Shi and Yang are sitting at the sofa in the living room. It was Yang's suggestion that they should continue their talk there after having dinner but Shi's told him that she was no longer in any mood to eat and that is why the two of them shifted here without completing their dinner.
At the table in front of them are two cups of coffee thanks to the curtsy of Yang who went to make them while he had asked Shi to calm down and gather her thoughts.
While siting besides Shi with a respectful distance between them Yang can see that she is trembling. Before he could tell her words of encouragement Shi had already started her story.
In a low voice she starts to tell him the things she had forever burried deep down in her heart.
"My mom was the only daughter of the Tang. She was supposed to be their heir too, she was an excellent girl when she was young and many people also regarded her as a role model for their daughters.
At that time my maternal grandfather wanted to expand his business and that is why he had already signed a marriage contract with my paternal grandfather even before my mother was born. So you can say that the marriage between my parents was an arranged one.
I was born one year later and at that time everything was very nice for a brief period of time, he came back early from work, spend time with me and also took mother out for dinners, well that is what I at least thought it was.
Then one day suddenly everything changed, fights started between them, he stopped coming home, started drinking, hurting mother, all of it suddenly started around the time when he was announced as the successor to grandfather.
At that time it felt like everything was spiralling out of control. You know it was quite late that I realized that he was nice to us only when grandfather Zhang was around. Mother suffered from all this but she did not raise her voice even once because I was small and if a divorce happened then my custody would have been gone to him only, that is why she beared all the abuses thrown at her.
When Mr. Zhang noticed that my mother was not revolting against him, he grew more brutal. Then one day he brought his lover with whom he had a child back to our house and it was at that time that he also started to hit me and his new family started treating us like slaves.
That is when my mother had enough so she asked her father for help but you know what, he straight away denied her and told her that she had to stay there only with her husband and his new family.
You have seen Zhang Chen haven't you, my supposed half sister, you know that she is older to me by one month which means that he married my mother while he had a woman on the side. The only reasn that he married my mother was because he was promised that if he married and had a child than the position of the head of the family and the company would be given to him.
For his own selfish reason he married her and destroyed her life. My mother lived with them mistreating her for around three months in that house and then suddenly she decided to leave for country R and brought me with her but little did she know that the driver was already brought off.
When we reached country R and were going towards our lodgings he knowlingly drived the car into the incoming truck. I still remember the expression on my mother's face when she realized what was happening. She threw her body in front of me to protect me from the impact and that is when I blacked out.
Later I woke up in a hospital after three months only to learn that my mom had passed away while protecting me, I did not even had the chance to see her for the last time."
Finishing her story Shi turned into a sobbing mess and Yang who was looking at her the whole time felt his cheeks getting wet from his tears.
It was now that he understood the reason as to why she was so dead set against the marriage. All the mistreatment that she had encountered at a tender age of seven would leave a scar on anyone let alone her.
She wore her scars as her best attire. A stunning dress made of hellfire. When she was younger she didn't just felt unloved, she felt indifference from her father and that is something that cuts like a knife from someone you love and she loved her father whole heartdly but noe she just couldn't take anymore scars.
Yang shifted towards her and opened his arms to her and she curled up against him. He held her close and patted her head softly. She could feel his warmth. He said no flowry words to her.
She felt cared for.
She felt safe.
It was just what she needed.
The truth is that she didn't needed to be saved,
she needed to be found for exactly who she was.
She was not fragile like a flower
She was fragile like a bomb.