Her bath lasted approximately half an hour before she finally felt clean again.
When she walked out wrapped in a towel, her mother was sitting on the sofa and talking on the phone as she wiped away tears. “I never expected something like this to happen. Zhou is really unlucky; right now, he is still in the intensive care unit. The doctors said that he has to be under observation for 48 hours…” Crying as she spoke, she saw Yan come out of the bathroom from the corner of her eye. Then, she hurriedly continued, “Anyway, I have something going on here; talk to you later.”
Hanging up the phone and wiping away her tears, she walked toward Yan. She stood in front of Yan, then carefully sized her up. The sorrowful expression she had from before was nowhere in sight.
Yan did not find it strange; it was not that her mother did not care for her father. She cried because she was truly feeling sad, but now she did not show any signs of being upset because she did not want to let her emotions carry into the time she spent with Yan. Her mother had always been a person who distinguished between her emotions clearly—it might be cloudy and overcast in one moment, and bright and sunny in the next. Thus, the years passed peacefully.
In the past, Yan had been brought up according to her mother’s beliefs and mottos, but… in the end, she still got trapped in the palm of a man. She was afraid of letting her mother find out about it; if her mother knew, she would be ridiculed for the rest of her life.
“At least you look decent now. What was with that appearance before? If the old man guarding the entrance downstairs didn’t know better, he would have thought I had kindly taken in a beggar.”
“Mom… we haven’t met for so long; can you not ridicule me from the moment we meet?”
Luo Huimei blinked innocently. “What? I’ve never made fun of you over the phone before. We haven’t met in so long; are you unhappy just because I said a few words to you?”
“Nope!” Walking toward her room with a wooden expression, she wanted to put on her clothes. When she opened her closet and saw the clothes kept neatly there, she nearly fainted. The clothes she thought looked good five years ago now looked immensely childish and immature. In an instant, she could think of nothing to say as she slammed the closet door shut with a bang.
Luo Huimei, who had walked in with her and saw the entire thing, couldn’t help retorting, “What’s the matter? Are you not going to wear any clothes? Do you want to walk around naked?” Then, she noticed her daughter staring at her; the gaze made her slightly uncomfortable. “Why are you looking at me?”
“Mom, I realized that your clothes look better than mine. Can you lend me something to wear?”
“Are you crazy? Why is a young girl like you wearing an old lady’s clothes?”
“Old lady?” Yan rolled her eyes. Her mother was not that old; besides, she had a baby face and liked to act cute. Hence, her clothes were very fashionable, though it was a little different in style from what Yan normally wore. However, Yan believed that it was still better than the childish clothes in her closet. Moreover, she had decided that she was going to start over today. In the future, she would not be sad, much less shed a single tear over a man. If I feel sad or cry over a man again, I’d be the ugliest and fattest pig in the entire world!
Starting over must begin with a change. Firstly, it would start with her dress sense; she wanted to get rid of her childish and immature clothes. She was going to be a mature woman in both appearance and mind! “Mom, won’t you lend me something to wear? I don’t want to wear these; I want to wear yours.” She stepped forward and hugged Luo Huimei’s arm as she acted coy.
“Good grief! If you wear my clothes, people might think that you are married! How are you going to get married in the future?” Speaking of marriage, Luo Huimei seemed to recall something. She stared suspiciously at her daughter, who was holding onto her arm. “That’s right; in the five years you were overseas, when did you come back? How long have you been back? Why didn’t you tell me? Furthermore, it’s been so long; you must be in a relationship, right? How does your boyfriend look like? When are you bringing him home to meet me?”
Bringing up the topic about relationships made Yan’s gaze waver; she avoided her mother’s stare as she smiled and said, “Mom, you’re asking so many questions; I don’t even know where to start. I need to put on some clothes; won’t you lend me something to wear? I’ll tell you everything that happened in the past when I’m free.”
They were mother and daughter after all; how could Luo Huimei fail to notice Yan’s eyes guiltily avoiding hers when talking about these matters? Coupled with Yan’s appearance today, she put two and two together. Feeling like she had figured out a secret, she gloomily looked at her daughter as she asked, “Yan, did you get dumped?”
As soon as Yan heard those words, she reacted like somebody had stepped on her tail, yelling, “What nonsense are you talking about, Mom? Who was dumped? Your daughter is so beautiful; who would dump me?”
Luo Huimei understood her daughter very well. Seeing her reacting so strongly, she muttered, “Looks like you really were dumped.”
“Mom! It really isn’t like that!” Yan wailed.
“How does he look like? Is he handsome? How long were you together? Why did you guys break up?”
“Mom!”
Luo Huimei stared at her steadily. Staring at each other for a long time, Yan finally gave in. She sat down by the edge of the bed dejectedly. “He’s handsome, but we never got together, and never had a breakup.”
“Hmm?” Seeming to pick up on some information from her words, Luo Huimei quickly walked over and sat down beside her. “You didn’t manage to ensnare him? Then, why are you feeling so down?”
Yan was not in a good mood, and she did not want to talk about it. “Mom, please don’t force me to talk about it. I’ve decided I won’t bring it up again. From today onward, I’m going to forget that person. In the future, I’m going to become a brand-new me.”
Looking at the determination in her daughter’s eyes, Luo Huimei knew that asking further would only rub salt in her wounds, so she nodded her head. “Alright, alright; it’s fine if you don’t want to tell me. I will wait until you have gotten your act together and are ready to talk about it.”
Looking at her mother as if she was staring at a monster, Yan muttered, “Why are you acting so gentle all of a sudden? I’m not used to it!”
“You brat! What do you mean you’re not used to it? I’m the one who can’t stand you right now!” Luo Huimei slapped the back of her head again as she spoke. Yan clutched her head in pain and yelped. “Can you stop hitting my head like this, Mom? What if I sustain an internal injury from this?”
“It’s better if you get an internal injury from it. For you to not come home for so many years, it feels like we raised you for so many years for nothing! Sob, sob, sob…”
“Alright, alright, didn’t I come back? Don’t worry, when Dad wakes up, I’ll kneel before his bed and admit that I was wrong, okay?”
Kneeling is impossible, and so is admitting that I was wrong. However, she did hope that her father would wake up from his coma; otherwise… she would hate herself forever! All these years, she had refused to back down—not even once.
