"Why not? What do you mean no? I want to have a taste of a carefree life now that there are no freedom haters in my life now. I don't mean to say that I do want to stay with you guys but I want to start living my youth," Bai Renxiang explained calmly.
"But you just arrived here in City S. You have not even stayed up to two weeks here and you want to live? It's not fair you know," Old man Jiang whinned.
"I haven't gotten a job yet so I will still stay till then. Please gramps, please," Bai Renxiang used her cute puppy trick to beg him.
"Oh alright. Stop making that face. You won already."
"Thank you so much gramps. You are the best."
"I have not agreed to it yet young lady," Jiang Meilin interrupted.
"What now mum? Gramps has already given his consent. Please let me experience freedom, please," Bai Renxiang begged using the same trick she used on old man Jiang. "I will not fall for your cuteness."
"Oh come on mum."
"Look honey, it's not that I do not want you to be free. I just do not want you to live alone because I feel that you will not be able to cope. I am just scared because you have never lived alone and also in a place you are not familiar with. Do you understand? So no, you will not move out to find your own place," Jiang Meilin declared.
"Mum this is not fair," Bai Renxiang complained.
"Life is not also fair honey. In fact nothing is." By now, Bai Renxiang's eyes were stinging with tears. She bent her head to hide it. She thought her mother will happily agree to her decision especially now that she had a chance of rebuilding her life.
Old man Jiang could not bear to see the tears that were threatening to fall from his beloved granddaughter's eyes. Kicking Jiang Meilin's leg under the table, he gave her a 'pet her look'. Jiang Meilin sighed and stood up and went to sit with her daughter at the other side of the table.
Jiang Meilin carefully placed her hands on Bai Renxiang's shoulders and tried to make her look up. Before her hands could touch Bai Renxiang's chin, Bai Renxiang stubbornly turned her face to avoid her touch. She was angry and sad.
"Honey look at me. Hey, look at mum," Jiang Meilin said softly. It was the first time in more than ten years that she had made her daughter cry. As a mother, she felt sad and started to turn emotional.
"Please look at me. You don't want to talk to mum anymore? You will make mum cry if you ignore her. Come on now," Jiang Meilin coaxed further until Bai Renxiang finally looked at her. A tears slipped down her eyes. Those black eyes that had the shimmer of millions of star in the night sky had turned slightly red. She caused those beautiful eyes to water.
"Why must you go? You don't want me anymore? Do I stress you or annoy you so much that you want to live?" Bai Renxiang shook her head and lowered her eyes.
" Please understand me. We just moved in here. Everything is still new to us and maybe dangerous. I'm just scared something bad will happen to you while I am not there."
"But I can take care of myself. I big enough to know what and where is dangerous. The places I should and should not go to. Nothing will happen to me. I am no longer a kid that needs a nanny to follow me wherever I go," Bai Renxiang defended herself.
"Sigh, fine. You can live if you want. BUT I will come with you no matter what you say agreed?" Jiang Meilin proposed.
"Agreed. Thank you mum. I love you so much. Thank you."
"Now wipe those tears. I hate when your cry," Jiang Meilin said. Burying her head in her shoulder, Bai Renxiang pouted, "It is your fault for being so mean to your baby. You should be kissing me all over my face now."
"Oh you want kisses? Here, muah muah," Jiang Meilin started planting kisses on Bai Renxiang's face just like she wanted.
"Mum it tickles stop. No more kisses," Bai Renxiang laughed lightly at the tingling feeling from the kisses from her mother.
"Whose idea was it to get kisses on her face? Obviously not me," Jiang Meilin mockingly asked.
"Alright, it was me. But I didn't know that I am very ticklish. It not my fault that I got it from someone," Bai Renxiang playfully bit back.
"Well that I can't refute. Come here. I love you honey. A whole bunch."
"And I love you to the moon and back."