A Billion Dollar Exchange

When Liling returned home, Liu Wei was already back. She had seen his car packed in the garage.

It was a Saturday, so a workers free day. Liling hurried up into the house but she didn't go up to his room. She went straight to the kitchen to prepare his meal.

When she was through, she walked upstairs to his room and lightly knocked on the door.

When she didn't get a reply, she knocked again. After sometime, she figured that either he was in the bathroom or he was not in the room at all.

As she made to leave, the door suddenly flung open. Liling looked up to see Liu Wei standing before her. His hair was dripping wet, obviously because he just came out of the shower.

She quickly retracted her gaze from him and said her usual five word sentence.

"Mr Liu Wei, your food is ready. "

She quickly turned and fled to her room, closing it behind her.

Liu Wei stood looking at her door which was tightly shut.He was really confused on how to get her to speak to him.

That day he ate alone. He had waited for her but Liling didn't come down to join him. That was the worst meal of the century.

He sulked as he ate each bite, when he could no longer take it, he stood up and left the dining.

Since Liling made dinner as she came back, she had to take a shower and change into something else before coming down to eat.

She wasted a lot of time in the bathroom, though she told herself that she needed to wash her body properly, deep down she knew she was waiting for Liu Wei to finish eating his meal, and to her glee, she didn't see Liu Wei in the dining room when she came down.

She ate very much and to her fill that night. Other days, she had to eat little so she would leave before him, but that night since he wasn't there, she was a bit more relaxed.

After her meal, she retired for the night. She only slept after she had written a few lyrics which she would submit the next week.

....

12 midnight...

Liling woke up with a loud shriek. Her abdomen was on fire. She shifted the quilt only to realize she was on her monthly period.

Her eyes widened in shock.

'It was still early, how did it come this early? '

She quickly changed her bed sheets and put them in the washing machine after which she managed to take a shower and change her clothes.

She walked up to her drawers to take her pain relief medications but only to find out she had taken the last dose the previous month.

Liling's hands shook as she felt a cold shiver run down her spine.

Her eyes immediately looked towards the wall clock.

'One thirty am'

It was still very early in the morning, and besides she can't even drive. What was she going to do?

On normal occasions, after taking the medicine, she would still feel inexplicable pain, then what of now she wasn't going to take any medications?

Liling couldn't bear to think of the consequences, she started ransacking the whole room, praying to find even a single pain relief pill.

When she couldn't find any, she lay down quietly on her bed and shrunk into a ball.

Now she was staying at a place, her whole tummy started burning. She bit her pillow very hard to hold in the pain but it wasn't helping at all.

She was red all over, she felt her body hairs stand erect. The pain was unbearable.

After sometime, she started whimpering in pain.

She rolled from one side of the bed to the other, until her whimpers turned into full blown tears.

When she couldn't take it anymore, she jumped up from the bed and ran towards the door. She wanted to go take a hot pad for her tummy. But as she opened the door, Liu Wei's door flung open too.