Jun Meilin was once the capital's most pampered princess of the Jun family. Financially and politically, her background was heavier than ten mountains. Her mother Chi Lian was a modern day princess, given a title by the emperor because of all her accomplishments. She was also the richest woman in the country, owning several companies that were all under one group, the Phoenix group.
Her father was a famous economics professor, Jun Muyang, he was also a financial genius who owned Jun investments. Jun Meiling's paternal and maternal grandparents were as wealthy as her parents with their own large companies.
Her uncle Chi Rui who was her mother's brother was the current prime minister and her uncle Ringo, her father's only brother run the biggest intelligence department of the country.
Her paternal family held some ties to the royal family and her twin brother was an imperial commander, head of the most privilege and admired soldiers in the country.
Jun Meilin was from such a great family that when people talked about her, they said her background was larger than than ten thousand, five hundred hundred pound individuals dressed in gold from head to toe put together.
She was once a shining socialite, a lady that was admired from a far and envied by many but looking at her now, it was hard to tell if it was truly the same woman. Her once radiant beauty now a pale echo of its former self.
For starters, her once glowing skin which was always sun kissed had turned ashen, stretched thin over the delicate bones. Her hair, once a cascade of black silver waves hung limp and dull, so thin as if she was losing it in bulk. Her hands which were holding a bouquet of peonies were skeletal, the veins stark against her translucent skin. Their once soft flesh now bore calluses__a testament to the rough work she engaged in daily.
Even her posture betrayed her decline__her shoulders hunched, as if the weight of the world was pressing down on her heavily.
Her clothes were five years out of fashion and dull, which was sad because once a upon a time, she would wear a dress or shirt once and never don it again for a whole year. The pink and green patched sweater on top of an over washed white shirt fell from her bony shoulders. Her trousers barely clung to her body, the clothes seemed too big for her tiny frame which made one wonder why she was wearing them in the first place.
Yet, despite her sickly appearance, there was a quiet dignity in the way she held herself, a flicker of the strength that once defined her. She kept her head up, pride radiating in her despite being battered by the suffering she had put up with.
Jun Meilin did not shy away from the cameras of the press that made it no secret they were taking pictures of her. It was not the first time they had done so when she was out, minding her business. She knew that later that evening, old pictures of herself would surface on the internet and be compared to pictures of what she looked like currently.
Her family background would come up again, she was a daughter of a wealthy family and yet when one saw her, they would laugh at the thought. She looked no better than a starving street dog after all.
She stood in line at a crowded terminal of an airport with three dozen other people that had flowers in their hands like her. They were all family members of a team of soldiers, scientists and other experts that had been part of a joint team that had ventured out on an expedition for five years to find an inhabitable planet similar to earth.
It had been reported on the new two months ago that the long mission had been successful and they were finally coming home. The day of their return had finally arrived and Meilin, or Mei-Mei as she was often called had rushed to the airport after pleading with her boss at the flower shop to give her a day off.
After an hour long wait, the team of experts started to emerge, starting with a space pilot that was in a white and black uniform with a pair of sunglasses on his head.
He looked cool as he waved at the reporters. Cheers broke out from the crowd which was waiting to welcome the experts. The pilot's wife and child broke protocol, running towards him while screaming his name.
The pilot swept the child into his arms and twirled her around and when he was finished, he hugged his wife. Mei-Mei's heart fluttered as she imagined the same scene for her and her husband Mo Liang.
More of the experts filed out, each welcomed by loved ones. More tears were being shed in the airport than at a funeral.
As the families started to dwindle and experts coming out lessened, Mei-Mei could not help feeling anxious. She had not heard from Mo Liang in six months. It couldn't be that there was bad news, right?
Just as that dark thought crossed her mind, a coffin that was covered with the country's flag was wheeled out. The five remaining families that had yet to see their loved ones each prayed that the coffin was unrelated to them.
Some even looked at the people standing next to them and thought, 'please Lord, let it be my neighbor's son or daughter, not mine.'
As selfish as it was, they did not want to be the ones grieving later on. After all, on a joint mission of three thousand sixty experts, what were the odds that their loved one was the one returning in a coffin?
Mei-Mei was so glad to see that it was not her husband because her husband strolled out in a uniform like the first pilot, with sun glasses over his face and a blue astronauts jacket. He was a space pilot, one of her mother's best students.
"Ayang..." She called out in an excited voice. Excitement took over her and she broke protocol as well, running beyond the barrier to throw herself into her husbands arms.
Only, she did not land in his arms, she hugged the empty air instead. Mei-Mei did not dwell on it, her heart was swollen with excitement.
She turned around and looked at her husband, he looked just as handsome as he had done on the day he left. She was so enchanted by her husband that she did not notice the woman whose hand he was holding or the child she was holding.
"Ayang..." she called softly.
"Mei-Mei, sister, I am also back." The woman's voice called.
Mei-Mei tilted her head to the right and that was when she noticed the woman, Tang Yue, a friend of hers. Tang Yue was younger than her, a niece of her mother's best friend Xue Lili. She was a doctor, which was why she had gone for the mission which her husband who was also a doctor.
"Mmm, Yue, welcome back." Mei-Mei gave Yue the briefest of glances and shoved the flowers at her husband's chest. "Honey, welcome back. Mingzhu and I missed you so much."
She sniveled, holding back tears, lost in her own emotions that she missed the scowl on her husband's face.
It was only when he refused to take the flowers she offered that Mei-Mei started to realize something was off about her husband. For starters, why was he holding Yue's hand and not letting go?