Chapter 73
For whom is Lang crying?
Rose is not a rose.
Rose is a lioness.
Feisty, not charming, combo with clumsy.
A week ago, the smartphone ringtone I installed was not used to answer calls; it was... the alarm clock... haiz... a long yawn, a shoulder stretch to wake up, and then I continue to lament... ah... um... I am not mistaken... it is the alarm clock...
Tsk... splatter all... the ammunition...
If anyone knows someone like me who does not follow the rules, who for a whole week has a headache and a tangled brain because the bells that make the mind riot and the song that is itchy to the ears is mine, that person rounds their eyes, flattens their eyes and thinks it is something paranoid.
Who can believe that the guy who hears the alarm auto-sleeps ten times three minutes before crawling out of bed. Now the music plays exactly once, and the guy who three minutes ten times immediately gets up like a machine... it's like I am pre-programmed to comply with a schedule... but not one created by myself.
Haiz, yes, I am crazy but not insane, everything is fine; suddenly I become moody and want to get a Good Kid Certificate. The discovery of this secret (maybe exposed, damn) is more certain than a nail driven into a pillar—whoever manages to put the guy who despises God more than a pot lid into the standard framework must have three heads, six arms, and twelve eyes.
Tsk, that lioness... at best she is just playful, mischievously persistent, and jokes endlessly without rival.
Especially for me, once the girl is excited, she teases and jokes from early morning to late at night, but she is not tired at all and her jaw muscles do not feel any fatigue.
Fortunately, the girl does not bother to the level of rearranging my messy habits: I do what I like; I don't do what I don't like. At least the girl knows to respect my private life.
I cannot like it, but I still "sadly" accept... the unwritten rules: I get up on time every morning to take that girl to school. Then I pick that girl up in the afternoon to go out and play until the evening, and only then do I say good night. But I have to use a sweet voice that makes people want to faint, before the girl will agree.
At first I refuse—she is not my mother, the girl immediately uses text messages to terrorize me psychologically, every time I open my Halo, it is flooded with garbage, she does all kinds of long and muddy tricks to drive me crazy. But the nose spicy is I cannot get angry at the soulmate of my sister-in-law. Every time I am gentle enough to say every minute and every second:
"Have you a good night!"
I get goosebumps and duck skin again, and I drink a few cans of beer to stop the nausea. The lioness is amused and deliberately lets me hear her giggles. Women are those pain. This stigmatizing statement of gender is accurate to me now and does not need editing...
Too tired... feeling sleepy again...
However, it is too late for school, so I quickly brush my teeth, wash my face, and change clothes. I grab the meat sandwich on the table, rush to the door, and clumsily bump into my mother. She stumbles and almost falls, and I hurriedly support her. My mother frowns and asks:
- Where do you run to like you are being chased by a ghost?
I am more grimacing than a monkey eating ginger:
- Did Mother forget? For a week now, I have to take the lioness to school.
Mother asks in surprise:
Today is Sunday, does she have to go to school too?
The mother smiles, looking at her stunned son. My face is more numb than a goose defecating. The old man scratches his nose and laughs like crazy at his son who is tortured by the girl until his brain mind is obsessed. I slap my forehead and sigh deeply:
- Sam, ah Sam, your life has concluded!
I wearily return to a suite of rooms for patients' relatives. Sometimes people need private space to handle personal matters, and it is easy to get exhausted from caring for too long, so Benevolence Hospital builds this area specifically for them.
Speaking of exhaustion, I am sleepy to the extent that I can barely keep my eyes open. Tsk, people are tired of taking care of their families...
I am exhausted because... I am being tortured by a girl...
Ancestors...
I grumble and fall onto the bed, secretly hoping I will not be disturbed by the mischievous girl. I keep muttering: don't call, don't text, if you text or call, I will…
My eyelids immediately close; my eyes and mouth shut. I fall asleep without realizing it. I dream of Luu Ly—my lovely niece—giggling and having fun with my sister-in-law.
The happiness of my family is my greatest joy. The greater the joy, the deeper the sorrow. I feel a burning sensation in the corners of my eyes because we still haven't found a matching bone marrow donor.
I, my mother, the old man, Rose, my sister-in-law, Kai, Teacher Loan's family, the thug police officer Kim, Anh Dao, Zero, Hero, Nhu Y, JK, and all the corporation members, volunteers, and those greedy for fame and profit in the world took turns undergoing bone marrow tests, but we were all rejected. Fortunately, Angel Blouse's technology keeps Luu Ly alive.
I hope a suitable donor will appear in the future. If no donor is found, one year from now the little angel will have to leave the family.
I can never forget the frustration, because that pure smile… will be gone forever.
If only I could keep dreaming of angels like I do now…
I can't control the monster inside me.
If that vision becomes reality, I will no longer exist in this world of human faces and beast hearts…
I don't want this cruel world to… give birth to… a monster.
I don't want to be the same species as beasts disguised as humans.
I DON'T WANT!
I scream madly in my subconscious. The fear exceeds the limit of my endurance and crushes my spirit. My mind rages against this cruel fate.
My older brother waits for death every day.
My mother eats her meals with tears, swallowing hatred with bitter sorrow.
My sister and niece are like lost souls; living is worse than dying in that accursed hell. Every day they perform on the stinking stage of life… and… force themselves to smile at the JK devil.
Damn, I wanted to forget all the sorrow, but trouble came to mess with my head. His great-grandfather ancestors. He came at neither an early nor a late time—just when I was enjoying the joy of being around angels, the devil brought a rotten corpse to spoil the scene.
It was unbearable to look at his hypocritical face, yet for some reason I never saw him wear a mask in front of Luu Ly. Even the evil ghost was more sincere than any obvious truth.
What the hell?
Am I crazy?
What the fuck is it about an evil spirit cherishing an angel?
Hatred makes me paranoid!
This cannot be true!
It can't be true!
I refuse to accept this infuriating fact!
Damn it—I had to leave that place immediately. If I hadn't left, I feared my hands would have been faster than my brain and I would have smashed the beast's face.
Fuckermother! Disgusting! I still had to greet that dog barking in human language.
I walked straight to the door, but wait… Rose was there, a smart, shrewd, and perceptive girl. If she understood the insiders' psychology, things would become more complicated. It wasn't that I didn't trust her, but outsiders shouldn't know these sensitive things yet.
But Hanna, my sister-in-law, was as sharp as Rose. Her emotional quotient was so high that she could definitely read everyone's mind. I should have been afraid that she would know, but I was not worried at all. I wanted the pure flower to know the whole truth.
The elder sister and her daughter have exceeded the permissible limit; they can no longer conceal their deep, unethical feelings, which means sooner or later they will be exposed.
Until then, maybe the sister-in-law will be the brother's official wife. Even if there is sympathy for the sinners, the shock will linger in her for the rest of her life. It is inevitable that she feels deceived by the whole family.
In fact, whether she learns it early or later makes no difference. The final result depends on the sister-in-law's generosity, psychology, and… love for her brother.
I believe her love is deep enough, and I believe my sister-in-law is magnanimous enough to forgive what we cannot yet reveal (to be frank is to conceal) about this shocking truth. But I'm still afraid her heart won't accept this karma, and our family will forever miss the shadow of the pure flower.
In the future, everything will be just pain and torture for each other.
It is better to suffer once than to be tormented for a lifetime.
If... my sister-in-law is still willing to take care of my brother until they grow old...
I will protect the pure flower until death!
If God... really still has mercy on my poor older brother...
The old man truly embodies the virtue of mercy for humanity.
I—the one who despises God no better than rags—will honor the Creator as the Supreme.
So I dragged Rose out of the room without hesitation. She paused for a step, then slowly followed me, step by step. When we went out to the corridor, I let go of her hand to avoid misunderstanding.
After walking for more than ten steps, I realized she was not with me. I looked around and didn't see Rose, so I went back and was immediately stunned.
I saw that the girl hadn't moved, thoughtfully contemplating me. Her face was bright, but suddenly she lowered her head with a sad look of disappointment. Heaven and earth, I scratched my head, frowned, smacked my lips to show my tiredness instead of saying the words I was about to say:
"Your lover may not be able to hold your hand for the rest of your life, let alone a friend like me."
She muttered so only I could hear:
"Lang is a stupid guy!"
Damn, it was Lang again. What animal had bitten her? That whole week, calling each other like two lovers had been sweeter than roasted sugar cane. Every morning, Halo rang with an urging voice, just like those girls who loved to nag their boyfriends:
"Lang, come and take me to school, quickly!"
Every time I pushed the task to Kai, I said he was way more badass than me. The world's number one martial arts server, what were you afraid of? If any guy dared to touch you, brother would break his mouth. The girl found an indisputable excuse:
"Brother is not as fierce as you. They are not afraid. They will shine on me secretly anyway. I don't want anyone who will secretly stare at me, except... someone!"
Even a fool knew who "someone" was, and everyone knew it was someone, but so miserable, forced to say forever—was I your fucking "someone"? You were a steel rose, not a pure flower, and I was not worthy of being a national hero. Those two classic images belonged only to the brother and sister-in-law.
Once, twice, three, then four times, I couldn't escape the "mission", that the girl considered to be an obligation and responsibility. I had to be solicitous and gentle before the girl agreed.
I was too lazy to find an excuse to refuse and drove the motorcycle over a few minutes later. I couldn't believe that one day I was spun like a pinwheel again.
The strange thing was that since the dog-beating in the cafeteria a week ago, when it was time for school, the girl woke me up and harassed me to pick her up like a grandmother general. Before going to bed, the lioness called to "confide", forcing me to "wish her good night." Apart from these things, the lioness didn't bother me—she didn't call once, didn't even send a text message, and only went to the hospital to visit my brother and Luu Ly before going home.
One day she suddenly changed her mind and teased me all day. She was so strange; for a trolling, mischievous girl who loved to troll around, she always gave me a headache, which was only logical. But if she didn't bother me, that was truly the blessing of eighteen generations of ancestors, so what else could I complain about?
When the sea was calm, there was a 99.9% chance that a storm would come. The lioness lay quietly to rest until the end of the sixth day; she "pounced" on me all day without missing a single time.
Except when I took a shower, went to the toilet, and went to bed, no matter where I went, the girl followed me, sticking closer than figure and shadow.
Blessing from the eighteenth generation of my blessed grandparents, the girl asked to play everywhere, but wasn't as demanding as when she forced me to pick her up to go to school.
She also didn't sulk again just because of a simple little thing, like a bunch of nagging, coquettish, forcing her boyfriend to pamper. That's right, I was not your fucking lover.
But what is this? From the moment she murmurs that Lang is an idiot, the image of the girl in the dream changes. At first, she sits with her chin down, bringing her innocent face full of sins close to me, her round eyes blinking and staring, then pensive, dull, hesitant, and she cannot finish her thought:
- Are you crying because… even in a dream?
You and I are both in a dream, but you say I am dreaming. What do you mean?
But the dream is so vivid, the face that is fierce to strangers, friendly to acquaintances, and gentle to the guy she thinks of as her boyfriend... is more real than real life. I am half awake and half asleep, watching Rose gently caressing my cheek.
The pensive girl looks at her fingers, which are wet with tears, and becomes so focused that... those tears seem to solidify in her eyes that no longer know how to smile. They are just tears, there is no need to be so blank, as if you cannot see anything except the tears.
Wait... tears? Am I crying? When do I start crying? Could it be... I start crying the moment I have this dream? The strange thing is that Rose wipes my tears and I realize I am crying.
Why… do my tears have a "strange" taste?
I don't know how people feel when they cry for their family members. But there must be only grief, and not such sweetness that settles in the bitterness...
Damn, sweetness splatters everywhere...
Sam, what are you thinking?
Maybe the sadness exceeds the limit of suffering... and becomes paranoia.
Crying for my elder sister and her daughter! For older brother! For my sister-in-law! Because of the ups and downs of their love! Because of the wrong red string that ties the karma of predestined affinity!
And crying because of... Luu Ly! Your niece!
Not crying because of... "that thing"...!
Not crying because of that girl!
But she wipes my tears, and her originally fresh appearance suddenly turns gray, bleak like a flower that has lost all its fragrance and color. She is shocked as if I am an incestuous guy.
Incest splatters...
I haven't even stopped being puzzled when the girl's mood changes again. She panics and begins to doubt herself... wonders if she is being sentimental and wrongly blames me?
You cling to me, and now you think badly of me?
Incest? I don't expect you to have a chronic imagination disease.
Incest with whom...
Speechless...
Too many bad thoughts and guesses, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. What else, the young mother, her face is red as if she has a fever. Splatter bullets, not the kind of embarrassing burning, but the fire that burns smolderingly, feeling like she is...
Damn it, I dare not think about it anymore. I have to avoid that fiery red face as soon as possible, so as not to go crazy with her and abandon mother.
I try to turn in another direction, but am attracted by the impressive and eye-catching appearance, with long flowing hair, heavier makeup than usual, and a pink velvet flared skirt that reaches her thighs. Unlike usual, today, she wears black tights to cover her white legs that seem to reach her armpits. The clothes are fashionable, but not as bold as in the past, exactly what she says in each sentence:
"I don't want any guy irradiating my body, except someone!"
The scary thing is that she is wearing a clouded leopard coat. Bullets splatter everywhere... I am still half awake and half asleep, so now I see the girl… looking a bit like a lioness. I am startled and sit up and shout:
- The lioness escaped from the pen!
The girl stares at me with her eyes wide open, opens her mouth and is stunned for a moment, then realizes that this is a good opportunity... to cover up her shame. The lioness opens her mouth and pounces on me, pinching and squeezing continuously.
I am always disturbed by her, immediately get angry. The two of us wrestle on the bed, roll around, and fall to the floor of the room. I and she are still torturing each other, I mess up her hair, open my mouth, and speak until I spit:
- You crazy girl, you haunt me forever? Now, you still haunt me in my dreams, what does that mean?
The feisty girl's blood boils. She raises ten fingers and pinches my ears, grabs my cheeks, and pulls my mouth to the sides, shouting:
- Dreams and fantasies, what the hell? Don't pull a red herring! You dare to laugh at me as a lioness that escaped from the pen and don't dare to take the responsibility, coward, idiot guy, dwarf guy...
I hate being criticized for being short, so I turn around and flip her body onto the floor. Just as I am about to retort, she suddenly changes her mind and becomes shy.
She struggles with the boy, hugs him tightly, and refuses to let go, without any embarrassment. Now she hides from me, her deep-red peach cheeks are no longer as hot as fire, but a faint bashful pink. For some reason, that bashful color sticks to my sightline.
I can't see my own face, but I can imagine it's obvious that a guy with a dumbfounded, stupid expression would be considered an idiot by a girl. I should have let go earlier… it makes sense… but how come I feel the lioness… lovely…
She's also… so… cute!
And she smells good!
Maybe I am really crazy and have to watch, instead of contemplate, the girl. I don't blink every minute and every second… her hot breath ignites my face, and the strange airflow bursts out and ignites that bashful color.
She bites her lip and glances at me secretly. I think she is embarrassed because her "boyfriend" is "intoxicated" by feminine beauty.
For girls who like romance, this scene is as sparkling as a romance movie… but it is also a "movie" with amorous pink for rude people.
Repeating the embarrassing moment, I am surprised to find that… the girl blushes because I can feel her chaotic heartbeat. The voice that wants to hug me strongly is the same as… the call of affection in the hearts of girls expressing warm feelings toward the nation's hero.
"What is this, God? Could it be that Kai—the girls' god—is right, she… really loves me?!"
I open my eyes as wide as I can… my pupils staring until my eyeballs freeze. Seeing that I am numb, can't close my mouth, she smiles slightly, her deep red cheeks spreading all over her face. Her lips move, wanting to say something, but she hesitates and can't say a word.
I am flustered and lost on the love road, unrealistic to the extent it cannot be more ridiculous. If the door doesn't suddenly open, we will perform a scene from a youthful romance, the Lemon Green Rice Flakes movie.
- Why is there so much noise…
Outside the door are the old man and sister-in-law. The innocent flower stares with her eyelids stiff. We are all stunned to see Hanna's face even redder than Rose's.
Surprised, the old father's caterpillar-like eyebrows push up to his forehead. His eyes are brighter than car lights. Usually, his eyeballs are big enough to splatter bullets, now they are super huge, his mouth drawn into a straight line without showing teeth or gums.
The old father and sister-in-law show off their three-dot faces… speechless. Sister-in-law holds her mouth and almost laughs out loud, stammering:
- I'm sorry… you two…
The embarrassed sister-in-law runs away immediately. The old man scratches his nose and smiles. Damn, the immortal expression makes us startle.
Rose and I look where our relatives checkmate us. The red on the rose infects the face of the guy lying on the flower.
The girl stares at my hand touching her breast. Both of us are sure that I don't want to and don't dare to take advantage. But the girl's body is still very hot, especially the plump fairy peach in my hand that wants to catch fire. The girl's face is redder than the sunset.
I've never been ashamed of girls, now my face is like a fighting cock. It can't be redder. If only my right hand is stuck in the juicy peach, I can paddle clumsily, cleverly explaining "unintentional" when wrestling to avoid embarrassment. Unfortunately, somehow… my left hand gets stuck in the most delicate place between the two of us.
The silk old man and the moon old woman join in the teasing, turning my hand over and sliding it down to the forbidden area. To make matters worse, the five fingers and the maze are separated by only a curtain in the skirt.
The girl's sensitive spots are touched, and sweat oozes from her pink cheeks, dark pink spreading to her neck. I am no better, my face is red like typhus, my body temperature soars, I feel like smoke is rising from my body.
Fortunately, the tall old father stands behind the door, witnessing the "hot scene" in an incomparable way that cannot be more exciting. He laughs like crazy and winks at his son as if to say:
"Pretty good, boy, it turns out you are not an idiot with girls!"
Then the door immediately closes to prevent people from secretly taking photos.
Rose and I immediately let go of each other, and we both say shyly:
- Sorry!
- Sorry, Lang!
The girl utters a soft "ah" and lowers her head, not daring to face me. I have never been shy; thanks to the five "well‑behaved" fingers that reconnect the long‑broken shame nerves, I am able to "enjoy" the feeling of my cheeks burning, wanting to say a few words to cover up my shame. But my mouth is deformed, my hands and feet stretch out and retract clumsily… as if the limbs are just decorations for the body.
I sneak a glance at Rose. The little girl rolls her disheveled skirt on her thighs, her black tights stretching out, her pleated skirt wrinkling, only her leopard jacket looks like new. It is indeed the world's number one brand.
We secretly breathe a sigh of relief, but not because the shirt is still intact, but because Kai sent it to celebrate Rose's birthday.
If Rose's shirt is torn because of this mess kept secret and never to be told, we don't know how to explain it, and maybe we don't dare to meet him.
Rose and I see each other, immediately detecting two people glancing at the clothes, we both realize that we have the same idea, so once again… confused.
One minute, two minutes and… almost twenty minutes of avoiding each other, I glance at Rose again and find that the girl seems to be having a good time.
The embarrassing crimson disappears, and the feminine pink immediately dots her peach cheeks. The girl continues to smile slightly, charmingly, with the corners of her lips open, and the "nagging" words become a classic trademark:
- You idiot!
Every time I am confused about what the girl wants to say. Now I suddenly become smart and immediately understand what she means: Even if I can't solve the problem, I have to take the initiative. Could it be that men and boys force girls to speak first? But how to speak now? Think quickly, think, think, think, Sam, if you can't find a way to solve the problem… shame!
Damn, why do I always end up in unique situations? Damn, bad luck, your dad's birthday but still a disturbance. Huh? Birthday? Oh, isn't today the day that the lioness and I are born? Haha, I find a way.
I cover my mouth and clear my throat several times. The first time she sees me choosing my words carefully, she laughs immediately, but says nothing and listens to me stuttering:
- Ah oh… Rose… I mean… lioness, from now until the end of the night, wherever you go, I'll go there, whatever you eat, I'll eat it. Whatever you do, I'll turn the place upside down with you!
The girl smiles slightly and glances at me secretly.
- Anyway, if you like, treat me as your boyfriend all day! - I quickly raise my hand to wave away the excitement in those sparkling heart‑shaped eyes - Hey… don't get me wrong, don't look at me with those eyes that melt hearts, young mother. Easy to misunderstand! Splatter bullets! I do this to apologize to you! The temporary boyfriend agreement is valid until twelve o'clock tonight!
Maybe she has been wanting to hang out as a girlfriend with me for a long time. As soon as I finish speaking, she smiles until her eyes close, so happy that she forgets what has just happened, excitedly jumping onto the bed, letting her long legs hang down close to the floor.
- Lang, put on my shoes!
I keep my promise and am in a good mood, so I pick up a pair of red velvet short shoes, with rose branches embroidered from the shoe body to the tip, a leopard‑skin hem wrapped around the top.
She combs her messy hair, smiles, and contemplates me kneeling on one knee. I quietly lift the pearl heel and place it on my leg, gently putting on the shoes for the girl. Every move is not yet full of affection… but… filled with feelings…
For those who are in love and waiting for love to bear fruit…
This beginning is not perfect yet but so romantic.
After putting on her shoes, I see her looking at her stretched black pantyhose, which would easily tear if she moves all day. She hesitates whether to go home and change her pants. I wave my hand and say:
- If you come with me to play, no one will dare to peek, so what are you afraid of? No need to change your pants, it's a waste of time!
She giggles because my words at this moment repeat what she once said:
"If I'm with you, I'll be absolutely safe."
- Wait for me!
She runs to the bathroom and comes back a little later with her hair neatly combed, her makeup done in a mischievous, playful, fresh style, and the skirt and the top straight and silky.
The girl is no longer wearing black pantyhose, so I have to avoid looking at her white and rosy thighs for a long time to avoid embarrassment.
The girl, hands covering her mouth, smiles, picks up the pink backpack on the chair, puts it on her back, and jumps out of the room like a starling:
- Let's go, "honey!"
I laugh at the half‑joke, half‑truth words, shake my head, and go along with the carefree laughter.
I don't know why at this moment… I forget all my troubles… just like the moment I contemplate the angel's smile of Luu Ly.