Chapter 7 - Maid Li Hua (8 years later)

The little red clock glowed brightly right next to Hua's face sharp at 4.30 AM. It took one second for Hua immediately wake up and put it off.

Now, almost a grown woman, 17-year-old Hua sighed as she rolled out of the mattress she had outgrown since she was 13. She stretched her tall body of 5 ft 5 inches.

Time flies when every day was work, school, and layered with heaps of physical and mental abuse. She didn’t give herself time to even think of what life would have been if she hadn’t left the orphanage and her brother.

“Another day closer to freedom,” she said to herself. Her mantra to start off her day.

Hua’s daily schedule was as follows but also changed depending on the chores.

 4:30 AM Morning Alarm

 4:50 to 6 AM – Milk delivery to 200 homes.

 6:15 to 7 AM – Make breakfast for everyone

 7 – 7:30 AM – Do the first batch of laundry and get ready for school

 7:30 – 7: 45 AM – Run to school (Mingmei and Fang got a ride to school)

 8 AM – 3 PM – School

 3:30 – 6 PM– Dinner food prep at Auntie Po’s restaurant

 6:15 – 8 PM – Construction work

 8:15 – 9 PM – Cook dinner for everyone

 9:30 – 11 PM – Help Mingmei with her homework

 11:30 PM – Do the second batch of laundry

 Midnight – Hua’s study and homework time

Last night, she was so tired that she fell asleep in Mingmei’s room after completing her essay for her.

“How dare you sleep on my table?” She screamed hitting Hua’s arm with a wooden ruler. Hua didn’t even flinch, writing “Your essay is done,” on her notebook.

Mingmei grabbed Hua’s arm and made a disgusted expression and wrote with a black marker directly on her arm, “I better get a perfect score. If I don’t, I’ll tell mom to deal with you. Now, get out.”

When she first got here, the Zhangs would write in notebooks to tell her things but Mingmei started writing it on Hua’s arms instead. She would sometimes even write in permanent marker. Hua would have to almost scrub the skin off her arm to get rid of the writing.

Dressing quickly in her usual fashion of jeans, a long-sleeve t-shirt, and a plaid button-up over it, Hua was out the door. All her clothes and school supplies were thrifted from the local flea market. Hua did her best to save all her money since she was young. She had a bank account that she had opened with Auntie Mei when she was 7.

The family didn’t know about it because once some of her money went missing from her closet room. Hua was sure it was Fang pulling a prank on her. So, since then, she would put almost all her cash in the bank.

Her desk was made out of cartons for about 2 years before it fell apart. No amount of duct tape could save it so Hua went dumpster diving to find something suitable. She found a plastic foldable table with a leg missing at the local junkyard and a chair with a missing armrest. The Zhangs never provided her with any money for her living expenses so she had to learn early how to save and be thrifty.

In the first few months of living here, Auntie Deng, a more experienced maid trained Hua on everything she needed to learn how to do. At 10, Hua attempted an escape but was found by the local cops at the bus station.

The cops brought her back to the apartment and Mr. Zhang laid down the worst beating any child could endure. Hua took almost half a year to fully recover from it. Auntie Du stayed on for another month till Hua somewhat recovered.

She was responsible for cleaning the house, cooking breakfast and dinner, and last but least, doing Mingmei’s homework for her. Mrs. Zhang realized early on Hua was clever and had to “help” Mingmei who had failed her grade 4 tests.

To avoid being embarrassed, Mr. Zhang enrolled Mingmei at a new school through his connections and Hua joined her class. Mrs. Zhang coaxed the teacher to let them be in class together. Since then, Mingmei was always number one in the grade and Hua was always in the bottom three.

What about during exams? Hua would complete the exam paper but write Mingmei’s name on it when submitting it and Mingmei wrote Li Hua on hers. They never got caught because Hua was forced to practice Mingmei's writing style.

Mingmei’s grades were as fake as her face. When she turned 13, she asked for a new nose for her birthday which Mr. Zhang was not willing to permit it. Her tantrums got worse and worse leading him to finally giving in.

This time was even worse for Hua because Mingmei took her frustrations and anger out on her. A lot of hair pulling, pushing Hua around physically, and of course, Mingmei’s favorite was face slaps.

During her summer vacation, Mrs. Zhang and her lived away for three months at Mrs. Zhang’s father’s house in Beijing while Mingmei recovered from surgery. She also got her eyes done so they were bigger and her lips were much fuller too.

Hua could tell that Mr. Zhang was disappointed that his own daughter thought that looking like him was terrible. Mrs. Zhang coaxed him into saying that girls need a pretty face to get far in life. They had big plans for their children to get into the upper echelons of society.

Mingmei cried a lot during that time to pacify her father’s heart. He was convinced and even the family photos were photoshopped to make it seem as though Mingmei was born pretty.

Mrs. Zhang was ecstatic because her daughter looked like her now. One time, Mrs. Zhang had one too many and kept talking about her heydays to Hua late at night. She talked about how she was the prettiest girl in high school and had a lot of suitors who wanted to marry her.

She even spilled the beans about her love life and how she had many boyfriends before Mr. Zhang was arranged as her marriage partner because of her father’s connection to Mr. Zhang’s mother. She was upset but after hearing about how rich the family was and realizing that none of her previous boyfriends were even close to that kind of money, she said yes and got married to Mr. Zhang.

Hua had to stay up till 3 in the morning to listen to her drunk talk. Hua had become an expert lip reader over the years.

This was how Hua had spent over 8 years of her childhood years at the Zhangs household. Her presence and existence over the years had been reduced to, "She’s just a maid. Maid Li Hua.”

Written by Uner90 (R.R.)