Love vs. Rich #4

"Really?" said Mai excitedly.

"Yes, that’s what happens to me. How about you guys, have any fun?"

"Well, I was really hungry but a nice lady came and offer me food. Then, she said that we could go and stay with her after we told her about you. She was a really nice lady to let us stay."

"She sounds awfully nice Mai. Do you think she could be mother?"

"No, dad said that she’s not mom."

"How could you tell dad?"

"I know your mother’s voice very well," Fong tells her, "so she is not your mother." They reach the house and Mai happily knocks on the door. A woman opens the door and was full with ecstasy to see Mai and Fong again but gave Ka Lu an awkward look. Ka Lu looks at her closely and immediately recognizes her as the lady she bought the rice bowls from. She looks dawn, hoping that the lady wouldn’t recognize her. The lady gasps and points at her, "You’re that girl that steal my rice bowls the other day!" Ka Lu feels shame now that the lady remembers her.

"I’m sorry but please don’t kick my family out. It’s me that stole your rice bowls so please don’t punish them. Kick me out instead if you want too." The lady starts to laugh at her and said, "Hey don’t worry. What is done is done. You only did it for your family so I can’t blame you for being desperate. The only thing I could blame on is your kind heart for telling you to do so." Ka Lu smiles at her words and bows down to shoe her respects.

"I believe we haven’t introduced each others yet. I am Xee but everybody call me Sister Xiong." Another woman came to the door to see what the situation is.

"And this is Pa, my younger sister."

"I’m Ka Lu." Pa just smiles at them and asked, "So, is everybody hungry?"

"Sure, lets all eat." They all went inside to have dinner.

Inside a mansion, Alex and the woman just came back from a meeting at the corporation. Alex sits on the sofa, tired but the woman just drop her things, brush pass a girl and enters her room.

"What’s wrong with her," the girl asks.

"Nothing Sarah," Alex said.

"You guys were arguing again," Sarah conclude putting her hands on her hips.

"It’s not my fault she bought it up."

"Look, Felis…"

"Call her by her new name will you."

"Fine. Fenix is only worry about her family. Why would you turn it into an argument?"

"She won’t stop shut up about it that’s why."

"But hey, she didn’t choose to be with you."

"You better be quiet about it or you and I are over."

"Fine, let it be over and maybe I can find some peace for once." Sarah turns but Alex grabs her arm and pulls her close to him.

"I’m only joking Sarah," he whispers in her ears, "I just want to see how sexy you are when you’re mad."

"Don’t Alex, what it Fenix sees us?"

"She’s too mad to get out of the room but let’s go into your room, just in case we get dirty." They both disappear into Sarah’s room and never come out for the whole night.

Back at sister Xiong’s house, everybody was asleep except Ka Lu who volunteers to wash the dishes. When she’s done, she picks up a book and went into the room. She was surprise that Fong wasn’t asleep yet. He hears her breathing and said, "You’re done already?"

"Yes," she replies. She went up to him and sits with him.

"So, what are we going to do now father?"

"Continue to find your mother."

"Continue? Can’t we just go back?"

"That can also be an option but we can’t turn back now or we’ll fail out mission and like the wise man said…"

"Never to give up even in the darkest time," they both said in unison.

"Exactly."

"But look what happens in one day. I almost got rape and Mai was about to starve to death."

"But it did shed us some light. You met a great man and we got somewhere to stay."

"Well, I will consider we are lucky to have shelter but that guy that rescue me wasn’t so great either."

"Really, I can hear your heart beats when we met you with that guy."

"Dad!" Ka Lu pushes him playfully and Fong chuckles with delight.

"What are you guys up to?" They look back to see Sister Xiong waiting by the door.

"We’re just talking."

"I see. Well, enjoy yourselves," and she went back to bed. Ka Lu helps her father find the bed and went to her bed but she was still wide awake.

"Still up?" Fong asked her.

"Yeah."

"What are you thinking?"

"How we’re going to get home once we find mother."

"Don’t worry; we’ll have plenty of time to make money before we find your mother."

"But how are we going to make money?"

"We’ll find a way, now go to sleep." Ka Lu closes her eyes and fell asleep.

The following morning at Yaki’s house, the phone ring echoes throughout the house. Flora answers that phone.

"Hello, you have reached the Xing residence." She pauses for a moment as she listens and finally calls out, "Yaki, it’s for you." Yaki hurries down the stair from the bedroom, still buttoning up his shirt. Flora hands him the phone as he came closer and reaches for it.

"Hello."

"On Yaki, it’s me!" said a girl’s shrill voice from the phone.

"Hey Carly, how have you been?"

"Fine but hey, you got time?"

"Well, I’m doing nothing at the moment."

"Great! How about you come over and see how I beautifully decorated the concert hall."

"Hey my pleasure."

"O.k. see you there alright love."

"Alright," and he takes his car keys and drove away.

He is driving in the city, looking for the concert hall. He looks around and spots someone very familiar. He pulls over and gets out of his car, walking to the singing and unaware Ka Lu, who is with Mai and Fong. Many people drops changes into a box Mai is carrying when they are satisfy to hear Fong playing his flute and Ka Lu’s beautiful voice. Yaki claps his hands slowly and interrupts Ka Lu. She turns around to see him and folds her arms.

"Are you applauding me or do you despite me?"

"Half and half."

"You’re a rude little sucker."

"Hey, it’s very entertaining in a way." Ka Lu’s face became with rage.

"Who is it?" Fong asked Ka Lu.

"Nobody father, just a random guy that I don’t know."

"Now you don’t know who I am? You really are paranoid."

"There’s a difference between being paranoid and being protective," she responded hotly, "and you’re nothing but a blabber mouth."

"Hey," Yaki said his smile fading, "this blabber mouth saved you from a couple of gangster."

"Well, I never ask you to be my knight in shining armor."

"You! Look at you! How did you guys became beggars anyway."

"Excuse me! What did you just call us?!"

"I could call you guys whatever I want."

"Now look you darn blabber mouth, why don’t you leave here now and I won’t cause any trouble to you."

"I could stay here what ever I want."

"Then we’ll leave. Come on Mai." Ka Lu walks away but was force to stop when Yaki grabs hold of her forearm.

"I’m not letting you off that easy."

"Let me go!"

"Never, until you apologize."

"Apologize? You’re the one who is supposed to apologize. You started first."

"Well, I’m not letting you go unless you apologize."

"You! Somebody help me!" Yaki became instantly confuse when she suddenly yells for help. People around them turn their head to see the situation as Ka Lu continues to scream for help. A police officer finally came into view and ran to Ka Lu.

"What’s the problem here?"

"Help me officer, he’s forcing me to do something I don’t want to do."

"What? No I didn’t."

"Yes he did, he said that he’ll hold me down here until I do it." Yaki immediately let go of her arm when she pointed at it.

"Officer, what she’s saying isn’t true."

"Tell you guys what," the officer said, "I’ll take you guys to the police station to talk this out."

"What?" Yaki said as Ka Lu smiles approvingly.

At the concert hall, a girl is pacing back and forth, worrying.

"Where is he?" she wonders, still pacing. A van stops by her and Alex, Felis and Sarah gets out of the van.

"Are we late?" Sarah asked the girl.

"No."

"Then, why are you pacing back and forth like that?"

"I’m waiting for my fiancé."

"Look," Alex said impatiently, "fiancé or no fiancé, I need you to lead us to the dressing room so Fenix can get ready for the concert."

"The concert starts in half an hour," the girl said, looking at her clipboard, "we still have plenty of time."

"Take us there or you’ll-"

"Alex please," Felis pleads. Alex immediately stops his rage and clams down.

"Can you please," he asked her more calmly, "take us to the dressing room? You can come back here to look for your fiancé after that." The girl thinks for a moment and replied, "Alright, follow me."

She leads them to the dressing room and talks to Felis about which clothes to wear. Alex protest but Felis tells him that she doesn’t want to cause any trouble and he stops. Once the girl left, he turns to Felis.

"Why do you agree to wear those clothes?"

"Why would you want to know?"

"I’m your husband, that’s why."

"I never wanted to marry you."

"But you’re still my wife."

"If my family hadn’t died in that accident, I would have left this stinking city."

"Then why marry me when you could marry others."

"I was only desperate," she said in rage, "If I only wasn’t desperate, then I wouldn’t have married you."

"Why would you be desperate? Is it for money? For fame?"

"For life! I was only desperate for life! If you didn’t stop me from suicide, I would have died on the spot." She turns away from him and goes in to the dressing room to change. Sarah follows her as Alex goes to sit on a chair.

Meanwhile at the police station, Ka Lu and Yaki sit side my side, opposite of the officer but their heads turns the other way not to see each other. Ka Lu wears an ecstasy expression while Yaki wears a calm but angry expression. The officer looks at them awkwardly but decided to start asking questions.

"What were you doing before Yaki came?" Ka Lu turns her head to meet the officer, smiling as she answered, "I was singing."

"O.k. what did he do to you?"

"Well, first he harasses me-"

"Hey! I didn’t harass you!" Yaki interrupts as his head turns to face her.

"Well, who’s the one that call me and my family beggars?"

"Please don’t argue," The officer order, "and Yaki, please don’t interrupt."

"Fine," he said and the officer tells her to continue.

"Like I say, first he harasses me, then I told him to go away but he won’t. So I decided that I should go but he grab hold of my arm and say that he wouldn’t let go until I apologize to him. I didn’t do anything to him officer, why would he tell me to apologize?"

"That’s because you call me a blabber mouth!" Yaki said irritatingly.

"Alright, alright, that’s enough," the officer said annoyingly, "how about this; since this is a little problem then you apologize to her."

"Me? Why me?"

"You started this whole mess, now apologize."

"I’m not apologizing to a low class like her."

"Oh and officer," Ka Lu said in her sweet voice, "if he doesn’t apologize, then can I take this to court?"

"What? Officer she can’t do that, can she?" but the officer just shrugs and said, "Maybe she can. Other cases like this had done it before." Yaki clench his teeth and thinks it over.

Minutes later, Ka Lu hops out of the room, satisfy. Mai runs over to her and Fong stands up to ask her what happened.

"Oh nothing dad." Yaki comes out and stares at her with a blank expression.

"I let you win this time," he said plainly but the hint of his sour tone, "but if I ever get a chance for payback, I’m taking it."

"Sure but that’s what you get for treating other people like nothing."

"The reason why I apologize is because I don’t want to take this into court and also, it can wreak my reputation. Now if you excuse me, I’m needed elsewhere." Yaki walks out to his car and drove away.

The girl continues to wait by the concert hall and smiles as soon as she sees Yaki’s car.

"Where were you?" she asked as Yaki gets out of the car.

"I’m not in the mood."

"Oh, then lets watch the concert, shall we."

"O.k. At least that will clear my head."