Chapter 9: The Tigress of her home - Mother
Táng Jia Xing ran as fast as her feet would take her to her home as it was dark already. Her home was near the Ming household but situated in the forest near the mountains. Although the Ming family had a lot of properties in the West Province, this was their ancestral home, passed on through the generations and her home was just outside the Ming property line.
Xing removed the black cloth covering her head, hid the tiger mask in her sleeves, undid her braids and pulled her hair to a simple hairdo supported by a wooden hairpin with a horse carved in it. Xing knew her mother would get more angrier if she saw her in a male outdo and so she changed her appearance to feminine to reduce the punishment she might receive. She then wore her lucky red jade earrings her mother gave her, took a deep breath and entered her home preparing to face her enraged mother.But what she saw was shocking.
This is new, is this some new sort of punishment?
What appeared before her was a table full of her favourite foods with nice aroma. Her mother was sitting there lost in thought. "Ming Ling?", she called her mother, " Are you ok?", she sat beside her mother.
"Can’t you call me mother? You know it’s disrespectful calling one’s mother by their name."
"Ming Ling", she said and hugged her mother by the neck and kissed her cheek, "Who else will call you by your name? The only people who you talk to are me and Haru and Haru calls you ’Mother’. At this rate you will forget your name and it would be sad. That’s why I am calling you Ming Ling. You know l love you and respect you. ",she smiled widely. Her mother saw her beautiful daughter. She always gets away with anything. She cupped her cheeks, placed a kiss on her forehead and said, "Alright, it’s late. You are dirty. Go and take a bath. I’ve prepared everything. Go..... Go... Go" she pushed her. Xing was happy her mother was not mad and went to take a bath. Wow, this feels great. After finishing, she put on the clothes her mother prepared and sat at the table.
" Ming Ling, you haven’t eaten yet? You shouldn’t wait for me", saying this she put food on her bowl and gave her with the chopsticks. Somehow mother acts different today. She wasn’t scolded but being pampered? She then took food for herself and sat opposite her mother.
"You know what Haru did today Ming Ling?..", she started when her mother interrupted
" Yushen told me everything ", she smiled softly.
Damn that pretentious bastard, always making me look bad in front of my mother by acting like a obedient little child in front of my mother. Why am I still friends with him?
"He visited?"
" Yes,he brought his bride with him. She seemed good for him. He’s a good boy. He deserves to be happy.",she said heartily wishing him best.