Discovery Creative

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Lin had remembered her mother always mentioning a tea house her grandparents had owned. She knew it was located at the heart of Shanghai, but its exact location was unknown. Even with the scarce information, Lin was determined to find the tea house and hopefully find her mother there as well.

***

Among the flashing L.E.D signs that begged for attention, stood a vintage sign made from cloth that had a Chinese character painted seamlessly across with two flickering red paper lanterns on either side of it, dangling against the mid-summer wind. Lin searched through her limited Chinese vocabulary and concluded that the word was ‘Cha’ which was tea in Chinese and prayed that this was the right location. As she made her way closer to the front of the shop, the singing wind chimes welcomed her presence and invited her in. Pushing through the columns of fake chilli peppers that hung down from the top of the door, Lin stepped over the threshold that reached her shin. After untangling herself from the canopy of fake peppers, Lin was met with two intricately carved wooden partitions. She looked around observing every corner of the tea house overwhelmed by the woody aroma that exuded from the teas.

Lin noticed someone approaching her. She turned around and was met with a pair of warm brown eyes. They seemed too familiar to Lin. The moment they locked eyes, a mutual recognition was established. Lin knew that the petite old lady standing in front of her was her mother. This moment had already been played one thousand times in Lin’s head, with every possible situation and scenario. Lin thought she was prepared but after standing there motionless and mouth feeling dry, she knew she had underestimated the impact of the situation. Lin began to panic. What if that wasn’t her mother? What if her mother didn’t want to see her? What if her mother had completely changed? So many ‘what ifs’ crossed Lin’s mind but that was silenced as she was met with a warm embrace.

“Lin-ah is that you?” she whispered.

“M-Mama?”

“Yes! Yes, it’s me Lin. It’s your Mama”

Lin wasn’t an overly emotional person but upon hearing those words, she broke down. She broke down because she had finally met the one she was longing for. She broke down because she was reminded of all the hardships she had to go through alone. She broke down because she didn’t have a shoulder to lean on for all those years. She broke down because she was happy, happy to know that this was the new beginning for their mother-daughter relationship.