Winter Wind (YiZhan)

57. Ugly

"Yibo!" she yells but he refuses to stop until she catches his arm and yanks him. He turns to face her, and watches as she tries to catch her breath.

The hallway that they are now in is brightly lit, thus she can truly see for the first time the utter devastation on his face. Her eyes widen in horror as she takes in the darkened circles around his swolllen eyes.

"You have a performance in three days! And two shoots tomorrow!"

"I'm not going for either of them," he says, and she stills.

Then a bitter smile curves her lips. "You're not going for either of them?" she repeats as though she didn't quite hear him correctly. When the defiance in his gaze strengthens, her face turns to stone.

"Is this where things are coming to now? You're quitting? You're going to throw everything away?"

Silence.

"Yibo, your name is what's on the line. You're going to pull out of a nationwide performance two days before hand, and not show up to shoots worth millions just because of Xiao Zhan? Do you see what I mean now? Do you see that you're about to destroy yourself?"

Yibo's gaze narrows murderously at her. "I don't think you understand what's happening here. I just found out that you've maliciously attacked a fellow artist for months, to bring about his ruin so that I could get ahead. Forget about how this could destroy Yuehua, let's talk about how this could be charged as a criminal offense and possibly land you in prison. And yet you're still talking about a performance and a photo shoot?"

At his words, she slightly staggers backwards, but is able to quickly stabilize herself. "Yibo, you're taking things too far."

And at this, she sees something snap in his gaze.

"I'm taking things too far? Do you not understand the gravity of what you've done? Of the damage that you have caused him this year? And how you've put me right in the middle of it? What if he hadn't survived? What if he had lost his mind or even taken his life at the despair? Would you stilll be able to live with yourself? Would either of us still be able to continue on as though nothing happened? How could you put me in such a position?"

"Yibo..." her voice trembles. ""It's not... it's not as detrimental as you think?"

His eyes nearly pop out of his sockets in shock. "What? It's not as detrimental as I think?"

Her tone softens even further as tears fill his eyes.

"Yibo, people fall all the time in this industry. From the smallest of mistakes to the biggest, and sometimes to seemingly no mistakes at all."

He is too stunned to respond, so she reaches out to touch him. However he jerks his arm out of her reach and steps away from her.

"You can say this because he's not your son right? And because he's not an artist under your company?"

"Yibo!" she yells at him, her tone heavy with frustration. "You're not thinking straight. You're too emotionally attached to him. Don't you see that if you continue like this you're going to ruin yourself and everything that we have both worked for? If you keep being irrational and make a mistake, and any of these comes to light, do you think that you're going to escape unscathed?"

"You will be destroyed too! Beyond resurrection. And moreover you reaped all the benefits. Have you not enjoyed being at the top? And for this long? Do you know how difficult it is to come by, and how even more difficult it is to maintain? And do you think it's going to last forever? Soon enough another group of artists are going to break out, and you will be long forgotten about. Are you taking the opportunities that you are receiving now for granted because it all seems to be coming easy to you? Do you know how hard everyone has worked behind the scenes to get you to where you are?"