章 13: Home and Mom
編集者: Atlas Studios
Ming Dai walked forward leisurely as her old and faded memories gradually recovered.
She passed through the noisy street and turned into an alley that was overflowing with sewage. On the second floor of the mottled and uneven cement wall, the square window that was painted a light green color was slightly open. The leaves of the green buds drooped from the gaps and swayed gently in the wind.
Ming Dai's house was behind that green window.
Every inch of land in Yanjing was expensive. The Ming family could not afford a house, so Ming Dai had been renting this place since she could remember.
It was eleven o'clock in the morning. When Ming Dai stepped into the house, her mother, Yu Ting, was choosing vegetables in the kitchen.
Hearing the creaking of the old security door, she looked over.
"Ming Dai?" She wiped her hands with her apron and stood up. "You're back so early?"
Ming Dai found her pair of pink slippers from the messy pile of shoes at the door and changed into them.
When she looked up, her feet stopped.
Yu Ting from ten years ago looked older than she did ten years later.
'That's right.'
Now, she was still soaking in the bitter water of life. Her heavy burden of her livelihood was crushing her shoulders. She had to wake up before dawn every day. At noon, she would work as a waiter in a nearby restaurant, and at night, she would set up a stall in the snack street…
She was like a tireless spinning top. Her face, which had been considered beautiful when she was young, was ravaged beyond recognition. She looked at least ten years older than her actual age.
It was only when Ming Dai gave up on the college entrance examination and entered the entertainment industry at the age of 18 that the family's financial situation improved. Yu Ting did not have to go out to work because Ming Dai's monthly salary was completely enough for the couple to live comfortably.
In the beginning, Yu Ting still had a sense of crisis and would save most of the money. This way, even if Ming Dai was outdated and could not earn money, the couple's life in their later years would not be too affected.
Gradually, Ming Dai became increasingly popular and earned more and more money. Her sense of crisis was numbed, and Yu Ting began to squander money. She would use various reasons to ask Ming Dai for money.
The face that Ming Dai saw ten years later was a beautiful face that was loaded with countless amounts of money.
On the eve of her rebirth, Ming Dai, who was mentally and physically exhausted, called her adoptive parents. She was like an aggrieved child who hoped to be comforted by her parents.
The first thing Yu Ting asked was not about her condition, but…
"Do you have to pay any money? Will your work be affected? Can we still buy the villa we saw last time?"
…
"How's the audition going? Why did you come back alone? Where's your cousin?"
The two voices in this life and the previous life seemed to overlap.
Ming Dai was stunned for a moment.
She avoided Yu Ting's questioning gaze and walked into the kitchen. She took the half-finished dishes from Yu Ting.
"I didn't feel well, so I came back on my own."
When Yu Ting heard this, she thought that Ming Dai had passed the audition and her face lit up.
She dashed into the kitchen and snatched the vegetables from Ming Dai's hands.
"Alright, the kitchen is small to begin with. Why did you squeeze in? Didn't you say that you weren't feeling well? Hurry up and rest! Oh right, don't forget to call your cousin and ask when he can come to our house for dinner. It's all thanks to him showing us the way. Otherwise, how would we have found a way to bring you to the audition to be a celebrity…"
"I didn't pass the audition."
Ming Dai lowered her eyelashes and interrupted Yu Ting's excited chatter.
Yu Ting suddenly stopped talking.
"Didn't… pass?" Her voice suddenly became shrill. "Why not? Is it because the director doesn't like you?"
"I just didn't pass."
Ming Dai slowly picked up the other dishes. Her handling movements changed from unfamiliar to proficient.
During this process, Yu Ting's breathing became heavy.
A full minute passed.
Yu Ting took a deep breath and threw the vegetables in her hand into the basin.
Her tone was cold and hard, and her words were just as Ming Dai had guessed.
"Deal with all the vegetables. They'll be used at the stall tonight!"
"Oh."
"The clothes are soaking in the toilet. Go wash them later!"
"Okay."
"Where are your glasses? Why did you come back like this? Are you afraid that others won't notice you?"
"It's with my cousin. He took it and didn't give it back."
Yu Ting stared at Ming Dai's exquisite side profile, which seemed to be automatically coated with a layer of light, and her anger instantly rose.
"Don't you have your old glasses? Put them on! You're already in your third year of high school! Your results are so bad! Why don't you study hard! What are you going to do when you grow up? Seduce men with your face? I knew you were a restless…"
Ming Dai did not listen to the harsh scolding that brushed past her ears, nor was she angry.
She just felt a little emotional.
It turned out that in her previous life, it was not her cousin Kang Ren's persuasion that convinced Yu Ting.
—It was money.
Ming Dai coughed softly again.
Yu Ting kept scolding, "Are you some delicate young lady who doesn't do any chores? You can even cough from washing the vegetables! Your movements are so slow! When I was your age, I did all the housework alone! Unlike you guys now! You don't know how lucky you are!"
Ming Dai casually looked down at the pair of rough hands soaking in the water. They were hands that had been used to doing housework since she was young and did not have the tender and fair skin that had been maintained for ten years.
Which delicate young lady's hands looked like this?
Yu Ting still felt that it was not enough. "Didn't I ask you to wash the clothes? Stop dilly-dallying!"
How could Ming Dai do two things at the same time?
There were two basins in front of her. One was for washing vegetables, and the other was for washing clothes. She used both hands…
"Pfft."
Ming Dai felt that she might have lost her mind from the fever. How could she let her imagination run wild at this juncture?
Yu Ting looked at her as if she was looking at a fool and ordered the third thing in disdain.
"There's no soy sauce at home! Go downstairs and buy a bottle!"
"Oh."
Ming Dai dried her hands and took two steps forward. She turned around and reached out to Yu Ting.
Yu Ting glared angrily. "What do you want?!"
"Money."
Yu Ting held back her anger and only gave Ming Dai a 10-yuan note after a long while.
"A bottle of soy sauce costs eight yuan. Remember to come back with two yuan! Don't steal it!"
"Okay."
Ming Dai's movements became faster.
She put on her old glasses in the drawer to prevent Yu Ting from scolding her again.
She ran downstairs in her slippers. After escaping from Yu Ting's scolding, the entire world seemed to be refreshed.
Ming Dai's footsteps were light as she jumped forward step by step on the checkered bricks on the sidewalk.
She had no distracting thoughts, like a child immersed in a game.
She only needed a little bit of fun to be happy.
… A pair of feet appeared in her field of vision.
The Jimmy Choo's pointed high heels and exquisite elegance stood out in the urban village.
Ming Dai followed the pair of feet and looked up. She saw a familiar face.
Short hair, shrewd eyes, slightly ordinary facial features, and an aggressive and fierce aura.
Where had she seen her before?
"You just went to Xijiang Building, right?"
The other party spoke very quickly, and there was a faint trace of panting.
Ming Dai tilted her head at her.
"I saw you there just now, but you weren't wearing glasses. Let me introduce myself again. I'm an agent. Are you interested in becoming an actress in the entertainment industry?"
The woman's bright eyes were fixed on her, and an unquestionable aura pressed down on her.
If Ming Dai was a real 18-year-old girl, she might have been nervous.
But she wasn't.
-- 贈り物
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