Once when she was bullied, AiLin believed in adults. Children were often told to put their trust in their teachers as they could help them in any problems that they struggled to find solution to. Therefore when she was first bullied, the first people she reached out was her teachers.
Those sa teachers had always praised her, trusted her, and never was a ti when AiLin had doubted them.
However on the day she had requested to be protected from the bullying, they hadn’t done anything to protect her.
Instead, they made it known that she had complained about the bullying, causing the bullies’ hatred to heightened and even the other classmates to see her as a burden. The teacher then remarked about how she should have stand up for herself, ignoring the instances where she was bullied. Even the nurse in the school hospital had instead looked away instead of helping her, ignoring her pleas of staying in the nurse office until break ti was over, telling her how she couldn’t be lazy.
The teachers also remain quiet about the bullying when Mrs Jiang had asked, which had caused Mrs Jiang to believe that she had lied about all the bullying, only saying it so she could skip school.
Slowly, AiLin had lost all trusts in adult, especially teachers, the creatures said to protect yet had betrayed her deeper than the "friends" she once knew back in high school.
Quietly, AiLin eyed ngYan. To be very honest, though a lot of her mories have been recovered from the therapy session, there was a lot of holes when she combed back to her past mories, such as the faces of the people who had stood and watched when she was bullied.
Dr. i had told her the reason for her mories to fade wasn’t because of her forgetting it, but due to the stress that she had went through. The traumas had caused her to fade the mories that hurt her, including the faces and expression of people she thought she could trust yet stabbed her on the back.
This was why she couldn’t recognize ngYan fully. She wondered what kind of person ngYan is. Was he the teacher who had told her to be stronger and that bullying wouldn’t have happened if she had just stood up for herself? Or the teacher who also mocked her for being easily bullied?
Maybe instead, the teacher who had slapped her across the face when she had threatened to tell the bullying outside school... wait, no, that was the vice principal of the school.
"I see that you don’t rember ," said ngYan with a trace of smile on his lips. "I was the assistant teacher for your math teacher back in high school. We didn’t interact much but oh, I rember that we shared bread rolls together during break ti. I think you knew that I wasn’t comfortable eating with the rest of the teachers because I was new."
AiLin furrowed her eyebrows. Did that happen?
"I see.."
Her hesitation was watched carefully by Li ZiChen. He felt a tinge of pain on his heart as he thought about how easily AiLin forgot her kindness to other people.
"You look different now," ngYan remarked, he then stretched his smile while she furrowed her eyebrows, "No, not in a bad way. I an, you are more confident and happier. It must be because of Mister Li."
Li ZiChen turned to ngYan, offering him a smile. He doesn’t know who ngYan is but his na was a thing known to the whole world, hence he wasn’t surprised that ngYan knows him imdiately.
"I was honestly worried," ngYan then continued, "Back in high school, I had reported about the bullying," he sighed, "but to my surprise, instead of taking the case seriously they had insisted on firing from the job. Since then, I have wondered and hoped that you’re safe and sound."
Xiao MuChen who stood beside him seed to have stare at him disapprovingly which AiLin noticed as he wasn’t the type of person to hide his expression from his face.
AiLin was also surprised to know that soone else had tried to bring the bullying into justice. "Thank you," she said sincerely, "I thought I was fighting alone."
ngYan shook his head, "I should be thanked when I succeed in helping you, unfortunately, I didn’t help at all. I wish I could have helped you, just a little..." his voice trembled as he clenched his fist, "But let’s not talk about the past, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to hear it either."
AiLin studied ngYan’s face carefully. His eyes held a depth of regret she hadn’t expected. His voice, despite the attempt to sound lighthearted, carried weight—guilt, perhaps.
She had spent so many years convinced that she had been alone. That no one had tried. Yet, here was a man who had once fought for her, even if she couldn’t rember it.
For the first ti in a long ti, she felt uncertain. Was it possible that not all adults had abandoned her?
"Maybe not," she said quietly. "But knowing that soone tried... it ans sothing."
ngYan gave her a sad smile but didn’t respond.
Li ZiChen then spoke up, "I’m sorry if this is a sensitive topic, but are you this girl’s father?" He seed to know that she was feeling a little uncomfortable on the topic that had made the entire group to fall quiet in awkwardness and helped her change the conversation.
Xiao MuChen blinked, "What? No."
"I thought so," remarked Li ZiChen, "You two don’t look very similar."
With a raised eyebrow, Xiao MuChen seed unhappy as he answered him back, "Children tend to not look as similar as their parents until they grow up. She will look like my brother and sister in law as she grows up and then she would look similar to ."
"Hm," Li ZiChen answered as he looked at LiAi whose eyes were wide and throwing stars as she admired his face. "LiAi," he called and the girl giggled, as if happy the na ca out from his mouth, "When is your birthday?"
The sudden question had made everyone taken aback except AiLin and himself.
Xiao MuChen’s eyes widened while ngYan seed to have flinch slightly. They both stared at Li ZiChen, noting that he was dangerous not only because of how sensitive he was but how preceptive and strong his gut feelings were.
"August!" LiAi, the innocent girl answered at once, "August twelve."
Li ZiChen smiled wider, looking at the innocent girl as he continued, "I see, such a beautiful month. LiAi have you seen your parents?"
Looking at him curiously, LiAi stared at him, "But you’re my daddy."
Xiao MuChen who had a terrible premonition quickly took LiAi from Li ZiChen’s hands. Not wanting the girl to be hurt, Li ZiChen had released his hold around his waist and looked back calmly at Xiao MuChen who seed to have panicked instead.
"What question are you asking to a child!"
"Is it not a normal question to be asked to a child, Mr Xiao?" Li ZiChen bent his neck forward as he smiled. That harmless smile of his seed convincing but Xiao MuChen felt that question wasn’t asked without a hidden intention.
ngYan snapped out from his surprise, quickly speaking beside Xiao MuChen with an awkward smile, "True, it’s a normal question. Sorry, Mu Chen is extrely protective to LiAi."
"That’s fine," Li ZiChen reached out his hand and poked LiAi’s cheeks, muttering, "So soft. The more I look at her, the more I’m reminded by JingYi. Do you know, AiLin? When JingYi was young, mother used to put him in a girl’s clothes because of how adorable he looks like."
AiLin blinked, surprised by the information, "Really? He must have looked so adorable."
"He did, I’ll show you his pictures when we got ho, you’ll be surprised by how similar he looks to LiAi right now," and upon seeing this, the sharp eyed Li ZiChen watched as the two n in front of him was drained from blood as if he had just seen soone burned to death right across their eyes.
"LiAi, let’s go ho," Xiao MuChen said, hugging to LiAi tighter. He looked at AiLin and then at Li ZiChen. His gaze at her was first hesitant but when it stopped at Li ZiChen it was apprehensive and fearful. "I will see you again, Miss AiLin, Mister Li, thank you for taking care of LiAi. I’ll make sure this never happened again."
"Why not? I am quite fond of children, specially after seeing how she resemble both AiLin and JingYi," Li ZiChen answered, "Right AiLin?"
"Mhm, I like her too."
"Oh, no, I’ll make sure to never bother you two again," Xiao MuChen then said his goodbye in a rush and exited the party hall as if he had just been found by the paparazzi.
Left so hurriedly, even AiLin noticed the awkwardness. ngYan however didn’t leave, he looked at Li ZiChen thoughtfully and offered, "Mr Li, if you have so ti, would you like to talk to outside?"
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