Su Li knew this was her last day off college and from tomorrow onwards she ll go back to the same old routine of attending cla.s.ses. Moreover, she had been selected for a foreign student exchange programme. So probably the announcement would be made in a day or two and then preparations for her long term stay out of the country will start. She also didn"t want any ongoings around her to affect her studies. Though she hadn"t been a genius but had always been in the top ten percentile of her cla.s.s untill she had finished her University. Since she had taken over someone else"s body she still wanted to maintain her track record. Therefore, she hoped that Yu Yan would make haste in her actions or all her time spent on this plan would go to waste if her losses outweighed her gains. She only had half of today and the rest of tomorrow to waste upon her.Yu Yan had thought things through. She wanted to rush downstairs and smash that lamp into pieces. It was just a lamp. Even though it had an exorbitant price tag a.s.sociated to it, she wanted to shatter it and shatter that aloof princess"s heart along with it. It had been close to three months since she had started living here but that girl had never paid any attention to her. It was as if she a living, breathing person had no sense of existence in front of her. Today for the first time she had smiled at her as if bestowing her a great honour, as if that non - living thing was more precious to her than her own blood related paternal half - sibling.
She asked Xun Mei where was Xun Zixi and was answered that he had taken permission from master and was on a half day leave. She really didn"t understand this guy. He was a servant but behaved like a young master. He took more days off than all of the household staff put together. Once she pulls father to her side she"ll make sure to sort this person out. Sometimes she felt as if he disdained her and that his loathing towards her originated from deep within his bones. But maybe she only felt that way because he was always stoic no matter how she tried to get close to him. Atleast his sister had some tact.
In the evening Yu Yan came downstairs and saw Yu Yue sitting on a chair placed nearby The Wisteria Lamp and listening to something on her phone with a book placed infront of her. Her face showed a serene smile. From the looks of it she might be listening to an audio book and was cross checking the information with a similar written work. Yu Yan wanted to know what kind of an expression the other girl would show when her lamp was broken. But she didn"t want to dirty her own hands. Therefore, she decided to enrage the other girl.
"Elder sister you seem to cherish this lamp. Why not place it in your own room? If something happens to it wouldn"t you feel regret."
Su Li looked at Yu Yan and knew the farce had started. They both had the same end goal, the only difference was that each of them had their own thoughts as to how to use the opportunity and what ending to give to the act. But she wasn"t too sure of her success and since the other person has taken the initiative to help her out even unknowingly then she shouldn"t reject the other person"s intentions be they good or bad. Afterall, no one could say how the actors had performed until the last curtain was drawn and the opinions of the audience was heard.
She smiled at Yu Yan, "Yes it is very dear to me. Mother bought it for me along with father when I was a kid "
Yu Yan immediately started with her barbed words,"Oh how lucky you are sister. I never had anything from my mother, not even a single momento but you have the good fortune to let your mother buy you anything that you desired. It"s a pity that now you have all grown up and might have the heart to show filial piety the person is no longer with you."
Su Li hadn"t thought that the other person would poke at Yu Yue"s sore spot. It was the first time she realised that though it was her soul occupying the body, the body still had all the instinctive reactions of the original soul. She had an unexplained desire to rip the other girl apart. Somehow she curbed her instinctive reaction and said with a warm smile, "Yes, I have the misfortune of not being able to take care of my mother in her old age since she already left the world so young but thankfully I had the immense fortune of spending my first decade with her. I have wonderful memories of our time spent together. Even though she is not here she is still within my heart, within father"s careful actions of preserving all things related to her. She is within every inch of every wall of this house and ll eternally be known as Lady Yu and the only female who could grasp the heart of Master Yu Jian." She treated Yu Yan"s barbed words as if a statement that she simply answered without any malice.
Yu Yan hadn"t thought that behind the paper tigress, a conniving fox was hiding. Though her own words had been unpleasant to the ears, the other"s direct response was even more blunt and poisonous. Weren"t her words saying that she was even more unfortunate than Yu Yue as her mother had abandoned her without a second thought and her father hadn"t even known about her existence for the most of her life. Atleast the other person had fond memories of a complete family but she had been an orphan without any idea of her origins.
She was angered to the point of wanting to beat the living daylights out of Yu Yue. With a finger pointing towards her, she stepped forward "You!" In her aggressiveness she stepped on the hem of her dress and fell down with a shriek. As soon as she had felt her imbalance she had tried to hold onto something to stop herself from falling. She didn"t see what she got her hands on but even that leverage didn"t help her as that object also tilted along her trajectory and fell down. Before she had even landed on the floor she had seen and heard the voice of The Wisteria Lamp falling down and shattering into an unrecognisable mess. Before she could get of the floor, she heard two sharp intakes of breathes and the room fell into an ominous silence.
She turned her head and saw father standing in the doorway. He had his eyes plastered on the mess on the floor. Some of the intact gla.s.s beads had rolled under the sofas. Before she could even get off the floor her whole body had frozen in terror. She didn"t want to have a repeat of the last chat she had with father. It had been too horrible but seeing his expression she knew she would have to bend over backwards for a period of time to smooth over this issue.
Yu Jian had just been pa.s.sing through the corridor outside the sitting room to go to his study when he had heard the voice of his younger daughter advising the elder one to place the lamp in her room in fear of something unexpected happening to it. For a moment he had felt relieved that the ice that had frosted over the relations.h.i.+p of two sisters had started to melt but in the next minute or two he had realised what a poisonous mouth that daughter had. She had taken a jab that would draw blood at the first contact on his precious Yueyue. Before he could go inside and give her a piece of his mind, Yueyue had talked about things in a way he had thought she was ignorant about. Hearing her words had filled his heart with an indescribable bittersweet emotion. He wanted to step inside and stop both of them from saying things that would hurt each other but had seen Yanyan stepping forward in anger but at the last moment as if she had realised that she couldn"t vent her anger on the person before her, she had touched the lamp, patted it and sent it cras.h.i.+ng down to the floor. Meanwhile her feet had entangled in her own dress or maybe she had realised that there was someone else in the room and had enacted another play for the said person to watch. It was quite similar to her earlier play of blaming herself infront of him.
Every thought had been wiped out of his mind as he watched Yueyue. Her face had frozen in denial and her complexion had turned white from anger. His heart had trembled for her, he knew how important that lamp was for her, he had seen a swirl of emotions in her eyes a few hours ago when the lamp had been brought out and presented. She had stood up and looked at Yu Yan as if she would never forgive her for this one wilful act of hers. At that moment he knew it in his heart that though she might leave the other person alone due to their blood ties nevertheless, she would never accept her wholeheartedly as a prominent member of the family and no matter what happened in the future nothing would change her decision. She had simply looked at Yanyan with a deadpan look in her eyes and said, "I have always known that you have been unhappy with me. Afterall, I recieved all the love and care a person could expect but riddle me this. It was your own mother who left you for dead outside, you can"t blame father since he didn"t even have an inkling about you. Also, it isn"t as if my mother had tried to s.n.a.t.c.h your mother"s husband or fiance, on the contrary it has been a drunken mistake on both their parts. I don"t even know if it was your mother"s well crafted ploy which she had later realised she had failed in or if she had really made a mistake in her intoxicated state. But since the day you have entered the house I have treated you with respect that is accorded to you as father"s daughter. So why is it that you have placed all of your unfounded hatred on top of my head. You hate me for being father"s daughter but answer me that if the lady of the house was still alive and she had come to know about your existence, wouldn"t it have affected the marriage of my parents. I lost my mother at a young age and had always felt it was unfair but right at this moment am thankful that she isn"t here to watch you prance around the house and overlord yourself over me. You hate me but tell me who should I hate and rage against for your existence? Certainly not my father and do you even have the right to hate the legitimate child while you yourself are an out of the wed - lock offspring." Yu Jian watched as Yueyue said all the pent up words in her heart in a breath without a single pause in between and then left for her rooms with a grief - stricken look.