“How are your grades?”

“Anything new that reached your ears?”

If she have the ability to transport at any place at the moment, Ningning would definitely prefer to be inside a stinking trashcan right now than to be at the table sitting in front of her parents. How could anyone have the energy to eat if that’s all you’d hear from your parents? Any fast food menu is better than this so called home cooked dinner.

The only reason she shows up at their dinner table is because she surely knows that her parents more so her Mom would be knocking at her door to ask her a series of questions which she literally ask her every single day. She just rephrases them and uses slightly different words.

Ningning stops midway into cutting the meat on her plate before answering, “Grades are good. It’s the same old story in the university.” She answered automatically. A routine response that have built up from years of sitting down with her parents at every meal. Her parents nodded in understanding before asking, “How is the Kim’s daughter? Is she your friend yet? Any news about her?”

KIM. KIM. KIM. That is what they really care about. Heck they ask about her more often than their own daughter’s whereabouts and condition. A younger Yizhou would be near to crying if she’d hear those questions for yet another seat at the dinner table but this Yizhou have endured years with these type of questions, this type of treatment from her parents. She have grown accustomed to it. She now knows better.

“You know her. She isn’t the type to make friends. She mostly keeps to herself.” Ningning answered before chewing her food which now seems tougher to the mouth. Her food have gone cold from the picking that she did earlier when she found the pieces of meat on her plate more interesting than the words that are coming out of her parents mouth.

BUSINESS, MERGING, STOCKS, ACCESS, THE KIMS, OPPORTUNITIES, HIT, BOOST, RISE. Those words never ceased to ring in her ears whenever she’s with her parents. It used to drive her mad but as she aged she learned to ignore them. Because for someone who never really had any interest in the business field, Ningning adapted quite well to her environment. She learned about investments, legalities and properties in an early age. A student on her third year on a business course and already have a sustainable cashflow and full control over it, her name is Ning Yizhou.

For the most part she never had a choice but to follow the business path settled for her by her parents. Aside from an older brother, it is just her who’s gonna be left with their business and investments. She is what she would like to call herself, the plan B. She knows too well that she isn’t really going to inherit anything, all of their so called riches would be turned in to her brother. And that works perfectly fine for her.

She never liked the business and the minute details that come with it anyway. She never liked the long boring talks and the dull faces of men and women inside a conference room arguing over numbers which only benefitted themselves.

She always have leaned on towards art and clothes. If only she had a choice she’d disobeyed her parents’ orders and went on to pursue the course that she liked. But she couldn’t. She knows they’d cut off her cards and any form of financial support so she’ll have no choice but to turn back to her parents anyway. It’s not like she knows how to do any type of labor for starters. So no, she didn’t have that typical life that a protagonist have in a movie which is to runaway from home and find an