Chapter 44 - How Are You Feeling? (2/2)

And her daze was broken when a hand made contact with the side of her face. A resounding slap echoed in the usually silent room. Xiu didn't have to turn to know who slapped her.

”Chen Xiu! Do you take my words as a joke?” Her mother's raging voice made its way to her ear which was still buzzing because of the slap. ”I told you last night to rest because you have an early shoot for the endors.e.m.e.nt. But you ended up here in a hospital.”

Xiu didn't look at her. She was sitting still with a dejected look. She looked dispirited as if someone had stolen the essence of her life.

”Do you know how many calls I had to attend because of you? I had to make so many excuses to postpone this ad shoot.” Her mother was livid and looked rather frustrated. The woman whose single hair was never out of sort looked completely disheveled as she kept rebuking her daughter. ”Why aren't you saying anything? I'm talking to you!”

”I don't have an answer for you,” Xiu replied with a heavy heart as she still refused to look at her mother. Crying for her mother's affection? Xiu had long given up on that. It was really ironic that her own mother's first question was along the lines of how much loss she'd have to face. It was just Xiu's wishful thinking that she wanted to hear, 'How are you feeling?']

A loud ringtone buzzed somewhere making her squint her eyes in annoyance. Xiu's hand looked around on the bed while her eyes stayed closed. As she finally found the phone at the edge of the bed, she attended the call without looking at the caller id.

A furious voice came from the other side, ”BAI XIU! Where the hell are you?”

”Today's Sunday. Obviously, I'm in my bed under my warm duvet.” Xiu's groggy voice replied matter-of-factly.

”You're still sleeping? It's 11:00 am already.” The person on the other end seemed to be gnashing her teeth.

”I still have time to sleep. Now, hang up.” Xiu was about to cut the call when she heard the voice again.

”You irksome idiot! Today's your interview for the E.A's position. Stop being a lazy cat and get here. Now!” Manager Li was truly exasperated by this girl who forgot the one thing she asked her to remember.

”Oh, right! Our weird boss always does the interviews on Sundays. I forgot. I'll be there soon.” Saying that Xiu yawned lazily and sat up on her bed. She thought about the dream she just saw and felt her mood turning bitter.

But she had to get to the company now. She couldn't let her past influence her current mood, not more than it had already done. So, she shook off all the unnecessary thoughts of her mind and took a quick shower before getting dressed and leaving for the company.