Chapter 698 - 213: [Eased Atmosphere]
Chapter 213 [Eased Atmosphere] (6200)
After Lu Sisi trembled slightly, her gaze at Lu Xiuting carried a strange and complex emotion, but for a moment she didn’t respond.
Lu Xiuting hesitated for a moment, then asked, "What, what’s wrong? You..."
However, Lu Sisi turned her face slightly to look elsewhere. This time, she slowly withdrew her hand from Lu Xiuting’s palm.
The girl said softly, "It’s nothing."
After a pause, Lu Sisi seemed to force a bitter smile: "It’s just... it seems like you haven’t asked if I’m okay for several years."
Lu Xiuting was stunned.
Lu Sisi sighed lightly, barely smiling: "Mom, weren’t you thirsty? Have some tea. According to Chen Yan, the tea at home is quite good. I usually don’t like tea, so I don’t understand these things. Try it."
Lu Xiuting fell silent and took a sip from the teacup.
The taste was bitter!
Lu Sisi seemed to have relaxed; she adjusted her posture while sitting on the sofa—was it Lu Xiuting’s illusion? She felt that her daughter had moved a bit farther away from her after adjusting her position.
"I’m doing quite well now. Maybe you and dad don’t know, but since the end of last year, I’ve resolved the bad luck issue. The past half-year has been very peaceful for me.
Well... the only troublesome thing I encountered was probably the incident at school last month..."
Lu Xiuting’s hand shook.
She put down the teacup, her voice somewhat weak: "That incident was our fault, your dad and I, we..."
"Mom!"
Suddenly, Lu Sisi turned her head, looking at Lu Xiuting with red eyes, biting her lip: "Regarding that incident, fundamentally, it was me, your daughter, I was bullied!"
I was bullied!
These words pierced Lu Xiuting’s heart.
"That boy was pursuing me at school and then pestered me. After I rejected him again, I accidentally pushed him, and he got a bit hurt. Then he used this to blackmail me, falsely accusing me of intentionally hurting him.
I was taken to the police station and even detained for a few days!!"
Lu Sisi took a deep breath: "Do you know what the place where I was held was like? Detention, do you know?
I was held with the women brought in for prostitution, and, well, delinquent women. I was detained for a few days with people like that.
When I got out, even though I was wronged, I had to sign my name and apologize in person to that boy!
And you, and dad, from beginning to end, didn’t say a word to defend me, didn’t show any sign of protecting me as your daughter."
Lu Xiuting’s body trembled.
Lu Sisi quickly wiped the corner of her eye, speaking softly: "At the police station, I had to apologize to that boy who falsely accused me before he would write a letter of understanding.
Dad was there at the time, but he didn’t defend me, not a single word.
He just ordered me to bow and apologize to the guy who falsely accused me.
When we got home, I was crying the whole way, and dad just said one thing to me.
At the time he looked at me and said: Why do you always bring trouble to this family!"
Lu Xiuting trembled, yet hurriedly explained: "Sisi, that, that was something your dad said, I, I didn’t..."
"Yes, you didn’t, mom." Lu Sisi exhaled, but her words were even sharper: "Because you didn’t even show up, you didn’t even go."
Lu Xiuting’s words of explanation suddenly got stuck in her throat, not a word more could come out.
"Mom, the last time you showed any concern for me was four years ago." Lu Sisi said softly, "Four years ago, when I was in my first year of high school, my eyes got inflamed. One night, you helped me drop some eye drops once.
Yes, once."
As Lu Sisi spoke, a trace of helplessness and bitterness was revealed in her tone: "But that time when my eyes were inflamed, the treatment required four days of eye drops, four times a day.
And you, only on one of the days, helped me with the drops once—that was the last time I felt any gesture of concern from you.
And I know, actually, that time you helped me with the eye drops was only out of some sense of guilt—because the next day, you and dad were going to take my brother out of town on a trip, leaving me, sick, alone at home."
"And, and not alone, the family, the family still had Hu..."
"Mom, you remembered wrong." Lu Sisi shook her head, speaking slowly: "We always used a part-time worker until the summer after my first year of high school. After the summer, because my brother got into a good elementary school that was farther from home, you hired Aunt Hu as a full-time nanny to have more time to accompany my brother to art classes.
That time when my eyes were inflamed, the next day you both took my brother out of town. That time, I was home alone."
"That time... That time was your brother’s summer camp, was part of his art course studies, he was so young, a parent had to accompany him..." Lu Xiuting hurriedly argued.
"Well, then the New Year break... every summer, winter break..." Lu Sisi sighed.
Her tone suddenly became calm, shaking her head, looking at Lu Xiuting: "Mom, there’s no need to find excuses to explain, I actually understand it all.
I’ve also accepted your attitude towards me over the years, I’ve already accepted it, and have accepted it for many years.