At the age of thirteen, Jian Qing was adopted by the overachiever CEO, single mother, Xuan Yueru. She knew little of where she was from or why she had come to separate with her mother and those friends she had held dear in her heart. She knew once; she was called Jian Qing. But that part of her was long gone. She had forgotten much of who she was before. Her memories of the traditional village where she was from and the mountains that she had once found solace in, were now a blur in her mind. But now, she was Xuan Qing.

With her apricot eyes, cherry lips and a slim body that would never gain any weight no matter what she ate and a crazy appetite, Xuan Qing was the perfect definition of a model girlfriend. Besides, she was a playful, innocent and happy-go-lucky young woman. Almost nineteen, she had entered an average university. But the problem was, that she would never be perceived as successful and intelligent as her older sister, Xuan Ming, the biological daughter of Xuan Yueru. Nobody knew who her father was, as she was conceived from donor sperm.

Xuan Ming was the spitting image of the beautiful and single CEO. Xuan Yueru was highly worshipped as the woman whose heart no man would be able to get, due to her high requirements and an inability to compromise. Xuan Qing held her adoptive mother in high regard and loved her adoptive older sister. They were the best of friends and as inseparable as peas in a pod.

Stretching her feet, Xuan Qing got up from the bench outside her new psychiatrist's office. This shrink was the umpteenth one she had seen now. Still, they didn't get the whiff that she wasn't insane.

"Good morning again, Miss Xuan."

Today's shrink didn't seem as severe as the others, Xuan Qing thought as she invited herself to sit on the ergonomic chair placed in the room for patients to recline on while the psychiatrists conducted their therapeutic sessions.

The shrink wore a pair of round spectacles that reminded her strongly of her sister Xuan Ming's favourite movie, Harry Potter. She had dreaded watching the film because of how Harry Potter's rough childhood reminded her of her tragic childhood before she was adopted. But as Xuan Ming explained, she needed an outlet to express herself and an imaginary world to escape into.

She sighed as she faced the familiar ceiling of the room. This was a place that she had got so used to seeing that she remembered all the details of the room vividly in her head.

For six years, she had been seeking professional help. Yueru believed the words of the medical personnel over the words of her adoptive daughter. But very soon, she would turn nineteen, and according to the laws of 'City AZ', she would no longer be considered a minor.

While Yueru was occupied with running her companies in another district, she resided with Xuan Ming in the suburbs since she was a first-year student in a regular university in the area. Xuan Ming was only a year older than her, but due to her intelligence, she was exempted from a few years of high school and was already a final-year student in a prestigious university. Also, she had many suitors. Xuan Qing, who was an average student all her life in the strange world she was in, did not have any suitors yet.

The shrink said the usual stuff, asked her a few questions and she was good to go. But before she left, he halted her and asked.

"You don't actually need to see me, do you?"

She smiled and shook her head truthfully.

"They don't believe me."

Her apricot eyes sparkled brightly under the fluorescent lights of the psychiatrist's office, and he just laughed.

"But I do, Miss Jian Qing."

She trembled slightly as he had used her real name, which she did not have on her identity cards or her passport, and only the policeman at the police station following her arrival, and her adoptive mother Yueru knew. Nevertheless, they assumed she was making everything up and just needed professional help. How would the doctor even know this?

He just waved and bade her goodbye.

The psychiatrist's office was located in one of the units of the neighbourhood mall. Her legs were still shaking as she exited and pressed frantically on the buttons of the elevator, still fearful.

There was a promotional poster on one of the walls inside the elevator, and she scrutinised the dark black lettering, which said 'Welcome to 2011'. The poster described the events that were to be held at the mall. First on the list, was wushu. Back then, before she met Yueru, she had been trained in swordsmanship from a young age. Her mother said it was to protect her from being bullied by her cousins, and her uncles and aunts.

Her father had been an illegitimate child of her grandfather, and her mother was of lowly family background. Her mother was a servant when she had met her father. She had even grown eating at the same table as the servants and wearing tattered rags. To her, living life like that was equivalent to prison. Yet, she wanted to go home as she missed her mother. Then there was her old master, and the martial brothers and sisters she played with. Where were they now, and how were they doing?

As she was walking to the bus stop, she looked up at the sky suddenly, and a sudden flash of bright light hurt her eyes while triggering a bout of migraine. She attempted to look around her, while staggering across the pedestrian pathway and failed to see a person in front of her. With a loud thud, she crashed hard into the person.

BLAM!

Out of nowhere, a hand extended itself to her, and she pulled on it to drag herself up.

The minute she stood up on the hard bricked path just before the bus stop, she realised she was looking into a set of insanely gorgeous eyes.