"Why are you-" Xia Tianlin was flustered to see the girl standing in front of him. It was as if he had seen a ghost. Before he could finish his sentence he was greeted by her frosty voice.
"Hello, father."
Xia Tianlin was angered by her cold demeanor. "Why are you here?"
He knew that his father had invited her and he still decided to feign ignorance. He didn't want her to attend the family dinner, but he couldn't go against elder Xia.
Lihua laughed. He was seeing her after two years and the first thing he asked was why was she here? No warm smiles, no warm hugs, nothing. She felt disgusted that he was her father.
"Lihua! Have you gone crazy?" He didn't expect Lihua to laugh and his eyes turned fierce.
"I'm crazy right? That's why you wanted to lock me up in the asylum two years ago, is that right father?"
He lowered his eyes and spoke harshly, "Why are you bringing that up now?"
"If I had not escaped back then I would have been rotting in the mental hospital."
Her mind was clouded with a nightmarish memory.
[ Few armed men were following her as she ran through the dark alleys. A bullet had scraped her knee and it was bleeding heavily.
"Catch her! Or else we will lose our reward!"
Strength was seeping out from her body but she ran until she finally managed to lose the men who were sent by her father to lock up her up in a remote mental hospital. She had overhead them talking about a planned surgery to ruin her voice so that she could never sing again.
She collapsed on the side of the road unable to walk further. The pain in her leg made her numb and she had already lost too much blood.
"Lihua...?"
With half-lidded eyes she looked at the girl who had found her. "Why?-"
"I was fretful, you left America without letting me know! I followed you because I was worried about you. What happened to you?" Nuozhi was hysteric as she fumbled with her phone.
Lihua grunted in pain. "I-I'm s-s-o-sorry."
She shouldn't have come back to her home country. She just wanted to be with the people whom she considered family but they treated her like a trash at their disposal.
"Let me call the ambulance." Nuozi quickly dialed the emergency number.
It had started to snow. The cold made her lose consciousness but she could hear her friend's distant distraught cries.
"I-I'll b-be fine, Nuozhi." Lihua whispered reassuringly. ]
"I wouldn't have done it if you didn't threaten your cousin. You said that you'll tell that Yang boy that you sang her songs!" Xia Tianlin lashed out with fury.
Lihua felt very repulsed at the mention of Mengrui. "Why do you care so much about her when she isn't even your own daughter?"
"What if she isn't my own daughter? She is the daughter of my elder brother!"
They looked at each other like they were irreconcilable enemies who could not bear live under the same sky.
Lihua folded her hands and said, "I don't want to listen to your crap. Give me the keys of my room."
Xia Tianlin grasped and pulled on her hair, "You dare to order me!"
Lihua winced from the sharp pain as if both her hair and her scalp were going to be pulled off.
"Let. Me. Go. Xia Tianlin." She gritted out through her teeth.
This was her biological father who didn't care about his own daughter! Not anymore, he was a stranger to her.
He pulled on her hair more viciously. "You insolent brat! You are calling your father by full name. How can you be so disrespectful and vile?!"
Lihua pinched his vital point near his wrist, immobilizing him. He screamed in pain and let her go.
"You are so vicious like your mother! Both are cut out from the same cloth." He continued to shout, holding his aching wrist with the other hand.
"Don't speak on my mother." Lihua's voice cracked, a piercing cry escaping her lips as if her heart had been brutally sliced open.
He was the reason why her mother died. How dare he target her mother!