13 Sylvia (1/2)
Joann could hear the sound of stern lecture coming from within even before she stepped through the door.
”Have you no shame?! A respectable young woman frolicking until so late at night with…” The voice Joann recognized as Mrs. Xu's paused as if it was a great trouble for her to vocalize such a demeaning action, ”a strange man!”
”Grandma, he is not a strange man…” A familiar voice retorted weakly.
Hearing this caused Joann to flare up immediately. She burst through the door and saw Mrs. Xu lecturing a young woman who was kneeling on the living room floor.
Joann rushed to the young woman's aid immediately, yelling, ”Mother, what are you doing to Sylvia?”
Yes, the young woman in question was Mrs. Xu's granddaughter and Joann's only daughter, Sylvia Xu.
The young woman was in her early twenties and was already working. She had always been a precocious child. She skipped several grades in high school and so she graduated college and entered the work force several years earlier than most of her peers.
When Sylvia stood beside her mother, people always mistook them for sisters rather than mother and daughter. This was on account of two things, the fact that Joann had Sylvia when she was still very young as well as the pricey beauty care that was necessary for celebrity of Joann's caliber.
Unlike her glamorous mother, Sylvia wore little to no make-up and had her hair cut in a severe bop on the account of her job as a reporter. Her occupation demanded that she had a clean style that was easy to get into.
Mrs. Xu turned to glare at Joann, who came to interrupt her lecture, ”What I am doing? I am teaching her a valuable life lesson on how to conduct herself properly, a motherly duty that you have so willingly forwent.”
”Be that as it may, why are you having her kneel on the floor? Is this the 19th century?” Joann countered as she pulled Sylvia up from the floor, ”This is not the way to teach the children, trampling all over their dignity is not the way to go!”
Sylvia resisted her pull and said, ”Mom, I am fine. Grandma is just worried about me. There is no need to make this a bigger problem than it currently is.”
”Oh, now you want to be the mother?! Where were you all those years when Xu Jing had to raise Sylvia alone?!” Mrs. Xu chimed in and shot a warning glare at Sylvia to freeze her into place, before adding, ”Speaking of dignity, with the way she is conducting herself, she has already lost all of it, what is even left for me to trample?!”
”Grandma, that is very unfair. Mom has to work while I was growing up but that does not mean she does not care about me. I understand her difficulties and I do not blame her. I know she loves me,” This time Sylvia came to Joann's rescue.
”Mother, what are you talking about?! So she came home a little bit late, what is the big deal? Is this kind of primitive punishment warranted?” Challenged Joann.