Chapter 12 - Future Planning

Standing in the bathroom, Hua looked at her reflection. She had grown tall to a height of 5ft 4 and still growing. Putting on her long-sleeved shirt, the burns on her arms were covered up. It had been four years already and the burns had healed but left circular scars in their place as a reminder.

Mingmei had seen them once and screamed in disgust which led Mrs. Zhang to come running. It was her first time seeing them as well. She looked horrified but still managed to slap Hua for "scaring" her pure, innocent daughter.

In the past four years, Hua had managed to save up a substantial amount of money. She made easy-to-study notes for students and these booklets were sold around the school. Even the teachers got their hands on them wondering where they came from. Impressed by the content, they didn't prevent students from buying them. The school's goal was to get many of its students ranked high in the national exam standings.

Mr. Zhang had also paid her 50,000 yuan after the Fang incident. Hua shook her head as she recalled him giving her money. He had written it down in her notebook.

"Here, take it and you better not talk about this ever again."

Hua shook her head as if to say she didn't want it.

"Take it as treatment money then. Not hush money. You've lived under our roof for so many years, you are part of the family. So, for the good of the family, take the money. Also, don't mention this to anyone."

Hua, of course, had the recording of this interaction. Since, that horrible experience, Hua had been recording and collecting evidence of Zhangs' wrongdoings. She had accumulated hundreds of records over the course of four years. She systematically collated and organized them into audio files. She bought a second-hand hard drive from the local electronics store.

She also had scanned her notebook pages that had all these horrible and nasty things written down. It was audio and written evidence. They were really not smart since they themselves wrote everything while communicating with Hua.

Hua had also enough saved for her ear and throat surgery. She had gone to the hospital for a check-up. After having a consultation with an ENT specialist, the diagnosis was positive for a full recovery for both ears and her throat. The surgeon also said that there is no guarantee that her voice and hearing will be the best but it'll at least be at somewhat normal.

"Ms. Li, it seems that when you were young, you went through a traumatic injury. Maybe you were in an environment and very close to a really loud sound and this affected your eardrums hence the loss of hearing. Also, the larynx was affected by possible overuse of your voice as a baby. I urge you to book surgery dates as soon as possible. But I do want you to be aware that the level of your hearing and speaking will depend on how well you take your recovery and rehabilitation after surgery."

After getting the costs for all procedures needed, Hua calculated how much she had in her savings and what she would have left over. At the same time, Hua was also looking for live-in jobs like housekeeping or tutoring. That way, it'll take care of her living accommodation and pay.

Confident that she could get a full scholarship and get a university dorm assigned to her, she didn't worry about that. There would be about 4 months after the national exams before university started. Living in Beijing was a hundred times more expensive than living in Suzhou so she had to prepare well.

Meanwhile, she also needed to get Mr. Zhang's signature on the family registrar's form to dissolve the adoption and be taken off Zhangs' register.

Mrs. Zhang happened to have got a glimpse of Mingmei's school notebooks. She hadn't been paying much attention to Mingmei's academics because of Hua's involvement in completing all tests for her. As if a bolt of lightning struck Mrs. Zhang, she sprang up from the couch and had an epiphany.

"Oh my gosh, what is Mingmei going to do for the national exams? It won't be easy to get Li Hua to write them for her."

She immediately started pacing back and forth in the living room. Mr. Zhang and Fang looked at her puzzled,

"Sumei, what's wrong?"

"Dear, how is Mingmei going to pass her exams? We need to get a tutor. Maybe hire someone who looks like Mingmei to write the exam for her?"

Mrs. Zhang's eyes sparkled at this ridiculous idea.

"Mom, if you do anything illegal and stupid, it will affect all our futures if you get caught. These types of things never remain secrets forever."

Mr. Zhang agreed, "Yeah, she just has to pass."

"Get the bitch maid to tutor Mingmei. Isn't she smart? There are still more than four months left, mom. Mingmei just needs to pass. She's going to to King's anyway for the vocal program. Her dance teacher is one of the professors so it'll be fine."

"But you think she can pass?"

Fang sighed and wished his sister was not stupid.

"Just get her to really focus on studying these few months."

"Call Mingmei and Li Hua."

Hua had been cleaning Mingmei's room. The most excruciatingly painful display of the colour, pink. The carpet, paint on the walls, ceiling, light fixtures, furniture, bedsheets, pillows, paintings, and picture frames were all in different shades of pink.

Hua shook her head and thought, no wonder the girl had quite a few loose screws in the head. Fang walked in, grabbed a black permanent marker from Mingmei's desk and grabbed Hua's arm and wrote on it, "Living room, NOW" and left. Mingmei who was watching TV in her room giggled and walked out of the room.

She looked down at her arms and sighed. Mingmei had started this practice. Once, she had gotten frustrated at not finding paper to write to Hua so she wrote it with a marker on Hua's arm. Then, the whole family started to do it. To make things even worse, Mingmei would purposely grab the permanent marker despite having washable markers within reach.

"Isn't it cool, Hua? It's like some sort of cool tattoo."

Breakfast items, grocery lists, what to clean, times to pick up things like Mr. Zhang's suits from the dry cleaners, errands, and much more, scribbled onto her skin. They looked past the burn scars and pretended not to see them when they scribbled on her arms.

Grabbing a wet tissue, Hua tried her best to wipe it off before it dried. To no avail, her skin turned red from all the scrubbing. Her arms looked terrible from the years of abuse.

Taking a deep breath, Hua recounted her reasons for enduring. Putting on the recorder pen, she made her way to see what the stupid scheme they cooked up this time.

Written by Uner90 (R.R)