XG 26 - Mother, won't a gun be better?

Aunty Cheung sighed in her heart but her gaze on the young miss she had helped to look after for more than a decade was full of gentle affection. As a live-in housekeeper, her affectionate feelings towards the young miss were actually more than towards her own daughter.

It would be a lie if Aunty Cheung says she did not feel guilty towards her own daughter.

It was the Madam's strict lesson in having her daughter accept her position and status that she will not cross the line towards Aunt Cheung. That early lesson also saved the related parties from doing something they should not.

Thus, they could only have the relationship of an employer and housekeeper.

After that lesson, Wong Xue Guo had hardened her heart and never again favored an outsider more than her own mother, no matter how well they treated her. It was a fact that her mother was the one that gave birth to her, providing money, shelter, and clothing for her. Aunty Cheung only treated her well because she was paid to do so, and the extra service was just to keep things peaceful and to look good in her employer’s eyes and ensure her resume looks better.

“Aunty Cheung, is that bag for me?” Wong Xue Guo asked again.

“Yes.” Aunty Cheung did not offer to help her pack, knowing that their choice of clothing for the trip will be different so she just handed the backpack over. “Let me help you dry your hair?”

The single nod from Wong Xue Guo had Aunty Cheung’s smile become wider.

With the packing completed, Wong Xue Guo went to search for her mother and arrived just in time her mother finished her shower.

Thinking she would be told to wait outside until her mother completely dressed, she was surprised to be actually invited in. Towards this room she had not entered even once, she controlled her urge to look around like a kid that went to the amusement park for the first time.

Suzie Yap was in a bathrobe with wet hair, a sight Wong Xue Guo had not seen for more than a decade. What was more surprising was her red hair was dyed back to black, her new appearance having her look younger and more sophisticated.

From the first memory she retained, she had never seen her mother’s hair in any color other than red. If not for her eyebrows not being red, she would have thought her mother was a natural redhead.

Eying her daughter's attire and plaited hair, Suzie Yap held no displeasure over them. Wong Xue Guo was relieved that her mother would be understanding in their current situation.

Picking up something from her vanity table, Suzie Yap handed it over to Wong Xue Guo. "I will give this to you."

What was given to her was a Japanese sword at the length of her entire arm. Fortunately, she had the foresight to use both hands to accept it, or she would be pulled down by the unexpected weight.

"Mother, won't a gun be better?"

Using a towel to dry her hair, Suzie Yap voiced her disagreement. "Guns are good, but they are too noisy. A silencer would fix that, but I believe a sword is better than a gun for a complete newbie. You need a lot of training for gun lessons, which is a waste of bullets but for a sword, you can use it with barb… strength alone."

Mother, you are going to say barbaric, right?

However, she could not deny that weird logic, as they had been using strength alone to fight against those zombies. Her muscles ache so badly it was a great chore when she needed to raise her arm to wash her hair earlier.

Suzie Yap continues voicing her opinion. "Using guns also has risks of being jammed in dangerous situations or running out of bullets. Both would require luck to fix, but we should not use all our luck on those nonsensical things, right?"

But guns are cool and not won't give you much muscle pain from the recoil, ah!

Wong Xue Guo with her poker face nodded sensibly. "Yes. You are right, mother."

Suzie Yap could see that the sword was too heavy for her daughter's first time, but this was the only weapon that did not need her to get too close to those failures and also convenient to carry around.

"This sword is a wedding gift from my mother-in-law." Suzie Yap turned on the hairdryer and halted the conversation.

Wedding gift? Who on earth would give a sword as a wedding gift to their daughter-in-law? That was a bad omen as if to cut off their relationship!

But when she recalls her paternal grandmother that loved to wear a leather jacket and ride a Harley Davidson bike, she could twist her mind to understand, for a very tiny bit, the tough love behind the gift.

If one disregards it as an offensive gift for one's marriage, it was actually a really beautiful katana. Pulling out the sword from the beautiful sheath that was of white lilies with purple background, she noted it was a single-edged sword. Even the hilt was similarly patterned as its sheath.

The anime lover Wong Xue Guo was actually freaking out behind her composed poker face at how cool it was to be able to have a Japanese sword in her hand! One of her dreams had been fulfilled this easily!

Although her paternal grandmother often traveled around the world with her bike, she never fails to visit them twice a year. The first was when it was her son's birthday. The second was her husband's death anniversary. Those days, her grandmother would spend some time telling Wong Xue Guo some stories from her past, even if Suzie Yap was against it.

There was a time, after facing Suzie Yap's anger when their storytime session was caught, that Wong Xue Guo wondered if her grandmother was a bad person to have her mother react that way.

Her paternal grandmother explained that Suzie Yap just acted that way so that she could remain innocent and wish for her to grow slowly in her beautiful cage. It was only many years later did Wong Xue Guo finally figure out what her mother was trying to hide from her.

Both sides of her family were actually gangsters, or mafia, to sound classier.

Her grandmother was not exactly working as hard as her parents in hiding that fact. But seeing her parents working hard to pretend otherwise, she also pretended she did not notice anything.

From her grandmother’s mouth, her father was from Hong Kong, and her mother from Italy. Coming to Malaysia to stay was because of their daughter’s well-being, likely because a mafia would always have a rival or enemy.

In fact, Wong Xue Guo’s ancestry was complicated with mixed races in her blood. That was why her features were not the typical Asian, but more of a child with parents from different races.

As she waited for her mother to finish drying her hair, she did not put down the sword in her hands and she paid the price. The sword was getting increasingly heavy in her hands, causing her arms to tremble rather embarrassingly.

Hair dried, Suzie Yap ransacked her closet and passed another item to her daughter. "Baby, try if it fits you."

Wong Xue Guo started to imagine her mother was the NPC in charge of the newbie town to pass out items and quests to players after the tutorial set in the location of the shopping mall was passed successfully.

… She must have been very tired to have her mind flying skewed that way.

After passing the sword holder belt, Suzie Yap grabbed her clothes to be changed in the bathroom.

The belt fits fine as it allows adjustment. With her tingling palms and shaking arms finally free from the weight, it was time for her hips to support the weight. Walking around for a short time was fine, but running would be a bit awkward as it does not stop the sword from swinging and smacking at her leg.

She just hopes she would not trip from her own sword.

Her heart itches to test out the lethality of her new weapon, but she does not dare to use anything in her parent’s bedroom as a tester. Even if her mother was in the bathroom now, the large picture of her parent’s wedding photo hanging on the wall and staring right outside the frame that happens to be facing her actually weighed down on her conscience.

Wong Xue Guo was just thinking of using a string of her hair to test the blade’s sharpness when her mother emerged. She was dressed in form-fitting pants and a tank top, with a cool black trench coat draped on her arm. Her hair was tied in a similarly styled plait like her daughter’s, giving her a more youthful feel. There was a large suitcase rolled out beside her.

This was the first time the mother and daughter had a matching style.

Digging her nails into her palms to stop those unpleasant memories from surfacing, Wong Xue Guo adjusted her tone and asked, "Mother, is there something you want to tell me?"

If it was Aunty Cheung, she would have immediately noticed that her young miss was not happy. But Suzie Yap believed the appearance and gave a nod.

With a serious look as she pulled Wong Xue Guo to have a sit on the bed, Suzie Yap was spotted with a rare conflicted expression her daughter had seldom seen.

“Yibo should be listening to this too, but can baby re-tell this to him later? Mummy needs to oversee the packing and make sure those clumsy oafs did not break anything.”

“I don’t mind.”

Despite it being a bit of a hassle to re-tell, Wong Xue Guo was secretly pleased that Chen Yibo was not around and allowed her to see more of her mother’s different sides.