Story

"I will tell you a story about me and my best friend. After you hear that story, I will let you think for a bit. So that you can resolve your own feelings. And I will call your father that your operation was successful and you have already woken up," his mother said, and smiled at him. She took his hand into hers and looked him deep in his eyes. 

"When I was younger, my goal wasn't to be a model. I wanted to be an actress. And because I had the looks, the agency decided to give it a try." She looked from the windows, reminiscing about the past, before laughing aloud. 

"I sucked," she stated out of nowhere, and it surprised Huobai so much his brows were almost at his hairline. No wonder she ended up as a model. 

"When I played my first role as my first random cousin with one sentence. There were some actresses that were in the show business longer than me but were a random girl in crowd three nad four. And because I had no backing from someone wealthy, they bullied me." Huobai raised his eyebrows even more because he couldn't imagine his mother being bullied by someone.

The fierce mom that always had him on the edge because he didn't want her to chew him out. Nope, he never could imagine her being bullied. 

"You, bullied?" he couldn't take it, and asked. Because it was pretty surreal. But his mother chuckled and continued.

"Yup. I was a bit smaller and thin. They always made me trip and stomped on my clothes. We played period drama, so once I had itching powder under my wig." Huobai had to bite his lip to not start laughing. All those things were as if kids were fighting. Not grown-up women. 

"So, did you become friends at the end?" he asked, trying to find out the moral point of the story. But Song Fei shook her head. 

"I hate them until now, but my comfort is that they became fat ugly and their husbands are horrible." She smirked, and Huobai was stunned at the ruthlessness of his mother.

"But, there was the lead actress that took me under her wigs and guarded me later on. Her name was Xu Pei, and she was married to a wealthy man. She had acting talent too, so she quickly became a star. It surprised me she wanted to be friends, but Peipei said we have similar-sounding names and she is hated by others like me, so we are pretty similar." Huobai thought about it while listening to her and the way this story was going, he didn't like it. 

"She was actually the reason I met your father. She invited me to her home and during one of the parties I met your father. But that's not the story I wanted to tell." She giggled again and blushed a bit. Huobai grimaced.

"That's not the story I want to hear either," he said. There was something weird about hearing things about your parents together. Especially how they met or what they did, or do together.

"Dummy." She smacked him over his shoulder and laughed it off. Then his mother continued with her story.

"We became so close that when she got pregnant, I was with her during her first ultrasound. I even helped her to choose the name for her son. And later she helped me to choose yours. We were best friends. Her husband wasn't the most pleasant to be around, but we could tolerate him. Once she was there. He was tame. So we often visited her house, even with you when you were younger." Huobai tried to remember something like that, but there was only blackness, nothing like those memories. 

"I don't think you will remember. But you have played with xiao Yi many times. You even gave him your favorite toy once. But that was later. We haven't seen him much after that. We stopped meeting him and his father." Huobai squinted. 

He could remember the toy. It was a dragon. His father bought it in Japan. Huobai was always thinking about where it went. So he gave it to someone else?

"Why did you stop meeting them? Did you argue?" Huobai asked, but his mother became sad and shook her head. 

"No. We stopped meeting him because he became greedy and used our friendship. I never knew how much her presence was influencing her greed," she continued. And Huobai really hated where this was going.

"She...?" he couldn't say it. His mom's eyes watered, and she nodded.

"It was an accident. A light fell on her on set and they forced her to act until the end. She was bleeding into her brain and she wouldn't get medical attention until it was too late. She died in hospital. What was worse, she called in her son and talked to him. I never found out, but after that, he changed to this obedient sheep of his father. And even when we tried to talk to him, he didn't listen." She stopped talking. But Huobai still didn't get what she wanted to say with this. It just didn't penetrate his brain. 

"What was the moral lesson of this story? Don't be greedy?" he asked, but earned a light slap over his head, just a reminder to not be sarcastic.

"I wanted to say that I treasure and remember every moment of our friendship and even though it hurt when she died and I cried. I would never want our friendship to disappear or never happen. If I never met her, I wouldn't meet your father or have you." Huobai finally got it, what she tried to say. But still, she said it specifically. 

"How can you decide for others if they want to be friends with you or not? It's their life and if you are good friends. Yes. It would hurt, but they will never regret meeting you. And you won't be carrying everything alone. I want you to think about that…" she stopped for a while and showed him a sad smile.

"I can say it because of my own experience. I would never regret becoming her friend. So I don't think the people you are trying to push away will regret it either. You are a really awesome person and they must be happy knowing you…" his mother finished and let go of his hand and stood up. 

She walked out to the door and pulled out her phone before leaving. But as if she remembered something, she halted her steps and turned around. 

"I've heard the call from your friend. I would accept his apology. You are hard to please in everything. You take after your father in this. He is strong-headed too. But nothing is worth arguing over so hard, you might regret it later," she said, turning to walk away, but stopped once again. 

"I will tell someone to bring you your laptop here. I heard you have a match and I don't think you should miss an opportunity like that. Lan da hai is a strong team and if you win against them, they will start to invite you to some tournaments, just to show off. If you need something else, message me." She walked away and left Huobai speechless there. 

He had no idea how she knew about Lan da hai, but he was glad she was like that and knew how important it was for him. 

Huobai laid back down and took the phone he threw in the bed. He needed to do some really hard thinking about what his mother told him. Because he had an uneasy feeling that she was right. And somehow, Huobai was a bit relieved. 

He wouldn't be alone anymore. He would have friends.