Confrontation (3)

This time, Huang Lijie did not have the chance to hide his surprise as his eyes widened in an instant at the drop of my sentence. His face gradually turned paler and paler.

I chuckled. "Nonsense? Buying time? How foolish of you, Huang Lijie. Though the stupidest ones are those who believe your bullshit and treated you like their equal."

I kept my voice low but loud enough to be heard only by the two of us. I wasn't gonna let him off easy, thus I didn't have any intention to let everyone else knew. I wanted this secret as my leverage of him. Right now, I was in his territory so I couldn't behave recklessly or he would seriously kill me.

But, indeed, looking at his expression as if he had just swallowed a fly delighted me.

"Oh, father." I shook my head. "I pity you for having to always watch your secret, but I admire you as well for creating such an intricate plot to cover up where you from."

He gritted his teeth and slowly drawing back from me. Meanwhile, I bravely engaged him with a languid smile on my face. "But, we both know, don't we? You're nothing but a kid from a poor family who dressed up like an upper class citizen."

Glaring at me, he growled, "You-"

"What? You're gonna hit me?" I gestured at his fist that had slightly moved. Raising an eyebrow, I provoked him, "Well, go on then. At this point, I'm no longer surprised by your uncivilized etiquette, since it is expected from a low class family."

By now, I could already detect the tinge of nervousness coloring his eyes. His composure was faltering as the wooden stick in his hand clattered onto the floor.

Unbeknownst to myself, my presence right now had exuded the kind of confidence that pressurized the other party. My cold eyes were staring down at Huang Lijue full of intimidation.

I scoffed as I bent down to pick up the stick. I brought it then to his hand and slid it to his grip. I smiled to him. "Hold it tightly, Dad. Don't let it fall again. After all, isn't this your favorite toy? We don't want it breaking now, don't we?"

Then I glanced at his feet before looking up at him again, "You might even need it to walk later in life. It'll save us some money then from buying you a new cane befitting of a patriarch."

"You little bitch!" He yelled suddenly. His whole body trembling in rage.

I giggled looking at him blowing up. Such impatience. But if he wished to dig his own grave then I wouldn't interfere.

"Why are you yelling, Dad? Did I say something wrong? It is true that you came fr-" I got interrupted as Huang Lijie blocked my mouth with his hand. I frowned before slapping his hand away.

He was about to blow up again but I interjected. I stared at him fiercely as I warned him, "Don't you touch me with that filthy hand of yours again, Huang Lijie."

I scoffed. "You should be grateful that mom even married an animal like you."

I observed the man then from head to toe before I strode closer to him and whispered for the last time, "I pity you, Mr. Huang. You should know, no matter what you do," I glanced at Han Rui Yuan from the the back of his shoulder, "No matter who you marry or what you wear, it will never change the fact that you were born from a family living in a countryside."

When our eyes met, I could finally see his hatred coalesced with fear that was slowly climbing to the surface.

"Your action define who you are and Huang Lijie, you are no where near those upper class nobles. No amount of money can mask that."

After I finished, without waiting for another moment, I brushed past Huang Lijie and headed for the staircase.

'As long as you don't embrace your origin, you will never succeed in this cruel society, Lijie. Where you come from will always be the weakness that others hold against you. I will wait then, for the last laugh,' I thought to myself.

I could feel everyone's eyes landing on my body right now. But I did not stop and ascended the stairs.

However when I felt a piercing gaze on me, I took a minute to glance at the beholder. It was Han Rui Yuan. There was no trace of the previous paleness in her expression. Instead, her eyes were clear as she stared at me.

I smirked. 'Another actress.'

But, I turned away nonchalantly from her and headed towards my room.

When the door behind me finally closed, all the confidence and the valor within me crumbled away like a collapsing plateau caused by an avalanche.

I slid down to the floor and the tears came crushing down. The pain on my cheek was still burning, but I could care less as I folded my arms on top of my knees and buried my face into it.

My mom once said, "Our action defines who we are, love. So, it doesn't matter whether one was born silver spoon or not. Because in the end, what matters is who we are as a person. That's what others will remember us as."

I clenched my fist. "Airi wants to be strong, Mom. Strong enough to endure this."

I sobbed. "I don't want to be seen as a weak and coward little girl."

I raised my head and leaned back at the door. I watched as the ceiling began to swirl in my vision.

"I want to be the Airi that you can be proud of, Mom."

I closed my eyes and in the next second, I felt something cold touching my skin. The low temperature seeped into my skin and crawled its way to my bone.

When the last bit of my consciousness almost slipped away, it was only then I remembered, I was still suffering from a mild fever this morning.