Hou Lin contemplated her words and said, "That's lying…Lying to Mom, Dad, my classmates and the teacher…"
"So you rather get bullied or scolded instead?" Zhan Yahui shot him a cold look. "You must act in a way that always makes you look right in front of others. Otherwise…otherwise, we only suffer…" she clenched the spoon in her palm, her body trembling with anger, "we only die if others think shit of us…Like…"
Like Mom and Dad…
Hou Lin lowered his head. "I don't know anymore. Everybody says different things. I don't know who…who to believe anymore…"
Zhan Yahui broke from her daze and grimaced. "Forget about the rest of the world to believe. You do what you feel is right. Your father thinks that it's stupid to get bullied over not following the herd? Then he is the stupid one because bullying is very real. Do people not needlessly trouble him at his office?"
"Dad does complain about his colleagues many times."
"So if adults can make each other's lives hell, then why does he think that kids bullying each other is a joke? Also next time record what you talk to your mother. It's a dangerous habit to forget things that you said and then act as if you never said it when things go wrong," she sneered. "The only sensible person I find in your house is your little brother who did well in warning you about the bullying part."
Hou Lin stayed silent, thinking long and hard about it. He stared at her, finishing the last bites of food on her plate and asked, "Why did you collapse?"
"Because I am hungry."
"Why didn't you go home to eat?"
Zhan Yahui froze at that. The memories of her father's death and then her mother's suicide evoked hatred in her heart as much as loneliness. "My parents are dead. I have no home anymore."
"Oh…I am sorry."
"Somebody else…should be sorry about this. The one who killed them…"
Hou Lin slightly widened his eyes. "M-Murder?"
Her dark and impending gaze answered his question.
"Do you know who killed them?"
"A very rich family who thinks they can do whatever they want! First they killed Dad and then forced Mom and me to leave the city to protect their dirty linen! And as if that wasn't enough…" tears brimmed her eyes, "they took away my Mom too. It's only because of them that Mom killed herself. No…I am sure that they killed her and made it look like a suicide! Because Mom…Mom loved me…She would have never left me…"
Hou Lin parted and closed his lips, confused on how to console her. He had never done so before but from watching some movies, he remembered that people generally offered a glass of water to a crying person to calm them down.
And so he did the same by putting a glass of water before her. "Drink some water."
"I am not thirsty."
"But you are sad."
"Drinking water is supposed to make me less sad?"
"That's what all the dramas show," Hou Lin sincerely said.
"I want revenge, not water."
"They are a rich family and you are only eleven years old. Technically, you cannot have your revenge now anyway. So better drink water instead."
"..."
Zhan Yahui suddenly burst into laughter, making Hou Lin puzzled and taken aback.
"You are weird. I was so mad but you made me forget all of it. At least for some time. Cool. I didn't think that was possible."
"So offering water to drink does work," he concluded.
"It's you, not the water."
"I made you laugh?" He genuinely looked surprised.
"Yup."
"How?"
"It's difficult to explain."
"I want to know because I cannot make my parents smile. They fight a lot. If they laugh then…things might get better, right?" His eyes flickered with sorrow.
"I am not sure if your efforts will work. If they only want to prove each other wrong rather than living together as a family, then there's nothing you can do about it," she shrugged.
He pursed his lips.
Zhan Yahui looked around his room and asked, "You have a lot of computer stuff."
"I like to work and play on computers."
"Like the stuff they show in the dramas you said? Hacking and all?"
"Very little. Only those systems that have bugs or lesser security to prevent cyber attacks. But I am learning."
"Can you find out who the boy was? Liu Jinhai's son? What is his name?"
"We don't need to hack if they are a rich family. The general information will be available on the internet."
He typed the keywords 'Liu Jinhai' and hit the search button.
"Liu Jinhai. CEO of Liu Corps. His wife is Liu Nana. They have five children. Four sons and one daughter."
Zhan Yahui widened her eyes.
Which son was it that I saw that day…?
"Wait, he wears glasses!"
Hou Lin searched for some family pictures but firstly, there were very few pictures available and the ones which were, showed no picture of a boy in glasses.
"I don't see a boy with glasses. Do you remember anything else about him?"
She thought hard about it and said, "I guess…he was wearing a school uniform too…? Yes it was definitely a school uniform!"
"Did you see the name of the school on his uniform?"
"That's too hard to remember…I was really dizzy at the time-"
"Lin."
They froze as Hou Luli's voice from the living room. "Lin, where are you?"
"I need to tell Mom that you are here."
"Wait!" She pulled him back and whispered, "She will see me and will throw me out of your house. Do you think your parents would let a girl stay who you picked up from some dirty trash? I cannot leave from here."
He blinked cluelessly.
Zhan Yahui said, "I don't wanna live my life in some orphanage but I need money to survive. Your family seems well to do. I might as well live off of your parents' money."
"Why will they agree to support you?"
She smiled. "They will once they see me pointing a knife at your neck."
This chapt𝙚r is updated by fr(e)ew𝒆bnov(e)l.com