"We should definitely call the police!" Hou Luli said with urgency in their room.
Hou Fa sighed in exasperation, "She has Lin with her. We cannot act recklessly."
"So what should we do? What she is asking is ridiculous! She is forcing us to adopt her. I don't even know what happened! How could Lin just randomly bring a girl off the streets like that? We should call the police. They will bring the child care services with them or whatever and take her to an orphanage where she can live. Threatening us is not the solution! She even took our phones away so that we cannot contact anyone!"
"We cannot argue this in front of her until she has Lin with her."
She gritted her teeth. "So you mean to say that we should adopt her? We are not in a position to feed another mouth!"
Hou Fa sighed in frustration. "Use your head for a second! She has Lin on a knife point! We will agree with her for the sake of it and then when things calm down, we will figure out some way to send her away."
On the other side, Zhan Yahui was casually twirling the knife in her hand, whistling and waiting for Lin's parents to come out. She long let go of Lin as soon as his parents went away to talk.
Hou Lin thoughtfully said, "From what I know, threatening is a wrong way to achieve anything."
She looked at him and snorted. "Sure it's all colorful rainbows for a privileged boy like you. But for me, this is the only way to survive. I need money and your family has that."
"Other families have money too."
"They didn't pick up the dirty girl from the streets, you did."
"So am I wrong?"
She shrugged. "Not for me. For your parents, yes."
"Why is it always so confusing? To be right and wrong at the same time?"
"Because the same situation applies differently to different people. Something that can be wrong for one person can be salvation for someone else."
"Oh," he stared at her with wonder.
Zhan Yahui heard the click of the door and narrowing her eyes, quickly returned to the position of pointing the knife on Hou Lin's neck.
Hou Fa and Hou Luli cautiously stepped out so as to not alarm her. Hou Luli's eyes watered, seeing her son helpless.
Zhan Yahui smiled. "Have you thought about it?"
Hou Fa felt his throat going dry. "Okay. We will do as you say. If you want us to adopt you, we will. Now, will you please let Lin go?"
"And how can I be sure that you won't call the authorities to send me away to an orphanage as soon as you get back your phones?"
Hou Luli swallowed a gulp. "W-we won't. We only want our Lin safe."
"Along with wanting to kick me out," she smiled. "I can see it in your eyes."
"Look, you really have to trust us…" tears slid down her cheeks, "We won't go anywhere with this if you don't believe us."
"You are right. We won't go anywhere with this until you believe in me too. That if you genuinely mean to give into my demand, I won't hurt your son. And when I say that I want you to adopt me, it's only until I am eighteen. I will be out of here once I hit eighteen. But until then, I need your money and home."
Hou Fa and Hou Luli exchanged worried glances. Their troubled gazes expressed how they found it difficult to understand the girl before them. She wanted them to adopt her but only until the legal age. Did that mean they would be free from her once she turned eighteen?
It was such an odd demand that they couldn't wrap their heads around it.
Hou Luli asked, "But…h-how can you say with certainty that you will leave by eighteen? What if you…change your mind at the last moment?"
Zhan Yahui grimaced. "Rest assured. I have no interest in living with a pair of constantly bickering parents with egos as tall as the Burj Khalifa. In fact, just the seven years alone would be a dire challenge for my mental survival in your company. So like hell I will change my mind. I feel like I should time travel and turn eighteen already," she rolled her eyes.
Their jaws dropped in shock.
How did she know about our arguments anyway?
"Lin did you…" Hou Fa questioned, stupefied.
Hou Lin answered without much emotion. "We were chatting when she was eating food."
"You were chatting with someone who has a knife pointed at your neck!?"
"She didn't have the knife pointed at me back then."
"Are you st-"
"Quit with your lovely family chit chat and just give me the answer," Zhan Yahui coldly cut them off. "Do you agree in letting me stay here for the next seven years or should I poke a hole in his neck already?"
"No, no!" Their faces quickly lost their color and Hou Fa said, panicked. "W-we agree. Seven years, right? We will take your responsibility for seven years. And when you turn eighteen, you will leave…that is your commitment."
"Yup. Trust me, if I see any authorities here and I come to know that you secretly called them, then somebody will definitely get hurt," she squinted her eyes, "I am being very nice and clear so you just better lay low and let the seven years pass peacefully."
It took a few moments for them but they eventually agreed. At first, they had planned to secretly alert the authorities once things calmed down but now neither of them felt that it was the right option.
"Cool~ Now we are on the same page. Since we will be tolerating each other for seven years now, we should at least know each other's names so that we can freely curse if we piss each other off," she chuckled.
She withdrew the knife from Hou Lin's neck, making his parents release a big sigh of relief.
She faced Hou Lin and smiled, offering her hand for a handshake. "My name is Zhan Yahui. Nice to meet you."
Hou Lin stared at her hand and then looked at twinkling eyes, filled with her own motivations to achieve. He slowly mingled his own palm within hers and said, "My name is Hou Lin. Nice to meet you too. Hope we have a good time."
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