บท 171: Uproar Back In T City

As Kang Jun was having his meeting with Tang Bingyi, Lu AnLing was inside the Recovery Institution. Walking inside, seeing the off-white walls and then the unknown women who passed her by, Lu AnLing's body stiffened.

As she was guided down the hall, she thought of her years spent there and how she had never felt as empty as she had in this place, but it was funny how she had never spent a single day lonely.

At the end of the hall, Lu AnLing saw the familiar tall and bony figure of Madame Durand, whose dirty blonde hair fell neatly on her back in a long French braid.

"Madame Durand," the woman who was leading Lu AnLing said loudly.

Hearing the sound of the woman's voice, Madame Durand turned around. When she saw Lu AnLing's face, the woman cracked a huge toothy smile.

"Ma Cherie!" She said as she walked quickly towards Lu AnLing to wrap her in a warm embrace before kissing the girl on the cheeks. "It's been so long since I've seen your pretty face!"

Lu AnLing laughed as she hugged the woman back.

"You've grown so beautiful and chubby! I'm so glad. You look much healthier than before," Madame Durand said.

As she put her hand on the girl's back, the woman led Lu AnLing out of the building and into the courtyard. "How has your life been?"

Lu AnLing had many things she could say about how good life was going at the moment. She had come so far since she had left the institution... but instead, she said, "It's been great."

Madame Durand looked deeply into the girl's eyes to see if there was any hint of a lie but there wasn't so she didn't pry. Instead, she held onto Lu AnLing's hand.

Madame Durand: "This place has really changed since you left, let me show you around,"

Lu AnLing smiled politely and then said, "I'm sorry, I can't stay for long. I only came here to visit Anna..."

Madame Durand's face went pale.

"Yes, I'll take you to her grave. Anna... that poor child..." Madame Durand muttered.

Leading Lu AnLing to the grave, Madame Durand was quiet but the trip was short. As she followed, Lu AnLing played nervously with the ring on her finger. There Lu AnLing leaned down to touch the dirt. Anna had died less that a year ago so there wasn't yet a tombstone. Looking at the plot, Lu AnLing sighed. She then removed the silver pin in her hair, allowing her long dark hair to fall onto her shoulders, then she placed it gently on the cold ground and said,

"I always meant to give this back to you. Rest easy my friend."

Madame Durand: "I think you should keep it. I'm sure Anna would have wanted you to have it, to remember her by."

Hearing this, Lu AnLing reluctantly grabbed it and put it in her bag. After that, she turned around. Once she did, she whipped away her unshed tears before both her and Madame Durand walked away.

Feeling awkward, Lu AnLing frowned. "How was she before..."

Lu AnLing didn't have to finish her sentence for Madame Durand to understand.

"She was the same... still drawing, still moping about. She spoke about you frequently,..." Madame Durand paused for a second and began thinking of something. "Actually, I think there was something she left for you."

Lu AnLing followed Madame Durand to her office. Then the woman left her to go fetch a couple of things. When the woman came back she held a large plastic bag filled with Anna's belongings.

Anna was there as long as Lu AnLing was. They arrived at around the same time and so, they ended up being roommates.

Anna was a sweet girl, though in her past she had caused a lot of trouble. Due to her rash nature, Anna ended up running away from home and, to survive, she made some bad decisions, took money from the wrong people and did many wrong things. This hurt her deeply.

And due to one mistake, one faithful day, she was brought to the institution. There she spend her remaining days.

Lu AnLing watched as Madame Durand dug through the bag. Here and there the woman would place things on her table. Most of them were sketch pads and diaries.

Curious, Lu AnLing grabbed one of the woman's sketch pads and began to flip through the pictures. There were many drawings of scenery, most of them were that of the inside of the Recovery institution. Then she picked up another sketch pad. In this one, there were many drawings of a place Lu AnLing swore was T City but that was impossible so Lu AnLing talked herself out of that possibility.

As Lu AnLing got deeper into the sketch pads the girl saw a couple drawings of a park, an airport and then suddenly she saw a sketch of a place she couldn't mistake...

It was Hotel Helios's lobby. But it looked like the way it had 6 years ago.

Lu AnLing looked at the bottom of the page. Anna usually signed her name and the date she had drawn it at the bottom. There, the date was 6 years ago, what was worse was that it was around the date Yang Yize had broken up with her.

Lu AnLing's face twisted.

Lu AnLing was always bitter about what had happened all those years ago and despite wanting to forget, she was never able to forget; not even the date.

Even at the Institution, this didn't change.

For the whole time she had stayed in the Recover Institution Lu AnLing hadn't ever mentioned where she was from and neither did Anna. Lu AnLing wanted to forget about her home and she had just assumed that that was what Anna wanted to also, so the both of them never spoke of 'home'.

Lu AnLing gazed at the rest of Anna's diaries and sketch books. She turned to Madame Durand and said, "Do you mind if I take these?"

Madame Durand smiled as she continued to dig through the bad. "Sure, no one ever came to pick up Anna's things, anyway. I'm sure she'd want you to have it."

Suddenly, Madame Durand's face lightened completely as she pulled out a small box.

"Here you are," Madame Durand said as she placed the box in front of Lu AnLing.

Lu AnLing ran her fingers on the edges of the box before she opened it.

Inside, there were letters.

***

When Kang Jun and Tang Bingyi walked out of the Tang Corporations building it was around 6 o'clock. They had been negotiating for hours, even skipping lunch in the process.

Suddenly, Tang Bingyi's stomach growled but the girl didn't show much shame. All she did was look at Kang Jun and say, "You want to catch a bite to eat?"

Kang Jun shook his head.

"I have a couple of things I need to do," Kang Jun said without any plan to explain himself.

Hearing this, Tang Bingyi didn't ask questions either.

Tang Bingyi was going to let him go but suddenly some more information that needed to be clarified came to mind.

She was starving so she just asked Kang Jun to drive her to where she was going to eat. The man didn't see a problem with this and so he did just that. In the car, the two simply spoke for a bit as Kang Jun accompanied her. When she arrived at her destination she smiled,

"I'm glad to be working with you, Mr. Kang." The two shook hands and then Tang Bingyi opened the car door, but before she stepped out, she said, "I hope all goes well with that pretty girl of yours."

When she said that, Kang Jun couldn't help but give a small laugh. "I'll be seeing you again, Miss Tang."

He had no idea why Tang Bingyi was so interested in his affairs with Lu AnLing but he didn't mind. Tang Bingyi, unlike her brother, wasn't the type of person to think of herself as a higher being compared to others. Actually, she much enjoyed listening to the mundane things other people did.

Not being able to fully comprehend the affairs of love herself, Tang Bingyi's favorite pass time was analyzing the situations of others. At the club, she had found out that Kang Jun might be the most interesting specimen she had ever come across. The girl had no romantic feelings for him, she was just interested in how a cold man like Kang Jun had fallen in love with a girl who seemed just... average. It sparked a fire within Tang Bingyi.

When she left Tang Bingyi was smiling unconsciously, and because Kang Jun was thinking of Lu AnLing, his face wasn't rigid either.

They both saw nothing wrong with their expressions but little did they know someone had taken a picture of them and that this would cause an uproar back in T City.