"Mom—" Xia Ruoxin called out softly.
"Do not call me 'mom'. I don't have a vicious daughter like you," spoke Shen Yijun, interrupting Xia Rouxin before she could speak further. How could she even have the guts to still call her mother? Yijun regretted having conceived a daughter like her. If she had only known, she would have strangled her to death when she was still a baby.
Ruoxin wanted to explain. But no matter how many times she does, no one believed her. Still, she continued to plead, "Mom, it's not what you think. I am not the cause of Yixuan's death. I really didn't—"
A palm landed on Ruoxin's cheek with a resounding smack.
And though she knew it would leave a red mark, it was the least of her worries.
"You dare say you didn't mean it? That you are not in love with Chu Lui? That you are not jealous of Yixuan even in the slightest bit? That you don't want to marry him?"
Xia Ruoxin remained silent.
Yes, she had loved Chu Lui for fifteen years. Was that wrong?
Shen Yijun shot her a deadly glare as if she was the enemy. She placed her hand back to her side, while Ruoxin simply covered her swollen cheek with her hand. Streams of tears streaked down her cheeks again.
This was her mother. The one who gave birth to her—her biological mother.
"Mom…" Xia Ruoxin called again.
"Enough! I am not your mother. I only had one daughter, and she died because of you."
Shen Yijun finished talking and took her expensive purse when she walked out. She could never forgive her daughter.
But before she could exit the door, she heard Xia Ruoxin say in anguish and heartbreak, "Mom, you never even treated me like I was your daughter. You only ever had your eyes on Xia Yixuan."
Shen Yijun stopped dead in her tracks. It suddenly hit her with an unforeseen sense of utter disgrace. She seemed to have truly forgotten that Xia Ruoxin was her biological daughter, the one that she had carried to term in her own stomach. The one she was related to by blood.
She opened the door in embarrassment and staggered out.
Jiang Yao went inside the room again. She rested her hand on Xia Ruoxin's shoulder. "Ruoxin, a—are you alright?"
Xia Ruoxin picked up the powder puff and started patting her face. Her makeup had worn off… again. But no matter how much powder she applied, she could not hide the fact that she wasn't beautiful. She was the ugly duckling of the family.
"Ruoxin, you don't have to go through with the wedding, okay?" Jiang Yao pulled at Xia Ruoxin's hand. "Ruoxin, it's not too late to turn back now. You can leave him and go far away. There will be no Chu family, no Xia family, and no Chu Lui. Without this wretched love restricting your life, you can be yourself."
Xia Ruoxin only shook her head. "I can't…" She looked at her hand. Her ring finger was bare, but soon there would be a ring occupying that empty space.
"Jiang Yao, you know what?" she lifted her head and looked at her best friend in the eye. She lifted the ends of her lips into a foolish smile. "I want to gamble with everything I have. Just this one time. If I leave now, I won't ever get to have a second chance. Even if that chance was never meant to be mine. Nevertheless, I still want to take it."
"Even if it meant destroying yourself and losing everything you have?" Jiang Yao's voice rang chills in the air. She could not understand why a foolish woman such as her best friend would exist on earth—one that would knowingly choose to face a future of pain and suffering? She was better off dead!
How could she be so foolish to venture ahead knowing what was coming?