Slowly and carefully, Hui Lan was supported inside the tearoom by Su Rong. On the other hand, Xiao Mai had already shut itself in a deep sleep when it came in with Hui Lan a moment ago.
Hui Lan then slowly sat down in front of the tea table. She had to bring her left hand that was not showing any allergic reaction to message her hand and simply rested her right arm on the table.
Now, her head and her right hand were probing with different kinds of pain. It was truly hard for her to think indeed.
"Sigh, Hui Lan do you have an ointment for any allergic reactions?" Su Rong asked just in case.
In response, Hui Lan shook her head.
"Ah? How come ah, you always knew you were allergic to red beans, but you didn't even get any allergic ointment?"
Hui Lan stopped massaging her head and tilted her head slightly, "I don't…" have any allergy…"I momentarily forgot and accidentally picked it up."
"Aiya, fine, I'll go get the Royal Physician. He'll need to do a check-up for you today as well, I'll let him know that you need an allergic ointment too."
"En, thank you." Hui Lan replied with all the strength she had left.
...What was this ah? She never had any allergies in her entire life. Although she came into this body, there hadn't been much difference other than this body was much weaker than her old body.
...Now, there was an allergy? Even worse, she was allergic to the red bean she loved the most? No! This must not be, she cannot live without red beans ah~
Before Su Rong walked out of the room, Hui Lan quickly called out, "Su Rong!"
Su Rong stopped in front of the door and turned around to face Hui Lan, "Huh?"
"I really can't eat red beans?" Hui Lan's voice sounded very adorable with her soft whining voice.
Su Rong could not help but giggle, for she hadn't seen this kind of side from her friend before. She quickly explained, "Well, you can eat it, but you are allergic to the red bean powder ah. If you touch something with red bean powder-covered on, then you would get those rashes." Su Rong nodded towards Hui Lan's hand that was redder than the other.
"Red bean powder?" Hui Lan thought back of what she touched and the red cake came into her head.
...So that was why these rashes were on her hands.
Su Rong also recalled something else, "Oh that's right, I remember you accidentally ate the red bean bun once, but you were fine. The doctor said that you must be allergic to the red bean powder only but eating the red bean was fine. However, since you are allergic to the powder, you did not fancy it since you were young. You got any more questions, Miss Hui Lan?"
Hui Lan nodded along as she listened carefully. However, her thoughts were already on how she can eat red bean without eating the red bean powder as well.
Seeing her friend not concentrating on her anymore, Su Rong smiled and made her way out.
...Hm, sometimes her friend could be a little funny…
Hui Lan did not even realize when Su Rong had left, but she was still in deep thoughts about what had happened.
...Red bean powder? She tried recalling those vague memories in her head, but the more she thought, the more her head began to ache.
...What was that memory ah? The memories were there, but it was as if those old memories were slowly fading away.
She could recall that she was in a kitchen. Her two small hands dipped straight into a bowl of red powder...and then she began to scratch her own hands...then…
...Then…
...Then...ah...two bigger hands that reached towards her small hands in a hurry…
Then those memories turned into a fuzzy grey colour and she could no longer see anything. Hui Lan felt even more frustrated with how much energy she was trying to remember this one memory.
Her whole body fell slowly onto the tea table.
...Why wasn't life easy ah?
As Hui Lan's head laid on the table, her face was facing Xiao Mao who was sleeping peacefully on the small set up that was set for him. He had no such clue as to what this miss of his was going through or how her eyes became envious of the little fella that was sleeping.
Hui Lan bit her lips slightly before releasing a long big sigh. She wasn't going to give up that easily…
Hui Lan finally closed her eyes and tried focusing again.
As she focused, those grey fuzzy colours began to disappear and colours came into her mind. As colours were revealed, a face began to form...but whose face was it?
Hui Lan took a long moment to herself and became quiet for a long while.
After what felt like an hour, Hui Lan slowly opened her eyes again.
.
.
.
She remembered...everything.
Those big hands were no one else's but this owner's mother.
...Of course, it was this owner's mother.
Even more, what happened after that incident was also revealed to her.
She remembered this owner's parents telling her and teaching her that she was allergic to red bean powder. The entire household completely took red beans off from the list of dishes within the household.
What was even more complicated was the tests that her mother taught her since she was young. It was a test, but it was one of the sweetest tests ever.
At that time, Feng Furen was also busy taking care of her second child, this owner's mischievous younger brother. At that time, Feng Furen was not always vacant, but there was one thing that she could still share with her daughter; that was none other than their small tea time.
In those memories, this owner as a child was sitting in a garden with her mother and Feng Furen would lay out different colourful cakes on the table. She would then teach Hui Lan which kind of cakes to eat and which colours to choose from.
There would be yellow coloured cakes, peach coloured cakes, white coloured cakes, red coloured cakes and more. The red cake was the red bean cake and in the first test, Feng Furen had put the red bean powder on top of the plate.
However, back then, Hui Lan's favourite colour was red, so the little girl picked her favourite coloured cake even though her mother had told her not to and indeed she had rashes. Feng Furen looked young back then as well and as a mother, she quickly applied the allergic ointment given by the doctor to her child which she kept with her at all times.
Then, in the second test, Feng Furen took the red bean powder out because she was afraid the same thing would happen and even placed the red cake far from Hui Lan's reach.
Hui Lan as a small child tried to reach for her favourite colour cake but was given a stern look from her mother.
Since then, in fear of her mother's scary looks, Hui Lan quickly learned and began choosing her second favourite colour cakes.
As Hui Lan grew older and older, Feng Furen would still do this every tea time she had with her daughter. Then afterwards, Hui Lan would be able to unconsciously pick other coloured cakes instead of her favourite red cake.
Without knowing, a few drops of tears fell down from Hui Lan's eyes.
Such loving memories. She could not help but reveal a small smile. This Hui Lan and her had one thing in common was that she too liked the colour red.
But with all those memories that were now starting to form into her own memories made the pain even greater. However, one thing that became apparent to her was that...Feng Furen must know...know that something was wrong.
Hui Lan weakly got up, but fell back down on the floor; it was good that her reflex senses were still working, so her first reaction was to land on her arms.
Though it was not a dangerous fall, she still felt the pain from falling.
Nevertheless, she slowly made her way by crawling to a small cabinet that had a withered flower in a vase on top.
She crawled slowly, but surely and in the end, she could finally open the cabinet.
Once the door to the cabinet was opened, a small red bottle was revealed inside.
A weak smile was revealed on Hui Lan's face.
...Hm, there you are.
Without thinking twice, Hui Lan reached for the small red bottle and slowly opened the small lid. She did everything with one hand; though her movements were slow, the lid was taken off in the end.
A sweet aromatic smell came out from the bottle.
Carefully, she poured some of the contents inside on the hand that was probing in pain.
After all, was done, Hui Lan gently placed her left arm on the floor and sluggishly rested her head on her arm gently.
…So, cold ah. I shouldn't be laying on the floor though...but I'm so tired...
...The scent was Peonies...hm...her mother even put attention into adding a sweet scent to cover up the herbal scent as well.
…Such a thoughtful mother you had Hui Lan ah if you got to know my mother as well, she was also the sweetest mother as well and the greatest storyteller ever. I'd love to introduce my mother to you, so she could share to you some warmth in her stories...wherever you are…
...Hm, but don't worry, I won't take your mother away...she is your mother and you are her daughter.
...I'm just here for a short time and I'll leave nicely, don't worry…
...But let me get some more sleep first...
Just as Hui Lan was about to close her eyes, the door to her Tearoom opened once again.
Su Rong opened the door without expecting anything, but the scene that was in front of her eyes made her lose her cool.
"Hui Lan!"
However, Hui Lan's senses were slowly shutting down into a deep slumber.
"Hui Lan!"