Chapter 1194: GrowthRaelle just sat there looking around awkwardly not knowing what to do with this crying woman. Several times, she lifted her hand to pat her back but still couldn't bring herself to do so. Forget it. She wasn't exactly a compassionate person, to begin with.
Since Tang Hebe felt like crying, just let her be.
It was a full ten minutes later that Tang Hebe finally stopped crying and found a glass of water in front of her eyes. She first looked up at Raelle who held the glass of water to her. She had a very complicated look in her eyes as she looked at Raelle. But that wasn't something new either.
Every time she met Raelle, she was always getting complicated feelings for her. She had yet to realize what she even felt about this woman. But one thing was certain, to Tang Hebe, Raelle Xiang was super weird.
"Thank you," she said to Raelle as she took the water. Her tone of voice had changed after crying so much. Her eyes were red and even her face was flushed right now. She held the water in both her hands and took a sip slowly to soothe the itch in her throat.
"That's all I can do for you," said Raelle. "I mean I don't know how to comfort you. But I can definitely pour water for you."
Tang Hebe's lips slowly curled up when she heard that from her. "You won't ask why I cried?"
"I'm not that nosy," replied Raelle. "I'm all ears if you do want to tell me but I'm not all that curious either. I'll be fine if you don't want me to know."
"No, you should know," said Tang Hebe. "It has something to do with you."
"Me?" asked Raelle. "How so?"
"My mother came to see me today. Well, I was quite surprised to see her at my door. I didn't tell anyone where I was staying and yet, I found her at my door. For a moment, I got my hopes up. That maybe, just maybe, she missed me and came to see me. But I was wrong," told Tang Hebe slowly, as she tried her hardest to stop her voice from cracking. "She didn't come to see how I was doing. In fact, she did try to act like she cared but her act didn't last long. She came to ask me about Ruan Meilin. Can you believe it? It's my mother. But she came to me to tell me to help her niece out of trouble. Hahaha!"
That laughter of hers didn't sound very humorous to Raelle. It sounded more like she was laughing at her own stupidity for expecting too much from her mother. Or maybe, she didn't expect all that much from her mother. She expected the least minimum. She just wanted her mother to care about her but instead, her mother cared more about her niece. How ironic!
"Should I say I can't relate to that?" Tang Hebe looked at Raelle who went on, "I don't really understand what you're feeling right now. Because I never went through it. I never had any expectations when it came to my parents. Or you can say, I never had many expectations in life in general."
"At one point in my life, I envied you."
"Now you don't?"
"Now, whenever I look at you. I get a very conflicting feeling," said Tang Hebe. "I understood that we all have our own problems and we can't possibly tell which of us has it worse. So, I can't envy you anymore."
"I'm glad you understand that," said Raelle.
"Thanks for helping me understand that."
"So? What did you say to your mother? You want to help Ruan Meilin?"
Tang Hebe lowered her eyes, "If I say yes, would you agree?"
"Whether I agree or not really doesn't matter in this case," was Raelle's answer. "After all, since the accident, I haven't even seen Ruan Meilin. I hardly know what my Yanyan or what my husband did to her. So, you can't look to me for help." She took a pause and added, "Why? Do you want to exchange your life-saving grace to help her?
Tang Hebe shook her head, "No way! I almost died there as well. And you don't owe me anything. What I did was for Xian. For the sake of our old friendship and whatever relationship we shared. I did it so that I can feel less guilty about hurting him. You really need to stop bringing this matter up."
"Did I tell you that you're giving up on a big chance in life?" asked Raelle. "I'm Raelle Xiang. I can really do a lot more than you think."
"I still don't want anything from you," said Tang Hebe. "I don't want you to help with Ruan Meilin's matter either. My mother loves her niece so much that she doesn't hesitate to hurt her own daughter, so just let her be. I'd like to see her in despair as she left me is despair by breaking my marriage. She played me like a fool. So, why should I help her? I don't wanna help her. So what if I'm called unfilial? I don't give a damn about her opinion. It's not like I have a workplace where she can come to make a scene. At most, she can come to my apartment and if I got tired of seeing her face, I can easily move from here either."
"Your views have changed in life," commented Raelle. "I think the Tang Hebe who was in her early twenties and the one now who is entering her thirties are two very different people."
"It's called growth," Tang Hebe seemed very satisfied with herself as she said that. She loved that comment from Raelle too. Because it meant that Raelle was acknowledging the fact that she had made effort to grow up and she succeeded. How could she not be happy about it?