Chapter 5 - The Struggling Girl (1)

By the time they"d returned home, it was already past 9 p.m, so Sheng Jiaoyang ended up sitting on the bed while she watched Xu Qing busying herself with the housework. Although their house was small, there were still a lot of daily ch.o.r.es that needed to be completed.

In her memory, when her Mother had taken her away to live in the villa, her Grandfather had ordered Aunt Zhang to take care of their three daily meals, and another full-time housemaid to manage the villa. She"d never seen her Mother do any housework before.

The current Mother in front of her was incredibly ordinary. Her personality was rather weak, but it was worthy of admiration. Moreover, not every mother was capable of raising her child alone.

"Jiaojiao, I"ve already filled the bath with water for you; quickly go bathe!" Xu Qing"s voice interrupted Sheng Jiaoyang"s train of thought.

Later that night, Sheng Jiaoyang found herself waking up due to being too hot and once she"d opened her eyes, she was so scared that she almost jumped in the air. At the end of the bed there was a shadow, but because of her myopia, the shadow was so hazy that it appeared particularly strange.

Her hand quickly grabbed her cell phone to turn on the flashlight, and as soon as it lit up the shadow, it turned out that it was just Xu Qing.

Sheng Jiaoyang pat her chest and unhappily asked, "Why aren"t you sleeping yet?" It"s the middle of the night! What is she doing sitting at the end of the bed instead of sleeping?

Fortunately, this body didn"t have heart disease.

Xu Qing was also startled by Sheng Jiaoyang"s voice, and she quickly responded, "I was just about to go to sleep."

Hearing the hoa.r.s.eness in Xu Qing"s voice, Sheng Jiaoyang sat up and turned on the light in the room. As expected, she caught sight of Xu Qing trying to hide her eyes which were red and swollen from crying.

Crying in the middle of the night until her eyes became like this; did something bad happen? For herself, at the time when the man she"d loved was intimate with that big breasted woman right in front of her, she hadn"t really cried. At most, two frustrated tears had silently slid down her cheeks.

"What the matter? Who bullied you?"

"Nothing," Xu Qing turned her head away to secretly at wipe her tears. "Let"s sleep."

"Don"t hide; I"ve already seen it. What happened to you? I"m your daughter, so if there are problems, we should face them together."

Xu Qing looked at Sheng Jiaoyang. She wanted to say something but kept hesitating, her tears unable to stop dripping.

Sheng Jiaoyang moved to sit down beside Xu Qing, and reaching out her hands; she hugged Xu Qing as she softly said, "I"ve already grown up; there"s nothing that can"t be said to me. Sometimes, there are problems that you"ll be unable to solve on your own, but maybe, someone else will have a way to solve them. Moreover, there"s only the two of us in this family, so you should believe in me more!"

Xu Qing had always been the backbone of the family, and suddenly being comforted by her daughter and feeling the warmth of her hug, it was like she"d abruptly found support to rely on. Hugging Sheng Jiaoyang back, Xu Qing then burst into bitter tears.

Sheng Jiaoyang repeatedly stroked Xu Qing"s back, allowing Xu Qing to cry out all her grievances. Crying it out was better than holding it in her heart.

Once Xu Qing had gradually calmed down, Sheng Jiaoyang said, "Alright; now, can you tell me why you were crying?"

"Jiaojiao, Mama has let you down…" Speaking until here, Xu Qing was unable to suppress her sobs.

"How could that ever be possible? Everyone else might be able to let me down, but you never will."

Xu Qing was comforted by Sheng Jiaoyang"s resolute words, and finally stammered out why she was sad.

Xu Qing worked as a sales representative in a cell phone store in the shopping centre. After going to work yesterday afternoon she was absent-minded as she was constantly thinking about her daughter, and unfortunately, three new cell phones were switched with fake ones. It wasn"t discovered that the phones had been stolen until she was just about to return them behind the counter, but by then, the swindler had already run away.

Although they"d immediately reported the incident to the police, the swindler had still managed to get away. This, plus the fact that Xu Qing had lately been requesting extended leaves of absence, the shop owner was left feeling dissatisfied and had fired her. On top of that, he"d also forced her to cover the cost of the three stolen cell phones. Unless they could catch the swindler and recuperate the loss, the money wouldn"t be returned to her.

Nearly five thousand dollars of her savings was lost overnight; almost all the money that she"d saved for her daughter"s university tuition! Now that her daughter had been admitted to such a good school, but without the tuition money to pay for it, what else was she to do but shed bitter tears in frustration?

"Since the money"s gone, it"s gone; but there will always be ways to earn it back. Moreover, the university can provide a loan so that I can still attend," Sheng Jiaoyang said to console Xu Qing.

After revealing the burden hidden inside her heart, Xu Qing calmed down a lot. On the one hand, she was touched by her daughter"s sensible words, while on the other hand, she didn"t want to let her young daughter shoulder such a responsibility. Inhaling deeply, she said, "Tomorrow, I"ll go to your Uncle to borrow money. Jiaojiao, Mama will make sure that you"ll be able to go to university smoothly!"

There"s an Uncle?

"Will Uncle lend us the money?"

After Sheng Jiaoyang asked, she noticed that Xu Qing hesitated. From this, she instantly knew that this Uncle wouldn"t be a reliable source of help.

With no husband or maternal family that they could rely on, it was little wonder that when they would come across a situation like this, it seemed as if the sky was about to collapse.

Previously, she hadn"t really cared about five thousand dollars, but she never would"ve thought that because of this sum of money, her family would become so anxious.

Even though it was now after midnight, Sheng Jiaoyang was unable to fall back asleep. Her mind was continuously thinking about how she could fix her family"s present dilemma.

Even if Xu Qing could borrow the money, the amount would just be a drop in the ocean. The most important way to get out of this current dilemma was to have a good source of income.

Considering the situation from all aspects, it seemed that the best solution was to partic.i.p.ate in that supermodel selection show.