Chapter 2: Chapter two: The Last Meal.
The beauty of the kitchen was, the bad was overshadowed by the good. The warmth of bread in the oven and the smell of sizzling chicken and caramelized onions on the stovetop are soothing, familiar, calming. It's a place of happy memories and reminders of difficult times, a place of recovery and love and growth. The ceramic blue and white cups with the triangular designs and a certain heaviness to them are from a high quality companies. They lived in the cabinet above the coffee maker with the matte yellow and orange cups, and the white glass mugs.
The room was a huge one. As they walked in, they could smell a mixture of two very distinct smells, food, and drinks. Lit by only the glow of a spiral lamp found on an glass desk in the corner, there were windows with gold and white curtains which had rhinestones sewn onto them and embroidery of flowers, making the room filled with light. The windows were huge and reached upto the ceiling thus giving a large view of the outside world, but once your eyes adjusted it was a comforting light.
The room was painted a crystal white color from top to bottom, with a simple floral design border all of the way around. The floors were made of gold and white granite walls.
Next to the translucent door of glass, there was a coat rack which they hanged their coats as they ate, currently empty. One could tell it was not a cheap one, crafted in such a way that you almost felt as if one could reach out and touch the different flowers that made up the design.
Flowers seemed to be the major basis for the design of the room. Aside from the border and the coat rack there were also potted plants located in strategic places around the room. Numbering five plants in all there were golden vintage French seats around a simple glass round table with food on top. Circular living room lamps hang which create a romantic atmosphere.
She remembered the moment when the servant of the kitchen placed the crispy warm bread rolls beside her on a white ceramic plate. In front of them, there were yellow balls of butter. Next, she placed in front of Yan Xinyi a bowl of creamed spinach, dark green finely cut with the white cream and steam coming from it advertising it was freshly cooked. She inhaled the warm aroma unique to spinach. Beside it, there was a bowl with smooth white mashed potato. Rich creamy smooth and firm from the butter and milk that had been beaten into it to add to it's flavor and smooth texture.
Then the bowl full of oxtail stew came. It's rich dark brown color was set off by the white bowl it was in. The gravy was thick and rich. She could smell the aroma of beef, garlic, and herbs and spices drifting up from it into her nose.
Now, Yan Xinyi took the silver spoon and dipped it into the bowl of potato. It smoothly penetrated the firm fluffy white mound. She lifted the spoon gently and turned it over on her blue ceramic plate depositing a mound of sweet smelling potato with steam coming from it. She repeated this 3 times. Then using another spoon, she scooped up spinach dripping white sauce and put it on the plate beside the potato. The dark green spinach was hot, the white sauce melted and it contrasted with the creamy potato. After a second helping of spinach, she took another larger spoon. She dipped it into the rich brown stew and stirred it. Then she scooped up a chunky slice of oxtail. Several other pieces followed that one onto her plate, the rich brown meat, contrasting with the dark green spinach and creamy white potato. The succulent meat gleaming with a coating of rich gravy and the aroma of gravy, garlic spinach and potato blending in the steam rising from my plate. She scooped up gravy from the bowl and trickled it over the white potato catching the scent of red wine. She broke the roll and spread butter on it and she was ready to eat. Then she used her fork and removed the succulent meat from the bone. It's soft texture, fatty feeling in the mouth, the spice wine and garlic in the gravy made it perfect. She then picked up her soon and dipped it in the mound of sweet smelling potatoe,shw lifted the spoon to her mouth and gently placed it in ,it was soft and delicate.
They ate together as a family. For the last time before Yan Xinyi would leave them going to the Hu mansion where she would be residing.
Yan Xinyi's bedroom is her favorite room in the house. She enjoyed her bedroom because it described her. The things that described her the most in her room were the wall colors, bedroom suite and the decorations. Teddy bears and makeup utilities on the pink and white vanity. The restaurant like feel in bedroom - Bronze bedroom lamp,cute bedroom lamps on the bedside table and a classic table lamp for the bedroom. There was also a family potrait hanged on the wall of the room. And a vase of flowers placed on her study table along with a computer and a bookshelf next to it. There was a coat rack at the entrace of the room. From her bedroom the lake could be seen clearly as it glittered in daylight and gleamed in moonlight.
Over the years,her room had changed from being a "kid" room to being a "teenage" room. When she was younger, her mom decorated her room and she could not wait until she was older so that she could decorate her room however she wanted. When Xinyi was younger,she had to share a bedroom with her elder sister,Yan Yu Tong. She finally moved into her own room when her elder sister moved out. This seemed like one of the greatest days of her life.
The smell of her room made her think of the springtime, when all of the flowers were blooming. When she enters her room, she hears her television, which reminds her of a day of listening to music and hanging out with friends.
Her walls are as pink as a pink chocolate bar. The reason that she chose the color pink and white for her room is that it matches a lot of colors and is easy to match things with and it is unusual for people to have a pink and white room. When she was younger her bedroom was very girly and brightly painted. Her wall color was yellow before we painted it.
She has a wooden bedroom suite. It has a queen size bed, a nightstand, and two dressers. They all match. The comforter on my bed is pink, gold, and white, and it is made of refined wood. It describes the girly side of me. Before she had a queen size bed, she had a twin size bed. It was really small. She enjoys her much larger bed now. Her nightstand comes in handy for storing her midnight snack and drink. The two dressers give me more space to hold my massive collection of designer clothes.
Her favorite thing about her bedroom is the decorations. She has many paintings in her room. The one she likes the most is the spring orchard painting. It has all the wonders to be witnessed in spring: butterflies and bumblebees collecting nectar,the green grass and trees,beautiful multicolored flowers and the blue sky.
She also has many trophies in her room that describe the sports and other activities she participated in while in middle school,high school and in the university. Her favorite decoration in the room is her cork board. It has all my memories from her junior year. This is the decoration in her room that describes her the most. When she was younger, the decorations in her room were baby dolls and trophies, not canvases and vases. She has lots of picture frames sitting in her room with memories that her friends and her have made throughout the years. The decorations in her room help to make her happy when she is in an irritable mood and help tie the room together. And newly added, the wedding pictures. There is also a potrait of her as a child with a pink tea length dress and pink knee high boots with two high ponytails with pink ribbons around them ,a tiara on the head and a lollipop in one hand wearing a big smile.
She had always enjoyed her room. It has always been her favorite room of their house because it describes so many aspects of her life. The three main things in her room that describe her are the wall color, bedroom suite, and the decorations.
Yan Xinyi was sitted on her bed with the suitcases as her personal maid packed up her stuff. She was perfectly folding the clothes and then placing them inside in an orderly manner.
Yan Xinyi is now getting prepared to leave for the Hu Mansion and she is preparing to take a bath.
She closes the toilet cover and put her pajamas on the table next to the basin, take off her diamond earrings and necklace and staring herself in the mirror. All my make-ups are almost disappear, the eye shadows turn from deep brown to light brown and the lips colour turn from red to pink from day to night. The black circle around my eyes slightly appear.
Above the toilet, crammed onto a shelf, two towers of neatly folded towels bursting with color suffocate in the narrow enclosure. To the right, between the counter and the shower, relaxing on the glass shelf that doubles as a towel rack, a multicolored castle of fabric leans awkwardly to the left, warning of a dire fall.
She takes off her clothes and throws them in the laundry basket, then over stride the bathtub side to the bathtub, closes the shower curtain with her left hand and turn the faucet to the extreme left side, which is the hottest water – like standing beside a camp fire, and pulls it with her right hand. A basket of hot water from the shower head spread over on me from her hair to her toes.
Shampoo bottles, body wash, and cleansers that are neatly fitted into baskets and bath racks of varied design. The pinkish reddish counter is clean of smut and displays a powder box, a crystal dish filled with cotton balls; and a bottle of lotion called, "Fresh Cream" (by the famous company, garnier), that smells so sweet it would scare off a sugar plum fairy.
It is the most relaxing moment of the whole day that she can be the real her, singing using the shower head with no audience but the splashing water with her voice as loud as possible, no need to talk something that she is not really interested with her clients, staring on the white and pink tiles on the wall and thinking the happy moments with her family and friends,the bubbles reminding her of the time she used to sit by the lake and blow bubbles all day when she was bored as a child, but not the stuff that my annoying mother asks her to do all the time.
The hot water keep permeating into her pale skin, washing her tiredness away and letting them evaporate into the steam.
She presses the shampoo out from the shampoo container at the left hand corner and put it on her hair entirely, scratches the head surface and create foam as much as she can and then begins to sing again, closing her eyes tightly and washes away the foam. She can smell the jasmine all over the room and make me feel that she is clean finally. After that, she twist the face towel and squeeze the toothpaste to her pink toothbrush to brush her teeth simultaneously during my bathing time, in order to save her time.
Pushing the faucet off,the water stops. She can hear the water droplets drop to the bathtub. She then pulls her pink and white towel off the steel silver pole and wraps herself. Steam turns to vapour and sticks on the whole white and pink tiled wall, the mirrors are full of steam and becomes invisible. She open the cabinet behind the mirror, take out the hairdryer and put on the plug to the electronic socket, and she puts on a facial mask on her face, too. By pressing the button on, hot air blow out from the dryer to her messy, wet hair. After all, she take off my mask and washes the essence away. She can feel the moisture in her skin of the face.
Done, everything is done. She finally gets out of the damp room and rushes to her bed with clothes laying on top: a orange tiered skirt and a white cowl short sleeved shirt and a orange flap bag and her phone in a pink phone case with a teddy bear hanging on a chain. On her dressing table: silver tassel earrings and a silver choker necklace and a pink digital watch. On the floor orange pinkish wedge shoes and her suitcases. She walked out of her room and walked down the flight of stairs leading to the living room. There her mother carrying a white tote bag with rhinestones and pearls and a pair of blue PVC clear block heels, an admiral blue lavalier necklace and admiral blue and white jacket earrings and pure white accordion skirt with an admiral blue pepulum shirt. She knew very well that if she allowed Yan Xinyi to go to the Hu mansion by herself. She would not arrive. The butler - Mr Hao Ming Da had already prepared the car and the driver was ready. Xinyi was helped by Hao Ming Da to carry her suitcase to the car. It was placed in the boot. Both Yan Xinyi and her mother - Yue Lan Fen got in the car and the door was closes by the butler. The gate was opened by the watchman and the driver embarked on his journey,smoothly to the Hu mansion.
Dragonflies glided around the sparkling lake and baby ducklings swam in line behind their proud mother.
Overhead as the car drove,she could hear the robins twittering excitedly as if to announce their return from other places.
The air was crisp, but not cold. The warmth of the sun had not yet given way to the slightly chilly morning breeze.
It thrived as people went about their daily business, some walking or packing loads, other pounding corn in hollow mortars. The sound of shrieking children mingled with flute music. The slanted morning light gave everything a hazy look as it passed through the moist air.
Every mansion had at least a backyard,a parking lot and a front porch.
It looked like a nice place to live. An older woman with wispy white hair eased a huge suitcase off a curb and across a street. She smiled at a man and a woman in their twenties, the man with his short off, the woman in an airy hawaiian top. They smiled back. Two women in jogging suits were walking back toward the other direction while chatting, probably off to breakfast at one of the little minimalist restaurants on road back.A sturdily built pale skinned woman with a purse the size of a mobile home waited at a brownish wooden bench, squinting into the sun. There were hummingbirds and a scent of the blooming peonies.
Beyond the pond near the main gate lay the lively playground with giggling and laughing of children renting the air. The brick-red jungle gym sits there in the strong foundation with kids all over it as they climb - some high while some low. In between parts of the jungle gym is the bridge to partake in children's fantasies from battling trolls, or patrolling the fort. The swings rock gently with children on them, and the sound of the metal rubbing together can be heard. Orange and bright in color, the swirl-shaped slide echoes the belly laughs and shrilly screams of children who have dared to go down the slide and up again. The merry-go-round, an orange-red color with splashes of blue across the edges, is still like a moving rollercoaster round and round. The children are there to move it or spin it and there are no bursts of laughter or tears when someone falls off and scrapes their knee.
The park offers a variety of scenery, which make the jog more worthwhile. As the end of the joggers nears, their minds are refreshed and their bodies are energized for the day. Unforeseen thoughts pop into their heads just as new answers for old problems unfold. One beautiful morning run can change their days and make all the difference.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Crytalcasey
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