“Hey! Stop right there and don’t move! Who are you! Why are you still here! What are you trying to do in the middle of the night!” The security officer shone the flashlight in Ma Meng’s eyes and she reached out to block the bright light out of fright. She could not even see who was in front of her.
The security officer walked closer and realized that it was Ma Meng. He quickly shone his flashlight towards the floor and said agitatedly, “Xiao Meng, why are you still here? I thought there’s a thief in the workshop! You scared me!”
The security officer on duty today was an elderly man whom Ma Meng knew. His surname was Lu and he was a very nice person who always brought Ma Meng a lot of delicious food. Old Mister Lu always said that Ma Meng reminded him of his granddaughter and that he felt sorry for her. That was why he favored Ma Meng so much.
“Old Mister Lu… I can’t go home, so I’m spending the night here. Please make an exception and don’t chase me away,” Ma Meng said as she held back her tears.
Old Mister Lu immediately knew that something had happened in the Ma family again. Every time something happened, the Ma family would throw Ma Meng out and ignore her. Old Mister Lu had heard about it many times, but this was the first time he had bump into Ma Meng personally.
“It’s fine! Come! Follow me. There’s a bed in the security office! You can sleep there. I’m on duty the whole of this month. Don’t worry, you’ll be alone in that room. I still have to patrol at night! You can sleep for as long as you want! Don’t be afraid, I’m here!” Old Mister Lu said immediately.
When Ma Meng heard what Old Mister Lu said, her tears started flowing uncontrollably. She thought that she could put on a brave front and deal with all this stoically, but in the face of Old Mister Lu’s concern for her, her tears seemed to have found a reason to flow out uncontrollably.
If someone who was not related to her by blood could treat her so well, she could not understand why Chu Ju and Ma San could treat her like this.
The next day, the sun rose as usual. Ma Meng still had to go to work. Qiao Mei and Xia He also had a lot of things to do. It was Deng Fan’s birthday today. The day they had been waiting for was finally here.
The other day, the two of them walked around the shopping mall for a long time and finally decided on a watch for Deng Fan’s birthday gift. Qiao Mei heard from Luo Yu that when she met with her accident, Deng Fan had also put in a lot of effort to help. Qiao Mei knew that Deng Fan’s parents were highly educated people and liked to drink tea very much, so she bought two good quality Pu’er tea cakes for Deng Fan.
She could only give Deng Fan a gift this way. After all, it was not appropriate for her to give him a gift directly.
“Qiao Mei, come and help me take a look at this dress! Is it inappropriate for me to wear red on someone else’s birthday? Will I be overshadowing the host!” Xia He picked up a dress and twirled around in front of the mirror.
Qiao Mei was almost dozing off as she looked on. This was already the 12th dress that Xia He was trying on. Xia He had asked Qiao Mei the same question each time she tried on a new dress. In the beginning, Qiao Mei still had the patience to answer the questions one by one. By now, Qiao Mei would only say one sentence no matter what she saw in front of her.
“It’s very nice!”
Qiao Mei finally understood why most men did not like to go shopping with their girlfriends. It was really too torturous. Even if they said that something looked good, the women would still try on another set of clothes. Moreover, they had to give different feedback for each set of clothes so that they appeared to be paying attention.
However, it was either nice or not nice and it was not always possible to explain why. Furthermore, everyone’s aesthetic standards were different. Sometimes, it was just the feeling one had at first sight. Even if a dress seemed to look quite nice, some people would not like it no matter what.
“Help me choose one! Help me take a look!” Xia He pouted and said angrily.
Qiao Mei randomly picked up a dress and said, “This one then. I think this one is not bad.”
“No! Wearing a white dress to someone’s birthday celebrations! How inauspicious! Help me look for something else!” Xia He said with a frown.
Qiao Mei was completely annoyed by Xia He. She stood up and took out her favorite smoky purple dress, saying angrily to Xia He, “This one! Stop choosing! I’m getting dizzy from looking at them! If you don’t believe me, then you can continue on your own! I like this one. No matter how many times you ask, I’ll pick this one! I’m going back to sleep!”
“Alright…” Xia He said as she looked at Qiao Mei in shock. Although she had experienced Qiao Mei’s morning temper before, this was the first time she had lost her temper so directly.