As long as you will stand by my side288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJc48CZSb4L
I'm willing to follow you no matter what288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3mRv1kWdjJ
I know this is not gonna be easy288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcWNWCeZXNQ
I've been practicing to convince myself and stay
My worst fear is you give me up288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CKgEKXtY1
Love really needs courage to shield from doubts and gossip288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXhh0fTh4n
Look at me once more; I'll know this is all making sense288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO1iKKuVqPP
We all need courage to believe we'll be together
What a crowd here, but I can still feel your heart in my palm288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsVnYuhfShW
Finally I've made up my mind, despite all have been said288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LxEpbZCAI
As long as you will stand by my side288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo8bHd0bw7s
I'm willing to follow you no matter what288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRvHb0IwLrx
I know this is not gonna be easy
- Courage, Fish Leong (translation from MetroLyrics.com)
It was slightly past noon when they both woke up after a long night, where they had lost themselves to each other's desires again. Upon checking his mobile phone, Tian Yu was surprised that he had about twenty missed calls. "I'm not sure what happened, but my sister has something up," he said. "She doesn't normally call, so she must have had something important to see me about."
"Perhaps we should go home then, so you can check up on her," Zhi Xun said. "Don't worry, she will be fine. I'll go with you too."
In twenty minutes, they were all washed up and changed, and ready to go.288Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQvjlZUbqt
................................
Tian Yin was waiting in the living room when her brother returned to their home with his girlfriend. She had an extremely glum look pasted across her face. Tian Yu needed to know the reason why she had given him twenty missed calls on his cellphone.
"What's up this time?" he asked. "Don't tell me, you lost in your game, or you misplaced your iPhone again?"
She held up what looked like a printed statement of her grades, only that it was all rumpled and torn in different corner of the paper. It had been her results. She had failed to obtain sufficient grades for her to pursue her dream career as a field biologist. Maintaining her grades at A had been one of the requirements for the government to continue funding her studies.
"Tian Yin, it was already your last chance," her brother told her calmly. "You were on a scholarship, and they required you to maintain your grades for two consecutive semesters. They gave you a final chance, and you still failed it."
"What do I do now?" she looked anxious.
"Perhaps it's not too late to consider opting for a different major," he said. "Maybe plant biology isn't your thing after all. You're still young, you have many choices rather than becoming an university dropout."
She looked at Zhi Xun, and Zhi Xun nodded. "I have to agree with your brother on this one. Optionally you could switch to self-funding, but if you're struggling so much, it is better if you reconsider what you want to study, as to not regret later."
Tian Yin looked deep in thought, and after some time had passed, she picked up her phone and started scrolling through it, pausing to look very intensely at a photograph. Zhi Xun, who had been sitting next to her, realised that Tian Yin had been focused on a photograph of a boy. She had no idea who was this boy, and why Tian Yin was looking at his photograph in that way, for such a long time. She turned to Tian Yu.
Tian Yu shrugged. While he was a hopeless romantic, he had owed his luck with Zhi Xun to having struck at the right time. Tian Yin had never even had the chance to approach, because the one she liked had been way out of her league. She had silently liked her classmate, and had been copying him in taking the major he was in, only to fail badly in it and to blindly see him date a girl after another, but he had never noticed her. She had always been in the 'friend zone'.
"I don't want to study anymore," she said. "He's now with Lisha. I don't know what to do any longer. If I get kicked out of the course, how do I even see him anymore?"
"Let's just leave her for a moment," Zhi Xun said to Tian Yu. "Let her have some space, and maybe we can talk to her later." Tian Yin's eyes had looked puffy, and she looked like she had been crying. Whether she had been crying over her studies or over the boy, Zhi Xun didn't know. They went to Tian Yu's room.
"Perhaps it'll be better if I stayed over for the night to accompany her," Zhi Xun suggested. "After all, we're both women. Maybe she'll find it easier to talk to me on this."
"Very well, Xiao Xun. But you need to know you have to come in later tonight to warm my bed," he said with a wink.
"It's not even winter," Zhi Xun murmured.
They watched a movie on Netflix for two hours, and then Zhi Xun left the room to check on Tian Yin. "Ayin," she called.
"I'm here, Sister Xun." She was lying on the sofa on her tummy, pouting and looking at the wall.
"Now that your brother isn't here, who was the boy whose photograph you were looking at earlier?" Zhi Xun inquired.
"His name is Fang Qi, and he loves plants."
"Fang Qi? His name is already the answer," Zhi Xun said. Fang Qi sounded like give up, also pronounced in the same way in Chinese. "How long have you liked him?"
"Five years," Tian Yin said. "I feel so tired."
"Do you want to go out?" Zhi Xun offered. "Maybe that can help get your mind off things that just make you unhappier." Tian Yin nodded.
They went for KFC. Although it was generally unhealthy food, Tian Yin needed a break from her healthy diet. She wanted to clear her mind and forget about him. But even after eating her stomach out, it wasn't helping.
So they went binge-shopping instead. Zhi Xun didn't have that much money, but she did have Tian Yu's credit card that had a five thousand dollar limit. So she spent a thousand with Tian Yin that evening. Then, Tian Yin wanted to go for drinks at the new nightclub that had just opened around the corner. She would also bring along her girlfriends. Zhi Xun was concerned that with her current state of mind, she would run headalong into trouble or make a mistake, so she offered to go with Tian Yin and her friends. None of the girls were older than twenty.
She quickly texted Tian Yu when Tian Yin was in the restroom. It would be her first time going to a nightclub, while Tian Yin had gone clubbing before. She was afraid that Tian Yin would get drunk, and she wanted Tian Yu to be there by a certain time to pick them up. When Tian Yu didn't reply and her WhatsApp messages remained grey-ticked, she just went ahead with Tian Yin's decision. Perhaps she would just pretend she was drinking, and ask for no alcohol in her drinks. At that point, the only thing that mattered to her was Tian Yin's safety.
Tian Yin introduced Zhi Xun to her girlfriends as her future sister-in-law. She didn't say much, but she knew these girls weren't on the same level as her. She just watched as the girls danced and checked out the boys at the club. It wasn't long before a man came to her while she was sitting down by the bar, and offered to treat her to a drink. She gave him a downright rejection on the alibi she was waiting for someone, but the man continued to try hard to get her attention. At the same time, this man had given her a feeling that somehow she had seen him before and that she knew him.
She turned a deaf ear to his pick-up lines. As she was curious about his identity and if he had been connected to her, she decided to listen to his introduction. The man, who didn't seem to be past his thirties, was definitely very charming and a suitable choice for any girl's eye candy. He had a pair of captivating eyes, that seemed to sparkle whenever he smiled or talked. The man had to be an angel from heaven. Women were sure to swoon before his feet. But Zhi Xun hadn't been one of them. He invited her to dance. Again, she rejected, saying she was tired and preferred to talk at the bar.
Realising that she had been scrutinising his handsome face while trying to recall where she had seen him, she grabbed her glass which had been filled with a non-alcoholic beverage and quickly downed it to prevent him from misunderstanding why she was staring at him.
"My name is Su Mo," he introduced himself abruptly. "I'm a fashion designer and manage a fashion magazine publishing company. What do you do?"
"I'm about to enter my final year in university," she said innocently. "I'm just here to accompany my little sister, I'm not here for any fun or to get a guy."
"I think you just drank from my glass," the man said, triggering her to stare intently at the glass in her right hand and then at her intact glass of non-alcoholic beverage still on the bar top. In her nervousness earlier, she must have grabbed the wrong glass. Whatever she had just drank, it was making her start to find the man really attractive. She was also starting to feel her body temperature rise, and she felt a little dizzy.
She tried to stand up, but felt so dazed that she had trouble holding herself up. She looked over at Tian Yin, who was still dancing with her girlfriends. "Are you alright?" the man asked. "Apologies, that drink was meant for me. It has very high alcoholic content. I'm a social drinker, so you might not be able to handle my drink. Let me see you home, before anything happens to you."
She shook her head. "It's fine." She reached into her handbag for her phone, only to realise it had run out of juice. She tried to steady herself and walk to Tian Yin but instead fell on the floor. The man quickly helped her up and while he had his hands around her shoulders, he saw someone standing in front of them, followed by a pair of strong arms pushing him to the ground.
"Excuse me, I can help my own woman," he said, before carrying her in his arms. Walking over to the dance floor, he coldly said, "Time to go, beauties. Party's over."
Su Mo picked himself up from the floor, watching aimlessly as the man carried the intoxicated beauty and walked out of the club, followed by the three girls who had been dancing earlier. Who was this man, and what power did he have over those girls that were with him? Whoever that man was, he would declare a fair competition with him for the attention of the girl he had just carried away. He was Su Mo, and he was confident he would not lose to that man.
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