‘Little girl where are you?’ Mrs Gu asked.
‘Little girl, Zhen Lang got you a special birthday gift. Come outside and open it,’ Mrs Zhen said.
Gu Jing heard Zhen Lang’s name and she stayed in her home.
‘Gu Jing, hurry up and come out. Let’s eat your birthday cake together,’ Zhen Lang said.
Gu Jing didn’t want to eat cake with Zhen Lang. She didn’t want to see him, talk to him or eat anything sweet with him!
Gu Jing stuffed the birthday cake icing in her mouth to block out the voices from outside her room.
Mr and Mrs Gu, Mr and Mrs Zhen and Zhen Lang walked into Gu Jing’s room. They saw half a cake missing and Gu Jing who hugged her stomach and hunched over a chair.
‘Gu Jing, here is your birthday gift…’ Zhen Lang said. He heard Gu Jing groaned in pain and he dropped the gift he got her on the floor. He rushed over to her. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘You don’t need to care,’ Gu Jing said. She felt her stomach tightened. She forced her eyes open and she pushed Zhen Lang away. ‘I know how hateful you are. You’re troublesome, seeing you makes me sick.’
‘What are you saying?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Zhen Lang wiped icing off Gu Jing’s face, but she pushed him away. He didn’t get a chance to say anything else, because their parents rushed to Gu Jing’s side.
‘Daddy… my stomach hurts,’ Gu Jing said.
‘Hurts?’ Mr and Mrs Gu and Mr and Mrs Zhen asked and they looked at the half missing cake and they understood why Gu Jing had a stomach ache. They carried Gu Jing to the hospital.
Zhen Lang wanted to hold Gu Jing’s hand, but she pushed his hand away.
That year Gu Jing spent her birthday at the hospital, and she couldn’t go to the national team trial the day after her birthday. She spent those days running to the toilet. The doctors and nurses spun a legend about the little girl and the birthday cake based on her birthday cake incident.
Mr and Mrs Gu and Mr and Mrs Zhen were relieved Gu Jing’s condition stabilised after a few days. They needed to go to work and take care of housework so they left Gu Jing alone in her hospital room.
Gu Jing sat on her hospital bed and she felt depressed. She had nothing left, no friends and no national team trial that she dreamt of for many years. She wasn’t someone who liked to cry, but her heart felt disappointment and emptiness.
Zhen Lang stood in front of Gu Jing’s hospital room. ‘Gu Jing.’
‘What are you doing here?’ Gu Jing asked.
Gu Jing saw Zhen Lang and her sadness and frustrations turned to rage.
‘I came here to visit you,’ Zhen Lang said. He put his school bag on a table and he stepped toward Gu Jing’s bed. ‘And aunty and uncle Gu asked me to tutor you.’
‘I don’t need anything! I don’t care what my parents said and I don’t care what you said to my parents. I don’t need anything, I don’t need you to visit me, I don’t need tutoring and in the future I don’t want to see you again!’ Gu Jing said.
Gu Jing took out her anger she held back for a few days on Zhen Lang. Her parents thought she was gluttonous and his parents thought she was childish but no one thought the trouble maker was Zhen Lang.
‘It’s your fault I don’t have friends. It’s your fault I can’t go to the national trial. What else do you want? Zhen Lang, I promise after I recover there will be a day I’ll make you taste disappointment,’ Gu Jing said.
‘Is that so?’ Zhen Lang asked. He saw Gu Jing’s lively complexion returned and he smiled. ‘Do you have that ability?’
Zhen Lang didn’t explain anything to Gu Jing, because he knew what she needed wasn’t an explanation, she needed motivation.
‘Who says I don’t have that ability?’ Gu Jing asked. She jumped off the bed. She grabbed Zhen Lang’s school bag. ‘Isn’t it just school work?’