Entering the hospital with a slight jog, small sweat droplets formed on AnLing"s forehead and then slowly began to drip down. AnLing felt out of shape as she whipped it away but as she did that, her heart immediately fell.She was wearing makeup.
Non-waterproof makeup!
She was so f.u.c.ked.
"s.h.i.t!" AnLing cursed as she looked at her hand. The makeup residue was a black, brown and pink smudge at the back of her hand.
She was so not used to wearing makeup that she had completely forgotten about it. There was no way she would go up to her grandmother"s room looking like this.
She refused.
Her face was probably a complete mess.
AnLing grabbed her phone. There were a couple of messages from Kang Jun but before checking them she pressed on her camera and then reversed it so she could see her face.
Once she saw it, AnLing scrunched her eyebrows and glowered at her appearance.
She looked like a crazy person. Half of her face was unchanged from how she had looked when she first applied the makeup while the other side made her look like a killer clown.
Quickly, she ran to the bathroom. As she ran she covered her face with the jean jacket she had been wearing, exposing her pure white shoulders to all in the vicinity. She felt a little uncomfortable doing so, but it was much better than the embarra.s.sment she would face if anyone saw her face.
In the bathroom, AnLing grabbed her bag in a hurry and plopped it on the counter. She rummaged through it until she got her makeup removing wipes.
She wiped her face clean of makeup.
Once her face was bare, she removed her contacts and put on her gla.s.ses before making her way up to her grandmother"s room.
Kang Jun was right, AnLing looked beautiful with makeup on. Without it, the girl looked kind of plain compared to the sea of beauties that surrounded her but her bare face was also beautifully refreshing in its own way.
AnLing wasn"t a dazzling beauty but she wasn"t ugly either. Her features were soft yet p.r.o.nounced in the right places and her plump lips exuded a kind of s.e.xiness whether she wore lipstick or not. Her features made her have a subtle, wallflower like beauty but she felt that if she wanted to attract a persons attention makeup was necessary.
Though, AnLing had no one to impress so she never wore any.
If the old woman had seen that she was wearing makeup she would begin to a.s.sume many things. Though, for once, her a.s.sumptions wouldn"t be founded on her wild fantasies.
AnLing had gone on a date today.
That was an undeniable fact. One that she wouldn"t dare mention to her grandmother, but a fact indeed. And sure, It was a date with a man and a child but to AnLing, it was a date nonetheless.
The fact that there had been three people, or that AnLing had been forced to leave the date early was completely irrelevant to her and it would be the same to Grandma Lu"s ears. Since, If she hadn"t gotten the call from Mr. Jing, AnLing would have enjoyed the date.
If new of this somehow made it to Grandma Lu"s ears, AnLing knew that her grandmother would push her to marry him, even if she didn"t know who AnLing had gone on the date with. Though no matter how much AnLing grew to like Kang Jun, she refused to get married.
Her late father had once told her that marriage was not beautiful and romantic as people claimed it to be. Instead, it was incessant work and compromise that would sometimes cause two people who used to love each other to begin to hate one another.
AnLing knew the man was speaking about his own relationship with her mother but, he had always specified that any kind of relationship was like that in the end.
As a child AnLing thought that the man was being pessimistic so hadn"t listened to him, but she should have…
If she had, she wouldn"t have gotten her heart broken. Now, she just wanted to never feel any kind of heartbreak again. She wanted to keep the little relationships she had now safe and sound. There was no need to add romantic love into the mix
Though there was a problem.
The more time AnLing spent with Kang Jun, be it through texting or in person, made her more and more comfortable and used to his presence.
She could feel... something for him...
Though she still wasn"t sure if she could handle his presence without Mingyu being around.
Mingyu made AnLing calm.
Stopping in front of her grandmother"s room she checked her face once more. Just in case some leftover makeup had been left but there was nothing.
AnLing began to push the door open.
"You"re finally here." a voice said from behind her.
AnLing turned to see the stony face of Mr. Jing.
Mr. Jing wasn"t a good looking man. In fact, he was very ugly. However, the ugliness of his face could never be compared to the ugliness of his heart. Unlike the many good people employed under the Lu"s, Mr. Jing was the worst but also the most trusted.
"Go in. What are you waiting for, an invitation?" Mr. Jing had no patience for AnLing. He"d always found her insufferable, mostly when compared to Shuya, her mother and her grandmother.
Unlike the other women of the Lu family, AnLing had always been reserved and disinterested with the world. She also rarely smiled, which made her seem cold.
He couldn"t understand how a cold person could be related to the happy-go-lucky Lu"s but blood didn"t lie.
Though what the man was bad at looking below the surface. AnLing could exude the best qualities of the Lu"s, but only around those who deserved to see it.
Seeing the look of disgust that formed on his face, AnLing didn"t speak or acknowledge him in any way. She just continued to push open the door.
Mr. Jing looked at her and sneered under his breath, "Brat"
Inside there were three women. She recognized them all. but seeing them all together, happily chatting, in the room made her momentarily shut down.
The first person to acknowledge AnLing was the person she didn"t expect to see there.
Xiao Mian…
The beautiful woman looked at AnLing softly and then beckoned her forward. Seeing that Xiao Mian was distracted, Shuya stopped talking to her grandmother and looked at AnLing. A slight disdain flashed through her eyes but she quickly masked it.
"Grandma, look, it"s elder sister."
Shuya calling AnLing "elder sister" made both of their skins crawl.
As if she had met AnLing for the first time, Grandma Lu began to force herself to cry. It was hard and took a little while, but finally, tears formed in her the corners of her eyes but she didn"t cry. She opened her arms wide, and said, "My sweet child, come over here. Let grandma see you,"
Following Grandma Lu"s instructions, she entered the woman"s warm embrace.
Both Grandma Lu and AnLing felt awkward but they couldn"t let their cover be blown. To Shuya, it was the first time they"d both met in 6 years, so they had to put on a show.
After an awkward "reunion" hug and some "catching up", AnLing began to disappear into the background and she was glad to do so.
By listening, she found out that her grandmother was supposed to get discharged that day but after feeling dizzy she had fainted and was forced to stay in the hospital. The doctors couldn"t find anything wrong with her, but she insisted she didn"t feel well, so they allowed her to stay for further observation.
The three women continued to speak.
AnLing took this opportunity to read Kang Jun"s messages.
King Kan: [Is your grandmother okay?]
King Kang: [Mingyu is wondering when he can see you again.]
King Kang: [Tell me when you"re done, I"ll wait for you outside.]
Seeing his concern made AnLing"s lip tug up.
AnLing: [She seems fine. As for Mingyu, tell him that I"m free on most weekends so we can hang out whenever he wants. Also, you don"t need to pick me up, I might be here until late. You should go back and sleep.]
While AnLing was busy texting, the conversation between the three women had shifted to Xiao Mian"s engagement party.
"Mian Mian, you"re such an amazing girl. Already getting married… your parents must be so proud. You should try to introduce Little Ling to some nice men. Though not the ones in the entertainment industry. They have no shame. Even the ones who own the entertainment companies are no good."
Xiao Mian laughed.
"I don"t think she needs me to do that. She seems to have gone a date today."
Giddy grew in Grandma Lu"s face, "Little Ling, Is that true?"
AnLing answered quickly, "No."
Grandma Lu a.n.a.lysed her granddaughter and saw that something was different. Her aura had completely changed and so had her appearance. "But you"re wearing a dress?"
She hadn"t seen AnLing wear a dress since her birthday 7 years ago. Since she"d come back, all AnLing wore was pants.
"You"re overthinking things." AnLing frowned. "I didn"t do the laundry this week. This was the only clean thing I had."
AnLing had no problem with blatantly lying when it came to avoiding seriously annoying situations.
"Come on granny, do you really think elder sister would date? She doesn"t seem interested in that kind of stuff." What Shuya said was completely right.
"I bet she"s still hung up on her ex." Shuya wanted to add but she didn"t. It would just cause unnecessary problems.
AnLing had only ever shown interest in one man before and that was Yize. Shuya had never known why and despite her inquiring she had never found out the truth.
Xiao Mian: "Don"t say that, your sister"s pretty."
"Aren"t you extremely s.e.xually frustrated?" Grandma Lu began. All the three girls turned to the shameless woman. Their faces flushed and their expressions filled with embarra.s.sment and also interest. "When I was young I was also a bit… how do I say it… uptight with dating, and then... I met your grandfather and things just happened. You need to find someone that you can trust enough to let things go and allow your body to be pleased."
The girls listened to the woman intently but AnLing took what the old woman said with a grain of salt. At heart, Grandma Lu was more of a hopeless romantic than AnLing would ever be. So with her, it wasn"t about s.e.x or marriage. It was about love... but love could come out of any situation.
Grandma Lu: "Have you given a thought of what I told you last time…"
Hearing that, AnLing"s face instantly paled.
Her cover was blown.
"Last time?" Shuya repeated. Her voice perfectly showcasing her curiosity.