Bab 10: Chapter six
As the sun reached mid-afternoon hour, Lantian opened her lazy eyes. She blinked and rolled body over the bed a few times before she decided to get up.
At that moment, Xiaolan unlocked the door, "Miss, you wake up."
"Where is mother?" Lantian said.
"Madame goes to the pagoda. I think now she is on the way back. Please wash your face. I will go to tell the cook to prepare food for you."
Lantian rolled her neck, then dropped her legs down the floor and said, "Um."
After informing the cook, Xiaolan came back to help her mistress dress up.
"How is the work that I told you to do?" Lantian asked.
"I searched already," Xiaolan said. "Young mistress that you met in the park yesterday is really named Caihong, and she is the daughter of millionaire Yang."
Lantian narrowed her eyebrows, "Daughter of Yang Fu?"
"Yes." Xiaolan nodded. "She is his second daughter. Her mother was the fourth wife of millionaire Yang."
"She is rich's daughter. Why didn't she tell me about her surname?"
"I heard that her mother was a maid, then she became the wife of millionaire Yang. After she delivered the child, she passed away."
"She was dead?"
"Yes. No one mentions the second young lady, even maids in the house. I think probably because of her mother's background."
"Is she living in that house?"
"Yes, she does. But she lives separately, not in the big house."
Hearing it, Lantian beat the fan gently on her palm. In her head was thinking of something.
After dressing up, Lantian walked out of the room with the wish to go to the dining room, but when she passed her father's working room, a voice called, "Stop."
Hearing that, the young lady paused her feet and turned to go into the room while Xiaolan stayed outside and further. Inside, she perceived her father was holding a tensed face and her fourth stepmother was there as well.
"Yesterday, why did you leave the party early?" Wu Guang said.
"I was bored, so I left," Lantian said.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"I told Xiaolan to tell you already."
"You are a daughter. You should inform parents before going anywhere, but you do not and ask the maid to do it for you. Do you think what you're doing is right?"
Lantian narrowed her eyes since she did not understand what the father was talking about.
"You are a woman, but you don't act as a woman. You do not stay at home. You go to sleep outside. And when you come back, you look for trouble with people in the house. You insult the elder, you abuse your sister. Do you still think you are doing correctly?"
'Ah hah.' Lantian held a smirk because she understood what was going on. Someone was trying to hit in advance in order to win.
Behind the husband, lady Mu dropped her eyes. Her body and feet were cold and she didn't dare to look at Lantian. Actually, she just had a purpose to get sympathy from her husband towards her daughter. Her heart was hurt to watch her daughter tremble all the time she met Lantian. She thought her kid should be treated the same as the daughter of lady Chen.
It was not wrong to appeal for justice for daughter, but lady Mu did not talk about her or her kid misconduct. Usually she changed story and always painted colors, especially she liked to build Dong Mei as a chick and Lantian as a bear.
It was not a new event; Lantian dealt with such a thing many times. She knew her fourth stepmother preferred making trouble when her mother and she were not around. When she was caught by her mother or her, she would hurriedly go to her father to get mercy by acting as the victim. She had courage to do this because she perceived that neither her mother nor she would tell the father about the problem in the back-chamber.
"Answer my question. Why did you insult your fourth mother and abuse your youngest sister?" Wu Guang said.
"She is the one who told you the story, she should tell you why," Lantian spoke without fear.
"You still argue back?"
"I don't argue. I say what I should say."
"Apologize to your fourth mother and go to your sister and say sorry to her."
Lantian tied her eyebrows, "Why do I say sorry to Dong Mei?"
"You hurt her."
"I hurt her! When did I hurt her?"
Wu Guang's face changed to red like a fire. He raised up his voice, "You hurt your sister, and you still have face to ask! You are an elder sister, you should protect your sister, but you act like a gangster, you do violence to your own sister."
"Call her to come and speak with me face to face. When did I act violence to her? And to which part of her?"
"Dong Mei's body is fine," lady Mu uttered, "but her mental is affected. She stayed in room and cried all day."
"Mentally affected?" Lantian giggled. "Liar."
"Rude!" Wu Guang shouted. "How dare you say this to the elder?"
"Why can't I? She is really a liar," Lantian roared back. "You said I am rude because I call your wife a liar. You want me to respect her, but why don't you tell her to respect her sister? She looked down on third mother and she allowed her daughter to insult third mother. Why don't you call them rude?"
Hearing that, Wu Guang spun to wife who was making her face down. Actually, he could sense that his youngest wife did not tell the true story at all; however, he had to protect her because she was his woman; furthermore, he wanted to take a chance to educate his stubborn daughter.
"I will deal with it," he dropped the volume. "Now, I'm talking about you. You are wrong to not speak well to your fourth mother, so I order you to apologize to her."
"No."
Wu Guang opened eyes big, "You are a junior, you have to respect seniors."
"You are an example to me. You always said you would deal with it, but you did not do it. I bet later on, you'll forget. I am not sure if you really forget or you pretend you forget."
"It's my business. I am your father. You have to listen to me. I tell you to say sorry, you must say sorry."
"No, I won't."
"You dare to refuse my words?" Face of Wu Guang became red again.
"Yes, I dare."
"You!"
The atmosphere in the working room became hotter and hotter. Father and daughter raised voices at each other so loud that ears of people at the front gate were able to perceive.
"Being a parent does not mean you can assign your child to do whatever you want. You want me to listen to you unless you do the right thing but you do not. You want me to respect her, but you don't tell her to respect others. You want me to say sorry to my youngest sister, but you never tell your wife to say sorry to me when she accuses me. If so, do you think I will follow your instructions? No way."
"I am your father; hence, you have to respect me though I do wrongly."
"I never say I don't respect you. I just don't follow what you ask me to do."
"It's the same thing. Don't do what father tells you to do means you don't respect father."
"If you say like this, then that's it."
"If you don't respect me, you are not my daughter."
"Then you are not my father."
"If I knew you were like this, I would not allow you to study letters. I would make you marry a husband."
"When you say these words, it means you are really not a father."
"I don't care what you think. I am your father. I have a duty to educate you. If I cannot educate you, then I will find a husband for you."
"If I don't agree, what do you want to do?"
"If you don't agree, I'll force you."
"Try it."
"You threaten me?"
"I just warn you. If you want to see another life lost, do it."
The last sentence made Wu Guang lose his speech. He looked at the eyes of his daughter and saw her glance full of pieces of snow that were sharp like knives. At that moment a memory that was hotter than burning forest fire appeared between the two of them. Then without a word, Lantian left the room.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone