4 Starting Over

A year later

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The bright rays of the morning sun entered through the wall-length windows of the mansion. The beginnings of Chopin's etude [1] could be heard, with not a single note misplayed. The picturesque scene of the girl playing the ivory grand piano in the early morning accompanied by the soulful music made butler Yun hold his breath with wonder. He waited until she was done with the piece before announcing his presence, "Young miss, breakfast is ready."

"Thank you, Uncle Yun." She got up and made her way to the dining hall.

Butler Yun had initially dreaded the return of Wang Zhiyu. She had been demanding, asking the household to prepare a full table of food for every meal of the day, yet only picked at it slightly before leaving the table. She had been childish, constantly pestering the maids with various pranks as well as often tearing down all the clothes in her closet in order to find 'the perfect outfit'. She had been petty, once even blacklisting a maid for being overly terrified at one of her antics. In fact, her pranks were often so distressing that many of the household staff had resigned in fear for their lives and butler Yun would be tasked with the horrible job of finding their replacements. Needless to say, butler Yun was apprehensive of the terror that she would bring to the household upon her return.

But he was pleasantly surprised. The young miss that returned was almost a different person. She refused to have a full table of food for every meal, claiming it was a waste, choosing instead to have light, usually vegetarian meals. Very often, she wore the first outfit she could see in her closet and rarely pulled pranks, choosing instead to spend her time in the library reading or going over school content with a tutor. She attended her therapy sessions almost religiously and 6 months after she woke up, she made a full recovery.

The person that was happiest was, of course, grandpa Wang. His baby granddaughter was finally growing up. One month after waking up, she had asked for private tutors to help her catch up on middle school knowledge as well as the first two years of high school content. Although sceptical as to whether this could be achieved in a year, he complied with her request and hired a few of the best tutors in Beijing, paying a hefty sum of money to each of them.

Since then, she had only asked for a jiujitsu instructor upon recovering and trained daily to improve her body. Surprisingly, she never asked for cosmetic surgery to remove the long scar on her face and when asked about it, she said, "Well, I quite like it." Grandpa Wang had been stunned. Was this the same girl took meticulous care of her face in order to become a world-famous model?

Although Wang Zhiyu acted like a completely different person, the people around her never questioned her identity. Instead, they believed that the year that she had spent in a coma had caused her to mature and view life in a positive manner, cherishing the things she had. Even the professionals in charge of her psychological therapy believed that the huge disparity between her personality after waking up and her personality before the coma was due to the shock from the incident itself. After all, it wasn't possible for a person to be reborn into someone else's body; these professionals did not even consider this theory.

Entering the dining hall, she saw two elderly men sitting at the table. "Grandpa Wang, grandpa Ning." She bowed slightly before joining them at the table.

"Aiyo, there's no need to be so formal. It's just family after all." Elder Ning was Zhiyu's maternal grandfather. After her mother's death ten years ago, elder Ning rarely went out, choosing instead to spend his old days practising qigong and taichi [2], quietly mourning the loss of his only daughter. Even still, elder Ning doted on Zhiyu. "Old Wang, she seems to have become even skinnier. Child, is your grandpa feeding you enough?"

Zhiyu nodded slightly. "Yes, grandpa Wang treats me very well."

"Good, if one day he doesn't, remember you can always live with me instead. Grandpa will treat you better than Old Wang ever treated you." Elder Ning smiled and flashed a warning look at elder Wang, who faked an annoyed look. "Old Ning, are you trying to take my granddaughter away from me?"

"Who's trying to take to take your granddaughter away?" Elder Ning rebutted immediately. "Even if I did, you still have another one. Go dote on her instead."

Elder Wang suddenly shot his in-law a dark look. "You know the only granddaughter I acknowledge is Zhiyu. That girl can go back to where she came from."

"Pah, who doesn't know that sl*t's brat is your son's illegitimate daughter? Parading her around like a treasure when she's just a daughter of a mistress. How shameless!" Elder Ning slammed his hand onto the table. He had never fully gotten over his daughter's death and still blamed the incident that led to her death on his son-in-law, who had cheated openly during their marriage and even brought back his mistress to be his wife after Ning Xueting passed.

Elder Wang sighed. It seemed that no matter what he did, old Ning could not let go of his daughter's death. "Even still, old Ning, Siqi has never shown me proof of her parentage and just based on that fact alone, she will not be added to the Wang family registry. Even if there was our Wang blood running through her veins, I would not willingly add an illegitimate child to the registry."

Elder Ning only calmed down after hearing this. Even still, there was a tense mood in the air. Unaffected, Wang Zhiyu continued eating her breakfast slowly, sipping her orange juice as though nothing had happened.

Every time the two elders had a meal together, they would undoubtedly break into a disagreement. The first argument after she woke up was how each elder didn't take good enough care of her, causing her to be comatose for a year. The next time, it was over which physiotherapist was best. Every time after that, from the small things to the large things, elder Wang and elder Ning disagreed on everything. It seemed the only thing they agreed on was doting on her. She wondered how they had even been friends before then.

"Grandpa Wang, grandpa Ning!" A sharp voice rang out.

<< Footnotes >>

[1] Was referring to Etude Op. 25 No. 1 for all you music geeks out there. ;) For those who don't know it, here's a video - ( https://youtu.be/7E3Ka0ThO_Y ) If only this author could play it at all... *cries*

[2] Both qigong and taichi are used in Chinese martial arts training and contain exercises that are typically done by the elderly and the general population for their health benefits.