0.1 | No Exit from Deception ✓

0.04 | Being A Poor Is A Newly-found Race According To Rich Folks Dictionary

Ruby turned out the light and drew back the thick, dirty brown curtain carefully as it rested on the wobbly iron rod before throwing herself in the bed.

As night fell, the beautiful moonlight penetrated their gloomy room through a small window that provided a contrasting view of the stinking garbage bins and shabby-looking ragpickers. Two creaky wooden beds, a wardrobe tilted against the corner of the room for support, one induction plate for cooking, and a toilet with a petered-out water supply were their major problems. Still, they were breathing. Breathing the air of monarchism under Madame Tào's slavery kingdom.

She was going to jump on Emily's bed with eager approval. But rather toppled over something smack-dab in the middle, and ended up like an egg benedict with sprawled legs and hands on the vinyl flooring.

"You must have accidentally stumbled over the bedpan. Look up." It was a trickle of water leaking from the roof which was to become a pond after six hours. Emily stretched her muscles casually as she helped her friend to climb her bed.

However, this accident bashed the exciting part straightaway as despondency ran over Ruby's face. "I hate my life! This stupid bedpan and more importantly this stinky rat-size room!"

Emily bit her lower lip as she didn't expect Ruby to go into an unsettling tailspin. Instantly, she pulled Ruby into a hug. And a few seconds later, Ruby was a crying mess. "Emily, I want to know why they brought me into this world when they were to abandon me. Without even showing their faces they disappeared from this world. What sort of punishment is this?"

Leaving behind the sign of their twenty-year-old breathing sin . . . that was Ruby. She didn't have a clue about her parents, and although she believed that she had no place for them in her heart, still wanted to see them just once.

For all these years, Ruby had buried her tethered soul under a facade of a happy-go-lucky girl.

"They must have had their problems, one can only guess. Ahh, Ruby come off it. Can we please change the subject and talk about that handsome guy you met at the party? Or do you want to go back to your bed? Decide." Emily pushed Ruby's shoulders violently before wiping her tears softly as she tugged her closer again. This was their bond.

A pang of heaviness naturally inclined her head toward Emily's shoulder and rested there for a while.

Ruby rubbed her half-swollen eyes, clearing her throat. "What do you wanna talk about him?"

"Like . . . did he lend you his umbrella?" Emily's sweet voice traveled into her ears. She came closer to Ruby, swiping her tongue across her lower chapped lip as she uttered, "And stop crying, you are not a kid anymore."

Making a squealing sound, she flapped her hands. "Yes, I did meet him and, even got under his umbrella. He escorted me to the place."

"Woah, so you knew him."

"I was mad taking care of my dress in that rain ─ got no time to study a stranger's face," Ruby explained, shaking her hand.

She would have hardly closed her eyes when somebody's frequent knocks on the door caused her to sigh and pull the blanket over her sleepy head, for she was not in the mood to attend to anyone.

"Like always, it should be Madame Tào with a flat envelope of today's earnings," Emily calmly asserted after looking through the peephole. She warned Ruby to act asleep and not to pick a fight with the miser.

Emily opened the door. Madame Tào's boring voice rang in her ears like sirens. "Take this. I can't see Ruby. Where is she?" Madame Tào handed over two flat envelopes just as stated by Emily, and peered inside only to find Ruby lying on the bed peacefully (not exactly). Emily closed the door after bidding her good night.