The morning sun shone brightly. A ray of warm sunlight glinted on the floor of Xiulan's room. The alarm went off before she stretched her hands up in the air. Another day had started.
She went downstairs and unexpectedly her elder brother was at home, discussing something serious with her mother.
"Come here. You have to start learning how to cook today." Cai Roumei ordered softly.
"Mom, I am taking additional courses for the business course. I have no spare time." Hearing something related to cooking made her exhausted.
"You can learn bit by bit, one dish a day. A girl should at least know how to boil eggs." Cai Roumei reprimanded gracefully.
"A girl should do this, a girl should do that, blah blah blah" She talked under her breath.
"What are you mumbling?"
Jianyu's encouragement rang in her ears and she nodded, "Fine. I will give it a try."
"Then, let's start now." Zhang Honghui uttered excitedly.
Xiulan wore a proud pie-eating grin with one hand tightly gripping a big knife with the pointy tip up and holding her phone with another to take a selfie. Then, she sent that photo to Jianyu, saying. "Day 1 cooking. Road to the best chef!"
He responded, "Be careful. Don't get yourself hurt in the process."
"Yes, sir!" She sent with a sticker of a white puppy kowtowing and wagging its tail swiftly.
"Good girl." Jianyu's reply somewhat motivated her.
While her brother was giving instructions and demonstrating the steps, she absorbed everything.
However, unconsciously she put her fingers on an opened drawer box. Her hand moved the drawer in and out without notice. After moving back and forth for a while, it gained momentum and slid. Her fingers were stuck in between with a loud thud. She screamed, "Ah!!??!?!" She felt a scorching sensation and slight purplish bruises surfaced on the back of her fingers.
Honghui was flustered by his sister's cry. His first thought was she got burned. But unexpectedly, her fingers were stuck between the frame and the drawer box. She jolted and drew her palm out quickly. She shook her hand in the air to let it cool.
He couldn't help but smile at her misfortune. Like this, she got hurt in her first cooking lesson without getting burned or cut by a knife. He disinfected her little wounds and put some gel to appease the pain and fasten the healing. Then she took a photo of her injury and sent it to Li Jianyu.
Jianyu immediately gave her a call which she quickly picked up.
"What happened?" The other end of the phone call sounded, worry was obvious in his tone.
"Don't laugh at me.'' She warned him beforehand and unhurriedly elucidated her story which got him to crack a smile. "Next time, be more careful."
"I was extremely cautious. It was that drawer's fault. Who would have thought it would suddenly slide and close violently." Her lips were pursed to blow her fingers to lessen the painful sensation.
"You're right. The drawer is bad." The man tried his best to be serious. Unfortunately, he failed and chuckled silently in his throat without letting a sound out.
"Only you see the underlying truth." Satisfied, she beamed.
"So, the first day of cooking, how was it?"
She got butterflies in her stomach due to his concern and grinned from ear to ear, "It went quite well. My brother explained everything in detail. Well, it is kind of interesting like you mentioned before."
"It's great that you enjoyed it. One must be intrigued in what he is engaging with or he can't do it for a long period." Being as philosophic as he was, he stated his point of view.
"You got it right. My parents just know how to order me around to do what they want me to be." She laid down on her bed with pouting lips.
He gave her another pleasant advice, "If you can't refuse it, you should try to like them."
"How?" Inquisitive, she sat with her back straight. Her curious eyelashes fluttered.
Jianyu pondered for a second and uttered slowly, "Find something that attracts your attention in them. Or … trick your brain to think it is enjoyable. Who knows if it becomes a habit and your belief, you might really come to like it. It is not healthy to be dejected at the things you need to do daily."
"Okay. I will try." She nodded vigorously to his words although he couldn't witness it.
He immediately threw another question. "What did you cook today?"
He was really concerned about her. Xiulan was on cloud nine, her smile grew wider. "I haven't done a thing when my hand got injured. So my brother let me rest and call it a day. My mom admonished him for spoiling me. She just likes to be noisy." She scowled as she continued talking about her mother's scolding.
Smiling at her childish words, he gently reminded, "You should be thrilled and listen to her nagging while you still can."
She recalled what he said at the ceremony about his mother. "Your mother always supports you. You don't understand how it is to be chided every day." Her head lowered in disheartened, contemplating the time when she was reprimanded by her mother.
Jianyu softly muttered, "My mother is no longer alive. Even if I want the scolding, I can't get it anymore."
Xiulan was taken aback. "Oh. I am sorry. I thought your mother was still there, judging the time when you mentioned her in admiration."
"She is always there with me in my heart." He uttered mildly to ease her mind.
She smiled awkwardly and was lost for words because she wasn't very good at dealing with serious matters. "Ah! How's your investigation about that culprit?" She changed the subject quickly.
A short period of silence reigned before he answered back, "It is in progress."
"I know we can count on you. What are you doing now?"
"I'm in LMH city. Have some meetings to attend. Now I'm at the hotel."
She could hear a bell ringing and the sounds of footsteps supposedly striding towards the entrance. "Ah, I won't disturb you then. Take care." Although she hated to halt the call, she didn't have the heart to interrupt his work.
After that, she got ready to hang out with Hualing. She prepared herself to receive some shocking facts about the previous meeting between Grandpa Tang and Bai Hualing.
On her way there, she felt it had been a long time since she last gave Bai Hualing a cologne. She went to the nearest retail store that specialized in perfume. She saw a variety of brands and was scanning what to buy when a sales clerk interrupted her, "Miss, this is the bestseller item. It just began distributing today and yet the stocks were almost sold out."
Upon scrutinizing it, she saw the brand name, N.L. which reminded her of her younger brother, Shaiming. It was his favorite brand. She tested out the odor. The smell was quite girly and sweet. Hualing preferred the fresh scent. So she chose another one that suited her taste.
In the ice cream shop, the customers packed and the staff was occupied with their own work. Thank God they made a reservation beforehand. If not, they wouldn't have a seat to take.
Xiulan ordered her favorite yogurt ice cream and strawberry-flavored ice cream with abundant strawberry slices in it for Hualing. When they were about to start digging in, Xiulan shot the breeze to investigate what she wanted to know.
"Hualing." She had only called out her name. Hualing commenced, "That day at the Tang house, you know what Chairman Tang told me?"
"What did he say?" Xiulan hurriedly asked with her head popped up in curiosity.
"He commanded me to …" Hualing's eyes made contact with that of a man which halted her explanation.
Xiulan followed her stare and saw the man. It was Tang Quan. She had a feeling of deja vu because the same story repeated again. Quan had the effect of stopping people from doing what they were doing.
Surprisingly, a little girl around ten years old was beside him.