Chapter 2. About Mistakes

Luckily she only had to be in the school at ten. It had taken her two mugs of coffee to feel awake and ready for the day, but actually it was a bit difficult for Bai Lu, her body was sore and she was feeling uncomfortable. Today she also had to work in the performances of the kids for the festival, it would be quite hard to endure through the six hours she had ahead.

" Dew, are you going to Tao's birthday party tomorrow?"

Bai Lu turned around when she heard her nickname. It was how people in the school called her, and even though she'd long started to dislike it, she couldn't bring herself to ask them to stop using it either. It was Peter who first called her that. Dew.

"Is it tomorrow already?" She sighed, there she had to go buying a present as well, and giving up her Saturday night. "Of course I'm going."

She still had to socialize once in a while with her co-workers, and she owed it to Tao, who was always so nice to her. It could be said that he and Zhing Yi were her closest friends at the school, but Bai Lu still dreaded to have to spend time with large groups of people.

"Great, we could go to get a present tomorrow morning and have lunch together, what do you say?" Zhing Yi suggested.

"Sounds good, we can meet at the shopping Mall at 11."

" I'll send you the location tonight, okay?"

They finished their coffee and had just enough time to enter their classrooms before the bell rang, so Bai Lu picked her folders and the bag with pencils and paintbrushes to hurry up to her class.

"See you later, Zhing Yi! Have fun!"

Of all the teachers in the school, Dew was the youngest one, and it was made more obvious when she told everyone to have fun, Zhing Yi thought. She was the home room teacher in a class of twelve-years-old kids, so what fun could she have in a class where most students were only so-so?

But Dew, who was usually quiet and introverted, transformed when she entered a room full of kids, she had seen it herself, so in her friend's mind having fun was just the rule. Zhing Yi had started working in the school at the same time than Dew, but she had been working for years in another city before, so things were a bit different for her, a woman in her thirties who was pressured to get married quickly.

The young always had more enthusiasm, there was still a hopeful road of possibilities ahead.

***

Some of the kids who finished the tasks earlier usually drew something for her. That was how Bai Lu had gotten to collect a folder full of pictures, letters and glitter where she added something every week.

It was her hobby to look again at these works and remember the situations and faces of the kids she'd worked with in the past, and that was how she went through the days she was feeling down.

For the first time in her life, she had slept with a stranger.

Actually, Bai Lu didn't have that much experience about relationships. She'd had her first love in high school, but Peter was the first man she had actually dated and things between them got serious pretty quickly. She still remembered her parents were extremely upset when she moved in with him. Looking back, all that had been a mistake, a silly girl's mistake.

But now she had just slept with someone she didn't know, no matter how nice he might be, it was still someone she didn't have feelings for. The courage she had last night, when she'd been bold and daring, had disappeared and she felt like a fraud.

Her phone rang and she picked up her mother's call.

"Hello mom."

"Lulu, how are you my dear? You haven't called at all these days, so your father and I were worried."

She felt guilty. It was true that she had not called, but it was because she didn't have anything new to tell.

"Sorry mom, I had a lot of work these days, but everything is fine. How are you and dad doing?"

"Just fine. You know, your cousin Meng Meng is getting married. We just learned about it today."

"Really? That's great."

She swallowed hard, because she knew that even if her mother didn't say it, she was thinking about it... her own daughter who everybody in town knew as a brilliant promise, who ended up ruining her reputation for a foreigner that threw her away, and failed to study abroad as they all had predicted.

They would never say it aloud, but she knew. So Bai Lu could only listen, express her happiness and tell her mother that she would be there by the end of the month, even when the last thing she wanted to know about were weddings and social gatherings.

At first Bai Lu didn't mind going alone to these social meetings, but when everyone kept asking about Peter, she started to hate it. It had been two years, and some still wanted to know about him. Sometimes she wanted to ask them if they were the ones involved in the relationship, to be so concerned about it.

"You know, Yi Zhen was here this morning to visit your father, he was remembering fondly of you."

" Really? I hope he's doing well. Say hi to him for me next time."

It was funny how things changed with time. When she was seventeen and she was madly in love with her senior, her mother was totally opposed to them having a relationship. Yi Zhen was a good man, who always helped with the church activities and everyone in town liked him well enough, but he wasn't a college student, and therefore was not good enough for her in her parents' eyes. However, she was twenty-four now, with no other men showing up in two years, and suddenly her senior was a good prospect.

However, the woman she had become could never be with Li Yi Zhen. She wanted to be free from the rigid morals in her family, and even when she loved her town and enjoyed going back every once in a while, she could not live in such a simple-minded place.

" Love you, mom."

" Take care of yourself, Lulu."

After ending the phone call, Bai Lu thought that if her mother knew what she had just done, it would make her even more disappointed. She would never know, but Bai Lu knew and it made her feel a bit guilty.

She should never go to Loko's pub again.

It was still early, and going out for some fresh air seemed to be just what she needed.

***

Long Wei finished his conversation with his accountant and then looked back at the table where last night he'd met Bai Lu. There was a group of men sitting there, in her usual spot... but she would not come anyway.

Bai Lu.

Why did he feel she was an intriguing woman?

Besides getting good grades in school to make his parents happy, he'd always do as he wished in life. When he decided to travel the world after graduating from college, he did so. When he'd wanted to settle down with Thalia and get married, no one could oppose. That had not worked out in the end, but even then breaking up had been his decision. When he came to his father's country and instead of staying for a couple of months as planned, he opened a pub, it had also been just because he wanted to.

Last night, he already knew she wouldn't be coming back soon, but the idea started to become annoying as the clock marked the hours passing by. At that moment, he really wanted to see Bai Lu, but it felt as something that escaped his power...

" Boss, Mai asked if the special prices for couple shots are still working today."

" Didn't she read the announcement?" He asked, " it's on until the 14th. You could also check on the notice board."

" I'm sorry. Sorry, I was wrong." Chu Feng had never seen his boss annoyed or grumpy before, what had just happened to him?

The reason for Long Wei's temper entered the doors at that moment, and his eyes lighted up. Unexpectedly, she'd come again.

She went to sit at the bar, right in front of where he was standing.

" Hi."

" Hello, how was your day?"

" Good. Tiring."

" I can imagine, for you to come here two days in a row."

She blushed, and for a moment she looked adorable. At that moment he knew why she was there, and he smiled. So their encounter had been good enough that the good girl was coming back.

" I just have to solve a few more things. If you don't mind waiting a bit, do you want to go out with me?"

He said 'go out', but his eyes told a different story. Bai Lu also couldn't believe she had the courage to come back, but after that phone call from home and a week's worth of work and tiredness coming to her, she unexpectedly wanted to see this person again.

"Very good. I'll wait."

He served her a glass of wine, and she drank it with her eyes still on him.

Cheers to another mistake, she thought.

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