"He's gone."
Liu Xing leaned against the window. His face looked worn and tired. He glanced at the door, then his gaze slowly shifted to the ropes on the floor.
'Ah. That's right. I tied him up, didn't I. He must really loathe me now… Though it's a little too late to care about that.'
He had tied his son up as his wife requested that he ship him off to America. His wife hated Liu Feng's very existence. Her own son, Liu Qing, was inferior to him in every way. Whether it be looks or grades, Liu Qing lost in every aspect.
The plan was to wake Liu Feng up, threaten him to keep his mouth shut about the Liu household and be quietly sent off to America without resistance. That was the plan. It was, until Liu Xing became soft-hearted. In the end, he didn't truly detest his son. It was just that his appearance had brought back painful memories and he, in turn, created even more painful memories between him and his own son.
The tragic death of his first wife, Fu Miao, was something that he wanted to forget but couldn't. She too, like her son, was of mixed race. A beauty. He had met her at university and it was, undoubtedly, love at first sight. Ever since then, he had tried to woo her, court her, flatter her. It all failed. It was only when he confessed his heart out sincerely did she finally accept him.
With her at his side, he felt that he had to do more, earn more, to please her. Money was something that he found easiest to make. He had many connections. Using them, in any way possible, Liu Xing climbed up the ranks in society until he became a renowned businessman. Yes. Many people talked about him. A handsome man in his twenties who became one of the most powerful people in City A would be the talk of the month. Everybody knew him. And just as many despised him.
Her death was the result of unchecked hatred. The original target wasn't her though.
It wasn't him either.
It was their son, Liu Feng.
'Haaaaaa. That's right. The result of my simple mistake. The day everything changed.'
------
The moon had shone its brightest that night, illuminating everything under its silvery gaze. Its glistening rays had shot through the inky black sky. Piercing yet pure. It was under this beautiful spectacle when the tragedy occurred.
Tiptoeing, covered from head to toe in black, the intruder opened the door to the child's room quietly. With the curtains still drawn, the moonlight poured into the room, spilling onto the pristine white floor in a puddle of pale light.
The moonlight acted as a search light, illuminating the intruder. The intruder acted with caution for he knew, the masters' bedroom was right next door. He crept up to the bed and saw the sleeping face of the little boy. Cold-blooded, the intruder felt no remorse and grabbed his concealed dagger. Just as Liu Feng's neck was about to be cut, a woman's voice called out to the stranger.
"Who are you?"
The stranger reacted almost immediately. He decided that killing the boy was to be his upmost priority. He raised the dagger and swung down. What he did not expect however, was for the woman to tackle him to the ground. She slapped his face hard and punched him, simultaneously knocking out the knife in his hand. Angered, the intruder grabbed the woman's long hair and tugged at it. She cried in pain and before she could pin him down again, he threw her to the side.
By now, Liu Feng was awake. He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes sleepily. He looked at his mother struggling to raise herself from the floor then shifted his attention to the stranger. He soon figured out what was happening. He jumped out of his bed and ran to his mother. Liu Feng grabbed his mother's hand and tried to lift her up. He couldn't. Instead, he stood in front of her and glared at the intruder.
The intruder did not find this amusing at all. In fact, it only served to infuriate him further. He pounced at Liu Feng with the dagger back in his grasp.
It all happened in a rush. Liu Feng's mother had stood up and pushed her son to the side. She then screamed for help. Before the last syllables could escape from her throat, the intruder's knife had planted itself deeply into her chest.
She choked. Blood dripped from her mouth and for a second, she swayed, almost as if she was dancing underneath the light of the moonlight. Then she fell. Her golden hair sprayed out around her and her mesmerising blue eyes dimmed.
Under the watch of the waning moon, Fu Miao, wife of Liu Xing and mother of Liu Feng, died.
Bodyguards ran into the room and cried out in horror at the sight of their loving mistress lying in a pool of crimson.
They quickly apprehended the intruder and shouted for Liu Xing to come. Clothed in a satin robe and fluffy slippers, Liu Xing walked into the room confused and sleepy. That was until he behold the sight of his precious love drowning in a sea of blood.
He ran, desperate, to his wife's side. Seeing her lifeless eyes, he screamed and ordered his servants to call for an ambulance. He hugged the cold body, feeling the warmth slowly disappear until all that was left was the corpse of a broken beauty.
The assassin, he later found out, bore the face of his most trusted servant. The servant was a double agent working for a company that he had blackmailed before. His master had ordered him to kill Liu Feng to serve as a warning; they were not to be messed with.
As the sky opened its gaping mouth, the heavens began to cry. Each raindrop pierced at his heart. He fell to his knees and eventually, the tears burst forth like water from a dam. He tried to keep it in but the beads of water started falling down one after another, without any sign of stopping. He hit the floor and tried to scream, but his voice caught in his throat. The muffled sobs wracked against his chest. The world turned into a blur, and so did all the sounds. The taste. The smell. Everything was gone. That was, until, a tugging at his shirt brought him back to reality.
Out of reflex, Liu Xing batted the hand away but in his reverie, he applied too much pressure and ended up pushing the owner of the hand instead.
"Ouch!"
The cry woke him up and for a while, the drumming of the rain on the window was the only sound that could be heard. Liu Xing stared at his son, dumbstruck. The hair, the face, why was it over there? Why was there a faint pink in his cheeks and none in his beloved? Why... Why was he alive... and she dead? The world was cruel. No, the world has never been cruel. It has only been the people in it who ruin the world. Then... In that case... Wasn't this boy, this five year old boy, to blame? Wasn't he the one, the one that his wife had sacrificed her life to protect?!
Something compelled him to do it. Deep down, he knew that he was making a mistake but he was unable to care. At that very moment, his eyes could see only red. The boy had to die. With the boy dead, his wife would come back. That was what he had thought.
The boy had just stared at him. Unmoving, still, silent. His eyes twinkled with innocence, clean from the impurity of the world. Liu Xing charged at his son, unnerved.
The boy continued to stare. His pink lips parted as he asked in a clear innocent voice,
"Father, do you want to kill me?"
These words haunted him in his sleep for the next couple of days.
In the end, he had almost strangled his son to death. If it wasn't for the maid who had walked in on accident and stopped him, Liu Feng would have been laying side by side with his mother underground, sleeping with the worms and insects underneath the earth. He would have become a festering body, forgotten and unrecognised.
The boy's neck had terrible bruises and he could not go to school for half a month. That half a month had been torture.
Liu Xing hid himself in his study and refused to come out for anything or anyone.
The haunting feeling of life seeping out of the bones of his beloved clawed at his heart until his mind could no longer take the weight of it all. He remained in this state for a couple of months until he finally recovered.
Those couple of months made him think about many things. Many things... But the thing he thought about the most was his son. His son with the name that he could no longer remember.
----
Ever since that day, the boy's face would remind Liu Xing of his wife's sacrifice. He couldn't handle it. He tried to get over the pain by remarrying another woman. One that looked and acted the complete opposite to his first. He had her conceive a child in the hope that he would forget about his eldest. Every day, after finishing school, Liu Feng would be sent to his room and was locked in from the outside. That was how much he hurt. That was how much his heart would tear at the very sight of his son.
He wanted to die. He wanted to be reunited with his true love so badly. He wanted to, yet he had not the strength nor courage to commit suicide. All he could do was smoke in hopes that his lungs would be spoiled rotten and lead him to die of cancer.
He was pathetic.
The clouds gathered in the sky and sobbed gently. Drops of pity fell and tapped on the roof of the mansion.
Thinking back on it, Liu Xing remembered that Liu Feng had repeatedly said something as he was being strangled.
'What was it again?...'
The rain pitter-pattered on the window-sill, comforting him, showing him that the world was not as cruel as everyone made it out to be.
Liu Xing coughed once more as he gazed outside.
'Whatever. It doesn't matter anymore.'
He couldn't keep him around. This was better for both of them. At this rate, he would have hurt his child too deeply.
Yes.
This was for the best.