She still had shame.

The robot butler returned with some tea, light porridge and fruits. Mei-Mei picked up the steaming cup of tea and looked out of the window. Even from this room, she could see the dazzling phoenix statue on top of the Phoenix company building. Once upon a time, she was on her way to being crowned the next CEO.

That too had been thrown out of the window thanks to Mo Liang. She recalled the day he told her not to take up the position, that he felt emasculated dating the next powerful female CEO of a company worth billions while he was just a poor space pilot in training.

The day he told her that, he had been drunk and when she sent him home, Mrs. Sun had cried and lamented. She had told Mei-Mei to stop making her son feel inadequate, that he had almost died for her once so why didn't she give in and make him happy.

Mei-Mei had gone home feeling guilty, called her mother Chi Lian and told her to put off the plan to make her the company CEO. Not long after that, she quit entirely to start Space M with Mo Liang.

After abandoning the company like that, how could she waltz back in seven years later and demand for the CEO position back? In the last seven years, she had not contributed anything to the Phoenix organization, she did not have the heart to return and face them like this.

"No, I can't do that. My sister Rose has been doing a great job as CEO. I can't go back home and just..." She sighed. "I can't."

"Then, do you want to be the CEO of Space M?" C4 asked, offering an alternative.

"No." Mei-Mei was quick to reject that option too. "I hate the company as much as I hate the co-founder."

She put down the cup of tea and closed her eyes, trying to figure out what she wanted. Who was she outside of the daughter of the Jun family? Who was she beyond an heiress or former heiress? Who was she outside of being Mo Liang's wife? What did she even want?

Once upon a time, Mei-Mei wanted to be a space pilot, she dreamed of traversing space and finding new worlds. She had been her mother's star student for a while and then Mo Liang complained about that too. He had told her that she was the star student because she was the professor's daughter.

He had quickly added to that the fact that they would be married in futures and they could not have two space pilots in the family. Who would take care of the children if both parents were out in space doing a dangerous job?

Like a zombie, she had quit space pilot training. Nobody had been more disappointed than her father Jun Muyang because he was the one teaching her mechanics and how to engineer, navigate and control a space ship.

"Boy were you stupid." C4 sighed.

Mei-Mei sighed pathetically. "So much stupid."

"Do you even know who you are?" C4 asked her.

For the next three hours, time slipped by as Mei-Mei answered the question C4 had asked. She even opened the note app on her voice and started to note down what she used to love but had long abandoned: Ballet, reading science fiction, piloting space ships, rock climbing, dancing, swimming, painting. This was followed by the dreams she once had: the big ones like finding other galaxies, maybe being prime minister someday, becoming more famous than her mother, hiking around the world with her friends. Eating every delicacy in the world.

By the time the robot butler replaced the first meal with another, she had five pages of things she wanted to do. Some had been changed because she had to consider Mingzhu now. If she went to find another galaxy, Mingzhu was going with her.

After that exercise, she sent Mingzhu a message, informing her that she was awake and then she slept off again.

When she opened her eyes again, it was already so late in the evening. A doctor was examining her again, it was what forced her awake.

Mei-Mei could not understand why the doctor was staring at her wide eyed as if she had suddenly grown horns on her head.

"Nurse Xie, are you sure that this is the same patient that I saw in the morning?" the doctor turned his head back and asked one of the two nurses in the room.

The nurse looked just as puzzled as she nodded. "It should be so. This is Miss Jun Meilin.....err...she looks a little different from earlier but it is her. I have seen her old pictures so..." The nurse turned to look at her colleague.

The second nurse nodded too. "It must be her, I have seen her old pictures too." Slowly, she walked towards the bed with a frown on herself. "Miss Jun, did you by any chance happen to used a quick recovery medical bed."

The quick recovery medical bed or med bed as it was commonly known was a medical equipment that provided quick treatment for the most common illnesses. Most hospitals owned five to ten of them, the price for using one was expensive. 

"I think I would remember that." Mei-Mei answered. "Why are you all staring at me like that?" 

She touched her face, recalling the two beauty pills and the mask and serum she had used before falling asleep. In fact, she had slept with the mask on. Had they worked wonders?

Mei-Mei did not get an answer from the doctors or nurses, she got one from Mingzhu who climbed on the bed. "Mommy, you have become beautiful again."

Nurse Xie had already fetched a mirror from the bathroom which she put in front of Mei-Mei.

"Miss Jun, this is not how you looked when you were admitted to the hospital yesterday. Your hair..."

Mei-Mei was inclined to agree, this was not how she looked when she was admitted indeed. Her skin was no longer dry, it was softer, the roughness and flakiness was gone. She had acquired a few dark spots in the last two years but they had vanished as well.

Her skin was plumper and there was a glow to it which was youthful. She appeared to have aged backwards, looking three years younger. Mei-Mei was twenty nine and originally she looked thirty nine but now she looked twenty or twenty six.

Her hair had also changed significantly the strands were longer and smoother with a glossy shine. Gone was the frizzy look, it was fuller and healthier.

Mingzhu held Mei-Mei's face in her small palms, grinning widely. "Mother, mother, Mingzhu is happy."

Mei-Mei pulled her daughter in a for a hug. "Mother is happy too. Mingzhu, you were so brave, thank you for saving mommy."

C4 had shown her the video which Mingzhu had recorded and how she had been rescued. Seeing Mingzhu frightened and in tears had broken her heart. Mei-Mei had sworn never to put her daughter in a situation like that.

The doctor had no idea what to make of the recovery, he gave Mei-Mei a clean bill of health and discharged her.

After the doctor and nurses left, she finally faced Mo Jingzhe.