Late evening, inside a lavish imposing manor belonging to the President of Zhang Corporation. In the dinning room sat Zhang Tianyu at one end of a long table, while his daughter sat at the other end. Although, there were other chairs surrounding the table, none sat there, except for those two.Zhang Jie wore a formal long sleeved black gown of knee length with a prominent bow at the back. Her dark eyes had a demure look in them, underneath the table were fingers clasped together in inner turmoil, while sitting rod straight on her high seat. A soft flannel closed toe slip on encased her little feet. Her hair rested unbound against her shoulders.
At home, the President of Zhang Corporation would dress down. Wearing casual collarless white s.h.i.+rt and pants, he had on dark flannel slip on covering his feet. Each time he got back from work, Zhang Tianyu always went through the ritual of shaving every night before dinner, none of the maids that worked closely by him understood the reason for doing so.
Not a single word pa.s.sed between father and daughter, as they sat facing each other from a distance. a.s.sorted dishes in polished silver and gla.s.sware lay on a draped table. The sight was a feast to behold. The dinning s.p.a.ce spoke of exceeding opulence, there was nothing that wasn"t dazzling to the sight.
While trying to maintain the facade of a "good father", Zhang Tianyu never drank at home, keeping all his vices outside from the eyes of his only child.
He never made it a point to ask about schooling and anything that happened in his daughter"s daily life, and also whenever they sat to eat together in the morning and at night. Leave Zhang Jie to dine alone in the afternoons.
As they faced each other, while eating from their plates, there was no denying the striking resemblance that Zhang Jie bore to her father. There was never a time that, she didn"t receive compliments about how similar they both looked. But,that was where it all ended. At seven Zhang Jie wasn"t as bright as her father wanted, each day tutors of various subjects will come by, but very little change could be seen. Zhang Tianyu will sometimes make comparison in pa.s.sing between her and her cousin, Zhang Mi on how well she excelled when she was at the same age as Zhang Jie.
The person that kept the Zhang President up to date regarding his daughter"s welfare was his aide. Everything was handled by him, whatever needed the signature of Zhang Tianyu was signed by Gao Yifeng as " guardian". Medical related matters was the only thing that Zhang Tianyu handled by himself, when it came to his daughter.
About twelve maids in dark uniformed gown with their hair held in a bun, on black heels stood in the dinning room to wait on them. They stared straight ahead with their hands by the side, while the two continued to eat in silence.
It was an unspoken rule to dine with stainless steel western utensils, while eating traditional deserts with silver chopsticks. This was his way of ensuring that his daughter had both worlds and wouldn"t be found lacking in that area.
There was something bothering the little girl, in school they were asked to write an essay about the favorite things they loved by their parents and draw a picture to bring to cla.s.s the next day. Unfortunately, Zhang Jie never knew about her mom. Each time she voiced out the need to know, her father always shut her down by saying, "Let"s talk about it, when you become of age."
Zhang Jie wasn"t deaf to what the other kids in her cla.s.s said about their dad and mom. To her it was only dad, he was both "mom and dad" to her. But, kids can"t remain kids for forever, it wasn"t long the little girl realized that her family was "different", no mom to talk about what girls her age wanted to do for fun. Plucking up the courage within her, Zhang Jie asked her father the question that was considered off limit.
"Daddy..how was mommy like?! Do I even have a mommy?!"
Zhang Tianyu wasn"t expecting his daughter to outrightly ask him questions about the woman that bore the child he held dear to his heart. To others and even to her, he was seen as an unfeeling person, but there was no day he never thought about her and what the future would hold for their family.
At first he was surprised, because he made her promise the last time, when she was almost five years, never to bring up her mom until he was ready to talk about it, as grown up to grown up.
There was an expression of annoyance on his face, as he slowly set the fork he had in his hand to the side of his gla.s.s plate. His daughter had a stubborn look on her angelic face, the expression caught Zhang Tianyu off guard, as though he was looking at the face of Cai Peizhi , a woman from his dark murky past. Try as he may, his daughter brought forth the memory he never wanted to revisit before she was brought into the world.