Liu Suya got a call that very night from her father about the dinner that Liu Xiang had oh so kindly reminded her about earlier. She wasn't ready to face the gaze of that woman's as well as her grandmother's sneer. She felt her breathing pick up at the thought.
The world seemed too slow, and her mind was solely focused on that damned family meeting. She felt like throwing up. The time between then and the next become nothing more than a blur to Liu Suya. All she remembers is feeling bone-tired even when she woke up the morning of.
***
Liu Suya has never in her life wanted to be as invisible as she wanted to now. She never used to enjoy these bragging parties masked as extended family dinners. But that was back when she was the fiancé to the heir to the Zhou family. Back then no one dared to offend her. Even her grandmother, who hated her to the bone, would show some restraint and would only mutter offhand comments, most though were directed at her dead mother.
Her mother was also a taboo subject at these meetings. Something even her father could do nothing about. Even when he had repeatedly told her that he loved her mother and never even put that woman in his eyes.
So there Liu Suya was, sat at a table full of people that she didn't really care about - save for her father - and who she now hoped still felt the same way, even after her failure.
Dinner was as always a more quiet affair in which only her grandmother Pei Ming would quietly talk to her beloved grandchildren, Liu Jurong in particular. In actual fact, Liu Suya should have expected that she wouldn't be able to get out of this dinner unscathed, especially when she made brief eye contact with a certain Liu Shan in front of her.
"Actually grandmother, I applied for an internship at Zhou Corp after graduation." There was a few seconds of silence at the mention of the Zhou group. Liu Suya knew she'd done it on purpose. A few pairs of eyes found themselves on Liu Suya's body.
Pei Ming broke the silence and gave Liu Shan a sweet smile. "Well, that's lovely Ah'Shan"
Despite her jovial face, one could see she was unhappy at the mention of the Zhou family as this reminded her of the failed engagement between that blasted child and the Zhou family heir.
"It seems that the Zhou heir has chosen to annul your engagement." Her voice had lost any of the love it once had.
"Yes, grandmother."
"So you can't even keep an engagement now?"
Liu Suya didn't have a chance to answer. "Now mother, don't blame Su'er for this. The two were simply incompatible and therefore the engagement didn't work out." Liu Feng defended his youngest child.
"*Humph* would've thought she'd be able to keep a man considering whose daughter she is."
"Pei Ming, please not at the dinner table." Liu Zhong had heard quite enough and didn't want to mar the once jovial atmosphere anymore, he cared not for this granddaughter of his much but was unwilling for this tirade to continue. Pei Ming listened to her husband and dropped the conversation.
Dinner ended and the family moved to the saloon where most of her extended family had gathered here as well. Liu Suya had excused herself fairly early on to go to the restroom. She had managed to avoid that woman all night, but it seemed that Liu Suya's luck had run out.
She had just finished washing her hands when she heard the washroom door open. Her breath got caught in her throat as Rong Nuan walked in through the door and seemed just as surprised to see her.
She raised a brow, her eyes still cold as ice.
Liu Suya froze. She hoped that she would pretend to not have seen her, she didn't want to deal with her father's ex-wife today.
"You ruined a perfectly good engagement and don't even think to look remorseful about it." Rong Nuan continued. "Not unexpected from the daughter of a common woman. But I'm surprised you aren't well versed in the art of seduction by now. Couldn't you have used the same tricks that the damned woman did to ensnare Liu Feng and manipulate him into divorcing me?"
She felt the air around her getting tighter but she didn't say anything. Liu Suya knew better than to respond to this woman. It would only hurt her more in the long run. She wanted to so badly defend her mother, to say that her father had met her mother long after his divorce with her but it was almost like the words were lodged in her throat.
Rong Nuan let out a light chuckle at Liu Suya's static form. "Then again, she probably dropped dead far too early for you to have been taught anything substantial with that dirty mixed blood of hers. Do tell, Liu Suya." She saw a malevolent smile on Rong Nuan's face widen in the mirror. "When you see those eyes of yours are you reminded of the dirtiness of your blood? Or perhaps the fact that your mother was nothing more than a whore who couldn't keep her hands off of a married man?"
That wasn't true. The words repeating themselves like a record, she couldn't let Rong Nuan's words break her.
"Because that's what I see. Every. Single. Fucking. Time. You show your face as if you are part of this family. As if you have a place here. And now, not only are you the daughter of a temptress, you're a useless one at that." Her footsteps echoed closer until she felt a presence right behind her.
"A waste of space. A useless slut, who had one job but couldn't even perform."
"I hear that it was even some silly common girl that had bewitched him. It's funny how the world works, wouldn't you say Liu Suya."
Liu had already known for a long time that she had f*cked up. Her worth in this family was riding on her engagement to Zhou Wei and he had abandoned her. Even when he had promised that he wouldn't. She had been thrown away by him and would soon be thrown away by her relatives if she weren't careful. Everything she had worked towards was gone.
She could faintly hear the restroom door shut over the sound of her breathing. It felt like the air was getting thinner and thinner. She needed to get it together and fast. She needed to function properly in this den of snakes. Or else she would be eaten alive. She needed to get it together.
She looked back up at her reflection. Jade green eyes peered back at her. She recalls a time when she had told Cui Ting about how her eyes were an insecurity of hers, how it made her different from most of the Chinese populace. Strange. It hadn't really been brought it up again until a few months later.
***
"I like your eyes."
Liu Suya looked at Cui Ting like she had grown two heads at the seemingly random comment. It was their 2nd year and they were sitting in an empty classroom studying.
"You said that you didn't like your eye's because they make you different, right?"
Liu stares at the girl in front of her and hesitantly nods.
"Well, I think they're pretty. Like jade, even."
It was strange. Such a little offhand comment yet Liu Suya remembers the world around her lighting up. She had experienced all sorts of flattery growing up, coming from such a wealthy and prestigious family made sure of that. But it was the first time someone had ever complimented her in such a pure and honest way.
It was just too bad that after this Cui Ting would also enamour Zhou Wei in what she guessed to be a similar way soon after this conversation, effectively betraying her.
***
Liu Suya brows creased in the direction of her thoughts. She shook her head not wanting to dwell on it any longer. Her attention moved to the faint bags visible underneath her eyes, that she meticulously covered with concealer. She really needed a break from her family and well, her life.
The rest of the night went by quietly Liu Suya choosing to erase her presence before leaving early using the excuse of final exams and unfinished course work she had due. Both of which weren't lies but weren't that urgent of a matter, she had skipped a grade for a reason after and was graduating a year early at 20. Not that anyone had cared.
She wasn't the brightest kid, most of her early teachers would even agree that she was only slightly above average at most in terms of raw intelligence. She was hardworking though. Well, that and thoroughly motivated. And the family rule that prevented anyone from marrying before they graduated from university was great motivation. She had wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.
***
The next couple of weeks go by without much happening. With the looming proximity of final exams and various other deadlines, that Liu Suya, like the rest of her campus, focused their energy on essay writing and last-minute revision sessions. Grateful for the distraction and excuse to avoid going back to that house, she had long ago refused to call that hell hole her home.
Liu Suya knew that she needed to take home the valedictorian title. Anything less than perfection wasn't an option anymore. Sat in a coffee shop near her apartment, she was doing some hasty editing to an essay due for later that day and waiting for Mei to come by. The two hadn't had a chance to talk in the last couple of weeks since their last meet up and wanted to take the opportunity to catch up.
Liu Suya wouldn't be able to tell you if she was truly happy at the moment. But life without the constant worry of her ex-fiancé and Cui Ting was much more peaceful. She just didn't know how long she could continue avoiding the pair, seeing as they essentially ran in the same social circles now.
She still remembers the time she had taken kindly to the 'poor girl' as many of her now ex-friends had dubbed Cui Ting. Now all those that once followed Liu Suya, were hot on Cui Ting's heels, not that she particularly missed them. It was just surprising how quickly they'd turned on her. They were all pretty fake, especially Que Yanshao and Rong Yaoyao, the latter not surprising her much when considering who she was related to.
She sent off her essay and took a long sip of her almond milk vanilla latte. She noted that it wasn't as creamy as the one she'd had near Xizhimen station and made a mental effort to head back there despite the distance. She wondered if they delivered. Liu Suya hadn't used to be a major coffee person but as of late, she'd found that the warm beverage helped her to unwind and relaxed her nerves. It was addicting.
"Su!" She looked up to see An Meiyu walking toward her table, with a pot of what looked to be tea, a teacup and a small plate of biscuits.
"Hi, Mei." She smiled at her friend.
"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever." She began. "It's probably because of all those extra honour's classes you took too. So how's life been?"
"Pretty good actually. You?"
"Amazing, but you'll never guess what. My mum brought up the idea of finding a fiancé for me the other day over lunch, like through a blind date and all. And obviously, yours truly was completely against it. There's no way I'm going to throw away my life so quickly for some sod my parents chose for me. Like, I'm like so young and have so much going for me right now, not that I think that there's anything wrong with getting married early. It's just not the life for me you know. Thankfully though my dad talked her out of it, although I don't think she was that serious about it, because you know how my mum can get when she'd decided on something. I swear it's easier to talk to a wall sometimes. But I still can't believe she would even..." Liu Suya just let her friend ramble on, only offering insights or the occasional nod, knowing that she'd tire out soon.
An Meiyu had lost friends this way in the past, her tendency to ramble on about herself at times caused others to often assume that she was stuck up or full of herself. Liu Suya knew differently though, whether it was from An Meiyu's slightly shifty eyes or the tapping of her finger, she knew that something was making her nervous.
"Mei"
"Huh" She stooped in the middle of her ramblings and briefly avoided eye contact.
"It's fine, just tell me what happened."
"What do you me-" A look from Liu Suya stopped her dead in her tracks. An Meiyu sighed.
"It's about Cui Ting."