Chapter 409 Bonus Chapter-- An Xiulan in Boston (II)
Note: These are Bonus Chapters. They are from the timeline when An Xiulan had gone to Boston, leaving without telling anyone. I will be giving the chapters as in flashback to show how their life was away from each other. The focus will be on An Xiulan and Han Zixin. I saw many of you were interested to see how An Xiulan and Han Zixin took the most unexpected careers. Remember how An Xiulan said she will be anything but Lawyer?
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The An Xiulan of this time had no clue about the confident and beautiful young lady that she was going to be in the coming future. Right now, she was an uncertain and weak bud and she did not know if she would even be able to bloom into a gorgeous flower. She was taking a dive into the life she had no clue about. It was not going to be easy and she knew it.
Lu Zhaolin made her sit on a chair and said, holding her hand and looking into her eyes, "Xiulan, she is your mother. You can talk to her about anything."
If An Qinyan had complaints about anyone it would be him, not their innocent daughter. Moreover, that woman loved her daughter to the point that she would not be able to say a word. Also, An Xiulan was recovering now…
"Does she hate me?" An Xiulan asked. She did not know where this question came from. She was very happy when Lu Xuan and Gu Shangyan went to their respective colleges. She was also happy that came here to study but why did she feel guilty about choosing herself? Why did she feel guilty about taking this step? What if her mother started hating her? She could bear anything but An Qinyan hating her.
Lu Zhaolin sighed. He could not see this child this sad. He said, "Why would she hate you? Don't you know how much she loves you?"
He did not know what his daughter was going through at this moment to go through such thoughts. He hoped that she would be able to come out of anything that she was facing.
"I left without telling her, "An Xiulan answered.
"Still, she doesn't hate you or is mad at you. Instead, she is worried about you, "Lu Zhaolin answered his child.
"Really?" An Xiulan asked him.
He answered, "Yes."
Lu Zhaolin placed his luggage there and went to hug her. "Child, your mother doesn't hate you. She is just worried about you. It is a new country and I brought you here without her permission. And your health is not in very good shape. In this condition, every parent would be worried about their child. You should stop thinking too much. And why are you worrying about your mom now? Leave it to her. She would not want to see you like this. We are in Boston. We are here for your college. We will do what we came here for."
"Father, what if it doesn't work out?" An Xiulan asked. She was scared of everything. Whenever she would work too hard for something, she would not get anything. She worked so hard for her college entrance test but she didn't even get an opportunity to write. She was scared of being hopeful.
"Child, how many times do we know in life that the things we are involved in would work out?" Lu Zhaolin asked her. "We never know. How will we know until we try it out? If it doesn't work out after trying it out, we will know that it was not meant for us. We will find something else. Even if that doesn't work out, we will shift to something else. This is life. We see constant failures before finding success." Taking a small pause, he went on, "Xiulan, in life always remember one thing that success will not be frequent. You will fall and fail. It will depend on you if you want to call those fallings failures or experiments."
"Can I experiment with my life?"She asked her father.
"Why the heck not?" Lu Zhaolin asked her. "It is your life. But always remember to be safe while experimenting. Even in your science lab, you first protect yourself from any danger and then perform experiments, right? You have to do the same in life. Do you get it?"
An Xiulan nodded her life. That day in the lobby of the airport she got her first life lesson from her father. Young An Xiulan would have died to receive a moment like this with her father but older An Xiulan was no less touched.
In the end, An Xiulan took the chance to perform an experiment with her life.
When she went to her college, she was overwhelmed by almost everything. Be it the grandeur of architecture, the students or everything else. She was wonderstruck.
She felt like she was back to her first day at school but still nothing was the same with this place and her school. Still, the feeling of fear, anxiety, curiosity and everything else was the same.When she had gone to school for the first time, she did not know if she would even learn anything there. But here she knew that she would do anything to work hard. She would perform well no matter what she had to do.
"All the best, Xiulan, "Her father hugged her at the door of her class. She was the only kid whose father had come to the class to drop her. The kids were giving her looks but she did not care. It was her father and why would she be embarrassed about it?
"Thank you, "She said in a hoarse tone. They said goodbye on the door and she entered the class. As she took a seat in the middle row by the side of the window,a kid looked at her and snickered.
"Oh, is she the baby whose daddy just dropped her at the door?" The kid said in a sarcastic tone.
"Don't be a douchebag, "An Afro-American girl with long curly hair knocked on his desk and gave him a look, "At least, she has a father to drop her at school unlike ours who disappeared on us when we were eight."
It was only at this moment An Xiulan noticed the similarities between the two kids. They could easily pass off as siblings if one were to assess their facial features but their colour was very different from each other. As if the girl could hear her questions, she said, "He got the colour of our run away along with his meanness. Don't mind him. He is not bad at heart."
An Xiulan lightly nodded her head. She did not say anything and turned her attention to books on her desk.
Looking at the thick books on the desk, she felt a headache coming. Did she mention that her father was a little mean? He told her that she could choose any college and he would fulfill her wish but all she had to do was take law as her subject. She had applied for English literature at university in China but here she was in one of the best law colleges in the world. What was she going to do? She to be an amazing lawyer and he quit his practice two years ago to teach at the university.
had no idea about it?
Suddenly, the class began and the first professor was a middle-aged man with a sophisticated look. He was dressed in a black suit and looked everything like she had imagined an American professor to look like. She heard from the kids talking in the class that he used to be an amazing lawyer and he quit his practice two years ago to teach at the university.
"Hello, class. I'm Prof. Dalton. I will be taking your first class of the semester, "The professor said. "We do not have time for introductions. I will leave it to you for later. Let's discuss the syllabus first. All of you must have downloaded it from the university website. Now let's move on without wasting any time."
An Xiulan looked at the professor and then at the students who without any questions began opening their laptops and patiently listening to him discussing the syllabus.
It was at this moment An Xiulan knew that her life was going to be very different from what it was before. The childlike treatment that she used to get in her school would not be seen here. She had to adjust to the traditions here as soon as possible.
She had three back-to-back classes and almost all the professors were quick to start the syllabus on the very first day.
Now they had a break before other classes started and she was hungry. She was trying to find a cafeteria but it was difficult to find one in such a gigantic university.
"Hey, Chinese kid!"
An Xiulan heard the voice of the same kid again.
"Ouch, Rach! Why are you hitting me?" The kid said when his sister hit his arm.
"You are being racist!" His sister told him.
"How the hell? I don't even know her name. She is a Chinese kid, that's all I know, "The boy said, seriously.
"We have more Chinese kids in the class, "The girl said.
"Now you are being racist by not recognising the difference between all the Korean, Japanese and Chinese kids in the class, "The boy said, offended. "I know she is Chinese. Let me ask her if she is Chinese."
"Hey, are you Chinese, Chinese kid?" The boy asked. "If you are then, can you tell my sister that law is a waste of a degree after allwe are lazy people and our jobs would be taken away?"
"Robby!!"
Suddenly, An Xiulan burst into laughter. This boy was not mean, he just had very low EQ and did not know how to talk to people.
Hearing her mesmerizing laugh both of them turned to look at her as if they had never seen someone so beautiful while laughing.
...
A/N: Right now, An Xiulan and I are in the same boat. I wanted to console my aching soul. I picked up my laptop and came to the library to write. It is hard. My exam results came bad. They are good for someone who tried for the first time but I got too hopeful and now the hopes are killing me. Hard life! Sigh!
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