"Miss, you woke up."
Lantian got her back from the bed at the same time Xiaolan opened the door and echoed.
"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."
"Um." Lantian nodded.
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 the rich one's daughter. Why didn't she tell me about her surname?"
"I heard that her mother was a maid, and 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."
Without knowing the reason, just hearing the information, the head of Lantian was thinking of something, something that she was not aware of what it was.
The next task was going to the dining room. But when she passed her father's working room, a voice called, "Stop."
Bravely, the young lady paused on her feet and turned to go into the room on the right. Inside, she perceived her father was holding a tense 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 like 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?"
Ha ha...
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 tried to keep her eyes low. 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. As a mother, her heart was hurt to watch her daughter tremble all the time she met Lantian. In her thoughts, her kid should be treated the same as the daughter of Lady Chen, though she was not a legitimate child. Technically, it was not wrong to appeal for justice for the daughter, but never once did Lady Mu mention her or her kid's misconduct. Usually she changed the story and always painted colors; especially, she liked to portray Dong Mei as a chick and Lantian as a bear. However, it was not a new event; Lantian dealt with such a thing many times. It was a daily habit that 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, and the reason she had the courage to do this was 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 together. "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 fire. He raised up his voice. "You hurt your sister, and you still have the 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 violently toward her? And toward which part of her?"
"Dong Mei's body is fine," Lady Mu uttered, "but her mental state is affected. " She stayed in her 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 her third mother. Why don't you call them rude?"
The words shifted the angry Wu Guang to span to his 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 his 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?" The 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 the ears of people at the front gate were able to perceive it.
"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 wrong."
"I never say I don't respect you. I just don't follow what you ask me to do."
"It's the same thing. You not doing what your father tells you to do means you don't respect your 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 mayor, who was so powerful that his lips were always covering people, at this moment, could not open and express a single word. Even his arms or legs could not move. In this period, the part that was capable of acting was his eyes, and without blinking, they were commanding to glance straightly at his daughter's, and what he received was her glance towards him full of pieces of snow that were sharp like knives. At that time, a memory that was hotter than a burning forest fire appeared between the two of them. Then without a word, Lantian slid her body off the door.