An Invisible Member

Dressed in his gray shirt and covered with a black vest, Han XiGuang tapped his finger on the table early in the morning of Thursday. It had been four days since he had last called Wu SuYi and he wondered if it was the right time to call her.

Rui walked down from the stair case. Finding his father, he trotted over toward him. "You haven't call her?" He asked with his naive eyes.

"I am thinking if it is alright for a father to use his son as an excuse," Han XiGuang hummed and saw his sun's eyes rolling in response.

"But… maybe she is busy," Rui responded, holding his hand together as if he was afraid to wish for more.

Han XiGuang pulled his small body and carried him to the top of his laps, "Do you want to meet her?"

Rui's eyes turned up as he nodded hesitantly.

"Then that is all you need to feel. Miss Wu doesn't seem to be a person who would reject an offer from a cute creature like you. Let's get you ready to school and I will call her personally," Han XiGuang stood up from his chair, taking his suit on his other arm. "I have a feeling I should call her today."

On the other part of Chongqing, Wu SuYi stepped out from her car after she had arrived at the large mansion located far from the city. Forest covered the surrounding of the luxurious mansion that one could mistaken as a castle.

With her eyes staring at the white walls of the house, Wu SuYi was once again reminded of how stifling she had felt when she was still living in the mansion.

"Young lady SuYi," the same irritating voice that had spoken with her from the phone came near her, causing her to sigh. "Do you need a moment to recall all the memories you have in this mansion?"

Wu SuYi turned her face to meet the man who was older by only a year to her. "XingYun," she sighed as she called the man's name.

XingYun was once her friend, a close friend even. She didn't remembered when it was that their friendship had turned sour, but she still remember well the day he had ignored her presence like the rest of people in the mansion with his never-changing stoic cold face.

"No. To start, there is nothing I could recall by staring at this old house. It looks beautiful only to cover the patches and holes this cursed family has," Wu SuYi had stopped smiling as she looked at him. Her sharp and beautiful face could make other chill but XingYun had known her enough to get scared by her cold mien.

"You have gotten more beautiful," XingYun offered his kind words but Wu SuYi could see how fake his words were when he had shown no sincerity to his statement.

"And you have gotten even uglier than before," Wu SuYi waved his hand and walked away to enter the house. "So where is he?"

XingYun shook his head as Wu SuYi entered the mansion, "I can only warn you now, young lady. It would be best if you keep your best behavior. The master's anger is not what you want."

Wu SuYi walked to the door which was opened by the servants. She looked at XingYun and grinned, "Do you think there is anything I am scared of now?"

XingYun watched as she made her way to the sitting room and whispered, "I have warned you."

Wu SuYi knew how this would go on. She still recall the moment she innocently walked across the house and tried to talk to the servants around the house but no one had answered to her. Being ignored, left alone, and even treated as if she never existed pained her in the past but that wasn't the worse.

Meeting her father, could be the hell on earth for her.

She remembered how scared she would get when meeting her father. How her hands and fingers would tremble and how her stomach knots in pain. But know, she didn't feel anything. Perhaps because she was aware of the worse nightmare and pain outside of meeting the devil's spawn.

When the door was opened, Wu SuYi could hear nothing. There was only silence echoing the room. She saw her so-called aunts and uncles. Cousins and also her brothers whose face turned dark when seeing her.

At the end of the table, she then saw her father, standing proudly like the monster he was. A severe frown that accompany the tension he always bring with his presence knot tighter when he saw her.

"It would have been easier to call the Buddha here than to bring you home," spoke the younger man who sat on the left side of her father.

Wu SuYi's eyes narrowed to see her second older brother. Unlike the eldest who always dressed in a tight and almost stifling suit and neckties, her second older brother, HaoRan preferred to wear the loose shirt to show his chest and his ever annoying smirk that he has when he berated Wu SuYi.

"It must be because this house is so murky, dusty, and nasty that I don't want to enter here. You might forget but I am born with a weaker body immune, I can't stand next to germs," Wu SuYi watched HaoRan's face as it reddened.

HaoRan's mouth opened when the eldest stepped in, "Watch your mouth SuYi."

Look at that. The one to start was HaoRan but she should be the one to watch her mouth.

"JingYi, why don't you watch your mouth? I am not talking to you."

JingYi's face that had been cool immediately flared up in anger.

"We are in front of father's presence," he warned, "Do not cross over the line."

Wu SuYi crossed her arms, "I didn't come here today to talk to you all or to look at your filthy faces. I'm here only to drop a statement as it seems you cannot receive my words obediently. Don't call me to this goddamn house. I am not a part of your family. Don't call me again."

"Whenever you talk you still cannot control your temperament," finally the head of the house spoke up. His deep voice was enough to shut JingYi who had always had the most standing in the family. In the past one word from him scared her but Wu SuYi stared at the man's eyes without letting fear to come to her.

"You are still a shame to this family, SuYi."