Seven Days Later
Raven snuggled in her blanket, playing Candy Crush on her phone. One level after another, addictively. Three hours later, a knock echoed in the background, inaudible due to the high volume of sound effects.
A knock again.
And the door swung open wide.
"Raven, Dad has called you fourteen times already." George, her brother, yelled ferociously.
"Why?" Raven asked calmly, without moving her eyes away from the screen.
"How do I know??!!!" He shouted again, leaving. He shut the door tight.
Raven sat up, bit her nail, accidentally too deep, "Ouch!"
"Not again." Her jaw tightened, anger rippling her forehead, but by the time she opened the door, her face was blank. She gave a sharp, irritated jerk of her shoulders and stormed out.
In the living room, her family sat on the sofa. She dragged an ottoman and crouched, "You called?" The tone was too flat and dead.
"Your mother and I were talking about how business is suffering." William exhaled annoyingly, rolling his eyes over his daughter's mismatched pyjamas.
"Hmph.." Raven responded, uninterested in the repetitive conversation, which resulted in pure frustration. These family meetings seemingly had the same topic, 'Unworthy freeloaders of the Zhao Family and their expenses', which would start with endless complaints and comparisons with examples of people who were successful in the eyes of the patriarch.
But these meetings neither had a solid objective nor did they certainly achieve anything; they were either dismissed with sighs or led to a heated argument, which resulted in days or months of cold treatment.
"There have been a lot of embezzlements and theft. The accounts are messier than before. Corruption runs deep in every department. That Qin guy has been taking bribes from suppliers to sign deals." William said, his face reddening.
Raven gritted her teeth, smacking her lips, moving her gaze away, resting it on a coaster.
"Hmph…" she hummed.
"I asked you to keep updates on the accounts. Did you do it?" William asked, "No, because you are lazy."
She sighed deeply, her throat pierced with a thousand needles, 'Control. Don't shout. Please don't shout at him, Raven. Not today.'
"No." She gulped, her lips dried again.
"What about managing the social media marketing?" His eyes widened, confident that she didn't, he was provoking her, "Mia, I have hired a girl, because your daughter couldn't even do it."
"Didn't do that either," Raven answered the obvious instantly, each breath travelling inside polluted with the poisonous narcissism. She didn't need to, but she entered a flow that she had practised for a long time.
Detach and answer safely.
"Pathetic! I asked you to hire some honest accountants. You didn't do it either, right?" William asked, chuckled, and turned to his son, "George? What about you?"
"Nah…" George said, twisting tissue paper, his legs shaking, his face calmer than before.
'Raven, behave. This will end sooner if you don't react.
Let's think of something else.
That cupboard is good.
The location is a bit off; guests sitting here can see people in the kitchen.
There should be a curtain there.
One🐏
Two 🐏
Three🐏
Four 🐏
Five sheep
Six sheep
Aein? Why can't I picture the sheep?
…..
67 sheep 🐏
This is better.
I should pretend to shop. What should the theme of shopping be?
Moon?
The table does need new stationery supplies.
How do those Pinterest creators have such a clean white table?
I want to collect at least a thousand washi tapes.
I need a tweezer.'
.
.
.
"And so, Mia, you should give time to the business. At least twelve hours. We can hire a new cook if you want. But I don't think we need one right now." William said, grinning through his clenched teeth.