203 Ai's past (2)
“When Yating arrived, he was really furious with Zhan Yahui. But what was over was over. He wanted to make a statement in my favor, but it would have been seen as hiding my crime and giving an excuse to save my reputation, so the PR team wasn’t in favor. It would negatively impact Dream High too. But he went against everybody and made a statement anyway.”
Jun remembered that Dream High did make a statement but after the chaos, it hadn’t helped much. Guiying’s fans were too unforgiving until the end.
“You didn’t tell him about the Yinyin?” Jun asked.
Ai shook her head. “I didn’t want to implicate them or drag them into this. So, I kept it to myself. This is exactly why I took the blame in the first place. If I had told Yating, everything would have gone to waste.”
He pursed his lips.
“That incident passed, and then Yating confessed to me. Many of the people in Dream High weren’t happy with it, especially after the signing incident. But Yating was fierce and intimidating and very pissed off after how the company didn’t do anything to save me. The other employees were also against me. So in front of his anger and resentment, nobody dared to speak a word against our relationship. Only Guiying and Xing Bi were truly happy for us.”
Jun gritted his teeth. He now really wished to turn time back even more so that he could rewrite the past for Ai.
“Our relationship was going well. At least, that’s what I thought,” her eyelashes trembled, “But I soon felt the distance Yating was putting between us. He seemed to be busier, and we didn’t have time for any more dates. We hardly met, and when we did, he seemed really tired and in a bad mood. I asked on many occasions if something was wrong, but…he never said anything to me. The distance only widened between us. One day, Mom said that he wished to meet Yating. But he seemed afraid of something and kept making excuses to avoid meeting her.”
Jun widened his eyes.
Ai pursed her lips. “Mom was dissatisfied. I somehow convinced her that Yating was really busy as the Chief Editor, but she didn’t buy it. A while later, she asked me to break up with him. She didn’t like how things were going between us.”
He sneered. “Wise woman. I like her.”
She helplessly chuckled, but then her smile faded.
Pain shot in Jun’s heart, and he pulled, and he embraced her tighter, giving her his reassurance. “I am here with you. You are a very strong woman, Ai,” he kissed her forehead.
She felt her vision become blurry.
“What happened then?”
Ai took the strength from his warmth. “Nothing much really. It was a hard phase in my life. My career was going nowhere and along with it, my relationship too. Both were going downhill, and I didn’t know how to save any of it. Xing Bi fought a lot for me seeing how Dream High heavily promoted Guiying. But everything went to deaf ears. When I was twenty-eight, Mom was absolutely serious about me breaking up with Yating and stopping my writing career too. Nothing was helping me grow, and my life was only growing more unstable, whether personally or financially.
But I remained stubborn. Mom got furious and gave me an ultimatum to decide things once and for all. Dad too, who always supported me, agreed with Mom for the first time that I had to end things with Yating. I got afraid, and that’s when I…I went to Yating and proposed to him to marry me. I wanted to show Mom and Dad that everything wasn’t over yet. But…”
She felt her warm tears slide down as she stammered, “He re-refused. He rejected me. I-It was the same day when he said that he wanted to break up with me. I just stood there. I couldn’t think of anything. I came to ask him to marry me, but he was there to end our relationship. I was devastated. It felt like my whole world just crumbled.”
She felt Jun’s body tremble and his hold on her tightening. She looked up and saw his eyes growing moist with tears too.
“That fucking bastard…Who the hell is he to reject you!?”
At that moment, he really wished to burn this whole world who did nothing but hurt Ai in the worst way possible.
She lowered her gaze and took a deep breath. “…I felt so stupid. Mom was right. She kept warning me, but I didn’t pay any heed to it. I was standing in front of a reality from which Mom and Dad wanted to protect me. But I was an idiot and kept being stubborn. Even more so when I learned that,” she softly gasped, “Guiying and Yating were dating now. I couldn’t understand what was happening. Why…Why would they be together? Guiying was so happy for us. Then how could she become his girlfriend now?”
She bit her lip. “That was the last straw for me. When I confronted Guiying, she was smiling at me. A smile that I had never seen on her face before. It was evil and mocking. She was laughing as she said that she always liked Yating but kept away because of me. Sh-she told Yating to break up with me, and he did. I couldn’t make sense of the things happening in front of me. Guiying looked so different. We were best friends, but at that time…she looked at me as if I was her enemy. Our years of friendship broke just like that in a single day.”
Ai cried harder as she clutched onto Jun’s shirt. “I had lost everything, Jun. My friendship, my love, my career…I had nothing beside me anymore. It felt like all the years until then were a lie. I could only stand and watch everything slipping from my hands like sand…I tried holding onto it, but nothing worked.
Xing Bi also lost her job, and I could do nothing to save her. I was useless. She did everything she could to help me, but I couldn’t reciprocate her kindness. I begged Dream High to let her keep her job, but nobody listened to me. Then I had no other choice. I left Dream High. I left the writing world. I left everything behind me and returned home to my city where Mom and Dad lived.”