"I'll be in California. Get me a meeting with Dr. Simonetti."

"Dr. Liu, what you are asking is impossible!" the man on the other line was clearly in the bind with her request.

"Listen, Sparrow. I'm not really asking for a favor here. You know why I needed to speak to Dr. Simonetti." The man called Sparrow didn't answer, so she breathed in a menacing tone. "Make it happen."

She threw the phone on the couch in the huge living room of the house Noah had provided for her and her daughter. She took a deep breath and made her way to her daughter's bedroom.

She knocked softly on her door but she didn't hear any sounds from the inside. She cracked the door open and saw that the room was illuminated dimly by the eight phases of the moon wall lamp that decorated her bed headboard.

Gently, she pushed the door, avoiding making any sound. She treaded on the soft carpet to her daughter's canopy bed. She smiled with the memory of her throwing a temper tantrum at her father to get this particular bed.

She stood quietly next to her bed. She watched her daughter hugging a fluffy panda in her skinny arms. She has the same panda stuffed toy ever since she was two. 'Time flies'. She sighs softly in the dark. She bent over and dropped a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Mama is sorry Lucille Yue," she whispered in the dark.

She held Baba - her best friend panda in her arms so tightly, she was squeezed. She only let her go when she heard the soft thud of the door closing behind her mother. She wished she has her own phone, but her mother doesn't agree that eight-year-old children should have their own phone.

She just has a smartwatch that was connected to her mom's phone that she uses to send her short messages. If she has her own phone, she could call her father and maybe, just maybe tell him the truth.

She hates lying to her father. Baba doesn't like it too, but she can't do anything because her mother asked her a favor. "Baba, Mama doesn't always ask a favor, you know. She only does it in really, really important things," she whispered to her panda stuffed toy in the dark. "Also, Papa would never get mad at me, right?" her heart was still kicking too hard in her chest, and talking to Baba makes her heart slow down a bit.

"And you know, I think it's okay that we say a little lie, sometimes. Especially when I didn't really get hurt, and Papa won't worry too much." she pulled her blanket over her head and scooted over to the middle of the bed. "Let's sleep now, Baba. Only three more sleeps before we can be with Papa."

She closed her eyes but she couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned all over her big bed. However, her eyes were still opened like they don't need any sleep. She glanced at the glow in the dark clock in her nightstand and saw the time quarter past twelve. It's too late to get out of the bed now and asked for warm milk.

"Are you awake, Baba? I can't sleep! What should we do?" She pressed a button on her headboard and the eight moon wall lamp grow brighter. She threw the blanket away from her body and sat up in the middle of her bed.

"Baba, once we are in Cali, we must ask Papa to get us a phone." she pouted. "All of my classmates have phones, and they are also eight! I don't understand why Mama doesn't want me to have a phone."

Just like usual, Baba didn't say anything and just listen to her rambling.

"You know, most of my classmates laugh at me whenever I speak Chinese. They say I speak weirdly. Baba, do you think I speak weirdly?"

"I wish we are still living in Charlottenburg. How about you Baba? Which one do you like, our house in Charlottenburg or here in Shanghai?"

She glanced at her nightstand clock again and saw that it is now ten minutes after one o'clock. Baba can be a boring conversationalist. "I love you, anyway." she grinned, patting the head of her panda stuffed toy.

"Stay here, I will show you something Papa gave me the last time he visited."

She got off her bed and walked barefoot on her bedroom floor. She didn't bother to put on her panda slippers. The floor was carpeted anyway, her feet won't get dirty.

She hurriedly went to her study table, and opened the topmost drawer, taking out her panda diary notebook and opened it. In its pages, she got the picture of her bedroom in her father's apartment in Palo Alto. Her bedroom there also has a canopy bed but in white!

What she loves about her bedroom in her father's apartment was not the canopy bed, but the beautiful view of the sunset. It would be her first time to be in Cali with her father and she was just so excited.

She took the photo out of her diary and was about to return to bed when she heard a loud sound from across the hallway.

"Stay there, Baba!"

Putting the precious photo in the pocket of her white sleeping dress, she quietly opened the door and peeked in the hallway. She couldn't hear the sound anymore but the lights in her mother's study were still opened as she could see light under the gap of the door.

She slowly approached the door and was startled when she heard her mother's angry voice speaking in German. She was saying a lot of bad words! Those bad words that she wasn't allowed to say.

She quickly headed back to her room direction. She was glad she wasn't wearing her slippers so she could run back to her room really fast without making any noise. She jumped on her bed, hurriedly dimmed her wall lamp, and pulled the blanket over her head.

"Baba, Mama was very angry tonight."