Would You Say No?

NOTE: Please play "State of Grace (Acoustic)" by Taylor Swift to get the full effect of the chapter, but mostly because it's a very relaxing song.

Love means a lot of different things for people. And even with that, the meaning changes as people go on with their lives. For some, it means the intense passion they feel for each other, for others it means friendship and being with each other. And so on.

For me, all I wanted was for someone to look at me. Like, actually look at me and the deepest darkest sides of myself. Then, they would choose me all over again, despite the crazy, messed up person they saw in me. The minute someone did that, I would love them with everything I had. The good in me, the bad and the crazy.

I knew from before that I was never meant to be the hero, the lead - the one the story was about and the one the world favoured.

I was the one who needed to take everything I needed. The people. The money. The status. Love.

I knew who I was, and that's why I chose to be kind to others like me. I made that choice knowing I could get hurt, because I realized that perhaps all it would've taken to change my life was that one person who was truly kind, one who looked past what others pretended to see.

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As the filming of the movie was set, the actors' cast, the locations scouted and the rest of the crew was put together. Scheduling was done based on the details and shooting was set to begin very soon.

Qiu Yue and Qiao Feng spent their days in A Country, living it up. They would go out to restaurants and try out all kinds of things. Visit all the locations of interest holding each other's hands. As they looked at monuments, museums and art Qiu Yue was inevitably drawn in. Qiao Feng loves seeing that look on her face, the marvel in her eyes as she looked at these things and saw an entire world. Something he'd never realized existed, and he still couldn't see it, but he loved watching her as she looked at everything.

The way her eyes sparkled. The excitement in her voice as she spoke about how beautiful everything was, the warmth he felt in his hand as she held on and pulled him along with her everywhere she went.

He wanted to stay like this forever.

In fact, he wanted to spend his entire life with her. Looking at the girl next to him, he knew she was the only one he ever wanted to get married to. He knew she didn't think it was that important, not because she didn't love him but rather because she didn't think a legal institution should change anything.

He knew all that, and yet he wanted to get married to her. Wake up next to her, cool for her every day, and just... grow old with her. He knew he could do it without getting married too. But there was something that told him that they had to get married.

Perhaps he was just old fashioned.

And yet every time he looked at the ring he'd found, he knew that another ring tñhung around her neck meant that she'd bought it for someone.

But he never brought it up. Even just being here with her every day, was something that was unimaginable for him, he didn't want to be greedy and ruin everything.

Keeping in mind Qiu Yue's mixed Asian looks, the male lead selected was also someone similar. With black shoulder-length hair and peach blossom eyes, Li Jiaheng was half-Asian. He could look gentle and languid, like a plum blossom tree but he could also bring out the fierceness of a metal dragon. His sharp eyes giving off a predatory atmosphere.

The plot of the movie began as a man that looked very much like the emperor wrote down records of the one who was considered the most important. This person, who could never be mentioned in all the annals of history, had been erased from the records.

26 years before this day, his house and his family had all been silently erased. He, barely a young boy hadn't been old enough to remember anything. But he remembered what his sister had told him. Eleven-year-old Liang Qiu had been old enough to remember the deaths of her parents, her aunts and uncles, her cousins, the guards, the maids - they had all been washed away by the river of blood that flooded their estate under the cover of night. But she'd also been too young to do anything to save anyone but herself, and her younger brother.

The King regent, then eighteen sent an edict, proclaiming that the Liang family had conspired and aided a foreign country in order to murder the entire imperial court.

Qiu Yue and her younger brother were the only two who survived, and for seven years, they stayed hidden. At first, Qiu Yue thought of telling her little brother the truth when he grew old enough but as she trained day and night for revenge she saw the way his eyes lit up as he enjoyed being a child. It was a marvel to her, even in her family she'd never been allowed to just live like a child. She hadn't, but she could give it to her younger brother.

The day she realized that was the day she knew that this revenge had to start and end with her.

Seven years. She had trained to be a killer. Seven years, she could hear her parents' last words in her head.

They hadn't been telling them to live happily, they made her take an oath, an oath to take revenge. That as long as she was alive she had to kill all those who had caused the Liang family's downfall.

She grew up to be a beautiful girl, but her beauty was like a sharp edge, as she stayed away from the nobles no one tried to propose to her even though she was already seventeen.

On her birthday, she wrapped herself in black leather, hiding her weapons on her own. The clacking of her boots grew fainter and fainter as she walked, till you couldn't even tell she was right there.

She started with the corrupt ones, that way when she came up to the good ones she would have more experience with it.

The entire capital was thrown in an uproar. In just the span of a month, 5 officials had been assassinated.

One evening, Qiu Yue went out to the night market. She wanted to experience the world once before she killed a good person with her own hands. Till now all the officials she'd targeted were scumbags but today she would be taking the lives of those who worked to help the citizens of the country.

This was where the male lead and female lead first met. Liang Qiu had moved closer to the male lead, the King Regent in disguise and his guards had tensed up, but she only struck up a conversation with the shop owner.

Qiu Yue had no idea who he really was, nor did Fen Long know that she was the assassin he was working so hard to find.

He asked her to be his tour guide, fascinated by her persona. After that, they met a few times before they started to realize that they felt closer to each other than they'd felt with others in years. Perhaps it was the anonymity but it gave them the freedom to be who they really were.

The story wasn't of two people who were good. Liang Qiu's family had conspired to overthrow the crown but Fen Long had only killed them because he wanted the throne for himself, and only after they'd successfully disposed of the current king and any viable options to replace him. He hadn't killed anyone else because only the Liang family had posed an actual threat to him.

Perhaps Liang Qiu hadn't participated in the Liang family's schemes but she'd let the revenge consume her. She hadn't been loved or spoiled by her parents or her family but as much as she hated them for the way they'd brought her up, she couldn't not love them. That child in her had always yearned for affection and she'd look for it in the only family she had had. She loved them, even after knowing the people they were.

Perhaps Liang Qiu hadn't had an inherent evil to her, but her soul had been stained by the world and revenge had corrupted her.

She'd killed corrupt officials and good ones. She'd taken many fathers from their children, drove their houses to ruin. It may have been that she was doing exactly what had been done to her but it wasn't like she'd been doing this out of justice.

What drove her, was pure revenge.

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Qiu Yue felt her heart quiver a little. This script... it hit her a little bit close to home.

Her family too... but she shook her head. She didn't want to think about all that right now.

She decided to focus on the other issue that had been in her mind. Picking up her phone she dialled Yao Yan's number.

Yao Yan picked up after a few rings, though Qiu Yue could hear loud cheering and music through the phone till she heard a door close as the background went quiet.

"YanYan? Which part of the world are you in?"

"Oh you know, I'm almost one fourth done with my world-hopping tour!"

"He Min's with you?"

Yao Yan clucked her tongue and begrudgingly said yes. As much as she denied it, He Min's company was something she needed. Watching Qiu Yue with someone else was proving to be very hard, and she couldn't bear to see her sad when they weren't together. He Min noticed her expressions more than anyone else, and she'd been the one to suggest this world-hopping trip.

Qiu Yue asked Yao Yan questions about the places she'd visited till now and all that she'd done for some time. After that, she paused for a few seconds.

"Feng wants us to get married."

Yao Yan started too, "Did he ask you to??"

Qiu Yue sighed.

"No... but I can tell. I can tell that he does, but he won't ask me. He knows I don't really see the point in it so he won't ask me."

"If he did... would you say no?"

Qiu Yue laughed wryly, "How could I do that? But it's because he knows that he won't ask me. He doesn't want me to say yes for his sake."

She sighed again, deeper this time as she really thought about it.

"But you know..." Qiu Yue whispered, "When I look at him somehow all these thoughts about unnecessary legal bindings go out right away. As long as he would just love me, I'd give him everything else..."

Even if he wanted her life, she'd do it as long she could see him still look at her, only her.

Qiu Yue shook her head as Yao Yan fell silent. She quickly diverted the topic and talked about the next scene they were shooting.