"The First Princess was like a beautiful bird for the King. The more she defied him, the more will be the pleasure he would feel when he will finally cut of her wings and have her defeated and at his mercy. It was sadistic but this is what the King truly is.
Oblivious to the King's plans, the First Princess continued living her carefree life but these days she could not let the Crown Prince out of her mind. She tried her best to not think of him but no matter what she did, the Crown Prince's face would always flash before her eyes.
Meanwhile, the Crown Prince decided that it was time to fulfil the promise that he made to his dear friend."
****************
Huo Mei placed the catalogue aside and rushed upstairs following her husband to their room. She knew that Zhang Dong must be really furious after being made fun of by Lu Zhi. She approached Zhang Dong to pacify him but was rewarded by a harsh slap on her face.
The moment Huo Mei had come close enough, Zhang Dong slapped his wife with the back of his hand so hard that she fell down on the floor. Holding back her tears, Huo Mei stood up and closed the door to their room. No outsider should know about what happens inside a couple's bedroom.
"Why did you not stop me?" Zhang Dong's demanded making Huo Mei shiver in fear.
"Why did you not stop me when I was talking about the wedding gown you wore years ago?!" he clutched both of Huo Mei's arms and shook her roughly, "Have you lost the ability to speak now, huh?" he pushed her away from him and kicked the bedside table.
"I -" Huo Mei flinched in pain. It was when she tried to speak that her mind registered the cut at the corner of her lip. Ignoring the pain, Huo Mei said, "You told me to not speak." her voice cracked as she spoke in a meekly.
Zhang Dong tilted his head to look at her, his eyes blank while his nostrils flared in anger, "So? You could have stopped me without opening your mouth, stupid woman. Just a gesture would have been enough! I am not brainless like you." he yelled the last part by poking at Huo Mei's forehead.
"I am sorry." cried Huo Mei as she slid down on the floor and clutched onto Zhang Dong's leg but he kicked her while trying to get his leg out of Huo Mei's grasp.
Downstairs, Zhang Yi Chen had an idea what must be happening upstairs in his parents' room. This wasn't the first time for them and Yi Chen knew this wouldn't be the last either. When he was younger he used to try his best to protect his mother whenever Zhang Dong would hit her but it only resulting in Zhang Dong hitting him and then his mother rebuking him for interfering in the matters of husband and wife.
He knew that if he interfered, he would suffer but Yi Chen just couldn't let his mother be abused like that. Even if she hates him.
Yi Chen rushed upstairs to his parents' room and knocked. He knocked thrice before Zhang Dong answered, "What it is?"
"You have an important meeting with the board of directors an hour later, sir." this was true. Zhang Dong really had a meeting scheduled with the board of directors and Yi Chen was really thankful about it because this way he was able to save his mother from further harm without inviting his father's fury for himself.
The door opened a few minutes later and Zhang Dong came out, "Why are you still here? Don't you have anything to do?" he sneered.
"I was waiting for you." said Yi Chen with his head bowed down to avoid looking at his father.
"Let's go. You have to attend the board meeting as well." Zhang Dong said but Yi Chen knew that it also meant that he should not help his mother and let her bear the pain.
Yi Chen knew that his mother won't call anybody for help and she would never go to the hospital either. So, once Zhang Dong left in his car, Yi Chen told Aunt Shao, a maid to treat his mother's wounds. Aunt Shao had been working for them for years and she was only person he trusted in this house.
After that, Yi Chen left for the office as well.
****************
After her not so successful but very interesting consultation with Zhang Dong and his wife, Lu Zhi went to her office. She had a meeting with the biggest production house in the country. They were going to produce a high budget drama and they wanted her and her team to design the costumes that the actors were going to wear for this drama.
"The drama will showcase the love between the main leads that transcends distance, time, space, and the universe!" the writer of the drama explained enthusiastically.
The man who was going to direct this drama nodded in positive and added, "We are going to show different eras, different timelines where the main leads always met and fell in love but they could not be together until this current timeline."
"That's why we need specific costumes for all the eras that we are going to show in the drama. I have read the whole script and it is a brilliant fantasy-romance drama. So I thought who would be better to create the costumes for this fantasy drama other than your Fantasy?!" said the main producer of this drama and her friend from the university, Fang Li.
Lu Zhi chuckled, "I am not going to charge you any less because you are an old friend."
"I wouldn't ask you to do that. But I have a request." said Fang Li.
"What?"
"There are going to be two eras where the leads would have to wear wedding outfits. Your designers can work on all the other outfits but I want you to design the wedding ones. You can sell them commercially later on but I want those stunning wedding outfits to be showcased in my drama first." told Fang Li, "It's a reasonable request that I hope you won't say no to."
"Fine, I'll do it but I might charge you more depending on the time and effort it took. Is that okay with you?" questioned Lu Zhi.
"Okay." Fang Li grinned and gestured the same using his hand.
As per the deal, they gave Lu Zhi two copies of the original script. Lu Zhi handed over the project to the head of her costume design department and gave them one of the copies of the script of the drama. The costume design team was to start working with the director, writer, the production design team and even the hair and makeup stylist to start working on the different outfits.
Whereas Lu Zhi went to her mini library to gather the necessary information about the eras for which she was going to design the wedding outfits. She took out several books that had the right reference material for her project and then opened her laptop to search for more material online.
As per the script, the main leads will be wearing wedding outfits in two lifetimes; in their first and their last. Lu Zhi decided to work on the ancient, traditional wedding outfits first.
As she was looking through the pictures online, Lu Zhi couldn't help but imagine how Yi Chen would look dressed up in such an outfit.
An image of Yi Chen popped inside her head. He was dressed in the finest silk, the bright red color of the outfit complimenting his skin tone and the gold thread embroidery making him look regal and just out of this world. His long hair tied up in a knot that was secured by a gold ornament.
He looked elegant, aristocratic, and just so very attractive.
"Oh my my!" the image took Lu Zhi's breath away and the very next minute, reality dawned upon her.
She let out a soft groan and covered her face with her hands, "Why am I thinking about him like this? Why now? Why? Why?" she mentally berated herself for letting her imagination go wild and thinking about Yi Chen like this while she was supposed to be working.
"Yi Chen go away! Come again another day! Little Lu Zhi wants to play!" this was not what Lu Zhi meant to say when she tried to divert her mind by singing a children's poem.
Why did it oddly sound erotic?
"Aaaarrrggghhhh!" Lu Zhi ruffled her hair violently before channeling her focus on the task at her hand.
****************
After finishing up the meeting with the board of directors, Zhang Dong went to his office and took out that particular black folder from his desk. The folder that contained the documents detailing about the top 5 candidates that he had selected for the position of next Mrs. Zhang.
He took out all the document from the folder except Lu Zhi's and tore them to pieces and then threw them in the dustbin.
Zhang Dong then looked at the remaining document in the folder, at Lu Zhi's picture at the top left corner to be precise. Smirking maliciously, he picked up that specific page with Lu Zhi's picture on it and said, "You are going to be my daughter-in-law, Miss Lu Zhi. I am going to make sure that you are to marry my son."
"You dared to mock me and I will make sure you realize how big of a mistake you committed. I am going to make your life hell, Miss Lu. Fly, fly as high as you want right now because it will be more pleasing for me when I will finally cut your wings and destroy you. The more you try to hold your pride, the more interesting will it be to have you at my mercy." Zhang Dong laughed sadistically.
"Fly, little bird. Fly as high as you can because one day I will have you locked up in a gilded cage."