Capítulo 3: From Families to Fried Chickens
He felt awkward. Not for the first time, he started despising his pride. 'Couldn't you have just said it then?' He thought to himself. 'Now that woman's going to think I'm weird for calling just to say thank you.'
Gabriel had wanted to say it back at the restaurant. However, her actions had rendered him tongue-tied. It was utterly embarrassing, to have to be saved from choking by the very person he had attempted to kill. He had entered the restaurant with such strength and showiness, only to leave with drool all over his hands and his limited-edition blazer.
He had nearly vomited blood from the shame and guilt. At the same time, he had been choked by his absolute fury at his damned luck.
Not only that, he had been stunned by her willingness to save his life even after he attempted to kill her. It was his first time experiencing such sincerity from someone besides his parents. It touched him.
If she weren't so ugly, perhaps he would have fallen for her at first sight the moment he spat out the piece of candy.
As the phone rang in his ear, he waited for her to pick up. With each passing second, the number of second thoughts he had increased.
Gabriel debated on whether to say thank you or sorry or both. He didn't want to say sorry — well, he did. It was only polite since he had attempted to kill her. However, every time he imagined himself saying it, his pride reared its head like a hissing cobra and he couldn't spit out the words.
He wasn't sorry for attempting to kill her. It was her fault for destroying a third of his casino empire in America, which he spent years working tirelessly to build. He worked late nights, sacrificed his hobbies, and drank so much coffee and RedBull that his blood was practically half-caffeine.
So, Gabriel thought that his response was perfectly justified.
"Thanks for your help, and sorry," Gabriel muttered, testing out what to say. His throat still felt weird. There was the phantom sensation of something lodged inside. "Thank you for your timely assistance. You have my deepest apologies for the damage done to your restaurant."
"Should I give her compensation?" Gabriel wondered.
Suddenly, there was the sound of static. Gabriel smoothed out his expression.
She had picked up. "Hello?"
His mouth felt dry. For a moment, he had forgotten what to say and scrambled to fill the silence. "Elena," he began. How should he start? Should he begin with casual conversation and slowly lead in to his apology? Or perhaps, would it be better to get straight to the point?
Fortunately, Elena spoke first, thus ending his miserable contemplations.
"What's your name?" she asked hastily.
"Gabriel Lavazza," he said, sounding offended. How could she not know who he was? He was the richest man in Italy. After a moment of hesitation, he continued, "Thank you."
"Thank you too," Elena said.
After hearing her reply, there was an awkward pause where he tried to mouth the word 'sorry'. He failed. Gabriel hung up.
"Cazzo!" he swore.
...
As Elena put down her phone from her ear, she wondered what that the previous call was for. Did he want something from her? He couldn't have called just to thank her, which he could have done back at the restaurant.
The elderly police officer coughed, rousing her from her thoughts.
Elena smiled sheepishly and opened her phone to the recent calls page.
"My friend's name is Gabriel Lavazza." She glanced down at her phone and started reading off it without any shame. "His number is 325 7355856."
The young police officer stared at her suspiciously, and opened his mouth to question her. However, before he could do so, the old officer said in a friendly tone, "Alright then, that will be all. Thank you for your cooperation."
Elena was suspicious that he had let her off so easily, but hid her doubts behind a perfunctory smile and goodbye wave. "Have a nice day, I hope you'll come back to Palermo Fried Chicken soon."
The elderly Italian policeman chuckled and said in English, "I sure hope not." He smiled at her with crinkled eyes and left with his junior. As they exited the door, the plump, young officer glanced back at her.
Elena smiled.
He quickly looked away, as if embarrassed that he had been caught.
…
Elena continued to clean, and finished at around five in the evening. Once she was done, she locked up her shop and went home.
It was strange to see the sun still up in Italy when the sky would have darkened in Beijing. She couldn't get used to it, despite having stayed here for a week.
On the way back, she passed by several old residential buildings. They were of a distinctly different style from the ones in Beijing. The buildings were stout and either a beige or yellow colour, reflecting the arid italian air. They also had balconies hanging from every floor of the building.
In comparison, the apartment buildings in Beijing were taller, had far more glass, and were designed in a modern style.
All of a sudden, she missed her homeland. She missed being able to buy her favourite Tanghulu snack from the vendor across the street from Feifei's house. Now, she couldn't find Tanghulu anywhere in Palermo, Italy. She missed having Youtiao and sweet beancurd for breakfast, instead of bread and eggs day after day.
The food in Italy was too heavy for her, and the people and language were foreign. She couldn't understand what they were saying and sometimes she thought her staff members were gossiping about her in front of her face.
But she had made the decision to settle down here, and she would stick to it. Besides, China was too dangerous. One of the people she offended back in Macau was a bigshot in China. She could still chance it and return, of course, but she had learnt today that her luck could be unreliable and she was not invincible.
Upon thinking about the incident today, Elena remembered Gabriel's ridiculous demand.
'$150 000 in three months? That crazy bastard. Most franchises make that in a year,' she grumbled inwardly and forgot her homesickness.
It was impossible. Even if her restaurant was full house from opening till closing, the seat turnover rate would only be 2.5 and that wasn't enough.
Her staff were only human and food required time to make. Meaning, there was a limited amount of fried chicken and sides that her staff could produce in a day and a limited number of orders they could take.
Even if she hired more staff and more machines, there was limited kitchen space. If there were too many people and too little space, accidents could happen.
Plus, in order to maintain affordability and appeal to those from the middle to lower-income categories, the prices of their food were kept cheap. So their profit margin was low, and they relied on the cumulative quantity of sales to make money.
They were unlike other high-class restaurants that purposely only opened at night to accept less customers, and had rare delicacies and expensive cuisine. Such restaurants relied on quality, had high profit margins and low quantity of sales, and catered to the wealthy.
"What the fuck am I supposed to do?" Elena wondered out loud. She doubted that he would really kill her if she failed to do as he demanded. But what if he was serious?
Well, worst comes to worst, she'd just funnel her own money into the profits of the restaurant. 'Reverse embezzlement,' Elena thought with a wry smile. Besides, money was not an issue for her. She was a multi-millionaire.
Her wealth had been gained through exploiting her luck. The first million RMB she made was by winning the jackpot of a lottery back in China. Problem was, her 'business' opportunities were scarce there.
There were no casinos and illegal gambling was too dangerous. She couldn't join more lotteries either, because the Central Communist Party would catch onto her if she continued winning big.
So, for the first time in her life, she left the country for more fertile lands.
There was nothing tying her to her homeland anyway, besides Feifei and her sense of patriotism. Feifei had encouraged her to leave, giving her a list of pros while sobbing loudly and blowing her nose. As for her patriotism, well.
She was going overseas to rob the foreign barbarians of their wealth! Elena righteously phrased her purely materialistic motive.
Her family — adoptive family, she corrected — was less than supportive. 'But,' she sneered, 'of course they don't want their sugar mama to leave.'
For nineteen years, she had lived with her aunt and uncle, believing that they were her parents. She only discovered the truth two years ago when she turned eighteen.
A lawyer had sent her a letter informing her about her inheritance and a trust fund — a trust fund that had been already emptied.
At first, she thought it was another scammer. He'd tell her he could help her retrieve the money, but! She had to pay him 10,000 RMB for his services.
Elena was proven wrong. The lawyer came up to her one day after school and asked her to follow him to his office. Naturally, Elena was suspicious and prepared to scream. Had the guy decided to kidnap and ransom her instead, since she didn't fall for his scam?
In order to assuage her doubts, the lawyer recommended they meet at an expensive nearby cafe instead. She refused. Then he offered to buy her lunch, and she instantly agreed.
He told her about her real parents, who had been moderately wealthy. Her mother had been a successful fashion designer and her father had been a judge.
They had died in a car accident before she was born, when she was nine-months old and still in her mother's stomach. The doctors could not save her parents who had died at the scene. However, they managed to dig her out of her mother's womb and saved her life.
There was a newspaper article about the accident that the lawyer had passed her while looking at her with a sympathetic expression.
"2 DEAD IN CAR ACCIDENT, UNBORN CHILD SURVIVES."
While reading it, Elena had been in complete disbelief. How could it be possible? How could the aunt and uncle she had never known — that were never spoken about in family gatherings — turn out to be her dead parents?
Still, she didn't grieve over them much. She just felt the ordinary pity you would give to the victims you read about in the newspaper.
Besides, she had never met her biological parents. It was hard to miss someone who she never knew.
It hurt that her aunt and uncle had concealed the truth of her adoption from her, but she forgave them. After all, they had raised her. They had changed her diapers, enrolled her in the best kindergarten, nagged her to finish her homework, and never mistreated her.
Furthermore, her cousin, Li Beina felt like the younger sister she never had. When Li Beina annoyed her, Elena would bully her back. They played with dolls together as kids and when they grew older, they discussed boys and makeup and anime instead.
As for Li Qiangjun, who was Li Beina's elder brother, he rarely came home. But she remembered him reluctantly allowing her to braid his hair when she was young.
They were a family. So if the truth had just been that, she would have accepted it.
Then the lawyer explained that her parents had made her maternal aunt and uncle her guardians in the case of their untimely deaths. Her biological parents gave them access to the trust fund they left her, to support Elena's education, food, clothing, etc.
But what they did instead was split her trust fund into two. Half of the money was used for Elena, half of it was for their daughter, Li Beina. The lawyer could not stop them because her parents had trusted them, and didn't make them sign a document legally binding them to only use the money on their daughter, Elena. So what did they was legal.
It felt like theft or a betrayal. She knew it was selfish to want the money all for herself, instead of sharing it with her family. But she was a selfish person and it was hers in the first place.
When Elena returned home that day, she was burning with righteous fury and wanted to confront her so-called parents. However, she lacked the guts. Years of being raised by her aunt and uncle had made her dependent on them.
She didn't have money, didn't have a university degree or any job experience. What if they kicked her out? What if they decided to punish her and take away her privileges?
They controlled her whole life. The meals she ate, the water she drank, the WiFi she used, were all provided by them.
Even though her trust fund was depleted, she still had her inheritance so she wasn't without money. But she couldn't rely on it her whole life. Furthermore, she lacked life skills. She didn't know how to apply for a credit card, pay her water bills, or even pay her taxes!
It was only when she was on the verge of losing them that Elena learnt the importance of having a parent to care for her.
In the end, Elena decided to confront them another day. But each day became another. She didn't have the courage to break up their family, or expose their parent's deep flaws in front of her innocent sister.
Weeks passed. With every hug, every smile, every good-intentioned nagging her family gave her, her resolve wavered but her quiet resentment only grew.
On July 9, it all exploded.
That day, her aunt and uncle approached her with apprehensive expressions. They told her in a regretful and pleading tone that they simply didn't have enough money to pay for both Elena's university education and her sister's cram school.
She remembered the feeling of her stomach dropping to her feet. Her heart felt like a knife had stabbed through it. Despite their attempts to treat the both of their daughters equally over the years, when it came down to either one of them, they still chose their biological daughter, Elena thought with a cynical smile.
They asked her to be understanding. Her sister, Li Beina, needed the extra tuition to prepare for her national university entrance exams next year.
"Be a good sister," they told her. "Zhiruo, you're a smart girl. Your national examination results were in the top 10%, you can definitely enter university a few years later."
"..."
"In the meantime, you can work to help us cover your school fees."
They begged and pleaded and tried their best to convince her to prioritise her beloved 'meimei.'
But every word they spoke became a wedge driving her further away from her family.
Finally, she agreed.
"Okay," Elena remembered mumbling through her tears.
Her aunt and uncle tried their best to hide the joy from their faces and put on a sympathetic expression. They praised her for being selfless, patted her hands and then they left.
They probably thought that she was sad about losing her chance to enter university and would get over it soon.
But what she was grieving, was the loss of her family.
For the first time, she felt the deaths of her real parents acutely. If her real parents hadn't died, she would never have been taken advantage of by her relatives. She would have been the apple of their eye and never be anyone's second choice.
Now, Elena knew that she had never been a part of her aunt's family in the first place. She was just an orphan they adopted.
She wept bitterly in her room for several days, while pretending to be fine in front of her relatives.
Her cousin, Li Beina was young and ignorant but knew her well. She asked her what was wrong, but Elena — consumed by jealousy and resentment — rejected her with vehemence. She regretted it immediately but the damage was done.
Li Beina didn't say anything in reply and returned to her room with a hurt and awkward expression. For once, her aunt and uncle didn't scold her and instead went to soothe their daughter, while glancing at her with guilty eyes.
At that moment, Elena felt crawling into a pit to hide. She knew then and there that she couldn't stay in that toxic home any longer.
That night, she packed her clothing and valuables and left the house.
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