Eteled

Excerpt Chapter 201- You Don't Need Me Anymore

" We couldn't be together, and I can't stay for too long Xiao Ai… I'll soon be rusted... I'll soon be out of life, and I'll soon forget about you... " He said in a hoarse heartbreaking tone. He had once grabbed her heart and safely kept it within himself, but he cannot continue to do it any longer.

Xiao Ai tightened her grip on his bleeding chest, and she cannot stop her heart to quiver in despair. " B-But… Im a scientist! An inventor! I can fix you up! I can... I can..."

" You can't Xiao Ai... I can't let you fix me whenever I'm broken… "

....

It was a cold night of February 12, but the bustling streets of China Town Diospora in New York emitted the life of festivity. There were lantern shops selling paper lanterns with ancient Chinese pagoda paintings, and handwritten Chinese characters' calligraphies.

Some stalls were selling simmering chicken soup, and dumplings that you can acquire for 50 dollars per serving. There were also dancing dragons and popping fireworks tis' creating a foggy mirage to every perse.

A young woman frigidly set her eyes outside her misty car glass window, while her fair arm rested on the steering wheel. She had her blackish brown waist-length hair, freely flow behind her small framed body.

Xiao Ai just got off the institute after three months of research experimentation about dark matter, when after two hours of driving tis' she ran in at the lively setting of China Town.

It has been four years since she left the ethnic province in Yunnan. She had not experienced a Lunar New Year with red packets and xiaolongbao for years, thus finding herself near China Town was not a surprise for her.

She left China to study in the centered commercial city where Harvard Science and Technology University was built with Ji Rengshu, her unrequited significant other half. But two years have passed, Ji Rengshu as an introverted guy does not seem to notice and heed care about how 'ordinary' Xiao Ai can be, he left Harvard and went to study Business Management at the University of Pennsylvania after acquiring full credits on Mathematical Physics and Astrophysics.

Xiao Ai can only shake her head and sigh. Her unrequited love was also the scar she had obtained four years ago. The subtle pain she felt between her nether regions was nothing to as her resolute broken heart aches.

She was too young and naïve to think that Ji Rengshu spent the night with her because she loved her, yet that night, they were only ships passing into one another. The both of them was driven by the ecstasy of lust and bodily desires, hence that façade was not a depiction of love. But her resolute unworldly heart was determined to be with him, thus she followed him in America leaving her foster parents to tears and to openly embrace the jitters and jeering of the society. But what she met in States was much more devastating than ever...

Xiao Ai's foster parents' were humble business entrepreneurs, partaking commercial production of red dates, jujube and plums to markets. Her mother was having a difficulty in conceiving a child because her uterus was cold, hence she was taking bittersome concocted Chinese medicinal herbs, in faith of having a child for the Zhang's.

Wu Chunhua, Xiao Ai's mother did conceive a child, but it was not with her husband, Zhang Chonglin. Xiao Ai was the sour fruit her mother had with another man. Her mother was involved in an affair when she was in Hangzhou. Needless to say, that potential business partner she was working with for five months was unfortunately, Xiao Ai's mysterious biological father.

The Zhang's accepted Xiao Ai, but she would bear the title of a foster child to avoid Xiao Ai from sullying their family name. They never gave a meager attention about her well-being, and they often leave her on starvation when her foster parents were not around.

It was also this day when Xiao Ai came to the world, hence reigniting fate's sumptuous appetite for cruelty. When she was twelve years old, she was forced to stand outside the cold winter breeze of December, hence Xiao Ai had a burning fever and was admitted in bed for two weeks.

Xiao Ai, as an outstanding student gave pride to her foster parents, but it also garnered envious thoughts to her paternal cousins. They made fun of Xiao Ai by making her wear a counterfeit dress on her grandfather's birthday banquet, thus it brought shame to herself and to her family.

Xiao Ai's dazed state was interrupted by her phone's ear-piercing ringtone, it was an indication of an incoming call. She furrowed her brows, and Xiao Ai was about to reject the call when her brain processed the name of the caller. It was her mother, Wu Chunhua. Chunhua that represents spring flowers, and a name that depicts gentleness and silence. Xiao Ai's eye brows relaxed, and she accepted the call.

" Happy Chinese New Year Mum! " Xiao Ai enthusiastically greeted her mother. Her heart was about to be leaped out of her body, because she was not able to communicate with her mother for months. The Institute she had been working at was depraved of communication reception to avoid their staffs and personnel to leak credited information about their chosen research for this year's Physics Convention that will be held in Sorbonne Universite Paris, France.

" Xiao Xiao Ai, when will you come back? " Wu Chunhua's gentle voice traveled to Xiao Ai's ears, but her mother's question dampened her mood in an instant.

" Mum, okay, I will be back soon but first, I need to finish my business here in United States… " Xiao Ai responded with an unsettled tone.

" Really!? Xiao Xiao Ai, mother is so happy, mother will cook your favorite sweet and sour chicken, and I will make you your favorite glutinous rice balls! " Wu Chunhua gleefully said.

" Hmm, that sounds so yummy Mum, I can't wait to taste your personally cooked dishes…" Her mother kept on rambling stuffs about planting crops, business, and clothes. Wu Chunhua stopped speaking in a time frame of half an incense stick to catch her breath and to geld her dry mouth.

" Xiao Xiao Ai, dear, when will you bring your boyfriend home? Your paternal cousins had already been admitted to blind dates orchestrated by your Grandma Yang you-"

" Mum, I am still busy with work. They will only hinder me with my work too, I love these kids so much. I still need to write my lesson plan everyday and --." Xiao Ai said in a serious tone, her mother can only sigh and wait for the good news to come by. But Wu Chunhua had already formulated a plan to get and to look for her future son-in-law.

They bid their goodbyes, but her mother did not even mention or greeted Xiao Ai a happy birthday. Xiao Ai did not expect her mother to give her these 'unconventional' greetings, because her existence was a boon to some people and that includes her mother. Xiao Ai never condemned her mother for being fickle minded, she was endowed with happiness and subtle resentment that her mother did not come to think of aborting her back then.

Xiao Ai then opened the door of her custom-made, low-key looking Volkswagen car, and she dashed out, blending her aura with the common folks present in the hustle bustled street.