Heading for the Plains - Chapter 5

The tables had turned. Now it was Ping Yuan staring her down, her voice low and sharp. “What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said,” Xia Chao replied.

“I was adopted by Xia Ling,” she continued softly, walking to the other side of the sofa and bending down to fish something out of her bag. “Here.”

It was an Adoption Registration Certificate.

“You’re right. I really don’t have the right to call you ‘Sister,’ because we aren’t related by blood.” Her voice landed gently on the floor, like a sliver of moonlight as thin as a cicada’s wing. “You are Xia Ling’s only true daughter.”

For some reason, at that moment, Ping Yuan felt that Xia Chao’s words sounded cautious, almost tender. And sometimes, tenderness hurts more than cruelty.

Ping Yuan looked down. “That’s just your side of the story. Even if you are adopted, so what? Who’s to say Xia Ling didn’t just abandon me and pick up a healthier kid to replace me?”

“I didn’t know I was adopted at first. I just knew I had an older sister. From the time I was very small, Mom and Dad were always leaving the house to go look for her.”

“Back then, I used to wonder: Where did my sister go? Is she playing hide-and-seek?” Xia Chao heard herself let out a small, sad chuckle. “Until one day, I actually found this while playing hide-and-seek.”

She pointed lightly at the certificate. “That’s when I knew.”

“My sister went missing five years before I arrived, right at the hospital gates. Mom found me on the side of the road while she was out looking for her.”

Human emotions are strange. Once the memories began to surge, realizing that the person standing before her was the very “Sister” from her mother’s stories. Xia Chao found she couldn’t stay angry at Ping Yuan. Instead, a sour pang of pity bloomed in her heart.

Xia Chao had been found by Xia Ling on a rainy day, right at the entrance of the very hospital where Ping Yuan had disappeared. In those days, the preference for sons over daughters was severe; finding an abandoned baby girl wasn’t uncommon. Rumor had it that when Xia Ling found her, she was already turning purple from the cold, crying silently near a hospital dumpster.

Perhaps it was the memory of the lost Ping Yuan that moved her, but in that moment of compassion, Xia Ling had picked her up. And just like that, Xia Chao had a home.

When she thought about it this way, hadn’t she effectively been given a second chance at life because of Ping Yuan?

Xia Chao bit her lip and smiled. Forget it. There was no use being petty with Ping Yuan. She was younger; yielding to her “sister” was only right.

Under Ping Yuan’s watchful gaze, she reached back into her bag and pulled out a file folder. With a sharp zip, she opened it and quickly extracted a sheet of paper.

“Here.” She handed the A4 sheet and the folder to Ping Yuan.

“My household register, ID card, and graduation files are all in here,” she said plainly. “And… a copy of Xia Ling’s will.”

The paper sat right on top. Ping Yuan immediately noticed the somewhat crooked, shaky handwriting.

“This is why I came to find you,” Xia Chao said, looking at her with a calm, steady gaze. “Now that the will has been delivered, my mission is technically complete. I’ll have to trouble you for a little while longer, but don’t worry. I came here to find a job and stand on my own feet. I won’t overstay my welcome.”

She spoke with total sincerity.

She didn’t know about Ping Yuan’s illness. Xia Ling had kept that a secret, just as she had kept Xia Chao’s adoption a secret from Ping Yuan. To Xia Ling, perhaps both secrets were matters of privacy that the girls should decide whether to share themselves.

She really worried herself to death over us, Xia Chao sighed inwardly. Sometimes she wondered: if Xia Ling only had one daughter from start to finish, would she have lived a happier, easier life?

As for which daughter should have held that spot… Xia Chao looked down at her toes. Better not go there. No matter the answer, it made her feel like a bad person.

The grumpy white cat with the “X” mouth stared up at her from her slippers. Xia Chao stared back for a moment, decided she had said enough, and cleared her throat. “Weren’t you going to take a shower?”

“I’ll head to my room now. I won’t bother you.”

“Wait.” Ping Yuan called out to her.

Xia Chao stopped. “Yes?”

“You mentioned your father just now. But during your mother’s entire illness, he never appeared once,” Ping Yuan’s clear, sharp voice caught her. “Where is he?”

…She’s sharp. Xia Chao had heard before coming here that her “sister” had always been brilliant with top-tier grades, top-tier university, nothing like a “wildling” like her who grew up climbing roofs and breaking tiles. She’d heard Ping Yuan went to F-University, part of the C9 league or something. Xia Chao didn’t understand the jargon; she just took a deep breath.

“I’m not telling you.”

“Didn’t you say ‘your mother’ isn’t my mother?” she said breezily. “Then ‘my father’ isn’t your father, either.”

“Of course, he never did anything to wrong my mom. So don’t worry your head about the old man. Go shower. Bye.”

She waved and didn’t stop this time.

Walking away after the job is done—not bad, not bad. Xia Chao nodded to herself, quite satisfied with her cool exit.

But Ping Yuan’s gaze remained glued to Xia Chao’s back. Just as the girl reached for a doorknob, Ping Yuan spoke again.

“Wait.”

“That’s my room. You’re going the wrong way,” Ping Yuan said, her voice unusually soft. “Your room is on the other side.”

Silence. A second later, Xia Chao spun around like a startled animal, her face a mask of tragic embarrassment.

How do I always mess up at the finish line! Ping Yuan would think she was looking down on the storage room and eyeing the master bedroom! She really didn’t want to sleep in the storage room, but… but she shouldn’t have embarrassed herself like this!

It was hopeless. She wanted to scream from the sheer shame of it.

Ping Yuan watched silently as the girl scrambled in the opposite direction and dove headfirst into the other room. Her movements were agile yet panicked—like a young deer.

Ping Yuan couldn’t help but let her lips quirk upward. But quickly, the smile faded.

The “will” was still in her hand. A thin page of paper, every stroke of the pen etched with heavy effort.

What is this… she murmured to herself. Did this mother and daughter not realize that a will written like this had zero legal standing? How to prove it was voluntary, how to divide assets… even thinking with her toes, she could spot a dozen problems. And this will, with only a few short lines, was predictably riddled with errors.

But Xia Ling likely didn’t know better.

Ping Yuan’s fingertip traced the signature with a sense of helplessness. There, written with genuine intent, were two characters: Xia Ling.

Xia Chao probably didn’t know either. Or perhaps, it didn’t matter if she knew. She had foolishly brought this “document” all this way, seemingly believing in her heart that this old apartment rightfully belonged to Ping Yuan.

Ping Yuan couldn’t stand the way Xia Chao looked at her. Truly an idiot. She felt a secret surge of irritation again. Where did this wild child come from? So stupid, so stubborn. A total legal illiterate!

She got up to shower.

The delay with the will had allowed the steam in the bathroom to dissipate. Ping Yuan liked the feeling of a dry floor. She glanced at the small trash can and noticed that Xia Chao had even been careful to clear the hair from the drain after her shower.

It made Ping Yuan feel like she had been unnecessarily harsh earlier.

She took out her frustration on the showerhead, letting the water blast her until her mood finally settled.

******

By the time Ping Yuan finished her shower and stepped out wearing a face mask, the storage room door was already pulled shut. On the other side of that door, Xia Chao had placed her backpack on a shelf and was sitting on the bed with her knees pulled to her chest, staring into space.

The room did contain some storage, but it wasn’t as cluttered as she had imagined. The bed was already made—a small 1.2-meter folding bed with fresh linens that felt soft when she sat down.

There seemed to be a faint fragrance. Xia Chao leaned her nose toward the pillow and took a small sniff.

The scent of gardenias.

Sharp tongue, soft heart. It made Xia Chao feel like she had misjudged her.

She thought back to Ping Yuan’s appearance earlier; the sharp chin, the pale skin. When she was holding back her temper, her lips turned bloodless, like a pale moon.

Xia Chao growled and buried her face in the quilt, thrashing around a few times. Then she remembered she was in someone else’s house and couldn’t “tear down the walls” like she did at home. She lay back down, flattening herself out like a salted fish.

Sigh… She hugged the quilt and let out a genuine sigh.

This sigh was sincere. When Ping Yuan had asked about her father, she hadn’t stayed silent because she hated her. On the contrary, after seeing that scar on Ping Yuan’s chest and the desperate, cold smile on her lips, she had been too saddened to speak.

Because Ping Yuan’s father had died in a car accident while he was out searching for her.

Xia Chao had been tiny then. Perhaps because she had been abandoned before, she would wail whenever no one was around. Xia Ling had to spend most of her time by her side, so the task of searching for Ping Yuan naturally fell to her husband. Then, one night, the phone rang, and a voice told them he was gone.

Because she was so young, Xia Chao barely remembered what her father looked like. But every time she saw Xia Ling working herself to exhaustion, she wondered: Did I, or Ping Yuan, cause his death?

So she wouldn’t tell Ping Yuan. If Ping Yuan had hated Xia Ling for all those years, the truth would crush her under the weight of her own conscience. Though Xia Chao had felt a spark of vengeful impulse tonight; wanting to spill everything just to see Ping Yuan crumble, she couldn’t do it.

Even if she has a mean mouth, hmph.

Xia Chao sat up and hugged her knees. The storage room had a tiny window, just enough to see the moon. A thin beam of light fell onto the bedding, draping it in a pale veil. The faint scent of gardenias lingered, making her eyelids grow heavy.

She was truly exhausted. After a full day of traveling, the moment her backside hit the bed, a massive wave of sleepiness pulled at her—like the mushy rice Ping Yuan had cooked, dragging her down into the depths.

Xia Chao buried her face in the quilt and slowly closed her eyes.

Isn’t this the North? Why is it so hot?

She wanted to get up and ask Ping Yuan, but she couldn’t bring herself to lose face. After a moment of hesitation, she decided to endure it.

Just fall asleep… just fall asleep… she self-hypnotized, finally drifting off.

On the other side of the door, the “culprit” was still sitting on the sofa, studying the exam papers.

It was obvious Xia Chao hadn’t put her heart into her studies. Back when Ping Yuan was in her senior year, she had thrown away bundles of used pen refills and stacks of completed mock exams. Xia Chao, on the other hand, only had a few sheets, and the essay sections were as clean as her face.

Ping Yuan recalled her standing there so stubbornly, declaring “I’m not studying anymore,” and felt like sneering. You haven’t even figured out how to study yet, and you’re quitting. Just a wild child.

She set the papers down and kept flipping through them, only to realize the next sheet wasn’t the “Physics-Chemistry-Biology” combo she remembered. She looked closer.

So they really don’t divide it into Arts and Sciences anymore… things change fast.

Ping Yuan never felt old—and she wasn’t. She was capable and had been promoted quickly, always the youngest in her tier. But standing before this vibrant young girl, she realized that nine years had passed since her own loud, yet silent, eighteenth year.

A three-year age gap per generation… they had three between them. Tsk. Annoying.

Feeling restless, she used the papers to fan herself. It felt hot. She got up to turn on the electric fan by the sofa, but she couldn’t find the remote. She walked over to press the button manually and… Wait.

Why isn’t she saying anything, Xia Chao? She doesn’t think I’m intentionally mistreating her, does she?

The “Older Sister” was starting to feel a bit flustered.

Support Heading for the Plains