Wanting a way of relieving herself from the anger and frustration she had felt from seeing her parents, Zhao Lifei wanted to completely imrse herself into playing the piano. But before that, she unconsciously grabbed sothing to drink from the fridge. Not even bothering to check what it was, she drank the entire bottle.
The taste was extrely familiar and heavenly-sweet, like a poison clogging her mind. Within a matter of minutes, her brain beca hazy and she could barely think straight.
She sat down on the bench where she spends the majority of her ti bleeding her heart out. She pressed one key, then two, three, until her fingers created a lancholic symphony.
She had always played from her mory because they felt familiar to her. They felt safe and secure — nothing like her traumatic past or the terrifying uncertainty of the future.
Filling the living room was the sound of hauntingly sorrowful lody. Sowhere along the way, she began to slowly sing the lyrics of a song she had heard a few months ago.
"Gradually the warm sumr air becos winter.
The fallen petals are reminiscing of the youthful spring days.
Flowers of spring have withered to beco ash.
Underneath the twilight night,
You remind this glimr of hope is like the stars, forever out of reach, but seemingly close."
A mory passed through her, the mory of a dazzling woman surrounded by the lively laughter of people.
The woman was smiling, her eyes bright with innocence, completely unaware of the creeping future that would surely destroy her. Standing in a crowd of socialite was an adolescent Zhao Lifei who was still young and not corrupted by envy, for Xia ngxi had yet to enter the scene.
"A love like a calamity washes over
You stand by the tides completely unscathed by the wind, thunder, and rain.
Whispers beco screams, rain turns into an endless downpour of tears enough to fill the ocean.
The petals beco ash.
The seemingly sweet fragrance of youthful love becos bitter."
She thought back to her teenage years where Zheng Tianyi still saw her as a good friend. Before Xia ngxi ca into the picture, he actually placed her in a safe spot within his heart, seeing her as a good and beneficial acquaintance.
She rembered a heart-warming scene of Zheng Tianyi placing a white flower into her hair, the color reminding her she was still "pure."
The happy mory was completed shattered and replacing it was the familiar scene she had witnessed for a very long ti. Zheng Tianyi turning a cold-shoulder to her, as she frantically grabbed and begged for him, the bitter tears flowing down her face as she sobbed on the floor.
Mocking her was the perfu she had used in her adolescent years. The expensive bottle, tossed on the floor, and mixed with the water from the broken vase beside it, beca a pungent sll.
"I dance upon the fallen petals
Blinded by the delusions of false hope.
You dance with the new, forever abandoning the old.
Youthful, but old, different and new
You’re mingling amongst the white lilies,
As the petals beco ashes, lifting into the air.
My love, forgotten and weightless, following the lonely wind,
Blowing away from you,
The ashes of my love..."
Zhao Lifei played the piano the entire day, to the point of where her fingers were barely able to move. Shaking and drenched in cold sweat, she decided to finally rest her head on the cool surface of the piano. Staring at nothing in particular, she felt lonely.
Taking in the spacious apartnt filled with furniture for a single person, the enormous couch ant for a family, the unoccupied room for guests.
She thought this apartnt was too big for her.
The darkness was haunting, the loneliness was depressing, and the enormous window looking out the beautiful city lights can make soone feel extrely small. Zhao Lifei couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness.
All alone...that’s how she had always been.
She was on the brink of falling asleep when the familiar tune of her phone can be heard throughout the living room. She was confused as to who was calling her. After a second of hesitation, she finally decided to stand up and pick up the call without looking at the caller ID.
"Hello...?" She quietly said, her voice somber and depressing. She walked to the glass wall that separates her from the rest of the world. She stared at the glaring city lights filled with life but wreaked of lonely souls.
"Lifei." His voice, firm and absolute as always, confused her.
She glanced at her phone to confirm that it really was him, and her heart skipped a tiny beat. She blinked at the sudden emotion, her fingers growing clammy when she thought about how familiar this feeling was. No, not again...
"You sound upset. What happened?" He asked her, his voice becoming smooth like the most luxurious cup of hot chocolate. Warm, beckoning, and tender. It made her feel that everything is good and wonderful. Zhao Lifei felt a tremor pass through her at the sincerity of his voice.
"Nothing happened. You’re overthinking it." She said, but her words didn’t comfort him.
Yang Feng sat in his car, legs crossed and staring at the window. It was already 9 PM but he was just returning ho from the office. Upon hearing how different she sounded compared to the lively version of her during breakfast, he imdiately ordered Hu Wei to turn the car back around and head to Lifei’s apartnt that was on the other side of the city.
"You clearly don’t sound fine." Yang Feng objected, his gaze dark but tone filled with worry.
"..."
She didn’t say anything. Staring at the shimring lights of the city, she took his words into consideration. Was she fine?
"I’m fine." She curtly said, even though a part of her knew she clearly wasn’t. Her throat was itching for that wine bottle in her fridge to muddle her mind from the overwhelming lancholy in her apartnt.
This apartnt held a lot of mories she never wanted to recount. Every ti she looked at the guest bedroom, she was reminded of a mory she swore was buried at the back of her mind.
Yang Feng frowned at her words. She was fine? Did she think he was stupid? He decided it was a good idea to reach her as soon as possible, for she seed to be in a very critical stage.
Holding the phone away from him, he quietly urged Hu Wei to drive faster. "Break the speeding limit. I’ll deal with the consequences."
Hu Wei was surprised at his order, but nonetheless, followed it like it was the law. Within seconds, he was speeding down the highway, dodging cars, and breaking into the city streets. Like a car racer with a heart of frenzy for speed, he drove the black Maybach to its limit.
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