Upon The Bridge

AiLin stood outside the restaurant as she saw Lu Ping picking upon herself and scrambling out of the building. With a smile, she then walked into a taxi and ordered the driver to follow Lu Ping's car that was driving over to a very unexpected place. The said place was none other than… Jiang Corporation. AiLin couldn't enter the building with her current authority but seeing from afar and how Lu Ping had rushed inside with a pale face told her everything she needed to know. What Lu Ping wanted was to find Jiang NianNian and asked for a help like any other friends would. It was something that AiLin had told Canary to do, so she wasn't very surprised. 

She wasn't surprised by the answer that would be given to Lu Ping either and just imagining it made her smile. 

AiLin lingered inside the car with a grin, scaring the driver who wondered what could possibly make such a beautiful lady to pull such a contrasting cold and deviant smile. After a while, AiLin shrugged her shoulders and told the driver to continue the drive. Though before she could, someone then knocked on the car's door. 

Turning her head, AiLin's smile quickly disappeared. She saw Jiang MengYao, her older brother, standing outside the car with his arms pressed on the window as he was trying to peek inside. 

"AiLin. I know you're there." 

Shivers ran down AiLin's back and she quickly tapped the driver's shoulders, "Drive." 

"Huh?" The driver was positive that the man outside knows her as she knows the man but he didn't expect the grim expression that suddenly appeared on Ailin's face upon the man's appearance. "If we move so suddenly we will harm the man—"

"I SAID MOVE!" AiLin yelled the loudest ever since she stepped outside the prison, scaring the driver to no ends as he could see AiLin's teeth gnashing. At once, the driver drove off, leaving Jiang MengYao behind the building. 

As AiLin calmed herself, she looked behind to see that Jiang MengYao was still staring at her. This made her to wonder how could Jiang MengYao possibly guess that she would come to the building? The place they had parked at was far. It was also a place that the young master of the Jiang Corporation would stop or wait at. Yet he was there, at the right possible time. 

No. She doubted anyone would know of her plan. She had also came to the building at a sudden will.

That would mean that the bastard Jiang MengYao was the one who had been waiting outside the building. But since when? Since last night? 

He isn't that crazy.. no. He is THAT insane. 

AiLin clicked her tongue as she pressed her palms on her forehead. Her energy felt depleted all of a sudden. Her stomach felt queasy as if something was urging her. The emptiness in the pit of her stomach also made her so uncomfortable. 

Jiang MengYao. Jiang MengYao. 

That man has a face of an angel but in no way is he an angel. Born with such face he had always been living a great life. The Jiang Family had never been abusive to him either. But the reason why the Jiangs had became abusive to AiLin was all due to that manipulative man's mind. 

Since young, he reprimanded his parents for not teaching AiLin well. He would whisper to his parents how AiLin had became a great embarrassment to the family and was why their family was looked down by their extended family. 

His words would have been unheard by Mr and Mrs Jiang but there had always been one point that managed to sway the couple— The point that, AiLin had never resembled her parents. 

Either Mr Jiang or Mrs Jiang, AiLin's face was much too prominent and different. Her foxy eyes and smile was not something that the couple expect to see from their daughter. Not only that AiLin's appearance was far too different from any of their family or extended families, AiLin's bubbly personality was unaccepted by the contrasting serious and stern Jiang Family members. 

At one point, Mrs Jiang was always accused by Mr Jiang's extended family for having an affair. The angry Mrs Jiang denied such accusations and they had done a lot of DNA test to prove that AiLin is their daughter but once a cracked was form by the distrust, the family's trust was quickly broken apart. The already fragile trust they have to each other was pushed to its broken state because of her. 

AiLin knew long ago that Mrs Jiang held a sense of grudge against AiLin. The woman was always so angry to AiLin for she was the reason why her husband's family accuse her as a cheater and why she was alienated by her husband's family. To someone with a high sense of pride like Mrs Jiang, she cannot accept easily that she had became a laughing stock and a topic for rumours. Eventually she became more hateful toward AiLin as AiLin was the reason why her husband eventually felt a sense of suspicion toward her as well and their fights in the family became more recurring. 

To "fix" this, the family eventually became stricter to AiLin. If her face couldn't prove their family bonds, then they could simply make AiLin into a "perfect" daughter with no flaws. Eventually the paternal family of Jiangs became more accepting to AiLin due to her achievements. But now AiLin questioned herself, was it worth it?

Hurting a young child abusive and mentally because they of other's actions. 

Jiang MengYao was the devil who would always tattle on every littlest thing that AiLin had failed to do, he would smile when she was punished or berated, but he would also came to her as if he was her saviour. It was a kind of twisted pleasure that Jiang MengYao likes to feel. Even though he was the cause for her suffering, he enjoyed being the only saviour to AiLin's life. 

He was a sick pervert.

Just as she recalled everything in her head, the past memories muddled and came in a sudden surge despite her wish for it not to reappear. She remembered again the pain in her stomach, her despair for letting go of him, and her heart that was frozen by the coldness of the world's hate for her.

AiLin didn't want to think about it again. Not now. 

She was happy earlier but now all her happiness was gone and only a sense of exhaustion overwhelmed her. Now all she wanted was to lay down on her bed and not move for a couple of days. She was too exhausted as the memories of her pasts was brought back into her mind. A sense of crawling anxiety filled and gnawed her heart and before she knew it she had stopped in front of a bridge alone and was staring at the river beneath the bridge. 

The darkness of the sky was now reflected to the river underneath, her eyes was in a daze. 

It was dark. Night. 

She left the building in the afternoon so how many hours have passed?

But when she shifted her body she felt a strong arm that pulled her by her elbow. The man turned her body, his arms strongly tearing her away from the bridge. His breathings were laboured as if he had been running for hours to catch up to someone. As if he was the one in a state of shock, he stared back at her with a pallid face. 

"What were you thinking to do?!" Li ZiChen's voice rang out like a clear tone. The single voice seemed to have broken her from the deep trance she had walked upon.