yours, walking with your back hung like a seventy years old ?"

Hua lin held back her tears, her mother's harsh criticism stung her. But it's not like it's the firt time she'd heard it. "I have woken up two hours earlier and made up for those two hours at work and..."

"What? two hours earlier? so instead of making me something to eat you preferred to work? And people envy me for my daughter? they don't even know what kind of brat I'm living with. Tell you what sweetie, Kiss that place goodbye. I forbid you to ever lay a foot in there!"

Hua lin gasped, she knew that she was at fault but her mother had no right to forbid her from that place! It was the heaven that she'd run to whenever her mother would bring her down with those harsh remarks of hers. Only to appreciate her mother even more when she'd sit with the children, thanking god that she still had her mother, nothing else mattered.

Her broken voice didn't work on her mother, nor her streaming tears. "P-pleas! I will do everything as you asked. Just don't do this to me."

Her mother hook off her daughter's hand that gripped her wrist in begging matter, she knew why her daughter would go there.

"He left us nothing but loans and more loans, I don't understand why you're doing this." She whispered, holding back her tears.

"I want you to disappear from my sight at this moment, go prepare some food, I'm hungry." With that she left the house.

 

End of flash back
 

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What happened there? o.o

Updated for those who commented, looking for a beta reader btw.