On the morning of the day before Shi Yue's wedding, Xiaonian felt much calmer than she had felt in many days.
She cannot bring assistants to this place to help her, so she had to draw and redraw all the panel and organize them by herself. And most of her days flew by before she knew it.
After her shower, she opened her closet full of feminine clothes. After the incident at the porcelain gallery, her closet miraculously expanded overnight. Her original clothes were pushed aside to a meager corner and a huge number of designer wear dominated the space. She did not even hear about the label names, but Feng De assured her that they were best quality today's fashion industry had to afford.
Best money could buy. What a joke.
In front of them all was a beautiful dress that was brought to her two days back, for the wedding. While she appreciated the generosity, she was unsure if she should wear such an expensive clothing. Wouldn't people speculate on how she was able to afford it?
But she didn't have any suitable dress that were appropriate for such an expensive wedding. So after hours of deliberation, she chose to wear the dress. After all, they could assume that she bought a knock off, and with what she earnings, they wouldn't be wrong.
Haha.
In the last few days, the local news channel was covering Shi Yue and Mu Qian Chu's wedding arrangements and raving about the place they will be holding the wedding ceremony in.
Yunshang island was an expensive spot for the richest and boasted high quality relaxing holiday experience. The place was covered in mist all year round and gave it a magical quality and was lauded the perfect place to host a romantic wedding. But the extremely high price tag that followed it was something that could only be afforded by a few.
Xiaonian took out a knee length pale pink dress from the closet. It was made of silk and net, cinching at the waist and flowing down in layers around her legs. When she walked, it reminded people of a fresh pale pink flower that drooped its petals.
She packed the rest of her necessities and clothes in a small bag.
When she came out, she saw Gong Ouyang sitting on the leather sofa in the hall. He was staring at his mobile phone without any expression on his handsome face.
"Mr. Gong, I'll be heading out now." she said.
He turned his head to look at the beautiful Xiaonian.
A tang of jealous filtered through him at the thought of old people getting to looks at her. Her beauty should only be for his enjoyment.
"Get out!" he told her. His finger slid on his phone screen with concentration.
He collected his fee from her every night since that day, so what reason did he have to not to let her go out.
Xiaonian did not even feel angry at him anymore. He had this rotten attitude towards everyone. She said nothing and carrying her bag as she walked out the door.
He was very difficult to get along with. She told herself again and again to deal with his rude temper and mood swings.
As soon as she left the house, Gong Ouyang slammed the phone in hands at the nearest wall. "How is the system optimized? How come I can't see any difference? It's nothing different from the old version!" he declared unhappily.
Feng de stood by the side, with his head bowed and said nothing.
"Take that garbage back and ask them to re-do it!" he ordered Feng de and left the room, heading to the gym.
"Yes, young master." Feng De said. He couldn't help but remember that just yesterday, the young master approved the final product, how did it suddenly become trash?
-------------
10 minutes later, in the gym room, Gong Ouyang was once again dissatisfied with something. This time, the gym equipment.
"What kind of equipment is this?" he asked one of his staff, unhappily.
"Change these!"
"Yes sir! We will have new equipment ready by tomorrow!" the staff member assured promptly.
When Feng De was notified of the changes to be made in the gym, he sighed. His young master was in a really bad mood today.
It was not going to be easy to remind him about his schedule right now.
After half an hour, in the kitchen, Gong Ouyang was in the middle of throwing another temper tantrum.
He spit out the cake as soon as he bit it, his brows furrowed in displeasure. "What is this?"
Feng De could hardly tell his master that one of the best Gong family's chef made this pastry when he was in this mood.
"I don't want to taste anything this chef made, ever again!"
"Yes, master." Feng De quickly nodded.
He hesitated for a moment, but stepped forward, "Master, Miss Shi is escorted safely to the company of her younger sister's group." He sneaked a look to see how his young master reacted. His young master still looked lazy, but his eyes sharpened.
"Hm," he acknowledged the information.
Seeing him un averse, Feng De continued, "It seems that Miss Shi is attending the wedding that you were invited to. The bride and groom are her sister and brother in law".
Gong Ouyang's fingers that tapped rhythmically on the table top froze in the air.
Brother in law?
-----------
When Xiaonian arrived at the meet up location, she saw a ridiculously large private plane parked with only a few people standing near the stairs.
As soon as they spotted Xiaonian, Shi Zhang, Xiaonian's adoptive father rushed to her. He was dressed smartly and in this moment seemed to be in a hurry.
"Xioanian, you are here now! Everyone is already in the plane waiting for you!" He immediately ushered her into the plane past many people, to show her to her seat.
Xiaonian walked past a lot of familiar faces but no one bothered to greet her. It was not unexpected or surprising.
Her seat was furtherest in the back alienating her from most of their prominent family. But it suited her just fine. She placed her bag in the overhead cabin and gently sat down in her chair.
One cousin recognized the dress she was wearing and couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my god! Xiaonian, are you wearing a Netei?"
When she said that, other people turned around to look at her too. Her dress looked classy and expensive at a glance and her fair complexion made the pale pink dress look further beautiful.
People scrutinized her dress closely. Netei was a very popular brand that only made limited clothing for select few people. It definitely was not something a person like Xiaonian could afford.
Xiaonian felt their scrutiny and replied with a smile, "No, it is not. It's just an imitation."
The cousin who first called out giggled, "No wonder, how could those clothes be bought by someone like you. But these days, these high end imitations are getting too widespread. Just slap on a little make up and they can look as good as the original, aiyah!"
Xiaonian stayed silent and did not contradict her. She never applied any make up and she did not want to gain any attention from these people. It always turned out bad in the end.
She just smiled at the person and stayed calmly in her seat.
The cousin got bored and turned around to talk with her second generation rich boyfriend.
Everyone talked with each other and had a lively time. Though the trip, Xiaonian was largely ignored by people and she was happy to be ignored.
As she was looking out of the window, she couldn't help but hear how almost every person was interested in someone else's life. They gossiped and speculated about the fortunes and misfortunes of other.They were now talking about a particularly unfortunate life event of a certain girl with her boyfriend and she could clearly hear their happiness at someone else's misery.
She always thought that getting along with Gong Ouyang was difficult, but now she couldn't help but wonder, if it really was. At least, he vented his hatred directly. She did not have to wonder if he was pretending.
Suddenly, she felt really bored.
At 10 'o clock in the morning, their plane landed on Yunshang island.
Once she came out of the plane, she saw that all her surroundings were covered by thin mist and thin rays of light made their way to the ground and onto the trees giving them a fairy tale quality.
It was indeed a romantic place.
"You, follow me." her adoptive mother Lu Rin pulled her aside, "You aren't allowed to run around." she wouldn't be assured until the wedding was over.
Xiaonian was flabbergasted at how afraid she is of her.
A group of people passed by them making their way into the resort booked for them. Lu Rin accompanied her to her room all along behaving as if she was a prisoner.
Xiaonian could only look on helplessly at this behavior.
Lu Rin followed her into the room and as soon as she closed the door, she said, "Xiaonian, it's not that I'm trying to be unfair, but look at what everyone's saying about you. A story about an elder sister trying to grab her younger sister's husband?"
Xiaonian stiffened.
"Unfair?"
How was her mother not being unfair?
When has she not been unfair?
Lu Rin face stiffened when Xiaonian questioned her.
Xiaonian grabbed her bag and placed it on the bed. She pulled open the bag and started pulling out her stuff and placing them in the drawer. She really did not want to look at her adoptive mother's face at this moment!
She stuffed her dress in the closet and placed her creams into the bathroom. When she came back for the towels, she felt suffocated. Her heart screamed at the injustice!
She pushed the towels back into the bag, bowing her head low and without turning around, she said, "when dad agreed to take care of Mu Qian Chu to get promoted, did you take care of him?"
Mu Qian Chu, as blind kid, was not very well received by the Mu family. And Shi Zhong was happy to promise them that he would take care of him so he could gain good opinion. But even he knew enough about the Mu family to not care about Mu Qian Chu other than supplying him with basic necessities.
It was her that took care of him.
Because he was supposed to the one thing in this world that truly belonged to her. Her family!
She invested her time, heart and energy for him because he was supposed to be her family! He was supposed to be the one person who liked her because she didn't have anyone and she desperately wanted someone to be happy for her existence! Anyone!
A silent tear dripped down her fair cheek and plopped on the cotton towel and was immediately absorbed.
Lu Rin twisted her ring with her twisted her fingers looking guilty, but she quickly stabilised her heart and said with determination, "I know you took care of him once and that you were really close to each other, but he doesn't remember it anymore and most importantly, he is involve with your sister."
Xiaonian stayed silent letting her tears dry. She took a deep breath in and said softly, "I know."
Lu Rin stood there for a long while unable to say another word.
Xiaonian was still bowed over her bag, he hair covering her face and her back face Lu Rin. She used this silence to calm herself down. Once the tightness in her throat loosened and she was able to gather herself, she turned around, pushing back her hair behind her ear with a delicate hand that was impressively stable.
"Mom, you can rest assured that I've changed. I'm not interested in Mu Qian Chu anymore and I won't obstruct Shi Yue's life."
Lu Rin looked at Xiaonian's red eyes and felt more guilty. She couldn't look at her right in the eyes. Instead, she lowered her eyes down to the ground and said, "After Shi Yue's wedding, you should also find a nice man for yourself and marry him." her voice trembled slightly at the end.
Xiaonian stayed silent again.
A good man?
Where would she find one?
One guy told her that he would let some guys play with her if she didn't stop pestering him, and the other guy treated her like a play thing and abused her.
She didn't want ti say it loud, but at this point, she was actually scared of men.
Right now, she only wanted her freedom.
Once she thought she needed a family to sustain her, make her happy, but now she would just be glad to go back to her old life. She was lonely for sure, but at least she belonged to herself.
----------
The time to hold the ceremony was approaching and the guest were gathering in the church.
The women and men formed small groups and were constantly talking about the wedding.
"This is so dreamy! Did you know that Mu Qian Chu bought a yacht that is named after Shi Yue!"
"Shi Yue has be bathe in fame and fortune, I wish I can also be like her!"
Xiaonian hear the conversation around her sister and put on a faint smile, not caring about the things happening around her.
The crowd in groups slowly dispersed and went to fond their seats and Xiaonian followed them escorting her mother up to the first aisle. She was just about to sit down when she heard someone exclaim.
"That's Gong Ouyang? Oh my god! Is it really him?"