Chapter 491: Reminiscing
Since Huang Li was mentioned in the Huang family, things have not been the same because her name was attached to a lot of things.
Old Mrs. Huang has been sad about her daughter"s death. Even though it has not been confirmed that she is dead, she still cried every day.
Today, she asked a servant to bring a particular key and went downstairs, to a room that had an old lock that seemed not to be touched for a long time.
The old lady seems to hesitate a little before asking the servant to unlock the door, after which she walked into the small dusty storeroom.
Afraid that she would choke because of the room full of dust, the servant hurriedly opened the curtains and the windows, after turning on the light.
"Old Madam, you can"t stay here for too long, it is very dusty in here." The servant reminded her in a worried tone.
Old Mrs. Huang did not say anything. Her gazes followed every single item in the room while reminiscing.
"All the things here belong to Li. The day she left, her father almost burnt everything that belonged to her but I had to ask you to lock them away in fear that I would forget my daughter. I was also afraid of coming to this place because of her father"s anger." Old Mrs. Huang said with a painful smile.
"But Old Madam, are you not scared the Old Master will be angry if he sees that we opened this place?" The servant asked worriedly.
The Old Master of the Huang family can be very scary, even to his family. If his rules were went against, he would surely punish the person.
Old Mrs. Huang smiled and replied, "I don"t care. The possibility of losing my daughter whom I haven"t seen for over 24 years now, makes me more worried than his anger."
Old Mrs. Huang wasn"t moved about her husband"s anger, she didn"t care. If he wanted to be angry, then he should be, it doesn"t concern her anymore. Since she heard about her daughter death and her husband"s heartlessness, she divided to do things whenever and however, she wanted.
In the small dusty room, there was a sewing machine, two travel bags, picture frames, books and so many other things.
Not minding how dusty the room and the items in it were, Old Mrs. Huang, went over and picked up one of the picture frames. When she wanted to wipe the dust off, the servant immediately came over and used the hand towel in her hand to clean the frame, so she could have a better look at the person there.
After the picture was cleaned, Old Mrs. Huang could finally see what her daughter looked like in her 20s. Tears welled up in the old woman"s eyes as she stared at her daughter"s smiling face and slowly, she reached up her other hand to caress the face in the picture, the face, which had some resemblance with Jia Li.
"Li, you still look the same as I remembered you. Always smiling, kindhearted and peaceful. I don"t know what you look like now and I have been trying to picture it in my head but I can"t seem to guess." Old Mrs. Huang said in a sad tone as tears dripped down her cheeks.
From her face, her gaze went to the pendant on her neck and she traced it with her shaky fingers. "Do you still have this pendant?" The pendant was similar to the one in Jia Li"s custody.
How did Jia Li get the locket? Her mother left it for her when she knew the hour of her death was near.
After staring at her daughter"s picture and talking for a long time, she put the frame back to the position she saw it, before going over to the sewing machine that was there...
Touching the dusty surface of the sewing machine with her aged fingers, Old Mrs. Huang smiled and said to the servant, "She wanted to study Fas.h.i.+on and Design but her father refused and destructed her plans because she was stubborn about it. I bought this sewing machine for her, on her 18th birthday but she never got to use it for 6 months before it was brought here. Her father wanted her to study medicine and surgery because she was very smart, hence, he was against her dreams."
The servant sighed and added, "Old Madam, I remember that back then, the second young Miss, quarreled with the old master because of this but she ended up going to a nursing school because she didn"t want to rebel against him."
Old Mrs. Huang shook her head and said, "No, you got it all wrong. Of all my children, Li was the closest to me. She had told me of her dreams of being a Fas.h.i.+on Designer and being a nurse as the second option because she would love to be in close contact with patients, so she can help them with her abilities."
"Oh..." The servant said in surprise.
Old Mrs. Huang smiled and continued her story. "It was so hard for Li to give up on her dreams of being a Fas.h.i.+on Designer. Finally, when she got admission to study nursing, that was the period her father started the arranged marriage for all of them. I couldn"t even stop him as I had no say."
Outside of the small storeroom, The first daughter and the third daughter of the Huang family were currently looking for their aged mother. They had just asked a servant about her whereabouts and were told that she was in the small storeroom, so they were on their way there now.
"Why would mother go there? Father will surely turn this house upside down if he finds out." The first daughter said with a frown.
"Who cares what he does, if he doesn"t want us to do what we like, we are all ready to leave him alone in this house." The third daughter said.
"Father is very strict and his ways are twisted. Since I recognized him as my father, I still haven"t been able to guess the way he was raised." The first daughter said in an annoyed tone.