Sitting in the taxi, Pei Ge switched on the hand phone that she had switched off earlier.
The moment her hand phone was on, new messages streamed in.
The screen displayed five missed calls and seven new messages.
Pei Ge was slightly surprised by this.
Out of the five missed calls, four were from her mother, and of the seven new messages, five were sent by her mother.
Seeing this, Pei Ge felt even guiltier. She was really too stubborn today. To have switched off her phone under such circumstances, it must have scared her mother badly.
When she opened one of the messages sent by her mother, Pei Ge sniffled yet again.
Each and every line of the message was abundant with love and expressed Zhang Manhua's concern for her.
[… Ge Ge, Mother was wrong. Mother was too hasty and did not consider your feelings…]
"Wuuuu…" Pei Ge was finally unable to stifle her tears and started crying softly.
Her mother was apologizing to her? In fact, she should be the one apologizing.
Having read all her mother's messages, Pei Ge then opened the messages that Tang Xiaoyu had sent.
Compared to the messages of her mother, Tang Xiaoyu's was pathetically short.
However, the moment she saw Tang Xiaoyu's second message, she immediately cracked up.
[Pei Ge, you actually did not go home the whole night! What guts you have! I'll treat you to red bean rice when I get back!]
"Puh!" Pei Ge's gloomy feelings were immediately swept away as she muttered in her heart, Tang Xiaoyu is really a crazy lass.
"Young lady, are you alright?" the driver worriedly asked when he heard the ruckus at the back seat.
Hearing the driver's question, Pei Ge knew that her successive sounds of cry and laughter had frightened the driver. Hence, smiling, she said, "Mister, I am fine. I was just reading a novel."
"…" The driver was speechless. Youngsters these days were really getting harder to understand.
Soon, the taxi reached the area where Pei Ge's house was located. After paying the taxi fare, Pei Ge took quick steps back to her house.
Standing in front of her house, Pei Ge placed down the box that she was holding. She then started rummaging through her handbag for the house key, wanting to open the door grill as fast as possible.
Just as she had taken out her key, the door grill, which was shut tightly just now, suddenly opened from the inside.
Just like that, Zhang Manhua's face, stricken with tears, appeared before Pei Ge's eyes.
"Mommy…" A remorseful Pei Ge looked at her mother's reddened eyes, heartbroken.
She was already 26 years old, yet she had still talked back to her mother.
"Sor—" Before words of apology could be said, she was suddenly engulfed in her mother's embrace.
"You are such a child. No matter how angry you are, you shouldn't switch off your hand phone. Do you know how much that scared me?" Zhang Manhua hugged Pei Ge tightly.
This action reminded Pei Ge of the pair of mother and daughter from just now.
Pei Ge pursed her lips together, knowing that her mother must have thought of the accident from that year.
As she put her arms around her mother, she gently said, "Mom, I promise not to switch off my hand phone next time."
After standing at the entrance for a while, the pair quickly entered the apartment.
"Ge Ge, I was too agitated this time. Mom apologizes to you." Zhang Manhua sat on the sofa, tightly grasping Pei Ge's hands, as though she was afraid that Pei Ge would run away once more.
However, Pei Ge just shook her head and softly replied, "Mom, I am the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn't have talked back at you and quit my job without consulting you."
"My good child…" Hearing Pei Ge's words, Zhang Manhua's eyes quickly filled with tears. "Mom has let you down. If it's not for my uselessness, you wouldn't only be a small assistant…"
At Zhang Manhua's self-criticism, Pei Ge gently said, "Mom, what are you talking about? Things about being useless or not, I don't like to hear them."
"Ge Ge, what plans do you have for the future?" Zhang Manhua wiped the tears off her face and concernedly asked.
"Mom, you don't have to worry. I will look for a job starting tomorrow. We cannot always rely on Second Uncle's family for a living." Pei Ge grinned, looking light-hearted.
When she saw her daughter's smile, the worry in Zhang Manhua's heart dissipated.
"That's right. Our family shouldn't always depend on your Second Uncle's family." As she said that, Zhang Manhua sighed.
They had been receiving so much help from Pei Zhenghui all these years.
Currently, as long as Zhang Manhua met with any relatives from the Pei or Liu family, they would mock her and Pei Ge for freeloading off Pei Zhenghui's family.
These were things that she had never mentioned to her daughter. She really did not expect for her daughter to know about them.
Watching her mother sigh, Pei Ge placed her other palm on the back of Zhang Manhua's hands. "Mom, don't worry too much. We will only get better from now on."
"Yes, we will."
That afternoon, after having a scrumptious lunch with her mother, Pei Ge returned to her room and made an overseas phone call to Tang Xiaoyu, who was at another part of the world.
"Hey, Ge Ge! You lass finally returned my call! Do you know how I had to stay awake for so long just to wait for your call?!" The moment the call got through, Tang Xiaoyu immediately said this.
"Uhm. Why did you insist on waiting for my call?" Pei Ge was speechless.
"You've got the nerve to ask me! How can you not tell me that you didn't return home last night?! If Auntie did not tell me, I would never know!" Tang Xiaoyu complained.
"… Isn't it just a case of me not returning home for one night?" Her good friend Tang Xiaoyu's way of thinking was always different from the norm. Her mother had obviously called her to ask for her help.
Instead, what she was concerned about was only the fact that she did not return home for the night.
"Hur hur… Tell me honestly; which man did you fool around with the whole night that you were out?!" Tang Xiaoyu sardonically grinned, her voice full of intimidation.
"What fool around? I only had a sleepover at my colleague's house." Pei Ge coughed.
"Tsk! Who would believe your nonsense? Hurry and tell me the truth! If not, look at how I will punish you when I get back!" Obviously, Tang Xiaoyu would not believe that.
Hearing Tang Xiaoyu's threat, as someone who had received the short end of the stick multiple times when facing Tang Xiaoyu, Pei Ge promptly told her everything that had happened, hiding nothing.
"Hur hur… I knew that that cousin of yours is always up to something! A b*tch, indeed!" Tang Xiaoyu expressed her opinion the first chance she got after listening to the whole story.
At Tang Xiaoyu's remark, Pei Ge disapprovingly objected, "This has nothing to do with my cousin. She isn't a bad person."
"Hur hur. Oh, yes. What a nice person she is. She only fell for your ex-boyfriend and unintentionally stole what was yours." Tang Xiaoyu sneered in a mocking manner.
"Xiaoyu, whatever happened between my cousin and Zhou Zhuoyang is definitely not as you imagined." Pei Ge was still unwilling to think too badly of her cousin, who had always treated her really well.
"A b*tch matching with a dog; what a match made in heaven. Forget it. Let's not talk about them anymore." Tang Xiaoyu changed the subject and started gossiping. "The male host you reserved, is he handsome? How many abs does he have? How was he in bed? Did you feel great?"
"…"