Three days remained until the appointed date.
That number was an invisible blade hanging overhead. It always felt like it was swaying back and forth above her head, ready to fall at any moment yet when she looked up, she couldn’t see anything at all.
In a way, Lu Wanning saw Han Yao as a very order-abiding person. Whatever she said, whatever time she set, was unchangeable and would be carried out no matter what.
Conversely, she also wouldn’t allow anyone else to break that order.
For instance, the agreement the two of them had made before.
As the “toy,” Lu Wanning had to accompany Han Yao for dinner every day.
At first, it went smoothly. Around dinnertime was exactly when Lu Jiahui was swamped with work, with no time to care where Lu Wanning went.
But the variables weren’t limited to her mother there were also the teachers at school.
“How do you have the nerve to score this badly? Have you even been memorizing your vocabulary?” The teacher threw the test paper onto Lu Wanning’s desk in exasperation. “Correct every mistake before you leave, and copy out every word you got wrong ten times.”
“Take it home for your parents to sign. I’ll be checking each and every one, so don’t even think about escaping!”
Lu Wanning looked at her disastrous English test, covered in red crosses, and sighed in irritation.
What could she do? She just seemed to have no talent for foreign languages. Whenever exams came around, those vocabulary words swam around in her head like little tadpoles, impossible to catch.
Then Lu Wanning looked up at the others. This test had been hard, and she wasn’t the only one being punished. Discovering that made her feel quite a bit better right away.
Correcting the test was no big deal, it was just that…
Lu Wanning looked up at the clock on the wall and made a rough estimate of the time.
The eldest Miss Han had an extremely strict daily schedule, with dinner starting promptly at six thirty. Given the number of mistakes she’d made, by the time she finished copying out the words and got home, it would probably be far past that time.
Maybe she should tell Han Yao not to wait for her?
But how would she even do that? She didn’t have any way to contact Han Yao.
Even if she did, the teacher was standing right at the podium. How would she dare pull out her phone at a time like this and invite the teacher’s wrath? With grades like these, if her phone got confiscated on top of it, she’d be guaranteed a vicious beating from her mother.
Out of options, Lu Wanning could only obediently correct her mistakes under the teacher’s supervision.
She stared at the test paper in front of her, watching the sunset spill across the desk from the window, then slowly retreat, until the sky was completely dark. Only then did she wearily put down her pen.
After that came the bus ride home, then slipping in through the Han family’s back door as usual. Lu Wanning felt uneasy, unsure whether she should go find Han Yao.
Surely she wasn’t waiting for her, right?
By now her mother should be done with work she might even be looking for her.
Forget it, whatever. After a moment’s hesitation, Lu Wanning ultimately bolted toward the reception room.
When she pushed open the door, panting for breath, what she saw was still the familiar scene
The long solid-wood table, the tablecloth trimmed with lace, Han Yao in her white dress, and a lavish dinner that had long since gone cold.
The instant she witnessed this scene, Lu Wanning’s heart lurched, and she was immediately flooded with overwhelming guilt.
“I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I bombed a test and got held after class. The teacher wouldn’t let me leave, I only just got out.”
Han Yao’s expression betrayed little emotion; only her long lashes fluttered.
Dinner tonight was Western cuisine.
The steak had long gone cold, the dark juices glistening with a greasy film, and the cheese on the pasta had congealed into dry little clumps.
“You waited two hours for me,” she said.
Seeing this scene, one could tell without asking that the young miss was definitely angry.
But Lu Wanning, besides apologizing over and over, had no idea what else to do. “I’m sorry, I wanted to call you and let you know, but I didn’t know how to reach you.”
Her hand clenched the cuff of her school uniform. “Next time if something comes up suddenly, don’t wait for me just eat without me.”
“Next time?”
Han Yao repeated the two words softly, a hint of confusion crossing her face.
“Why would there be a next time?”
Lu Wanning froze for a moment. “Well…”
Not sure whether she’d said something wrong, she answered slowly, “There are always special circumstances like detention or cleaning duty. It’s not something I can control.”
While they were talking, a servant stepped forward at just the right moment to clear away the cold dishes, maintaining absolute silence, almost as if trying to erase their own presence. Before long, two identical fresh plates were set down, this time steaming hot.
“Eat,” Han Yao said.
Her expression barely changed throughout, so Lu Wanning couldn’t tell at all whether she was still angry, and could only obediently sit down and eat.
She really liked the pasta this time, and the beef was seared tender as well.
Lu Wanning never used a knife and fork at home, so she handled them awkwardly now, the tip of her knife clinking against the porcelain plate now and then with little crisp sounds.
Han Yao, by contrast, moved with an elegant silence that only made Lu Wanning look all the more clumsy and unrefined.
Just as Lu Wanning had her mouth stuffed full of beef, a voice came from beside her: “Why aren’t you talking today?”
She looked up. Han Yao was still watching her, calm as still water, her beautiful eyes utterly unruffled.
“I…” Lu Wanning sighed. “I’m just in a really bad mood. Can I keep you company tomorrow instead?”
She’d bombed her English exam, gotten scolded by the teacher, and graded so many papers her hand was nearly cramping. And when she handed it to Lu Jiahui to sign later, she’d probably get nagged about it for a whole week.
Not a single good thing had happened today.
Frustration, helplessness… all these emotions tangled together. Lu Wanning felt like she truly had no energy left to talk she just wanted to burrow under her blankets and rest.
Han Yao said nothing.
A long while passed, until she finished the last bite of steak.
Then she smiled, her lashes fluttering like butterfly wings. “Transfer schools.”
The knife and fork clattered against the plate, caught completely off guard.
“Huh?” Lu Wanning stared, thinking she’d misheard. “What?”
“Transfer schools,” Han Yao said.
Her eyes were clear and limpid, as if she genuinely believed it was a perfectly feasible idea. “Come to my school. No one will be able to control your time you can leave whenever you want.”
Lu Wanning was dumbfounded, never expecting her to say such a thing. “That…”
“I’ll pass.” After a few seconds, she refused hesitantly. “I’m doing fine at my current school, and I have lots of friends there…”
Han Yao kept that same smile on her face, but Lu Wanning could clearly see the warmth in her eyes cooling bit by bit, until it reached freezing point.
“Then what if you break a promise to me again?”
she asked.
For some reason, Lu Wanning’s unease only grew: “I’ll do what I promised you, but transferring schools really isn’t necessary.”
In that moment, the faint flicker in Han Yao’s eyes betrayed a hint of her emotions something like hurt and grievance intertwined, but mostly bewilderment.
“But I don’t want there to be a next time.”
Lu Wanning remembered that she had waited for her, hungry, for a full two hours, and her heart softened. She was just about to say something,
But the next words she heard made her heart sink to rock bottom.
“If she won’t transfer, how about we give the school a warning, so you can come home whenever you want?”
Lu Wanning was stunned for a full half minute, unable to say anything. Only after a long while did she stammer, “I, you…”
How could she wear that flawless, porcelain-white face and look at her with those innocent eyes while saying something like that?
Han Yao seemed a little disappointed. “You don’t want that either?”
She said slowly, “I want you to be on time, and I want you to be in a good mood.”
“It seems that without a transfer or a warning, neither is possible.”
Even though she’d long known the Han family was wealthy, it was only in that instant that Lu Wanning suddenly understood: things that mattered so much in her eyes were, to the young Miss Han, no more than a casual remark.
Just one sentence.
And toys really were just toys after all.