Moving

"Honey? Why isn't Tina coming? Look, all the students are already leaving school," Mother Peng worriedly asked her husband, Father Peng.

"Don't worry. Maybe she's being held back by her teacher. After all, such a great kid is going to be moving to another country and probably won't be coming back," Father Peng tried to reason with his wife.

With that, they waited for another five minutes. However, once ten minutes passed and they still did not see their daughter coming out from the school gates, they got worried.

Just when they were about to go to the school office and call for the teacher, they received a call from their neighbor.

"Hello?" Mother Peng answered the phone, hiding her anxiousness.

"Hello, is this Mrs. Peng?" the neighbor asked in a friendly manner.

"Yes, yes, what's the matter?"

"I seem to remember that you guys will be moving, right?"

In order to make sure she got a good farewell with the community, Mother Peng had held a backyard party and invited the entire neighborhood to announce that the Peng family would be moving to China.

"Yes, that's correct. Is something wrong?" Mother responded while thinking, 'The landlord didn't come to make trouble, right? We've just dealt with the last of the bills already.'

"Well, your daughter just came home and found the door locked, so she came to my house instead. Please come pick her up whenever you are free," the neighbor told Mother Peng, not knowing at all that Mother and Father Peng had specifically instructed their daughter to not take the bus home but instead wait for them at the front of the school entrance.

"Ah, I see. I'm so sorry. I'll be there in 25 minutes," Mother Peng was finally able to let go of her apprehension, but at the same time, she was getting mad.

"No worries. We're neighbors just helping each other. Besides, this may be the last time we see each other," the neighbor told her in a light-hearted tone before ending the call.

"That voice seemed to be one of our neighbors?" Father Peng asked, not being too sure because he was always out at work.

"Mm, the neighbor called that Tina is currently at their house," Mother Peng told him in a restrained voice, not wanting to show her anger.

However, having been married for twenty something years, Father Peng was already familiar with his wife.

"Don't get mad at her," he tried to protect his daughter.

Hearing that, Mother Peng immediately exploded, "How can I not get mad at her?! Didn't we already tell her to not take the bus!?"

"Dear, she's a child. You should know that children are forgetful," Father Peng reasoned, wanting nothing but to simply protect his baby from a lecture.

"Forgetful?! She doesn't forget her math tables, but forget that we're going to be picking her up?!" Mother Peng almost wanted to yell at Father Peng, but remembering that she was a woman and needed to be gentle, tried to let go of her temper.

Father Peng sighed and said, "Dear, be happy that you have a smart daughter. Everyone is forgetful. Just because she is always perfect, doesn't mean she'll be perfect forever."

"You, shut up. You're always protecting her. Goodness, you'll spoil her to death," Mother Peng complained before going silent. "Hurry up and drive. What the hell are you still doing here?!"

With that, Father Peng drove the car to their neighbor and picked up Tina.

Knowing that Mother Peng was angry at Tina, Father Peng suggested that she stay in the car while he went out to pick up Tina. Almost immediately, Mother Peng agreed with him and sat still in the car.

When Father Peng entered the house to pick up Tina, he saw that she was happily reading a book with the child of their neighbor.

"Tina," Father Peng called out.

"Daddy!" Tina cheerfully responded with a big smile.

"Are you tired?" Father Peng asked when he saw the sweat on her forehead.

"Nope, not at all. The bus was just really hot," Tina answered, still sporting the bright smile on her face.

"Soon, we'll be going to China. It's really cold over there, so you probably won't have to sit in a hot bus anymore," Father Peng told his daughter.

"Daddy, that's wrong. I'll definitely have to sit through the hot sun during the summer," Tina said with a self-righteous tone.

At her age, Tina was very smart and incredibly talented. While other children were still learning their alphabets and numbers, she was already reading third grade books and doing multiplications and divisions.

This was not because she was forced to learn, but she seemed to love learning new things. Everyday, she would sit in front of the TV. However, the TV eventually ran out of educational shows that were not repeated and Tina decided to use iPads and watch videos on Youtube.

"Daddy, is Mommy mad?" Tina asked in a small voice as Father Peng grabbed her backpack and held her small hand.

"Haha… Why don't you guess?" Father Peng asked back.

"Mm… Mommy is definitely mad. Very mad at me," Tina said, but she showed no fear.

"You're not scared?" Father Peng asked his little girl.

"Not scared. I have Daddy. Daddy will protect me from Mommy," Tina told him with a joyful smile.

"Mm, Daddy will always protect Tina," Father Peng felt happiness and bliss, just seeing the reliance of his daughter.

When the father and daughter left their neighbor's house and entered the car, both of their backs became small.

Together, they internally sighed, 'Another lecture from the queen…'

Soon after a long bout of lectures, the family of three entered the airport and their plane.

On the flight, Mother Peng asked her daughter, "Tina, do you miss your sister and brothers?"

Hearing his question, Tina thought for a short while before shaking her head.

To her answer, Father Peng was not in the least surprised. Whereas, Mother Peng was mad.

Hitting Tina on the back of her head, Mother Peng scolded her, "They're your siblings. You're supposed to miss them."

Tina wanted to explain herself, but when she thought about the habits of her mother, she chose not to explain. Besides, as long as her dad understood her, that was enough. It was not like she was close to her mother like she was to her father anyways.

After a long seventeen hour long trip, they finally reached their destination: Chengdu, China in Sichuan province. In this city, was where the rest of the family was located.

Having been alone in America for 7 years and only getting the visits of her father occasionally, Tina was not too close to her mother or her siblings. In fact, she almost could not remember their names as they never called each other by name.

But, who cared about names anyways? As long as she knew that she had one older sister and three big brothers, it was all good.

As if a long plane flight was not enough, an hour long drive was also added before they could reach the house. However, being young, Tina was too sleepy to even keep her eyes open and immediately went to sleep the moment she buckled her belt.

By the time Tina woke up, the sky was dark and the lights were already off. However, having gotten enough sleep, she did not want to go to sleep again. In the end, she decided to be like a ghost and silently open the door to the room she was currently in and explore the house.

However, just when she got up from her bed, someone called out to her, "You need to use the restroom?"

In a quiet voice, Tina answered, "No. Did I wake you up?"

"No, I was talking to my boyfriend," her sister told her.

Her sister, Peng Huian, English name Regina, was five years older than her. According to the information her father gave her, while she would be going to primary school, her sister would be going to junior middle school.

"Oh, continue talking to him then," Tina told her sister. "I just wanted to take a walk."

"You need me to show you around the house?" Peng Huian asked, though the house was not very big.

The house only had four rooms, two bathrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, small front yard, and small backyard. The size of the house did not even take up one acre.

"No need. I'll learn by myself," Tina answered and soon left the room.

Once she left the room, Tina remembered back on the words her mother told her.

"You'll be sharing a room with your sister. Don't enter your brother's rooms without their permission and don't touch their things without their permission. If your sister is doing chores, you also need to do the same thing. Don't be too lazy."

In the end, Mother Peng became too long-winded and Tina no longer wanted to listen to her, so she just repeatedly murmured out, "Mm," while nodding her head at the same as though she truly understood.

Being so smart, Mother Peng naturally trusted her. Too bad, Tina was actually not listening anymore because she got bored of listening to the voice of her mother.