-- Before her departure to City N --
A month after Cree's rumoured date with Xu Bing
Everything before her was brand-new.
Xinyuan had coaxed her into abandoning her phone with her saved memories, and together, they placed it inside a storage box, which would be left behind at the Xias' castle in City A. Her new life would start in City N. There, he promised she would never have a life to worry about, and she would get to finish university.
Everything was now different for her now that she was the second daughter of the Xia family, Xia Xing's goddaughter and naturally translated to premium treatment. As she didn't want her family knowing of her whereabouts, she went under the new identity Xia Xinyue. She only received the best out of the best.
Xinyuan accompanied her to process her change of name, and on the way there, she hadn't expected to chance upon Cree and Xu Bing. Dressed formally as if about to attend an important event, the two were walking together and laughing happily. They hadn't noticed her when she had walked past them. Xinyuan hurriedly grabbed her hand and swung her around so that her eyes ceased to be on them. They left immediately and headed up the stairs to do what they were here for. In their haste, neither of them noticed a man in a tuxedo come up to them and greet Cree warmly.
"Congratulations," Cree whispered. He had made arrangements for this special occasion, and though it would appear to the paparazzi that Cree and Xu Bing were registering their marriage, it was actually Xu Bing and her boyfriend who were. Because Xu Bing's boyfriend trailed behind them and appeared to be his assistant, it was not obvious who was the actual couple getting their marriage registered. Cree walked alongside Xu Bing and continued to engage in conversation with the couple. Her pregnancy was not obvious at this time, and by the time her tummy was obvious, she and her boyfriend would already have been married for a few months.
By then, he would be able to explain the entire story to Qiao Ruo, and he would make up for their lost time. He only hoped that she would forgive him, and then, the future would hold their exclusive time together. He had figured so many different possibilities of where they could head to next as he would have the full financial support of the Xu family as promised by then, and there would be no grounds for Li Yao or Ye Nantian to oppose to their relationship. In addition, with his financial stability as the new head of Qing Tian, he would have no qualms about giving her a happy and comfortable life, not to mention having to work for anyone ever again. She could be his rich tai-tai (wife) and live luxuriously and blissfully under his care and protection.
Had Qiao Ruo noticed the trio at that unfated moment and listened to their conversation, she would not have carried herself in pain and misery for months following the incident.
..........................................................................................
A week later, on the flight
"Miss Xia Xinyue."
Qiao Ruo heard her new name being called, and acknowledged the flight attendant standing before her. She gladly accepted a rolled-up blanket and a number of accessories ranging from a sleeping mask to toiletries and towels from the attendant.
She understood that it was going to be a long flight, and she smiled at the attendant. No matter how rich she would eventually become, she would never forget who she was.
"Thank you," she said, and the attendant nodded with a courteous smile, and returned to take her seat among the cabin crew. She faced Xinyuan who had just returned from the flight restroom and took his seat beside her.
"Are you getting used to the treatment, sister?"
"I guess I am adapting well, so far."
He held her hand and squeezed her fingers gently, another gesture he would often do as a child. "It'll get better once we get there, I promise."
She took out her new classy smartphone, the latest Samsung that Xinyuan had bought for her immediately upon her first impression of liking it, and opened the gallery. A sea of disappointment came over her as she discovered it was empty. She was very used to entering the gallery of her smartphone to take a glance at the photographs she had taken of Cree back when they were living together. All these photographs were left behind at the castle in her old smartphone, kept away in the box that she and Xinyuan had hidden. She had to make new memories and forget the past.
It dawned upon her that she had left the smartphone behind, but she wasn't able to leave her memories with Cree behind.
She would continue to scrawl messages to Cree and tear them up to roll them into little strips of paper, which she put in small glass bottles that she would cast into the water when she went to the beach. Of course, this was not feasible considering this was pollution, and Xinyuan had to pick them up and dispose of them without her knowledge. In her belief, Cree might have a chance of receiving her messages in bottles. But otherwise, she felt a lot better by letting her feelings out.
Every ten days, she would write him a new message.
Day 30 of not seeing you... I wonder if you are alright... if your mother treated you well?
Day 40 of not seeing you... I wonder if you love her more than you would have loved me?
It eventually continued to reach day ninety of not seeing him, but by then, she had read the news of how Xu Bing was seen with a protruding stomach and the public incorrectly guessed that Cree was the father. She was exhausted and Xinyuan decided the best medicine for her would be to expand her social circle. He even sourced for a maid whose only role was to accompany her by just talking and connected her with other rich girls who were also suffering from heartbreak. In time, she built up a friendship with one of these girls, a rich girl named Jia Mengchen who Xinyuan developed a crush on.
Qiao Ruo would often get Mengchen for a sleepover, and they would reflect on their childhood memories. Like herself, Mengchen was not born wealthy. She had obtained her status by giving up her true love to be engaged to a rich and impotent man as part of their parents' arrangements. The true catch was that her mother was in the ICU and she needed money to cover her medical bills.
She had thought that Mengchen's story sounded like something out of a harem game or drama, but she also realized that Mengchen's situation was like Cree's and he had gone into a marriage arrangement for the sake of his father's companies. Since moving to City N, she had not heard from him, nor had she checked her old email address to see if he had written to her. When she heard of Mengchen's story, she was reminded of Cree, and after racking her brains for minutes to obtain the password, she entered the inbox of her old email address on her notebook computer.
She clicked yes on the prompt on the screen to reactivate her inbox, and she went into the inbox. Because the inbox would only show emails that were received during the period the email address was active, she would not be able to see any emails that were received after it was deactivated. One email that was sent on the date she left the city had gone into her junk, and out of curiosity, she read it. The sender's email address had started with 5201314, and she knew it meant 'I love you for eternity'. Also, the domain of the sender's email address had included the abbreviation of their names together, CYQR, and this made her suspect further that the sender was Cree.
The first few paragraphs were a direct "copy and paste" from a regular spam message, but she persevered and continued to read the message further. It was all gibberish, but then she scribbled the first letter of the first word of each paragraph, on a page of her spiral notebook.
She had written down "X-I-A-O-R-U-O, W-A-I-T-F-O-R-M-E". The message puzzled her. What did Cree plan to do then, and why did he need to resort to emailing her in codes? If she had seen the message then, would everything have been different now, and would she have not left?
Sadly, the answer in her heart was still no. If the child Xu Bing was carrying was Cree's, she wouldn't be able to deal with reality. She silently hoped everything was just a lie and didn't exist. In addition, she had to protect herself from the threat of Li Yao. But she still wished she could know what happened to him all this while. She wanted to know.
After pondering about it all night long, she created an online alias called missmask2496. She joined a forum that discussed on the wealthy, and both Cree and herself were often objects of discussion. There, she would at least know what was happening to him as of late.
