Betrayal

Dad and Mom?

The words were strange to Zhu Qing. For a moment, she couldn’t even tell what she was supposed to feel.

All that showed on her face was cautious confusion.

The two people had already come up beside her. The woman reached out to grab her, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes creasing deeply as she said excitedly, “It really is you, isn’t it? You look just like you did when you were little. You’re all grown up now. That’s wonderful.”

The man nodded eagerly too. “It’s her. The one we saw on TV was her.”

Only then did Zhu Qing pull their faces from her memory.

She did still resemble her childhood self, but the two people in front of her were nothing like the spirited, hopeful couple she remembered.

What she remembered of them was only their youth: successful, making a lot of money, heads held high. Later, they lost money, sold the house, and abandoned Zhu Qing, but those humiliations and that abandonment happened so quickly that Zhu Qing never had the chance to hold onto any real impression of them at their lowest point. After that, she never saw them again.

Zhu Qing pulled her hand free from the woman’s grip, her expression cold.

The woman let out an awkward laugh. “Qingqing, do you live here? Were you just out buying groceries?”

Zhu Qing looked at them blankly.

Only when the smile on the woman’s face could no longer be maintained did she say faintly, “Why are you making that face? Aren’t you happy to see your mom and dad?”

“Do you need something?” Zhu Qing asked evenly.

The man snapped, “We came to see you! You’re our daughter. We haven’t seen you in so many years, and that’s the attitude you give us?”

Zhu Qing looked them over from head to toe, ignored him, and said to the woman, “Yes, I came to buy groceries. My employer is still waiting for me to go cook. Goodbye.”

The woman froze. Seeing Zhu Qing turn to leave, she hurriedly blocked her path. “What employer? Didn’t you marry that big celebrity? Don’t you live together?”

Big celebrity? Live together?

So they had even investigated where she lived.

Zhu Qing looked at her coldly. “How did you find me?”

The man said angrily, “What kind of question is that? If we hadn’t seen you on TV, we still wouldn’t have known you got married, got rich, and became some kind of celebrity. You don’t even know basic manners—just walking off the moment you see your parents.”

“Think whatever you want. I don’t accept your judgment,” Zhu Qing said, her expression unchanged. She turned and shouted to the security guard watching from over there, “Uncle Liu, these two are here to cause trouble. Please take them away.”

The security guard trotted over, wiping sweat from his face. “Sorry about this. I just went to the restroom. These two probably tricked another resident into opening the gate for them.”

The man panicked at once and grabbed Zhu Qing’s arm. “What do you mean by that? You’re trying to have someone throw out your own parents?”

The woman burst into tears, wailing, “How am I so unlucky? After all these years apart from my daughter, the first thing she does when we meet is have someone chase me away.”

Zhu Qing said, “Uncle Liu, they’re not residents here. Please escort them out.”

The security guard hurried forward, sweat still beading on his forehead, and a few others followed behind him. They seized the pair and started pushing them out. The two of them looked old, but once they struggled, they still had surprising strength. They shoved wildly at the security staff and cursed at the top of their lungs as they were forced along.

“Everyone, come look at this heartless daughter of mine! I gave birth to her and raised her, and now that she’s got money, she won’t even acknowledge me!”

“This ungrateful brat has no conscience!”

Zhu Qing didn’t spare them a single glance. Once she saw the security guards had the situation under control, she turned and left.

Anyone would find this kind of thing difficult to deal with. From the security guards’ perspective, they didn’t want to get involved in family disputes, but Zhu Qing was a resident here, and this complex was full of rich people who valued privacy. They were also all rather self-centered, and didn’t allow others to interfere, judge, or lecture them. The guards only needed to do what the residents asked.

Still, the commotion the two had caused was a little too loud. After the guards carried them out, a few police officers came as well, because someone had reported them for making a disturbance and affecting the neighbors.

The guards had no choice but to explain the situation.

When the couple saw the police, they hurried over to demand justice. “It was our daughter. Now that she’s got money and lives in this high-end neighborhood, the moment she saw us, she acted like she didn’t know us. Isn’t that illegal?”

The officer frowned. “Whether something is illegal or not isn’t for us to decide. You’d have to take it to court.”

“How is that not illegal?” the man shouted. “She had these security guards throw us out, and my arm still hurts! That’s violent enforcement!”

The officer looked him over and shook his head. “There are cameras here. Their actions were reasonable. You’re the ones who trespassed into the complex. If you want to accuse them of violent enforcement, you’ll need to get yourself checked for injuries first.”

The man flew into a rage and started swearing. The officer frowned and asked the butler who had hurried over for Zhu Qing’s phone number.

Once connected, the officer briefly explained the situation.

“We received a report that there was shouting and fighting here, disturbing the neighborhood. Can you tell us what happened between you and your parents?”

Zhu Qing hadn’t expected someone to call the police. After a brief silence, she repeated the conversation with the two of them.

“Why did you have security chase them away?”

Zhu Qing said calmly, “Because they blocked me and tried to restrict my movement.”

The man over there heard this and immediately exploded. “Bullshit! She tried to leave before I’d even finished speaking. I’m her father!”

The police officer coldly cut him off. “If you keep obstructing my questioning, I’ll have someone put you in the police car.”

The man shut up at once.

The officer could mostly make sense of it. There was quite a lot of information in what they’d said, after all: they had ignored the child in her early years, then wanted to repair the relationship once she was grown. Put less charitably, they had dodged their responsibilities and now only wanted to reap the benefits.

The officer asked, “Is anyone injured?”

Zhu Qing said, “I’m not injured. I don’t know about anyone else.”

The officer nodded and summed up, “If no one’s injured, then let’s leave it at that. As children, you should respect your parents. Your decision to drive your parents away has its reasons, but since they didn’t actually do anything too extreme, your reasons aren’t especially proper. Please keep that in mind next time. At the same time, parents should also understand their children and respect their children’s decisions. I suggest you all calm down and talk things through properly.”

The couple quickly said, “Sure. When should we talk?”

The officer said, “Zhu Qing, do you need us to arrange a meeting and community mediation for you?”

Zhu Qing said, “No.”

The officer ended the inquiry and hung up.

The woman was stunned. “What do you mean by that? She says she doesn’t want to see us, and that’s it? I’m her mother! Her own biological mother! Is that how you handle things?”

The man also said, “Exactly. I’m her father. She actually dared have someone throw me out. What is this? I want her to come over right now!”

The officer frowned. “She’s an adult. She has the right to decide who she wants to see and who she doesn’t. It doesn’t matter who you are.”

The woman opened her mouth and was about to wail again, but the officer said, “The person who reported this said you were disturbing public order. This is a public area at the entrance of the complex. Making a scene here affects public safety and violates public security regulations.”

The couple hadn’t expected that simply trying to find their biological daughter could turn into something illegal. They had thought that no matter what, Zhu Qing wouldn’t cut them off the moment she saw them. And they were her elders; why shouldn’t she listen to them? For a moment, they couldn’t accept it. Angry and humiliated, they still didn’t dare say anything in front of the police, and left in resentment.

They took the bus back to a small suburban hotel twenty kilometers away. As soon as they entered the room, the phone rang.

It was their son, still in high school, calling to ask for money.

“My living expenses for this month are gone. Hurry up and give me one thousand yuan.”

The man shut the door with a heavy bang, put a cigarette in his mouth, and smoked without saying a word.

The woman coaxed him softly, “Didn’t we transfer you one thousand at the start of the month? How is it gone already?”

“What’s one thousand yuan good for? We’ve got sports day next week. I need to buy a new pair of shoes. I haven’t even picked an expensive pair yet.”

The man cursed angrily, “Buy what shoes? You’ve got a pile of shoes at home!”

The woman said quietly, “Yeah, a thousand-yuan pair is too expensive. Xiao Shu, can you buy something cheaper? The one I showed you last time was good too. The material was nice, it wasn’t stiff, and it was branded. After the discount, it was only three hundred...”

Their son shouted in exasperation, “I don’t want it! You won’t even buy me shoes that cost a thousand yuan!? I don’t care. If you don’t buy them for me, I’ll skip class and stop going to school!”

The man barked back, furious, “You little bastard, go if you want to go! You’re even threatening your own father. None of you treat me like I matter, damn it—”

The woman hurriedly hung up.

“What are you arguing with Xiao Shu about?” she sighed. “What if he really stops going?”

The man wanted to say that if he wanted to go, then fine, but when the words reached his lips, he swallowed them back.

That was his only son, the one he had spoiled since childhood. If not for last year’s failed investment, his son would already have had several pairs of this year’s new shoes.

“Next semester’s tuition is also going to be a big expense,” the woman said miserably. “Where are we supposed to get the money? Qingqing won’t acknowledge us, and we don’t have any relatives or friends either.”

After finishing one cigarette, the man was silent for a long time before saying heavily, “Go find Zhu Qing. Damn it, I’m the one suffering and slogging through hardship, while she’s eating the good stuff and living high on the hog. And she even dared have security throw me out.”

The woman worried, “Will she give it to us? From the way she looked today, she doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge us at all.”

“So what if she says she won’t?” the man said viciously. “She won’t acknowledge us? Can her celebrity wife refuse to acknowledge us too?”

The woman hesitated. “You mean... go find her wife?”

The man nodded. “The person who called you last time—did he keep in touch with you afterward?”

The woman thought about it. “He didn’t call again after that.”

“If he was able to tell us Zhu Qing’s address now, then he should also be able to get that celebrity’s phone number,” the man said, calculation flashing in his eyes. “Tell him to give us Li Lan’s number. I don’t believe it. If she won’t give us money, I’ll expose Zhu Qing to the media. An unfilial daughter who doesn’t support her parents, immoral and useless—I’d like to see how Li Lan keeps surviving in the entertainment industry then!”

There was some reluctance in the woman’s heart, and she tried to persuade him. “Is that really okay? Qingqing hasn’t seen us for so many years after all. Maybe I should try looking for her again.”

“Look, look, look, how long are you going to keep looking?” the man snapped. “The boy’s tuition is due next week!”

The woman felt that the man’s method was wrong, but when she thought of their son, whom she had held in the palm of her hand since he was little, of the child she had given birth to in her thirties, and of how their business had improved once he was born, she knew he had never suffered a day in his life. He had grown up getting whatever he wanted. They absolutely could not let his schooling be delayed.

The woman nodded. “I’ll call him right away.”

-

For a very long time in Zhu Qing’s childhood imagination, her missing parents were probably out somewhere struggling to make a living. Without Zhu Qing dragging them down, they should have been living better and better.

...No.

More often than not, Zhu Qing would hope they were doing badly.

After all, she had spent her childhood living on someone else’s goodwill. They were supposed to have some kind of maternal and paternal bond with her, so they should have been doing badly too.

But seeing what they looked like now still made Zhu Qing feel awful.

“What are you thinking about?”

Li Lan waved a hand in front of Zhu Qing and smiled as she put a chopstickful of food onto her plate. “You’ve been distracted for ages.”

Zhu Qing’s gaze settled on Li Lan’s smiling face, and she suddenly asked, “Do you still remember your parents?”

Li Lan paused, then gave a small laugh. “Of course I do.”

Zhu Qing’s eyes flickered; her voice turned a little tight. “Then... how do you see them?”

Li Lan tilted her head. Zhu Qing was acting a little strange. After thinking it over, she answered honestly, “I really wanted them when I was little. As for now, so much time has passed that I don’t feel much anymore.”

Zhu Qing pressed her lips together. “If they showed up, would you be happy?”

Li Lan frowned. “Probably. If they hadn’t died in that car accident, I should have been a very happy little girl.”

Zhu Qing lowered her head, picked up a bite of rice, and put it into her mouth without saying anything.

Li Lan smiled. “But I’m the one you asked. If you asked Yan Jin, she’d probably give a different answer.”

Zhu Qing asked in confusion, “What would she say?”

“The children in the welfare home all had different backgrounds. Some had parents who died unexpectedly and no relatives to raise them, while others were abandoned for all kinds of reasons,” Li Lan said slowly. “Yan Jin was the latter.”

Zhu Qing blinked. “Abandoned.”

Li Lan’s eyes darkened, and her tone turned disgusted. “Someone saw that couple leave Yan Jin beside a trash can. They were still holding a little boy’s hand. I guess it was an accidental pregnancy, and since it was a girl, they didn’t want her.”

Zhu Qing suddenly felt very sorry for Yan Jin.

“Just because she was a girl, they didn’t want her?”

Li Lan looked up, and when she saw Zhu Qing’s expression, she was startled.

She quickly stood and came to Zhu Qing’s side, touching her cheek as she coaxed her gently, “Don’t be sad. Yan Jin never cared about her biological parents anyway. To her, being abandoned by them was the greatest betrayal. Would you care about someone who betrayed you?”

Zhu Qing stared blankly, a sour feeling rising in her chest. It was as if a lemon had been stuffed into her heart, lodged there, unable to go up or down, making her deeply uncomfortable.

Would she care about someone who betrayed her?

Would she?

————————!!————————

Zhu Qing is a little bitter gourd.

Li Lan is a big bitter gourd.

Little Bao is a tiny little bitter gourd.

A whole family of bitter gourds hugging bitter gourds.