Pill Maker Bullies The Boss

Rich Family

A second ago, Song Chaerin had been acting detached. As soon as Jin and Eunha entered the elevator, Song Chaerin’s expressions underwent a drastic change. She began to display greater care, and said to Lisa with particular gentleness, “My dear girl, come on inside…”

Unfortunately, the elevator door had not closed yet and Eunha happened to see the change in her foster mother’s attitude. Immediately, Eunha’s face turned ghastly pale.

**

Huo Family’s house was not large. However, it had two floors and could not be called small, either. The house had classical Chinese style decoration and all the furniture pieces were made from rosewood. The layout and fixtures in the house told Lisa that the inhabitants possessed good tastes.

Lisa took her time and looked around slowly. Eventually, a scroll of calligraphy and painting hung on the wall caught her eyes. That scroll came as a surprise to her.

But then, she looked away and thought that she had been mistaken. She dismissed the idea that the scroll was an authentic piece of work.

The Huo Family did not appear to be an impoverished household like she had thought originally. That being said, she didn’t think the Huo Family was wealthy enough to afford such a valuable piece of famous authentic work.

Hence, the scroll was most likely a fake.

Her father noticed how her gaze lingered on the scroll for a while. He had been wondering anxiously about how to break the ice and establish some connection with this daughter of his. He glanced at the scroll and thought of an idea.

“Lili, do you like calligraphy as well?” He asked, smiling cheerfully.

Lisa raised her eyes and looked at her father. Then she replied in a casual tone. “Not interested.”

Huo Jiyong was suddenly at a loss for words. He had barely come up with a common point as a conversation starter. But with her abrupt answer, all those words were now stuck in his throat. It took him a long while before he could utter another word again. “Oh, you are not interested…”

Lisa noticed that this was a huge blow to him. She thought for two seconds and then added the next line. “We have different interests.”

Huo Jiyong once again put on a smile of a loving father. He was ready to continue the conversation further. “Then, what are your interests?”

Lisa thought of her real self before she became the owner of this body. All of a sudden, she sunk into silence. A few seconds later, she looked up at her father and answered solemnly. “Studying.”

Huo Jiyong’s lips twitched visibly. He could hardly keep a straight face.

A slacker who always skipped classes at school had just said that her interest was – ‘to study’.

Mr. Huo stared at his daughter, quietly. She didn’t seem to be joking about it. All of a sudden, he began to wonder if he was fed misleading information when he had enquired with the school faculties back in the small county.

With one look, he could tell that his daughter was both adorable and ambitious.

“Hey, are you bragging about your damn calligraphy and painting again?”

Song Chaerin heard her husband mentioning ‘calligraphy’. She came out from the kitchen to set the table and glared at him.

“Go and bring out bowls and chopsticks!” She shouted at him in an imposing manner.

“I wasn’t bragging.”

Mr. Huo scratched his nose in embarrassment. Saying so, he followed his wife’s orders and went to the kitchen.

He was still mumbling. “How come you always say my antiques are shabby? That scroll is…”

His voice had dropped down to a whisper. Therefore, Lisa failed to register what he was saying.

But her biological mother had shouted ‘damn calligraphy and painting’ very loudly and clearly.

*

After dinner, Song Chaerin took Lisa upstairs.

There were four bedrooms on this floor. The one allotted for Lisa was situated at the back of the corridor on the right side. Song Chaerin opened the door and said to Lisa, “Your fourth brother used to live in this room. He doesn’t live here at present and will only come back probably in a year’s time. So, I re-decorated his room for you. Take a look. Do you like it?”

Saying so, she turned on the lights. Pink colour assaulted Lisa’s senses within seconds. The wallpaper, the closet, the king-sized bed, the curtain, and even the desk… Apart from the floor, everything in the room was pink.

Lisa, “…”

It was severely offending to the eye.

With a proud expression on her face, Song Chaerin looked at the princess themed room that she had meticulously designed and continued. “I asked a famous designer to put together this plan. What do you think? Isn’t it fairy-like, dreamy and sweet?”

Lisa curled her lips, involuntarily. She shot another glance at the room but could not find appropriate words to compliment this style which had completely blown away all kinds of aesthetic values.

She knew very well that any famous designer worth their mettle wouldn’t do something like this to jeopardize their brands. Therefore, Lisa suspected that her mom was most likely a victim of a scam.

After all, many unethical home decoration companies often deceived people by lying about their designers’ credentials.

To avoid disappointing an enthusiastic looking Song Chaerin, Lisa replied sagely after a few seconds. “The fact that you like it, is all that matters.”

Those words were followed by a yawn. The warm light in the room spilled over her beautiful face, clearly showing signs of fatigue.

Song Chaerin’s nose wrinkled in confusion. Somehow, she found her daughter’s words ambiguous. That being said, since Lisa was feeling sleepy, Song Chaerin decided not to probe her any further. She told Lisa to rest well and left the room.

After the door was closed behind her, Lisa found herself alone in a room overflowing with pink. With a troubled expression, she rubbed her forehead.

Suppressing a sigh, she opened her suitcase, took out her pajamas, and went to the bathroom.

She was indeed exhausted. After her match in the city, she had hurried back to the county early in the morning. Post that, she had headed to the airport to fly to City S without catching a break. She had almost spent an entire day travelling. Resilient as she was, her body was feeling the fatigue at this moment.


At the same time, Eunha had returned to the Lu Family. She couldn’t stop thinking about Lisa and her foster parents’ attitude. She was so upset that she could not fall asleep. She tossed and turned on her bed for a long while. Eventually, she grabbed her phone and began to browse her microblog.

Ever since Eunha had participated in the ‘Star Training Camp’, she gained countless fans who liked her sweet voice and her innocent looks. Besides, her agency had devoted a lot of effort to make her well-liked and were trying to build her persona through several channels. As expected, her pictures with those fans at the airport tonight, had become a trending search already.

The pictures were good, and her fans must have posted them after they carefully tweaked the photos. In merely two hours, there were over ten thousand comments. For a new star who had not yet debuted on stage, this was insane.

The only flaw in those otherwise perfect pictures, was that Lisa was present in two of them.

The clicks did not capture her face, and the fans also added some blurs in the background. However, with that tall and slender figure and this kind of detached bearing, even after her face being obscured, Lisa was still able to demonstrate her beauty.

In fact, the blur became the most intriguing and focal point of the photo.

Eunha frowned in displeasure. No matter how she looked at them, she still thought those two photos were an eyesore. She finally calmed herself down and began to read the comments.

Some of the fans had indeed expressed their curiosity about the girl wearing the mask. However, their comments did not stir up any further conversation. Nobody paid much attention to those posts after a while.

Eunha breathed in a sigh of relief. She scrolled down to read the comments which were talking her up. The depression which she had been suffering all night long, finally died down.

She thought she must have gone crazy for a second there to have a weird sense of crisis.

Even though that village girl, Lisa was a beauty, she was still a trophy girl who was vulgar and without any strong attributes. She had returned to the Huo Family. So what?

She will never be better than me!!

Eunha sneered and turned off her phone.

The next day, Lisa woke up early. Her biological clock was always spot on. She would get up every morning at 6, no matter what.

However, since she was in a new environment, she did indulge herself for a bit more and snoozed for a few minutes before she eventually crawled out of the bed. She dragged herself to the bathroom to freshen up. After she came out, she sat down on the ground with crossed legs and began to go through the contents of her suitcase.

She had not brought too many clothes with her, just two sets. The rest of the suitcase was full of unlabeled jars and bottles, along with two old-fashioned iron boxes.

Lisa only took out her clothes for now. On second thought, she picked out two of the bottles as well. Then, she zipped up her suitcase but did not use the coded lock.

She ran her eyes around the room until she found the closet. She got up and pulled the suitcase along.

When she opened the closet, she found it full of new clothes, which caught her unaware.

The clothes did not have tags on them, but she could tell that they were new and of high quality. As for the style, Lisa thought that they were okay. At the very least, the clothes were classier than this horrendously pink room.

She stuffed her suitcase into a corner of the closet and changed into her sportswear. She combed her long hair into a bun, and left the room.

Jogging in the morning was her habit, and she would not change her ways just because she had come to a different place.

*

By 8am, Song Chaerin had already set the table for breakfast. She looked at the staircase and then at her husband who was reading the newspaper in the living room.

She asked him. “Do you think we should wake up our daughter for breakfast?”

Huo Jiyong pushed his glasses up his nose bridge and replied. “She was really tired yesterday and went to sleep quite late. I say we don’t disturb her and let her sleep in.”

“Sure.” Song Chaerin nodded. She was about to say something else when she heard the doorbell ring.

Looking at the door, she murmured curiously. “Who would come so early in the morning?”

Huo Jiyong put down his newspaper. “Could it be the accountant?”

Song Chaerin threw a pitying glance at him. “Mister, today is the 20th. We have several more days before we need to go through our books.”

Huo Jiyong made an ‘oh’ sound and added after a moment. “Tell our accountant not to come here this month. Our daughter has just come back. I don’t want to spook her.”

Song Chaerin thought that her husband’s proposal made sense and nodded her head in agreement. “Sure. Now, let me see who is at the door.”

She opened the internal door and stood still for a couple of seconds when she saw that it was Lisa standing outside the main door. After Song Chaerin came back to her senses, she unlocked the security door and asked quickly. “Lili, why are you outside?”

Lisa had just come back from her jogging. Her delicate face had turned rosy from the workout, and few hair strands were stuck on her cheek because of the sweat. She wiped off her sweat and replied. “I like exercising in the morning.”

That came as a surprise to Song Chaerin.

“Morning jogging is good, a good habit.” She nodded in approval.

But then she said something entirely different, “Girls can sleep in, though. It will be good for your skin.”

Lisa’s mouth twitched.

“I have made breakfast. Go up quickly, take a shower, and come down for breakfast.” Song Chaerin told Lisa as the latter stepped in through the door.

“Okay.”

“And there are clothes in the closet. They are all new. See if you like them. If you don’t, I will get you another batch.”

Another batch?

Lisa paused in her steps. There was a complicated expression on her face. “Mom, has our family stumbled across some wealth overnight?”

Song Chaerin turned around to look at her.

The words, “or I can ask a few designers to come and tailor make some clothes for you,” remained stuck in her mouth.

Puzzled, Lisa stared at the expression on Song Chaerin’s face. The next instant, Lisa was enveloped into a warm hug.

“Oh my dear girl, you just called me mom. Finally!” Song Chaerin was so thrilled that she almost burst into tears.

Lisa, “…”

But this was not the main point!

*

Ten minutes later, Lisa had finished her shower and reached downstairs. She had put on a casual T-shirt and a pair of ripped jeans. The outfit was leisurely and simple, but she looked cool in it.

“My daughter is so pretty.” Song Chaerin put her hand under her chin and watched as Lisa came down the stairs. Lisa had not put on the clothes which she bought but that didn’t stop her from complimenting her daughter.

Huo Jiyong nodded in agreement. “She has inherited my perfect genes.”

Song Chaerin rolled her eyes at him. “Have you no shame? Your daughter takes after me and that is fairly obvious.”

“Right, right, my darling! Everything you say is right.” The hen-pecked husband gave up his stance at once.

Lisa had just reached the breakfast table and happened to hear every word of this conversation.

This public display of affection was not unpleasant to her ears.

Lisa sat down at the table. She had always been a quiet person, so during breakfast, she barely said anything. Even when Huo Jiyong and Song Chaerin said something to her, she would reply with monosyllabic words such as ‘oh’ or ‘hmm’.

But Huo Jiyong and Song Chaerin did not find their daughter arrogant or offending. They just felt guilty.

What kind of solitary life would their daughter must have gone through when she was a kid to become so unsociable and eccentric?

On the other hand, Lisa had no idea about what her parents were thinking. Although, she noticed that Song Chaerin would rub her temples every now and then. Suddenly, Lisa thought of something. She headed upstairs without a word and came down after a couple of minutes.

She gave Huo Jiyong and Song Chaerin a bottle each. These were the two little bottles which she had taken out from her suitcase earlier.

“These are for you.” Lisa said lightly, and her tone remained light as before.

Song Chaerin took the little jar from her daughter’s hand. She twisted the cap and peered inside.

Looking at the contents, she asked her daughter curiously. “What is this? This little bottle looks quite exquisite…”

As soon as the lid came off, a rich aroma distinctive to herbs, floated out of it. When the scent reached Song Chaerin’s nose, she felt refreshed and very comfortable.

She suffered from migraine, and ended up having severe headaches from time to time. However, no medicine could cure her predicament. She had woken up with a headache this morning but didn’t want to show discomfort in front of her daughter.

Inhaling this aroma, she felt that her migraine was gone all of a sudden, miraculously.

“Lili, what is this?” Song Chaerin asked, gladly surprised. The more she smelt it, the stronger she felt the desire to stay infused in this aroma for the rest of her life.

Lisa could tell that Song Chaerin was much better than before.

She replied gently. “Some pellets made out of few herbs. Well… it is like incense that can help you calm down and relieve headaches. ”

Lisa added a bit more after a pause. “Put a pellet by your bed every night. It can improve your situation.”

Song Chaerin was stunned. “How did you know about my migraine?”

She was not the only one shocked. Huo Jiyong was also wearing a similar expression on his face.

“You rubbed your temple several times during breakfast.” Lisa did not say anything more than that one line.

Song Chaerin was still puzzled. She didn’t know that Lisa could be so thoughtful.

Still…

Lisa managed to figure out that she was suffering from migraines just because she rubbed her temples. Was that even possible?

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