Her mother and her grandmother, everybody avoided at her big brother like he was a plaque. Nobody at home was allowed to mention him, let alone talking her through.
As for her second brother, all he did was tell her to not bring up her big brother so as to avoid hurting their mother and their grandmother…
Finally, all she could do was to digest all of her pain by herself and even struggling like a trapped beast, not knowing what else she could do.
She pushed back. She was rebellious. She wanted to find an exit!
It had been over ten years and, today, the words from Gu Shishi the outsider, one that had just came a few days ago no less, slapped her hard across her face.
Huo ChuChu’s blood was frozen. She felt cold.
She was pulling her brother’s leg?
She sudden recalled how she once decided to go on a hunger strike when she was in grade school because she wanted to go visit her big brother. The outcome of that was she had become gravely ill. Her mother and her grandmother were very unhappy about it and her friends all stayed further away from her and looked more frightened…
Then there was that one time when she wanted to go visit her big brother by herself when she was in high school. She ended up taking a fall on the mountainous path, fracture her bone, and needed to be rescued… and then everyone looked even more frightened after that…
Huo ChuChu was stunned!
She started shaking uncontrollably.
Gu Shishi smacked her on her bottom immediately.
“Stop shaking! Get walk! Walk on your own two feet!”
“Gosh! What did you eat growing up? How are you so heavy!”
Huo ChuChu’s head had been cleared. Couldn’t be clearer from the whack.
***
“My brother… will get upset,” said Huo ChuChu an hour later while sitting inside of Gu Shishi’s room.
Trembling on Gu Shishi’s bed was a big lump wrapped in a blanket holding a bowl of ginger soup in her hands.
“Shut up!”
Gu Shishi sneered impatiently while drying her hair with a hairdryer.
She finally understood why her master was mean to her when she was a child.
With some kids, that was the only way to get through to them.
Huo ChuChu stalled the entire time she was taking a shower. It took her a whole hour. It made Gu Shishi wondered if she had scrubbed her skin raw in that one hour.
And, she used half a bottle of Gu Shishi’s favorite Shu Uemura cleansing oil to wash off all of her tattoos… they were temporary tattoos. Even her being rebellious was just a show!
Once all of her tattoos were removed, she was a gutless coward.
Every minutes or so, she’d say something like “big brother was mad”, “what should I do?”, “what should I do if he wanted to kick me out?”, “I want to cry”….
Huo ChuChu would only stop crying when Gu Shishi raised her voice and stopped with that negative mumbling.
“I am going to dinner with your big brother tonight.”
Gu Shishi stroked her hair and it was messy from the blow drying.
“I am not taking you with.”
Huo ChuChu was about to start crying again.
Gu Shishi slapped the wall repeatedly.
And she was able to make Huo ChuChu hold back her tears once again.
“If you like the rebellious character setting so much, then stick to it! Show us your rebellious nature!”
Gu Shishi sneered.
“Treat your big brother the same way you have been treating your mother and your second brother!”
“Huh?”
Huo ChuChu was stunned.
“Say what?”
Gu Shishi pursed her lips.
She understood the boss.
He was tough on the outside and soft on the inside.
Truth was, he was a true gentleman when it came to girls.
He could send lunch to a stranger and pick her up at night.
Let alone his little sister.
“But… Big Brother really resents us…”
Even Huo ChuChu’s voice was trembling.
“He’d be enraged… and he’d have the chauffeur take me back immediately.”
As Gu Shishi listened to her, she started looking more and more solemn.
“Huo ChuChu, tell me the truth. Do you really think he is cursed?”
Gu Shishi paused for a second. It seemed that she was struggling painfully.
But quickly, she gritted her teeth and shook her head, albeit not too overly firm on her stance.
“I don’t know.
“But he is my brother and he will be my brother for the rest of my life.
“Even if… if he was cursed. I don’t care.”
