"My precious daughter!" a middle aged woman dressed as if she was no more than twenty with a bright yellow dress walked to Xia Yu and hugged her. Slowly she whispered into her ears, "smile more! How will you convince them with this lousy acting of yours."
Xia Yu forced a bigger smile on her face when the woman finally left her. She looked at the empty cups with a frown and asked the waitress to clean it and bring her a black coffee.
"You should not drink so much milk and sugar. It would be bad for my daughter's figure." Then shaking her head, she opened a small box from her bag. It contained a jade pendant.
"It is one of my precious collections. Give it to grandpa Han. For others, we will buy gifts from here. Since you were late, I have already bought a gift for Han Zhou." she pointed at another bag.
Then as if remembering something, she passed a glare to the young girl.
"Did I not give you a card for incidents like this! Do not tell me you have already spent it all. You are.." she looked around, even afraid of speaking about those words in a whisper. But Xia Yu understands them without being told! 'Just a replacement for my daughter! How can you spend so much?!'
"I have not touched the card yet!" though she replied calmly, her fingers were clenched into a fist below the table. "I wanted to confirm with you first." Pleased with the answer Lei Qian nodded and sipped the served coffee.
"Now that you are going there. Do you remember every name? And the details I have given you?" she asked after a pause. "Do not forget that you have grown up there and knew every person there for ages. And they know every habit of yours. Your voice is still not melodious enough." Xia Yu gulped. She had spent hours practicing her voice.
She had taken a month of training in learning the posture of her sister. Except for the slight difference of hair and weight no one could tell them apart.
So, she had dyed her hair before taking the job. And knew she was more than perfect already. But she could not refute the woman sitting in front of her. Her father had divorced her mother to marry this rich woman when he suffered losses in his business. He took one of the twins with him. That was how she was the mother of her twin sister but not hers.
How she treats her twin sister is so precious. But her.. Xia Yu let go of those negative thoughts. Had she not cried for ages because of this already.
"I will pay more attention to it, thank you." she could only nod since her heart felt heavy. "About that woman i have saved, lady Xia, how is her treatment going?" she could only ask about her mother like that since they were in public. But it had been a month since she had seen her mother last and she was desperate to know more about her heart condition.
Lei Qian's face changed and a layer of frost covered it. She grimaced and then looked around again while pretending to take a sip of her coffee. Her actions show her displeasure but Xia Yu could only endure.
"Ha! She is handling it. But she needs surgery and then regular monitoring. I do not know how long she could handle without it. So you better hurry and do.." Lei Qian paused and then forced a smile on her face, "now is not the time for that. We should go and buy gifts and then I will take you to a salon so that you look better." She stood up. Xia Yu was burning with worries.
Job! She had to do her job to fix a surgery for her mother. But she was doing her job already! She wanted to shout that. But she was not sure how this woman would react to that! So, she could only endure and pray. Without hospital and medication, her mother would have died already.
Her birth mother was the only one left to her.
They browsed through many shops until Lei Qian liked a few things. Since Xia Yu had not eaten anything but drank a lot of coffee, her stomach started to churn with pain. But she did not dare to ask for food when the woman had such a cold face.
She could only excuse herself from the washroom a few times before returning and smiling at the staff and her so-called mother.
"Mother.." she couldn't help but urge when she noticed time. "Hubby would return anytime. He would be displeased to not see me there." she spoke so intimately since the sales person was standing too close to them.
The woman blushed hearing her seductive voice but Lei Qian had a frosty layer on her face. She was looking at the limited edition bags for herself after completing the whole shopping for Xia Yu. She knew that the Han family would pay the bills the moment they knew gifts were brought for them.
That was why she wanted to add a few things for herself. But this girl had no sense. Though she looked just like her daughter, she was so vulgar and uneducated. She could not believe that everyone accepted her as Lei Mei.
"Forget it! I am still busy with shopping." She ignored Xia Yu and took another hour to buy the bag.
With a pleased expression she tried the bag and finally smiled. But when she noticed Xia Yu looking at her using the bag with a frown, she felt frustrated at once and scowled at her reflection in the mirror. Since there was no one around them, she did not hide her hatred for the young girl. Without turning, she asked Xia Yu in a icy voice,
"Were you not getting late! Why are you still here? Or do you want me to buy a lot of things for you too?"