Chapter 16 Part 1

Once Qianxi started working, all the fuss earlier wasn’t important to her anymore.

The coordinator, who wasn’t happy with her earlier, wouldn’t stop praising her manners and fluency in English…...the makeup was a bit strange though.

Qianxi finished filming for KG’s interview section and went with all the staff to lunch. Since it was just work lunch, the food wasn’t very tasty…...Qianxi just ate a few bites quietly.

Didn’t Xu Jimo mention a welcome dinner party at night?  It sounded like a party that would have good food?

However, reality had let her down again.

During the two days before the compet.i.tion, many competing teams arrived at Seattle. The organizer threw a welcome party for all the teams, but the main courses of the party were, “A talk by the head of the game company”, “A talk by the head of the distributor”, and “A talk by the head of the sponsor”.

What was going on here? Wherever there were Chinese people, they would have talks from local leadership like in China?

Qianxi was famished and began to dream of all the gourmet food back home, the abundant breakfast buffets, even that awful lunch box she had thrown away earlier……

She glanced at all the other KG players. Li Cang and Cheng Yang weren’t able to sit still as well. Wei Lai and Cherry were lost in thought. As for Xu Jimo, who was accustomed to this kind of ritual, was calm as usual and didn’t seem to be hungry at all.

Qianxi felt like eating someone……

She had marked Xu Jimo down on her little book again! Oh, she was…...really…... going to die from hunger…...

Finally, the dinner was served. Every dish was as delicate and delicious as she had antic.i.p.ated. Yet, the amount was also very ‘delicate’. Qianxi watched those expensive ingredients disappeared after a few bites and still had to maintain her table manners. She was still hungry after the dinner.

The players were chatting with the executives and officers of the game company after dinner. Qianxi quietly went out of the banquet hall and went to buy some pastries to fill her stomach.

She turned on her phone and discovered several missed called from her cousin, Ye Qiao.

She called back to a tired sounding Ye Qiao, “Qianxi? Where have you been? Your mom called you the whole day yesterday and you didn’t pick up.”

“Ah? I didn’t see any missed calls. I just arrived at Seattle last night. I was probably on the airplane while she called.”

“Are you going away to relax?”

“No…...well, you could say that.” Qianxi took out the pastry from its wrapper and squatted down at a desolated corner to munch on like a rabbit. “What’s wrong? Why was she looking for me?”

Ye Qiao sighed, “Your dad is in the hospital.”

“What?!”

“The doctor said he’s overworked. It could also be because he hasn’t been in a good mood lately.” As for the reason for his bad mood, there was obviously no need to mention.

Ye Qiao sounded quite calm, “You don’t have to worry. It’s under control now. It was just that he fainted suddenly and scared your mom to death. Then she couldn’t reach you by phone and was a little disappointed at you.”

She probably wasn’t just simply “a little disappointed.” Qianxi knew her mom well; she was an emotional person. Her mom could be an angel when she was nice to you, but once she got mad, she would explode, consequences be d.a.m.ned. She probably was threatening to disown Qianxi by now.

The pastry caught in Qianxi’s throat and tears came out with her choking cough. “Is my dad alright? I’ll book a flight to come home now.”

“He’s alright, don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on him for you. It’s your mom. She just misunderstood you and it’ll take time to convince her otherwise.” Ye Qiao was calm and organized as always. “Don’t you have things to take care over there?”

“A little bit……”

Ye Qiao could tell that Qianxi was in a difficult position. “Then you just stay put over there. I’ll go explain for you. It’s better this way to let things cool down a bit. Wait till your mom gets over it then talk it through with her nicely. If you come home now and start arguing with your mom, it won’t do your dad’s health any good.”

Qianxi’s voice was low and she kept hiccuping because she had swallowed the pastry too hastily. “En……”

Though she tried hard to cover the sound of her hiccups, Ye Qiao still noticed it, “What’s wrong with your throat?”

“Nothing, nothing, I ate too much.”

Qianxi hung up the phone and tried to swallow a few more bites of the pastry. The hiccups got more and more serious. She choked and tears began to stream out to her surprise.

She was really useless.

Ye Qianxi, you’re really useless.

She had to bother her pregnant cousin to take care of her sick father. She was all the way over at the other side of the Pacific and couldn’t even find a good excuse to go back. She clicked on ‘Dear mother the great’ from the contact list and looked at the page for a long while. Her tears had blurred the screen, yet she still didn’t have the courage to dial.

She could imagine how sad and disappointed her mom was when she was scared and helplessly called her. She could imagine how furious her mom was now.

Suddenly she felt that dream and freedom were not as important now compared to ‘the parents may not be there when the children wants to care for them.’

She felt like a headstrong idiot.

She swallowed some more pastries without chewing and her stomach began to hurt. She wiped her tears with the napkin and threw the rest of the pastries into the trash can.

Her mood dropped to the bottom just like the box of baked goods.