In a bridal dressing room, a pale faced young woman was on her knees with tears running down her eyes as she cried silently. Sitting before her were three people, a tall middle aged man in a black suit, a beautiful middle aged woman in a red and black hanfu and another woman, an older one that was holding a brown walking cane in her right hand. She was dressed in a white and jade colored hanfu and exuded arrogance.
These three people were dressed in traditional wear as one would do when attending an important ceremony like a wedding. The faces of the women were made perfectly and they looked rosy. Only the woman on her knees looked out of place in a less colorful outfit and a face which had the barest of make up.
The expressions on the faces of the three people however was gloomy all around and not that of people who had something to celebrate. The man appeared apprehensive and uncaring, the woman who was holding his arm sneered as if this was a waste of her time while the older woman stared at the younger one that was kneeling with anger and burning fury in her eyes.
The young woman who was on her knees was dressed in a white and yellow suit; the heels of her feet were sticking out of the high heeled shoes on her feet like they did not fit her well. Her long light brunette hair was disheveled as if someone had grabbed it and pulled on it hard, and there was a red bruise on her forehead. On the floor next to her was a shattered pearl bracelet. Her shoulders were shaking, making it obvious that she was crying even though none of the people around her cared for her tears.
Suddenly, the old woman lifted her cane and used it to poke the young woman on the head roughly.
She raised her voice and said sternly, "You, Lin Alix, why are you being so difficult about this? We are doing this for your good and that of the family? You are already thirty one years old, which man is going to marry you? Getting married into the Zhang family is a blessing for someone like you. Zhang Caishen is rich, educated, respected and the heir of Zhang construction. Which of those qualities is dissatisfactory in your opinion?"
The young woman raised her head and shouted in a rage filled voice, "But it is not my wedding, I am not his intended bride. This is Billi's wedding; she was the one who wanted to marry Zhang Caishen. Who doesn't know that my younger sister Lin Billi and Zhang Caishen have been engaged ever since we were teenagers. How can you ask me to marry him now that he is crippled and Billi doesn't want him anymore? What will people say about me and our family?"
Why was her own family determined to push her into a fire pit? Did they think about what Zhang Caishen would do to her after he saw the wrong bride? Her father had refused to say anything while her step mother refused to budge and her grandmother did what she always did, that was to make her pay for Billi's mistakes.
"Shut your mouth." Her stepmother Jing Hee shouted. Her lips which were smeared with deep red lipstick made Alix think of a vampire that was born to suck blood from her, driving her to an early death.
"Mother," Alix said calmly as she wiped away her tears. "When I was three years old, my mother died and two weeks later you moved into my house with Billi. Ever since that day, I was told that I was the older sister and I should take care of my younger sister. When I was four years old, Billi antagonized the neighbor's dog by hitting it with stones. It was enraged and attacked, Billi pushed me in the path of the dog and it bit me. When I was in the hospital, you cried and told me to forgive her because she was willful.
To date, I cannot wear a short dress or skirt outside because I have scars on my legs from the brutal bites of that dog.
When I was six years old, Billi stole another girl's doll at the playground but when the family came over demanding for an apology, I was pushed forward as the culprit and forced to apologize. You turned me into a thief in the neighborhood, ruined my reputation and all you could tell me was to protect and forgive my younger sister because she was willful."
"Shut up." Her grandmother shouted. "Just put on that wedding gown as you are told."
The expensive wedding gown was sitting on a chair next to her grandmother. As beautiful as it was, to Alix it might as well have been a shroud in which she would be buried.
So, she continued on, and increased voice saying, "When I was eleven years old grandpa Zhang, an old friend of my mother's family came over with a proposal to have me and Zhang Caishen engaged. As soon as he left, Billi started crying and she said that she had met him and liked him. She refused to eat for a whole day and locked herself in her bedroom crying her lungs out. Mother, you cried and begged me to convince grandpa Zhang to give the engagement to Billi.
You made me many promises about how much you would love me like your own daughter and again, you reminded me that Billi was willful, I should give in to her because I am the older sister. I naively believed you and did as you told me. Billi got her way and she became Zhang Caishen's fiancée.
At sixteen, I entered a piano competition and caught master Rong's eye. He took me in as a student and again, mother, you begged me to take Billi along. When I said no, she set my clothes on fire and burned all my music sheets. Again, just as it was done always, you cried and begged me to forgive her saying that she was willful and impulsive. Father visited master Rong the next day and when he came back home, Billi had become his student as well. Two days later I was kicked by master Rong out because I copied Billi's music sheet. It was only later that I found out she didn't burn some of my sheets but kept them and claimed them as her work."
"You!!" Jing Hee shouted angrily, "My Billi is very talented, she has won over twenty awards from different competitions domestic and international. Don't you dare slander her like this. Billi was simply more talented than you; it was not her fault that you were kicked out by master Rong. And as for Zhang Caishen, you have said it yourself that the engagement was originally yours so we are finally doing the right thing. We are giving you back your engagement as it was meant to be. You have become left overs on the marriage market so why can't you appreciate what we are doing for you and keep bringing up the past instead?"
"Mother," Alix said calmly in a low voice, "I am not yet finished. I have to air my grievances so that you can all understand how much you have wronged me over the years using the words family, older sister or willful against me. When I was eighteen, I got a chance to audition for rising star the popular television show. I told you all with so much excitement about how the producer had seen me playing piano in a music shop and asked me to audition.
One hour before the stage performance, you and Billi came to support me and after you came, my music sheet disappeared. While I was searching for it someone locked me in the bathroom, Billi took my place and performed. I was eventually discovered by a janitor but auditions had long ended and I found my music sheet in her bag after I returned home. When I confronted her, she cried, begged and even sliced her wrist which tied my arms ensuring that I could do nothing.
When grandmother saw that small wound on Billi's left hand, she slapped me so hard that my head hit the wall, I fell down and broke three fingers."
She raised her hand, removed her black gloves and exposed the three fingers of her left hand that barely had movement.
"Father through all this, you remained silent and never did anything. I am your biological daughter, Billi is your stepdaughter and yet you seem to love her more than me. As for you grandmother, my career as a pianist ended and I became a music teacher because of you.
Everyone was by Billi's bedside in the hospital but none of you ever went with me to get my fingers treated. Even the surgery which the doctor recommended to fix my fingers and fix them was rejected by you because you claimed six million was too high a price.
But when Billi asked you to send her to the Gongzhu music conservatory which costs twenty million per semester, you did it without hesitation. What have you people not done to ruin my life? What did I ever do to you that you should treat me this way?"
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Alix had not even mentioned half of the things that Billi had done to her and she could go on and on all day but these people could care less about them. None of the things she mentioned had fazed them in the slightest and they were determined to see her marry Zhang Caishen.
Who in the country did not know what happened to Zhang Caishen a year ago? He got into an accident on the Nanhe bridge. Fifteen people had died when a part of the bridge fell in. Zhang Caishen had barely survived but he lost all movement in his legs. It was said that he was permanently crippled and he would never walk again.
Even Zhang construction had been affected in his absence because he was the current CEO, governing the company after the death of his father six years ago. The news was everywhere that Zhang Caishen's era had come to an end.
Billi had made herself inconspicuously absent from Zhang Caishen's life ever since his accident, vanishing from the country. She was constantly competing in music competitions from one country to another. She did not shy away from exposing her musical journey from everyone, sharing it on every social media platform of hers.
She had returned to the country two months ago when the Zhang's set a wedding date. She was fitted for a wedding gown and then she left the country again.
Now, Alix realized that Billi had been buying time while she and her mother came up with another plan to allow her escape the marriage, after all how could the diva Lin Billi marry a crippled man whose financial status was hanging in the balance? Billi was probably hunting for another man, one who was just as rich and influential as Zhang Caishen was.
Someone banged on the closed door loudly, "It's time for the bride to make an entrance, why is the door closed? Bride, are you okay in there? Should we call someone?"
"She is fine." Jing Hee replied loudly and rudely.
The three people looked at each other and their desperation set in again. Zhang Caishen might be crippled now but he was still a magnanimously more influential than they were. The Zhangs had a business that went back four generations, their connections alone could cover the sky in the country and to deal with a small family like theirs would be very easy for them.
Lin Qianfan became even more desperate because he wanted to be associated with the Zhang's and he would do all it took to accomplish this. He did not really care which daughter of his married into their family as long as she had the name Lin. It would help his business if he was viewed as a relative of the great Zhang family.
He stood up and grabbed Alix by the arm really hard. Looking at her with unfathomable rage, he said through gritted teeth, "You will not ruin this for me. You marry Zhang Caishen or I will feed that old nanny who raised you to the sharks. Don't think that I don't know that you have been looking after that wicked old wretch after I threw her out of my house. I have people watching her and they will move if I give the order."
Alix felt her heart dropping and its beating quickened. He knew!! She thought in alarm. How did he know?
Nanny Luo Ling was the only one who cared for her in that house. She had been hired by her mother before Alix had been born and she had stayed on after her mother died. Her father had stopped paying her wages but nanny Ling stayed. She got a part time job cleaning one of the houses in the neighborhood just so that she could stay with her. But even she had not survived Jing Hee because she was accused of trying to poison Billi and thrown out of the house.
"Father!" Alix said in disbelief.
"Put on the dress or she dies, it's your decision. " Her father told her coldly.
For the last time, Alix looked at the two people who should have been closest to her, her grandmother and her father. They were going all the way, it seemed. There would be no stopping this train once it started moving. She wondered why she had struggled so hard to keep them in her life. What was so good about family that did not love you or care for you? Wouldn't it be better to do as her friend Shi Holea had said; cut herself off from them and live a good life?
"Marry Zhang Caishen and double the rewards from the infinite luck gaming system." A voice in her mind said.
This was a voice that she knew quite well; it appeared one day out of the blue and started rioting in her mind for a week asking her to accept the gaming system.
She finally grew tired of the ruckus and accepted it yesterday, and immediately she received a weird fruit that she ate and it restored some sensation in her lame fingers. The excitement she felt could not be described by words because it was out of this world.
Finally, she had hope that all the experts she had ever been to in different countries had failed to give her. If the system told her to marry him, she would do so immediately as long as it cured her.
Suddenly, she stood up and took in a deep breath. As she did so, she noticed her grandmother raising that cane of hers to hit her back as she did often. Her father's grip on her arm tightened painfully to a point of making her wince.
She laughed dryly, feeling sorry for herself and she made up her mind. She wiped her eyes and shook her head.
"I will get married," she said. "But, I don't want to ever see any of you again in my life. Don't ever come looking for me for anything because I, Lin Alix will never come looking for you. Father, from now on you can consider it that you have only one daughter and the other one is dead."
"You insolent bitch, you are just like that harlot mother of yours." Her grandmother yelled and sent her cane flying through the air, making a loud whoosh as it approached her.
Alix, for the first time in her life caught the cane, stared coldly at her grandmother and threw it right back at her. It went flying over her grandmother's head, hit the wall and fell to the ground.
The three colluders let out a collective gasp and stared at Alix in disbelief as if they were seeing her for the very first time.
Her father immediately raised his hand, aiming for her cheek but he was thwarted by Alix who caught his hand and said, "If you slap me Mr. Lin, I will return that slap as well. In fact, I might add some more for all the times you slapped me in the past. I don't think grandpa Zhang will be very happy to see the new bride with finger marks on her cheek."
Since her father was desperate for ties to the Zhang's he would not touch her so she did not hesitate to use it to threaten him.
"You unfilial wench." Her step mother shouted. "How dare you threaten your father?"
Alix raised took off her yellow jacket and her right hand opened the upper most button of her shirt. "I am going to undress and wear the wedding gown. The person who knocked on the door must be returning again with that help he spoke of, after all the bride is already late. Father, no Mr. Lin, unless you want to create a scandal, get out." She said coldly.
Her father clenched his jaw and eyed her like a viper that wished to strike out at her.
"Watch her." He told his wife and mother and then he left the room.
"Hurry up, take it off." Her grandmother shouted.
Before their eyes, Alix took off her clothes and changed into the wedding gown. The long white dress with a sweetheart neckline made of lace was very beautiful. It had these intricate patterns, pearls and sequins which caught the light winking like little stars dancing in the sky at night. On the right bride, it would be a vision to behold but on her, it was a tight fit which made it hard for her to breathe. She was taller than Billi, so the gown appeared to be ill fitting in a way.
"You cannot even do the dress justice, tsk, tsk, Billi would have looked so much better in it." Her grandmother said.
Ignoring her grandmother's snarky comments and Jing Hee's smug look, she placed a veil on her head covering her face completely.
"Put on the shoes." Her stepmother told her.
"Billi's shoes don't fit me." She said.
"Just squeeze your feet into them and stop making trouble. Who told you to have manly feet?" Her grandmother shouted. "You said that nanny Ling is like your grandmother so picture her and wear the shoes to save her life."
Ah, so they had all colluded together long before she was dragged into their trap. It's okay, I will get you back for all this, she thought.
Forcing her feet into the white shoes, Alix endured the pain as she was escorted out of the dressing room by the two women. Her father had not even gone far; he was standing outside the door like a bodyguard.
They literally shoved and pushed her to the wedding hall; her father forced her arm in his and walked her down the aisle.
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