Su Yuchen and Xin Mei were about to climb the stairs when a kid knocked on the office door. He slightly opened the door and looked at Mr. Ling.
"Sir, can I please use your computer? I have to do my project." He asked.
"Sure, sure. You can do your work, you remember the rules right?"
The kid nodded his head and made his way towards the computer in the office. Xin Mei and Su Yuchen watched the kid before making their way up the stairs, in the balcony.
A small balcony was located on the first floor. From there, a person can have a full view of the orphanage. They could watch the kids but kids couldn"t watch them.
Xin Mei took a seat on the already arranged seats and motioned for Su Yuchen to sit.
"You really wouldn"t go down to meet the kids?" Su Yuchen asked her with confusion.
"I told you, I don"t want to give false hope to kids. I don"t want to break their hopes that I will visit them regularly. With my schedule, I can"t say if I will meet them regularly or not."
Xin Mei stood up from the chair and walked toward the gla.s.s which was surrounding the balcony. She looked down from the gla.s.s and a smile left her lips when she saw the kids who were playing with each other.
"I still remember, after four months of opening the orphanage, I couldn"t come to meet them due to some of my commitments. Mister Ling had called me telling me that kids were denying eating until they meet me."
"They had become addictive to my presence on every Sunday. At that moment, I had become afraid. So I decided to make my distance with them. I don"t want them to get too much attached to me."
"You know, most of them have witnessed death of their parents. They were loners when they came here. Naturally, they are bound to get attached with others and they got attached with me. I had seen many kids getting attached with other kids to make them delusional that they are not alone. After losing their family, they are not ready to part away from others and I am not strong enough to see their pain."
Upon hearing her, Su Yuchen remembered the words of his psychiatrist. She had also said something like that. Was he also like those kids, clinging to Mian to console himself that he wasn"t alone?
Xin Mei smiled when from the window she saw how kids ran toward Mr. Ling and other guardians who came in the orphanage with gifts in their hands.
"Look, how happy they are to get the gifts." Xin Mei pointed out from the window.
Su Yuchen also looked out from the window and a smile broke down on his face. "I remember it very well that I also used to run like them to get the best gift. There were many visitors in our orphanage so it was usual for us to get gifts. We always looked forward to such visitors."
He dazedly looked out from the window. His hand was placed fondly on the gla.s.s. His eyes were soft. Xin Mei smiled when she saw him.
They both watched the kids, looking at their new toys with excitement in their eyes. They also saw some of them stalking after Mr. Ling to see the toys in another bag.
"Doesn"t everyone have a bike here?" Su Yuchen questioned when he saw many kids were paddling their bikes while some were looking at them with longing eyes.
"I am planning to buy new bikes with my first installment of the movie. You see, I have opened this orphanage with my savings and I had already used it." Xin Mei replied.
"I also plan to buy a property behind this orphanage. I want to expand this orphanage. I want to build a swimming pool, game room, and a skating rink. But for all that I need money."
Su Yuchen nodded his head upon hearing her. "What about computers? I have seen that they don"t have a computer and uses the computer of Mr. Ling in case of need."
"I know," Xin Mei sighed. "I also have a computer lab in my mind. But you know, buying and then maintaining a computer is very expensive. I had a computer lab built in this orphanage but it"s empty."
Xin Mei shrugged her shoulders. "Once I had planned a charity function for the orphanage, where the names of donor were to remain anonymous. Funny thing, everyone was ready to join the charity event but when they knew their names wouldn"t be written anywhere, most of them stepped back. I didn"t get many donations from that charity."
Aloofness appeared in the eyes of Xin Mei. She remembered Qian Fan was also one to step back.
She just didn"t want any name of donor for this orphanage. She wanted this orphanage to belong to those kids only. She didn"t want the computer lab to belong to some mister xyz but to the kids.
"Xin Mei, what if I donate the computers? I promise I don"t want my name on anything. I will be happy to help them. If you want I can help you with other things." Su Yuchen suggested. There was an excitement in his eyes.
"Su Yuchen you don"t...…."
Xin Mei was about to deny but Su Yuchen cut her off. "I already have enough money and helping you will not affect me. I rarely do charity in a fear of misuse of my money. But here I know my money will be in good hands. So why shouldn"t I do some charitable work?" He pleaded and looked at her with desperation.
Xin Mei smiled and nodded her head to Su Yuchen. Both Xin Mei and Su Yuchen watched the kids play. There was a calm smile on their faces. Su Yuchen could relate himself to the kids and wanted to do something for them which he didn"t get in his orphanage.
Xin Mei also had a lot of plans in her mind. She also wanted to do a lot for those kids.
After watching the kids to their satisfaction, they made their way down the stairs. In the office Xin Mei informed Mister Ling about the computer and he was happy to hear the news. Su Yuchen promised him to send brand new computers by the next day.
"Xin Mei, personally I suggest you to meet the kids," Su Yuchen spoke out of a sudden. "You can save them from the pain now, but what about in the future? They should learn how to let go. They should know about the pain of losing someone."
His voice held the pain. "Look at me I had spent my whole time in an orphanage with Mian. I got attached to her. It was so difficult for me to part away from her. I had thrown tantrums when my family had come to claim me. I wasn"t ready to go with them. I wasn"t ready to bear the pain of letting go of my orphanage and my friends."
"You don"t want same thing to happen with the kids in the orphanage," he stopped and looked at Xin Mei. "Next time, you should meet them and play with them. Let others meet them. Let them get attached to others. Let them bear the pain. They will become strong only if they can bear the pain. It"s my suggestion, otherwise, do whatever you think."
Xin Mei nodded her head and followed behind him. They both made their way towards their cars.
Happy Independence day and Happy Bhai Luto divas my Indian friends!! :)