Cixi walked aimlessly down the busy streets with tears in her eyes. It seemed a lot of people were still busy celebrating Christmas since they were people at every corner she looked at.
It was already past eight in the evening and thankfully, the streets she pa.s.sed by were not very bright and so people who did not pay attention, did not know she was crying.
She did not even know where she was going to. She simply wanted to release her pent-up emotions while walking.
After walking for a while, she considered going to the hotel she had been lodging for a couple of times now but she just did not have that spirit right now.
Speaking of hotels, she remembered what she had been doing with most of her time whenever she lodged there.
She had been trying to track the idiots who messed with her daughter.
It finally dawned on her that she had not gone through the laptop since yesterday and now, it was still in the room and she could not go get it right now.
After wandering about for a while, she saw a field with wooden chairs around.
She thought the place was going to help relieve her a bit and so she plopped herself down on the nearest wooden chair.
She noticed someone was already sitting on the other end of the same chair— it was a man in his mid forties or so, but she did not pay much attention to Jim since she had a lot going on with her.
She buried her face in her palm and began to cry even more as she remembered how her brother had sent her out.
She had done that for her family. To save them!
The Songs did not seem like people who would have let them off if she had not done so.
At that time, she had been scared and wanted to mention it to her mother and brother but she could not.
Her mother was sick while her brother was always busy trying to organise things for the family.
One day when she went to the pharmacy to go get drugs for her mother, she b.u.mped into Madam Song there.
Since she had seen her before, she knew instantly that it was madam Song.
It had been an emergency and she needed to get her mother some drugs but her brother was not around and there was no much money in the house.
She had been stranded when she was told the amount was short and she had no other money with her to top it up with.
Madam Song suddenly appeared like a grim reaper. Yes! A grim reaper because she could not call that woman a guardian angel.
Madam Song paid the bills and told her to go save her mother"s life.
Although she hated the woman, she had been a tiny bit appreciative. Not very appreciative since their entire misfortune was caused by them. And even though she had wanted to yell and abuse Madam Song, she had to save her mother"s life at any cost and so she had taken the drugs with her in a hurry.
After two days, Madam Song appeared again with her husband and demanded payments for the drugs she had bought for her mother. If she had left it at that, it would not have been so shocking. But she had also demanded for it with interest!
Like what the h.e.l.l!
When did they make that agreement?
She thought she was smart enough and could easily come out from it by threatening to involve a lawyer but those old folks were very cunning.
They had asked her whether her family had been able to get a lawyer for their father"s case and if she thought she would be able to get any lawyer to help with such a useless case.
Cixi figured she could not tell her mother nor her brother that Madam Song had been the one who paid for the drugs and so she had to do everything discreetly.
She had turned abusive when Madam Song asked for her money back and even threatened to throw her in prison if she refused to okay with the complete interest.
When she realised that the Song elders were serious, she settled for a bargain. And that was when they asked her to do it.
"Steal all the letters and get rid of it. Your brother must never see it" Father Song had told her.
Apparently, it seemed she had been sending but they had been blocking it all off but because they did not want her to become suspicious, they decided to use other means; blocking it at the other end.
She had refused to do it. She did not want to make any deal with the devil. She swore never to do it but then, they stopped threatening her with sending her to jail and promised to send her to medical school abroad.
When she still refused it and tried to walk away from them, they threatened her with her family, promising to do worse than they had already done.
"See? At least we tried to reason properly with you but you refused. We have no choice then." Madam Song threatened.
At that point, she knew there was nothing else she could have done. She had already lost her father. She did not want to lose her mother nor her brother. So, she agreed.
Since her brother was not always around, it made her job easier to always handle the mails.
Most of the mails were reminders of loans they were to pay or places they were to vacate from.
The first time she received a mail from Changyu, she had still been a bit skeptical but finally, she decided to open the letter to check its contents.
She had been expecting a note of apology but to her surprise, she saw a short
"Brother Jun. Have you been receiving my previous letters? Please write me back. I miss you and still cannot leave the house yet."
And at the end, she drew an heart shaped emoji after the words "Love Yu"
Cixi scoffed in disbelief and felt tears begin to run down from her eyes. So this was it? This was what she was sending when her family was suffering?
She did not even need the Song elders to tell her to get rid of it. Even if they had not told her and she accidentally saw it, she would have kept it from her brother.
In anger, she burned it and the others that came after it without even bothering to check the contents.
Whenever Jianjun asked if they had been any letters from Changyu, she gave him a simple "No!" even before he was done with his question.
Even after Helene came over to their place, she still continued "handling" the letters until one day when Helene took the mails and saw the one from Changyu.
Helene had been on her way to go give it to Jianjun in his room and thankfully, she accidentally b.u.mped into Helene and saw the letter in her hand.
"What is that?" Cixi asked.
"It is a letter from Changyu. There is finally a letter from her"
She had heard the relief in Helene"s tone when she said that.
But, she on the other hand, did not want that letter to get to her brother.
"Come with me"
Forcefully, she dragged Helene to her own room before Jianjun came out from his.
"Don"t let him find it. Do not give him any letter from Changyu." She told Helene.
"But why? What if there is a useful information in there?"
"It does not matter. We have to completely cut off that girl. She does not deserve Brother Jun."
When she noticed that whatever she was saying was not getting to the thick-skinned Helene, she tried another means.
"Think about it, he needs to forget her now. I know you have always liked him. And I know you confessed to him recently. This is your chance to have him. After everything settles down and there is no longer Changyu in the picture, it will be you. So make sure no letter of Changyu gets to him. Bring everything to me. You hear me?"
Reluctantly, Helene finally agreed. Whenever there was a letter and Changyu was not quick to retrieve that particular one, Helene was the one in charge and immediately sends it over to her who then set them ablaze in return.
When she thought she was done with everything she was to do for the Song elders, they suddenly came with a new order— To hack his email.
They believed their daughter must have sent him a mail and they did not want him to see it. If they could not control their daughter, at least, they could control others.
Since she was fully in on removing that girl from their lives, she also agreed without putting up much resistance.
She knew her brother always shared the same pa.s.sword with Changyu and so it was very easy to guess what it was.
While he was out one day, she snuck into his room to use his computer and as she was about to change his email pa.s.sword, she saw a message that was sent a few hours ago from Changyu. She sighed in relief when she saw that it was still marked as unread.
When she opened it, she was even very much surprised by what she saw.
It was a message of her reminding him that she was pregnant and gradually losing it since he had refused to write back.
"Please. I do not know, maybe you are mad at me by chance but I am so sorry. Text me back. I miss you. Our baby misses you also."
"Does she not know what is happening with our family or is she pretending to not know?"
Cixi frowned in anger.
They were about to be thrown out of their house but she was talking about missing him and a baby?
She guessed her brother knew nothing about her being pregnant. If not, he would not have been calm the entire time.
She spat on the floor in disgust. She did not wish to have any relation with anyone from the Song.
Her family was never going to be affiliated with them!
Out of anger, she began to type. She knew how much Changyu disliked Helene since she had always seen her as a rival plus everyone knew of Helene"s feelings for her brother. With that in mind, she continued to type.
Even though it was against morality, even though it was against all she had learnt, she told her to do the abominable. She asked her to her rid of the baby because his heart belonged to Helene and he did not want Helene to be mad when she found out.
She had already had enough of the useless letters and believed this was going to finally send her away and make her stop pestering them with letters.
After sending the mail, she deleted the one Changyu had sent and the one she also sent. When she was satisfied, she changed his pa.s.sword.
She was going to take it to her grave and no one was ever going to find out.
After waiting a couple more days and there were no more letters from her, Cixi felt she had finally succeeded getting rid of the annoying fly.
Until that particular day when Anna had come to deliver it herself. Ever since, they had been posting it and so they usually got the letters through the mailbox outside.
She had been inside her room when Anna suddenly ran in to tell her that her brother was involved in an accident outside and he had forcefully retrieved Changyu"s letter from her.
At first, she was scared to hear he received a letter from her because she knew how things were going to turn out next. Plus, the Song elders had specifically asked her to make sure he did not get any.
When he was still lying unconscious in the hospital bed after collapsing, she was finally able to take the letter from his hand and went through it.
Seeing all the curses, she guessed Changyu must have been aware of everything her family had gone through.
Even though most of it had been her fault for sending that mail to her, she still felt Changyu went overboard when everything had been her fault to begin with.
Since the deed had already been done, there was nothing else she could do. Her brother now knew she was pregnant and so, he kept going to their gate in order to see her but he never got the chance to.
Her mother also joined with the hope of seeing the young lady who was carrying her grandchild but not only was she sent away, she was also beaten.
And finally, they lost their House and every other thing they had to their name.
She did not know much about Changyu"s side of the story. But remembering Sara now, she realised how wrong she had been to have asked Changyu to do something like that.
Now, she was even more scared of Sara not forgiving her.
With nothing else to do, she devoted her time into crying her eyes out.
"I"m sorry Sara. Please... Forgive me" She repeated over and over again as she cried.