My Villain

Chapter Eighty

"Great love stories do not begin great. Sometimes they begin with hate, a lot of misunderstanding, quite a handful of prejudices, and more often than not... they never start when and where you expect them to.

And really those are the contradictions that I now try to write of – the moments when two souls cross each other, recognize each other, unconsciously reach out to each other but find that it isn't always that easy.

I write for the moments when the soul overpowers the body and lets the body, mind and heart, know that "Hey! There's our soul mate!" And somewhere up above someone cackles in laughter because He knows this is bound to happen and nothing on earth can stop it.

I always hope that everyone CAN experience a love like that but for those who are still waiting for that to happen, I pray that what I write can be a source of comfort to them."

Thunderous applause met her answer to the question and Shen Yue cannot help but flash a smile.

The prestige and pride that being invited as a speaker for a writer's conference, alongside some of the people she has always admired, brings her so much happiness, she has been smiling since the start of the day.

Her facial muscles don't even feel strained.

"Thank you Ms. Shen", the host tells her and then faces the crowd, "And thank you too to all of you who are here with us now. You have made our talk on "Romance" one of the most attended segments of our conference and we look forward to seeing you later at 4 PM for our discussion on "Horror" with Yan Lianke."

Representatives from the conference went up on stage with a plaque.

"Of course, before we let Ms. Shen go, we would like to thank her for gracing us with her presence and sharing as much as she can of her creative process to us. Please accept this plaque of appreciation and we hope that we can once again invite you to the next conference."

Yue posed for pictures and shook hands with everyone on stage.

As they escorted towards the exit, a couple of attendees stopped her for autographs and pictures and she hugged all of them in gratitude.

Some people had her signing copies of "Two Wrongs Make a Right" but there were more who had copies of her most recent book, the sequel to TWMR, "Someone Right In Front Of You".

"Miss Shen, thank you for writing this. I love Zhihao and Chin and their story gave me so much hope", one woman told her, someone probably just the same age as she is, "I hope you write a third book for Kai. I love that villain!"

She laughed. "We'll see."

She signed her book and enthusiastically took a photo.

"Shen Yue, you have to let me know when you're releasing the book because I will make sure not to release mine on the same day", a familiar voice said from behind her and she looked back to see another Romance writer, Ouyang Nana.

"NANA!!!!", she exclaimed as they hugged each other.

If they could term themselves as batch mates, they would have.

They both started writing at the same time and released their first books during the same year, maturing under the reading public's watchful eye. However, Nana has always been the more adventurous writer as she, more often than not, incorporates several genres in her writing.

"I woke up late", Nana now complained with a pout, "I missed half of your talk!"

Yue felt touched that her friend had even bothered to attend. "Idiot! You write better than I do."