Water and Fire (BL)

Chapter 5: Silver Spoon

Chapter 5: Silver Spoon

David Zhou woke up, staring at the ceiling with ornate patterns. He was sweaty, though the air conditioning unit was exhaling cold air. Is it really this hot here in this country? He thought, annoyed.

Back in China, he used to bundle up in blankets whenever he sleeps at night, even at this month of August, but now in this country, he had to sleep with only his underwear.

He checked his phone and saw it was 10AM. Checking some notifications, he noticed a peculiar message from an important person via a chatting app.

"I miss you already!" The message read.

He continued reading through the thread, and noticed messages from this person kept going on and on.

"When are you coming back?"

"Please come back already. I heard it's very hot there. I'm worried you'll get seared off. Next time we see each other, I might not recognize you anymore."

"I miss you so much, 周力宏."

All of the messages were in Chinese characters, of course, and seeing his name in those characters (Zhou Lihong), made him ache to come back to his motherland.

He continued reading tons of messages from that person, and upon seeing the last message, which was an audio message, he clicked on it and listened to a girl's sullen voice: "I miss you. I hope you change your mind and come back to my arms."

David was a little annoyed. All of those messages had the same context, only worded differently. He shut his phone down and got up the bed.

Wearing nothing but a thin fabric on his crotch, he couldn't help his mind going back to China. He remembered her, that girl named Xiaoge, who's from a rich background like him, born of parents who had a big business in China, like him. It was actually their respective parents who schemed to have them paired off. David knew too well that his parents wanted him to marry Xiaoge so their family's business would merge and get bigger.

Of course, it's always about business. All of those kids who were born with silver spoons, are always controlled by their rich parents like puppets, manipulating them to do whatever they wanted them to do. All in the name of business.

He actually didn't love her at first. She was refined, and had good tastes, yes, but she's very, very materialistic and shallow. David didn't like girls like that. Maybe the reason why he came to the Philippines with his father was to get away from her. Or to find a girl with depth and sense, who may have no care about his wealthy background.

But he couldn't deny, that as him and Xiaoge continued seeing each other, especially the past few months, he had developed feelings for her. Maybe it's her genuine eyes who don't know how to hide feelings, or her straightforwardness, David doesn't exactly know.

---

"You're late up," David father's deep voice met him when he left his room. His father was wearing a cool, blue polo shirt that matched his cool eyes.

At his fifties, Zhou Feng was already one of the wealthiest businessmen in China, and now he wanted to expand his business in the Philippines.

"Of course I'm late up. When did I wake up early?" David had a sarcastic tone in his voice, and began walking away when he was stopped short by his father's deep voice, now sterner than ever.

"If you continue having an attitude like that, you won't survive here." He crossed his arms. "Look at you, you're even drenched in sweat." He smirked, his ink black hair reflecting the lights from the ceiling. "Are you sure you made the right choice of tugging along with me like a dog, ah?"

David turned to face him. "I made the right choice, alright? This is my choice to be here. I wanted to expand my horizon, to experience a different life, breathe a different kind of air."

"Different kind of air?," Zhou Feng's tone was mocking. "The air here in this country is foul from all the pollution and the garbage. Do you think you can handle that?"

David's fist was clenching until his knuckles became white. He gritted his teeth, a fire burning within him. He looked his father straight in the eye. He said nothing more, but in his mind, he was defying him. What do you think of me, a weakling? I won't back down from this decision. I'll finish high school here, finish college here, have a job here, and even settle here to build my own family. No one's gonna stop me, not even you.

Actually, David was so tired and bored of his wealthy life in China, and wanted to experience life differently. Ever since he was young he's always the type of person who takes risk, who's never afraid of challenging himself. He didn't know why he always wanted to challenge himself. Maybe it's pride, or the desire to rise against his own self. Or maybe he just wanted to get away from the grips of his manipulative parents who dictated him like tyrants.

He cut his eye contact with Zhou Feng and turned to leave, but was stopped again.

"By the way, before you leave..."

David turned around and saw Zhou Feng ushering a slender lady with a ponytailed hair.

"This is Marilyn Mendoza, our new housekeeper. Be sure to be good to her."

"Good morning sir, I am---" the housekeeper began to reach out to David but the latter abruptly turned his back.

"Don't bother," David said nonchalantly, walking towards the kitchen to grab some food.