DIVORCE“Huh?” Yin Xudong thought that he had heard wrongly and picked his ears to make sure.
“Me, hungry.” Qin Xuan spoke with a deadpan expression, “give me… something to eat.”
She had not eaten since she woke up in the sterile white room the morning prior, where all the injured patients resided. To be honest, the previous her could easily go two or three days without food, as long as she had some water. However, her current body was simply too weak; if she didn’t eat anything, she would definitely collapse.
Yin Xudong looked like he had turned insane. He yelled, “What does your hunger have to do with me? You even want to order me around?” When he finished yelling, he immediately felt some regret. Did he provoke her enough to make her throw another knife?
Qin Xuan did not act as he antic.i.p.ated. Instead, she gave him a brief look before heading back to her room. Seeing her uneven steps, Xudong couldn’t help but speak out, “Hey, no matter what, you should at least use the walking stick. Is harming yourself that pleasurable?”
Qin Xuan slammed the door in reply.
Xudong’s face looked like he was constipated. He indignantly slammed his own door shut and returned to his room.
Qin Xuan carefully observed the house filled with strange objects. She still instinctively followed the teachings that had been drilled into her, which was to speak little and a.n.a.lyze her surroundings when put into an unfamiliar situation.
Qin Xuan walked down the stairs and went towards a big room. All she saw was a mess, as if a burglar had ransacked the place.
She was not one bit surprised. Ever since she woke up yesterday morning, she had heard continuous noises of objects being flung, thrown, and dropped. She even heard the crying and cursing of the middle-aged woman who called herself her “mother”.
Standing there, Qin Xuan sniffed the air. She could not detect a hint of firewood and this left her baffled. She could only walk over to the large chair that was covered with fabric and nudge the woman currently lying on it.
The woman slowly opened her eyes. When she saw that it was only Qin Xuan, she once again closed her eyes. While Qin Xuan was debating whether or not she should slit the woman’s throat, the woman suddenly asked, “What?”
“Food.” Qin Xuan simply stated her objective in as few words as possible.
The woman pointed to a certain direction, “Go and find something to eat from the fridge.” She then irritably waved Qin Xuan away.
Qin Xuan carefully tip-toed her way across the pile of shattered items on the floor and headed towards the kitchen. There, she began her search for the “fridge”.
After rummaging around blindly for some time, she stumbled into a large box that contained a lot of food. Opening it, she felt a rush of cold air, but no matter how much she looked, there were no ice blocks.
The vegetables and the meat inside the fridge were still fresh. Qin Xuan looked around the kitchen which had turned into a mess not unlike the one in the large living room. She casually cracked an egg and plopped it into her mouth. Without even frowning she swallowed it whole, then proceeded to crack open some more. In total, she ate half a dozen eggs.
Wen Meixia ma.s.saged her forehead as she came into the kitchen. What greeted her was a mess, with Qin Xuan standing there next to a pile of broken eggsh.e.l.ls, her mouth suspiciously sticky. She hesitantly asked, “Did you eat raw chicken eggs?”
Qin Xuan did not admit nor deny anything, but that was akin to her confirming it.
Wen Meixia began to clean up the kitchen and said, “Tell me, how am I supposed to talk to you? You are already 15 years old, but you can’t even make a simple meal. Who out there is like you? Your legs are injured, so stop standing around. You are getting in people’s way. Go sit outside and wait for me to finish cooking.”
Qin Xuan only leaned on the kitchen door and quietly stared at Wen Meixia. She began memorising the method of using the various strange tools in the kitchen. It turned out the people here did not use firewood to cook, they simply turned a dial to create flames. What’s more, they only needed to put raw rice into a pot and then into a round container, turn another dial and out came cooked rice minutes later.
For the rest of the day, Qin Xuan paid attention to every single one of Wen Meixia’s movements, her unceasing gaze causing Wen Meixia to feel a sense of fear brewing in her heart.
Very quickly, Qin Xuan’s attention was enraptured by the object called a TV. The first time she saw a person appearing inside it, she was startled. How could such a thin box hold a person!? However, her strict training did not let a single trace of the surprise in her mind show on her face.
She learnt from Wen Meixia and never stopped pressing the b.u.t.tons on a small box, causing the characters and landscape inside the box to transform endlessly. This had to be a G.o.dly artifact, there seemed to be many strange artifacts in this place.
Qin Xuan reclined back on the sofa and watched TV for a while, when Wen Meixia came out from the kitchen and spoke, “Turn the TV off, it’s time to eat.”
Qin Xuan casually put down the remote control and stood up. Seeing this, Wen Meixia became angry: “Did I not tell you to turn the TV off? Are you disobeying me?”
“You turn it off.” Qin Xuan replied, undisturbed.
Wen Meixia huffed and picked up the remote to turn the TV off. Qin Xuan took note of the fact that the people on the screen immediately vanished, only to be replaced by a black screen the moment the woman’s finger pressed the red b.u.t.ton on the remote.
The two of them sat down at the nearby table. Wen Meixia scooped out some rice to fill up both Qin Xuan’s bowl and her own. After having two mouthfuls, Wen Meixia placed her bowl down.
Wen Meixia stood up and looked down at Qin Xuan, “I don’t have any appet.i.te. After you finish eating, go back to your room. Stop loitering around here or your leg might get worse and you will turn into a cripple.” Finished talking, she softly muttered “No matter what, I will not forgive you doggy couple, just wait until I tear your mouths apart…” while leaving.
Qin Xuan quietly ate. The food was not delicious, but because she had survived on far more difficult meals, as long as it filled the belly, the taste didn’t matter.
Just like that, time pa.s.sed by while she recuperated. Aside from going downstairs to eat, Qin Xuan never left her room.
Sometimes she would be able to eat the food that Wen Meixia cooked. But often when Meixia was too busy destroying household objects, going outside to hunt down her husband, or leaving the house several days in a row to catch a “fox”, Qin Xuan simply cooked her own food by copying Wen Meixia’s actions. At the beginning she was not very familiar with the process, and messed up several meals. After a few tries however, she got used to it.
She also began to notice that the people in this area had a strange quirk, and that is that they love to put names on everything. The flame spitter was called the “Gas Stove XX”, the food storage box was named the “Fridge x.x.x”, the place where the dishes were stored was called the “Dishwasher XX”, the hot water shooter was called “Hot Water XX” and “Showerhead XX”… This helped Qin Xuan tremendously while she was attempting to recognise the function of these devices.
Even if this place was like an entirely different world compared to where she came from, with some time, she would definitely be able to adapt.
One day, while Qin Xuan was making dinner in the kitchen, a man she hads seen around the house several times came in and spoke to her solemnly. “Qin Qin, come here for a bit, daddy has something to talk to you about.”
“Speak.”
Qin Shuhua looked at Qin Xuan. She did not even bother to turn around and only continued to churn the food on the pan. He sighed, and then repeated in a soft tone: “Come outside just for a little while, this is an important matter.”
Qin Xuan turned around and looked at Qin Shuhua and spoke calmly: “Can’t you see that I’m cooking? Talk in here.”
Qin Shuhua suddenly had a feeling that if he requested her to go outside one more time, the spatula in her hand would land directly on his face. This thought caused him to sweat bullets.
He signed one more time. Forget it, the current state of the house was obvious, the kid obviously knows what’s going on, he should just be frank.
“Mummy and daddy are about to have a divorce.”
“Sure.” What the heck is a divorce?
Qin Xuan’s extremely calm reply left Qin Shuhua dumbfounded, he continued,: “Does Qin Qin want to live with daddy or mommy?”
Qin Xuan turned off the stove and shifted the food to a plate. She wiped her hands with a cloth and asked,: “What happens if I follow you? And what would happen if I follow mother?”
This question made Qin Shuhua nearly fall over. He scratched his head awkwardly and said,: “This, how do I put this? The most important thing is who you like better I guess.”
I don’t like either of you, Qin Xuan retorted in her mind.
Her hand softly knocked on the table. This decision needed to be decided upon carefully, this so called mommy and daddy means father and mother, and divorce probably meant that this body’s parent’s want to part ways.
Finally Qin Xuan decided that no matter what the current house would be her priority, and the actual owner should be none of her concern.
Her thinking was simple, now that she has been forced into this position, she would definitely not choose the option of leaving this area for another strange place that required more adapting. Furthermore, in the past few days, she had always been on guard, but no enemy has appeared. This house couldan temporarily be considered the safest place for her to stay. Regarding the matter of leaving here, when it comes to that she wouldill worry about it.
Qin Shuhua never dared to consider that his daughter would pick him. He was so happy he nearly tripped. He was sure that Qin Qin would blame him for having an affair and choose to follow her mother. He did not know that Qin Qin also did not care much for Wen Meixia. She was a failure of a mother. Ever since Qin Xuan had been here, the woman had never paid any attention to her own daughter. All day long she was going around looking for someone to create trouble. The entire house was in shambles, and she even ignored her own injured child. Qin Xuan was even told to go cook her own rice in the kitchen.
When Wen Meixia heard her daughter chose to stay in this house, her face turned green. She jumped at Qin Xuan and shouted,: “Very good, I raised such a good child! Even you hate me? Both you and your father are ungrateful heathens! You should all go and die!” She then picked up a tattered piece of trash off the floor and threw it at them.
Qin Xuan gave Wen Meixia a glance and then turned around, planning to return to her room. Wen Meixia stopped her on her track. She pulled on Qin Xuan’s arms and yelled at her with an enraged expression,: “You! Stop right there! Tell me, are you coming with me or not?”
Qin Xuan arms slightly shifted. She shook free of Wen Meixia’s grasp, her hands shooting up and then down. Wen Meixia’s body softened, and she fell flat on the floor. Qin Xuan looked toward the flabbergasted Qin Shuhua who could not believe what he saw and said,: “You, throw her outside.” These past few days, the limits to her patience for this woman had long been surpa.s.sed.
Finished speaking, she walked away indifferently.