One hundred and six days. That had been how long she had not heard from him. Zhi Xun finished typing in the diary app in the smartphone he had given her back when she was hospitalised, and saved the entry. She exited the app, opened her gallery, and scrolled photograph after another of her and Tian Yu.
"I'll never let anyone else have you." His words resonated in her ears as she recalled their memories together. She was dining at a bar cum bistro, quiet in the vicinity of where she lived. Had he lost his interest in her?
Her friends had thought they had been so compatible together. She had thought that after going through so much in her past lifetimes, she had finally found the man she was destined to. Everything about him had seemed so perfect, and even their lovemaking had been heavenly. She hadn't regretted giving herself to him, and he had satisfied her needs greatly. But why had he let her wait for him for so long?
She had been going to the condominium in search of him after he failed to reply her calls, only to find an empty unit. Most of his everyday clothes were missing. Zhi Xun knew each set of clothing that her man owned. The clothes he had took with him had been his favourites. She knew them like the fingers of her own hand. He had taken with him his Superman tee, his Marvel tee, a couple of his favourite formal shirts, a pair of comfortable jeans, a pair of baggy trousers that he loved lounging in, some of his home clothes, and lastly his silly-looking polka-dotted sleepwear. She continuously asked herself if he was gone for good. But his sister wasn't with him?
She had been walking alone on the streets one night when a motorcyclist with a skull helmet had snatched her designer bag, which held her identification card and a few other personal belongings excluding her smartphone, which was in the back pocket of her jeggings (jean-leggings) before escaping at lightning speed. She could replace the cards in her wallet, but the bag and wallet had been gifts from Tian Yu himself. Not to mention, the bag had contained many 'souvenirs' from their dates. She felt devastated by her loss, and had been crouched in the corner of the alley crying for a few hours. As the alley was isolated and had been dark, she had almost fallen prey to some men-wolves who had been tipped off about a lonely and sad woman crying in the alley and needed some company.
She had been caught off guard. She normally would have fought them off easily, but she had not slept for days and had been reduced to an emotional and tired mess, with dark eyebags and her ruined makeup from all the crying. It was fortunate that while she was pinned to the ground by her attackers, a dashing man had come to her rescue. The man had fought off her attackers with a few swift kicks, causing them all to lie on the ground wriggling and in pain. He had covered her with his padded jacket and let her have his shoulder as she cried uncontrollably.
As she said she couldn't go home in this state, he took her to one of his apartments and had his maids take care of her as she slept, knowing it was not a good idea for him to be in proximity with her while she was in her emotional state.
Su Mo could only look at the heartbroken woman who had almost been eaten alive by wolves, and feel sympathetic to her situation. When, he checked up on her in the morning, she had been sleeping so beautifully and peacefully that he felt a sudden warmth in his heart. She had appeared so familiar to him and yet, he couldn't remember where he had known her. He had first met her in the club, and it had been his bad luck that her boyfriend had pushed him when he had only tried to help her while she was drunk. But this boyfriend of hers had been such a weakling to concede defeat so easily. Where had he been when she needed him most?
He strove to be a gentleman. But he, being Su Mo, had lived all his life in the company of women. The reality was that there had been a wound left in his heart by his first girlfriend, which resulted in him unable to trust women again. So he lived to his reputation as the richest Casanova in the city, a third-generation aristocrat and heir to his grandfather's companies. He had even independently set up his own businesses and a publisher, without the help of his rich family. Sadly, being rich didn't warrant that he would find love. Women threw themselves at his feet, some attracted by his riches, and some by his gorgeous looks. Some wanted love, and some wanted no-strings attached relationships. He granted them all their wishes, and as for those who wanted to leave, he had granted them a great severance allowance. A woman who had stayed with him for almost a year had received a luxury car and an apartment. But none of these women had stayed with him long, as most of them were in for the benefits that they would get from him. In other words, he was a bank to the majority of his women. They had used him, and he could say the same for himself. His relationships had been nothing more than a business deal. At the same time, he was an expert in satisfying women's desires.
What happened in the clubs, stayed in the clubs. He tried to flush away each memory of what had happened between him and every woman, but there had been one particular memory. He would deal with that later. Zhi Xun was his priority, and he really wanted to heal her broken heart.
A ShoutItApp message came for him from an unknown sender. It had been a picture of Tian Yu with a smile, walking with an attractive female on the sands of a beach. While he wished Zhi Xun would see the picture and leave the man, he couldn't show it to her in her current state. He decided he would wait for a while longer before he spoke to her about it. Eventually, she had stayed at his place for two days. He took her to lunch before sending her back to her rented place. She had not wanted to talk much, but he could tell that she was doing her best to mask all the pain of the heartbreak she was going through.
Due to the cramped parking lot below the apartment, Su Mo had walked her back home. He had carried her bags as well as some things that she had bought for her necessities. Even though she had accepted his hospitality, she had not wanted to depend on him. She had bought the necessities out of her own pocket. Among all the women Su Mo had seen in his life, she was a little different, particularly in the sense that she was frugal, didn't depend on makeup and designer clothes to look pretty, and wasn't swayed by his richest or good looks. She didn't even want to accept any gifts from him. But what concerned him was how easily she had entrusted herself to him. It was the first time he had been genuinely worried about a beautiful stranger, that she would end up being tricked by another again. But not if he got to her first, he thought. He had already sent a challenge request to her boyfriend, and a week later, her boyfriend had disappeared. From her boyfriend's sister, he had found out that they were in Bali. Only today he had found out that her boyfriend was still in Bali.
He knew how his parents wanted to control him by making him take a wife and get on with the family business. His grandfather had decreed that once he got married, he would earn eighty percent of their assets. His parents were of the opinion that once he was married, then he would be able to settle down and stop womanising. The woman would be able to tie him down. So they wished for him to have a woman of that caliber. What if he convinced them that the woman was Zhi Xun?
His grandfather had an enemy, and a family feud with that of the enemy. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why his family had wanted him to take over the family businesses. He was more than likely to be a pawn in his grandfather's quest for revenge, but being the second eldest grandson of Su Jinying, and the only one among his grandchildren who had shown exceptional results, it would eventually be him to execute their plans. The issue had been the question of when it was due to happen. For now, Su Mo enjoyed his life of luxury without a care for the future. Maybe he could rely on his inheritance to give Zhi Xun a good life. From his contacts, he had been informed of Zhi Xun's family in the countryside and that her mother was sick in hospital. After all, it had been him who had cleared her mother's hospital bills and even left a balance of money in their accounts. At that time he hadn't known her, he had just been doing a charitable deed.
She finally opened up to him just before she entered the shared apartment. He would not leave until he had seen her walk into her unit safe and sound, and so she allowed him to send her to her door. She had been so trusting with him, because she also felt that she knew him, but she couldn't remember the drinking incident as she was too drunk that night. Perhaps that was what people called deja vu. She saw in him, a friend. Definitely not admiration and not love. She had already given her heart away to a man, and all her life, she would just love that man. But now, she just wanted some space from him. She was tired after chasing after him for more than three months, and finally finding nothing. The man had vanished without leaving any traces. Even the person closest to him had told her she couldn't say anything. She was not a person to give up easily, but as for now, she wanted a break. She had been tired and in pain for just too long. Time would be the best medicine for her.
And tomorrow, would be a fresh new day. She would have a fresh new start in her life. She was no longer the Huo Zhi Xun of the past. She would be a brand new Huo Zhi Xun, one who wouldn't love easily, one who wouldn't be burdened by love. She would place her number one priority in her career, earn enough money and never depend on anyone ever again.
Especially after how she found out from an unknown sender that the person who had been with Gao Tian Yu had been her own cousin, Wen Yuwen. Though distant, they were blood-related, after all. She would never trust her own relatives again. First her mother and aunt, now even her distant cousin? She felt betrayed.
But what about that man who had saved her? She asked herself.
The last time she trusted her instincts, she had been wrong. The winged man was not here to resolve her problem of being reborn again and again, he was here to ruin her, so as she thought. She had seen a series of different memories of the winged man when she had ended up that night at Su Mo's residence. In her dreams that night, she had seen him holding another woman. She looked like Yuwen. One of the next scenes that followed had been how he had pinned a flower behind her ear, and then watched her as she left his residence sadly. He had been in such proximity with her, but he had loved another. The final scene that she clearly remembered, had been a beautiful woman in exquisite brocade holding a parchment before her and telling her how the Archmage had requested to put her to death himself. The woman's words were clear to her, telling her that he asked for the woman's hand in marriage. She felt an apparent and aggravating sense pain flow through her upon seeing the last piece of her memory, that had been of her burning to death, followed by a flower similar to the one he had pinned behind her ear, seemingly appear before her in her final moments.
She would not trust Su Mo either.
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