Page by page Duan Chengyu read through the entire content of the contract his face becoming paler and paler as his eyes moved from the line of texts to another. He grew nauseous from reading the papers in his hand.
"Did you have to go this far! How can someone sign something like this?! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS MOM!!!! HOW COULD YOU?!!!"
Duan Chengyu roared in rage at his mother. Not expecting that he would shout at her, Duan Yili"s eyes froze in fear before reverting back to their cold state.
"Are you out of your mind?! I"m your mother how dare you raise your voice at me?!"
Wanting to bring her son back to his place and remind him never to rashly speak to her. In a fit of anger, Duan Yili with lightning speed crossed over to where her son was. Raising her hand high in the air, slapped him in one quick motion. The sound echoed loudly in the car.
Eyes widened at been slapped by his mother, Duan Chengyu stared blankly at her, his cheek red hot from the impact of the slap to his face.
"What have I done! I didn"t mean to do that, Yu!"
Duan Chengyu coolly looked back at his mother, his eyes darkened as they becames emotionless dark pools.
To correct her action, Duan Yili reached to touch the face of her son whose reddened cheek stood starkly on a pale face.
"DON"T TOUCH ME! YOU DON"T HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO SO!"
As though he was about to be touched by a leprous person, Duan Chengyu shrunk back, by so doing he narrowly missed being stroked by his mother"s hand.
"Yu..."
When she saw how Duan Chengyu reacted, her voice took on a pleading tone, calling for him not to turn away from her.
"You have to fix this, mom! How can I face Miss. Liu?! When you have a noose over her mother"s neck?! Tell me how am I supposed to face her?!!!!!"
Duan Yili squeezed her eyes shut to block out the angry accusations made by her son.
"MOM! Say something!"
"I"m not going to undoing the things I"ve done! You and that tramp can do whatever you want!"
Duan Chengyu knew his mother was stubborn and pride ran strongly through her bones. He saw her eyes spitting out fire from being provoked by the things he had demanded from her.
"I see where this is going, you want me to choose between you and Miss. Liu. Wasn"t that your agenda all along?"
"Is there anyone that is mistreating you at work?"
Liu Anna forced questioned her daughter, wanting to know if there was any other threats apart from the Duan Yili.
"No one is brave enough to make trouble for me! I would beat them up if they make my life difficult!"
In a tone of false bravery, Liu Rachael rea.s.sured her mother that she could stand up for herself. Not fooled by her daughter"s antics Liu Anna softly laughed on the other end of the phone.
"Are you going to tell your mother how you"re going to do it."
Playing along with her silly act, Liu Anna urged her daughter to say what she had in mind for anyone that would treat her unfairly.
"Umm...so...Umm...I"ll use my fists and hit them on the head!"
"What if they are taller than you? How would you be able to reach that far?!"
"I don"t have to, I can take off my shoes and throw it at them!"
At this point, Liu Anna was at the brink of laughing uncontrollably at her daugher"s clowning.
"Silly child, how can you do that if you can"t even kill a fly?"
True enough, Liu Rachael would rather shoo away bugs than to harm them, because she felt they were too weak and defenseless to protect themselves.
"Mom?"
"Umm?"
"Are you really okay? Do you want me to come over to spend the weekend with you? I know you don"t want to leave that house because they remind you so much of Dad which is why I haven"t brought it up in a while."
"Silly child, mother can take care of herself. You look out for yourself, okay? Stay off the street at night and eat well! If I come to visit and see that you have lost weight, I will drag you off to live with me, is that what you want?!"
"No! That"s too far away from work! It would take 2 buses to get there and I have to wake up earlier than usual to get there on time! At that rate, I"ll die of exhaustion!"
Liu Rachael emphatically pleaded with her mother to reconsider taking her in, while she spoke the image of her boss appeared in her mind.
"It"s not because of him!"
Instantly, she inwardly denied the reason for turning her mother"s offer had anything to do with Duan Chengyu.
"Rachael."
"Yes, mom!"
"Is your landlord treating you well? Are any of the tenants giving you a hard time?"
Sweating gathering in the palm of Liu Rachael despite the cool air from the air conditioning unit blowing within the room.
"Did Tian Min tell mom that I"m living with Chairman Duan?!"
Playing it by ear to see if her mother in fact knew of her new living arrangement, she decided to answer it with a question of her own.
"Mom, do you want to come over and spends a few days with me?"
"In that tiny room? No, the last time I was there, there was hardly enough room to moves around in the kitchen! Don"t even get me started on the pathetic box that you call a bathtub! You pay so much for such a small place! On of these days, thunder would strike those greedy city people!"
"Mom! You can"t going around cursing the landlord because you don"t like how he priced the apartment! That"s just something I"ll have to deal with while working in the city!"
Liu Rachael"s heart that raced in fear soon came down, she could tell that her mother thought she was at her apartment. The two enjoyed their pleasant talk, laughing as they went.