Sweet_Secrets
Really Experienced
- Joined
- May 1, 2011
- Posts
- 176
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He’s the devil in disguise
A snake with blue eyes
And he only comes out at night
Gives you feelings that you don’t want to fight
You better run for your life
- Cowboy Casanova, Carrie Underwood
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He’s the devil in disguise
A snake with blue eyes
And he only comes out at night
Gives you feelings that you don’t want to fight
You better run for your life
- Cowboy Casanova, Carrie Underwood
__________________________________________________
It was the fourth overdue bill they had for that month. It was also the second one she had read that day that stated that that bill was their final warning to pay their debts or else.
Gritting her teeth in frustration, and knowing that the rest of the envelopes she had stacked up were more or less the same, the young woman set the envelope down and reached for the glass of milk that had warmed long ago. Though she had no real appetite and the thought of drinking lukewarm milk in the heatwave of that summer made her stomach clench, she forced herself to chug the drink down. No sense of letting it go to waste, she thought. That's what she told herself back in those days as the resources in the farm were, often than not, hers and Lily's to use before they spoiled. Seeing as how no one else seemed to want their product.
Though born as Xun Zhang, the young woman sitting on the table in the humble little of her home was best known as Iris Zhang to the small town she had called home since she was nothing more but a babe. And, at that moment in time, she was the only legal owner of the Zhang Product Farm and it looked like it was going to go out of business.
The very idea of there being a 'CLOSED' or 'BANKRUPT' sign nailed across the gates that lead into the farm and the home Iris had known all her life made her head throb in frustration and petty helpless. How could it have come to that moment? she asked herself as she shuffled all the letters, open and unopened, into one miserable pile of debts and warnings. Well. Actually. She had a pretty good idea of how it had all went downhill for the family farm.
Ever since her parents had died from that freak stagecoach accident, it felt like Iris and her little sister's lives were torn apart. First the careful money their father had built up over the years was quickly eaten away by funeral fees and paying any outstanding debts their parents still had. Then it was only Iris and Lily left to look after the farm - Two young girls - only only having turned twenty four that year and only only thirteen - who were presumed at not to be 'useful' or 'hardworking' enough to make good products from their cows and chickens and fields. So while Iris woke up at the crack of dawn to tend the chickens and milk the cows and plough the fields all her lonesome, no one seemed interested in what she had to sell whenever she took the fruits of her labours up to the town and tried to hawk or sell it at the tiny marketplace they had there.
It was a lost cause, so many people had told her day after day. Better to find a husband and let them take care of her and Lily. It would be too hard for Iris to have done too. She had seen the way some of the men and boys looked at her while she made her way into town. Gone was the gangly girl who toddled after her father on Sunday mornings when they came to pick up their earnings. She was taller than most girls, a decent 5'7, and was willowy in all the right places and had more curves than the road that lead to their quiet little town. With her long black hair and big black eyes contrasting against the paleness of her skin, she could have gotten any guy she wanted if she simply smiled at someone over a fan and batted her eyes their way.
But she hadn't. She liked to think she was better than that. She could have raised the farm and Lily all on her own until Lily was old enough to take care of herself. It looked like those dreams would have to be cut short thanks to terrible expectations and false starts and how on earth is knocking on her door at these early hours of the morning?
"Coming." Though reluctant, Iris moved herself out of the table and headed straight to the door. She dusted off the crumbs off the plaid shirt she had taken to wearing in the mornings before she went out to do farmwork, finding it and the pants she wore much more comfortable then the dresses and corsets she had to wear when out and about town. If the person at the door would end up having a problem with her outfit well- Too bad for them. "Hello there. Didn't think we'll have- Oh. It's you. Is there something you need?"
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