Twenty-Six

Just who is this lady who looks so much like me?

Albeit she was shocked by the similarity of the woman lying on the bed before her, Altria still ventured closer to have a second look. The person shared the exact birthmark with her, and every single facial feature had resembled that of her own. Carefully she stretched her hand forward to touch the body curiously, wanting to know if it was real. When she touched the body of the woman, a surprise had greeted her.

She saw the birthmark of the woman glowing red, and at the same time, her own birthmark also glowed red. She felt a strange warmth penetrate her own body, and then, the feeling of her soul entering the body on the bed. Altria's body had dematerialised and her soul had entered the body on the bed making the two of them one, but she was unaware of what had just happened as she had lost consciousness. When she came to, she found herself on the bed and Lyrid was hovering over her. There was no sign of the lady that had looked so much like her. Had it been a dream? And yet, it had felt so real.

She looked down at her own clothes and realised they were the same clothes that she had been wearing when she had entered the room, so she didn't feel bothered that anything had happened while she had been out cold. Of course, Lyrid had used a simple spell to transform the robes that Fengjiu had been wearing to an exact replica of what Altria was wearing. 

"Ly, I think I saw a woman here earlier.... Somehow she just looked like me..." Altria said while tugging on Lyrid's sleeve, while exhibiting a slight interest in the woman described. Lyrid only smiled, and then she continued to ask about the woman. Lyrid calmly replied that there was no other woman in his mansion other than her and asked if she had been dreaming.

Perhaps it was a dream after all? Altria thought. Then, she recalled the truck accident, and quickly to waste no time, she asked him if he had saved her and if he was the purple-robed god she would dream about. Knowing that she would not give up on asking the question until she had her answer, Lyrid took her to the balcony of his mansion for some fresh air.

He had a hint of the issues that were on her mind. Firstly, the truck incident had revealed who he was to her, and heaven's secrets were not supposed to be revealed. It was a rule in the immortal realm. Secondly, she was troubled by the drunken kissing incident that she had been trying to look for a new job. He had observed this from her disinterest to work these days and upon surfing the internet, he discovered that she had been active on a forum that advertised job vacancies and that she had left a message on some boards that she was interested in the positions offered. It didn't take him long to track her IP address and find that it was her, furthermore she wasn't very creative with her username and had selected alxzy614 as a name. At the same time, he had also noticed how distant she had been with him apart from liaising with him for work reasons. When he called out to her, she would often avoid him and pretend that she hadn't heard him.

At the balcony, Altria noticed that Lyrid had a very nice set-up where they could chill and relax while listening to the waves, as his home was located not far from the sea. 

"Al, do you prefer coffee or tea?" Lyrid asked.

"I'd like a latte."

As she was sitting and enjoying the view of the sea in the distance, Lyrid returned with a cup of almond milk cold brew latte, and an egg sandwich. Thanks to machines in this advanced world, he didn't have to embarrass him by burning down the kitchen just to prepare a dish for Altria.

They ate and laughed for a while to get her mind off the issues at bay, and as the sun set she got a bit tired and dozed off. This was Dijun's chance to have her forget about the truck and drunken kiss. He recalled he had an amnesia potion that he had planned to use on Liansong earlier as a joke, and the said potion had been acquired from the chambers of Taishang Laojun. The same deity had been known for his skills in alchemy, and having made elixirs that had accounted for the Monkey King's invincibility, particularly his fiery eyes with golden pupils that could make out demon from mortal.

When she woke up again, she found herself in her and Astrid's apartment, with no recollection of either incident. As Dijun spoke with Liansong earlier, they had shared between each other how he had planned on how to use the potion.

"Are you planning to erase all her memories?" Liansong had asked.

"I do not plan on doing that," Dijun replied nonchalantly. "I will modify this potion to only erase part of her memories, in particular the two incidents, so that her life can go back to normal. Let's put it this way, I'll rewrite her memories starting from her love confession to the night she was almost hit by the truck."

In addition, he had also omitted her memory of the woman who resembled her in his mansion, and ended it with their little tea party at the balcony of his mansion. Perhaps this way was for the best.

........................................

75th year anniversary of Dong Group of Companies (cultural theme)

During the anniversary, Dong Gallery had a massive display of memorabilia for their event. The gallery team had been very glad that the VIPs who came were pleased with the exhibits. Of course, Cassandra Chen had to come along as well and annoy them, this time in with a full face of makeup to cover her unslightly allergies to her face, a side-effect of her cosmetic surgery as well as the sensitivity of her skin due to exposure of carbonic acid in the blast back at the laboratory. Under all that makeup, her skin had been slightly swollen. 

The Dong Group had arranged for a classy company dinner to commemorate the big event. As Lyrid's grandfather and the president of the group was an elder gentleman and very culture-loving, they had decided that the theme of the event would be 'cultural gown', and in addition, all the heads of departments and teams of the Dong Group, including that of Dong Gallery and its other subsidiaries, would be treated to a company-funded vacation. Upon passing her probationary period, Altria had since then been promoted to the head of the gallery department, and hence she was also eligible for the vacation. Where they would eventually go would depend on the slips of paper that they would draw from a lucky draw box. The results were not announced to the other attendees, but Altria had received a confirmation message that she would be going to the island of Palaw. She was also instructed in the message to pick up the tickets and hotel vouchers from the administration office the next workday.

During the dinner, the various employees were allowed to have their plus one (partner) over, but they had to adhere with the company's set regulations for dress code and etiquette. Since it was a cultural theme, Ceries dressed in the traditional clothes of the indigenous race he was from, and Astrid also dressed similarly to accommodate him. Despite how she had enjoyed his company at his mansion earlier, Altria did not think it was appropriate for her to spend time socialising with Lyrid, and furthermore, his 'girl' was there at the event as well. When she assumed Lyrid was approaching, she quickly grabbed her wine glass and made a toast to the others present. She challenged her teammates to a few rounds of drinks where the loser had to perform a couple of jumping jacks or imitate some animals' sounds. As Lyrid watched her, he smiled as he realised she wasn't the worst drinker among her team, after all. How interesting she had been, he thought.

Escapade to Palaw

The date for her escapade came before she even realised it. Since Samsara was a tropical country with rising temperatures, Altria had packed thin summer clothes for the trip. From her last volunteering experience, she had been conditioned to not overpack for any vacation. Fortunately, the vacation would be only for a week and fully sponsored by the company. The company had arranged for her accommodation at a beach resort.

She lounged on one of the long reclining chairs overlooking the sea. With a plate of flower salad and sweet honey harvested from the bee farm, she had been enjoying her view of the sunset when two foreign men interrupted her and asked her to go for a few drinks. Again, she didn't know if these foreigners were just high from drinking or simply attracted to her charming appearance and attractive figure. Since she had worked at the archives before and understood a bit of their mother tongue, she repeatedly tried to ask them to leave since she doesn't want to be disturbed. The men continued to persuade her as she was alone, and she found them incredibly annoying. While she was about to lose her temper on them, fortunately she heard a familiar voice greeting her.

Realising who it was, she immediately grabbed the person's arm and put on a sweet act with him, revealing that he was her boyfriend and that she was with him. Dijun wasn't about to lose to her, and as she put on her act he also placed his arm comfortably round her shoulder possessively, and gave the men a jealous glare that seemed to say 'she's mine, back off'. And if it wasn't enough, Altria felt his lips brush against her face and plant a solid kiss on her cheek. An act is an act, she reminded herself, and went with the deception.

As the men left to find another target, Altria muttered her thanks and had wanted to leave, since she had found it uncomfortable that he was a heir of the company and she was just a normal employee. Furthermore, he already had some kind of unfulfiled marriage arrangement with the mean girl. She looked down to their hands and realised they were still holding hands. Lyrid still continued with their play, and told her that, being his girlfriend, she was not allowed to wear revealing clothes, and her body was only for his eyes. He added that she had looked stunning and captivating in her laboratory gown that she wore while working in the gallery. Though she found him annoying, as the two men earlier were still roaming around the beach, she still had to continue with her act with Lyrid. While they were walking on the soft sands of the beach, Dijun tried to explain to her the reality that he had seen of Lyrid, which was that he had already broken up with Cassandra and she in actuality just wanted the position of would-be heiress of Dong Group, which would happen once they got married. Since her position was threatened, she had used the power of her parents to force the marriage upon him, but he had seen how she did not love Lyrid. Nevertheless, Altria was hesitant to believe the truth.

She found that their rooms were located next to each other, and the two foreigners' room had been adjacent to theirs. This deception would be going on for some time. For the next three days before the men would leave, they had ended up sticking together and acting like a real couple, in particular a lovey-dovey couple who would occasionally peck each other on the cheeks. The men were always around during the resort-provided breakfast buffet. At night, Lyrid would take her to the boutique shops at the resort and purchase a number of different dresses and clothing for her to appear decent so as to avoid attracting unnecessary attention from the opposite sex. In actuality, it was the old-fashioned god who thought the clothes of the new era had been too revealing.

She finally felt relieved when she saw the men checking out at the front desk, and glad to be released from his clutches, she went alone to the beach to wait for sunrise. But that morning, when she passed by, she was astonished to see a woman that had looked exactly like her and also in a similar swimsuit pass by, and she smiled to the woman, only for her smile to be returned with a malicious smile. Shivers went down her spine, and later on, out of her own curiosity, she had looked around the sands to see if the person was still around, but was unable to find her 'doppelganger'. Being relieved of Lyrid who would often tease and make fun of her, she enjoyed the beauty of the beach and its sands at her own pace. She even managed to catch sight of a few starfish and seashells, of which she took some photographs with her phone for memory. 

After thirty minutes of venturing across the beach alone and having enjoyed seeing the rising sun with her own eyes, she decided to return to her room, but after walking for a few metres, she turned towards the waters and caught sight of a little child swimming alone in a float ring unattended. Fearing for the worst, she watched the child from where she was standing at, but a few minutes later, she saw the child wave his hands in a terrified manner, and she knew the child was drowning. She immediately saw that there were no other adults in the area, and she quickly dropped her things and jumped into the water to save the child. Since a child, Altria had often been spending their summer vacations swimming with Astrid in their province swimming pools, and hence she was very confident in her swimming skills. When she reached the child, she tried to rescue the child by grabbing the child from underneath and taking the child to safety, but to her horror, the child gave her a sarcastic smile and tried to drag her down into the water.

Fengjiu's tracking spell alerted the sleeping Dijun, who saw the image of Altria and the child having a tug-of-war in the sea. Instantaneously he knew that Altria/Fengjiu was in trouble and that he had to get to her as soon as he could, before it was too late. He recited an incantation to immediately teleport to the scene. Fortunately, he thought, she had been shielded by the Scabbard of the Canghe which had attached itself to her primordial spirit for protection as she fell through the execution platform, otherwise she would have been gravely hurt by the platform. And now, he hoped that the scabbard would come in handy for her protection.