The young fat wombat was in Mingzhu’s arms. She was staring at her mother with a determined look in her eyes. No matter what i i said, the wombat was staying. "I paid for it in diamonds and aunt Jun Yi agreed to help take care of it."
"I said no more pets." i i reminded her, using a stern loud voice. "You went behind my back and imported a wombat!! Not only did you disobey my rules...."
Jingzhe placed his hands on her back. "Easy i i. Don’t shout, you are scaring our daughter."
She looked around and noticed that everyone seed worried for Mingzhu. Madam Feng was even shielding her a bit with her body. They were all team wombat already.
i i stood up sharp eyes fixed on her daughter. "From now on, you will not be getting diamonds on Mondays. All of them will go straight to the bank and you will get access to them at the age of twenty one. All your plushies will be confiscated for a month and there will be no sleep overs with your cousins for two weeks. No smart glasses, no gas and no sweets."
Mingzhu gasped. "That is not fair."
"Enjoy your wombat." i i told her.
Mingzhu burst into tears and turned to Madam Feng to complain that she was being bullied.
"i i...." Jingzhe started in a soft voice that was ready to plead for his daughter.
She glared at him once and he shut up. If he said anything, he knew that he would be in trouble. "You are right honey, I will go speak to Mingzhu and make her understand where she went wrong."
i i huffed. He was on his way to play good cop. Did he think she was blind? None the less, she was putting her foot down and taking lessons from ihua. Rules were rules.
****
The prison slled like corn porridge, bleach and regret. i i sat across from Tang Yue in the visitation room, the tallic chair groaning under her weight every other second. Tang Yue looked thinner and older than she rembered.
Without access to beauty serums and spas, her skin was plain and acne was visible. Her cheekbones were sharper and her eyes had lost most of their pride. But there was still so defiance in her shoulders.
"I did not think that you would co." Tang Yue said, her voice low, absent of the arrogance she once exuded.
"You have A Zhe to thank for this visit." i i replied. "I never wanted to see your face again but he said I should see you one last ti and put the past to bed completely. So, I am here to forget you and him and all of it."
Tang Yue smirked. "You will never forget or him or everything."
i i didn’t answer. She lowered her eyes to Tang Yue’s hands, resting on the table. The nails of her fingers had been bitten, there was a little tremor in the hands that Tang Yue was trying to hide.
"Is he really dead?" Tang Yue asked, voice small, hesitant and scared.
i i raised her eyes and t Tang Yue’s gaze. "Yes, it has been a month now. His body was cremated and the ashes were picked up soone from his family. Frankly, I don’t know because I don’t care. Nobody cares about him anymore. Even the news covered his death for only one day and then put in the back."
"It is not fair." Tang Yue said. "No matter what he did, he was a hero. Soday, when half or all of the people and animals are migrating to a new planet in space, it will be because of his efforts."
"He was not the only one on that mission." i i said. "Do not make it sound like he went there alone and fought so aliens in order to secure the planet for mankind. He was not a hero, he was just a space pilot with a handso face, nice hair and ability to con the whole world into thinking that he was a hero."
Tang Yue laughed. "And you said you had forgotten him. Why do you still have anger in your voice when you talk about him?"
"Because he set the fire that almost killed ." i i replied.
A female guard that was eavesdropping did a double take. She quickly walked towards another to share what she had just overheard.
Tang Yue’s hands flattened on the table. "You know!"
i i nodded. "I know, my family knows, the royal family knows. When he found out that the secret was out, he killed himself. He was probably scared of what he thought I or my parents would do to him."
Tang Yue threw her head back for a mont, laughing sadly. Tears ran down her eyes and she wiped them away quickly. "Actually, it was not your parents that scared him so much. It was Mingzhe, your twin brother. If you had not loved and protected Mo Liang, your brother would have done things to him....things worse than death. He did not beco the Imperial Commander just because he was a genius. It was because he is cold and ruthless."
i i raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you called here? To talk about my brother."
"I regret it." Tang Yue said. "Not the affair. No, I will never regret that because I loved him before you ca along. I will die loving him. But not sending you to a hospital when Hao pushed you down. If I had done that, maybe you would not have reunited with your family. Your daddy and mommy and all those fucking nobles and royals would not have given their all to ruin us."
i i laughed. "Of all things you regret, sleeping with my ex husband is not one! Do you realize that the affair is the reason why your life turned into a ss? I cannot bla you for decisions you made when you were below eighteen but after you beca an adult, everything else was a choice you made while fully sane. You knew there would be consequences. Why keep sleeping with him even after he married ? Why live like a mistress?
You were bright and you had all the right connections. Your future was ant to be so much more than Mo Liang’s mistress. You could have been the next great benevolent doctor. Maybe not even that but still, a great scientist, a great woman. Your na could have been rembered differently in history. So why did you choose him and a life of hiding in the shadows?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)