Sun Qiushan threw herself on Lu Xinyi’s arms and wailed just like what she’d done when they were younger. She would usually sneak into Lu Xinyi’s room late at night or the afternoon to play and eat with her. Sometimes, she would come running to Lu Xinyi when her older sister and her friends bully her.

For a little girl like her, Lu Xinyi became a sort of comfort and love she hadn’t gotten from her own sister and mother.

Some people never escaped their childhoods. It was like a part of them just didn’t feel safe in the adult world. Sun Qiushan was like that, always in clothes that never showed her shape and in prints that would be more suited to a teenager or younger—opposite to the prim and proper women like Feiyan and Qiyan.

She always had her hair was up in a ponytail, and her face was free of makeup. Sometimes, she and Lu Xinyi would hook up for lunch and go to the newly opened restaurant within the capital.

Always, their conversation turned to food, to new recipes Lu Xinyi had tried to make… to musicals that Sun Qiushan had seen. She was the most childlike adult Lu Xinyi had ever met, but talking to her was so refreshing. She lacked the guile and complexity of her other friends—what one saw was what she was.-.

For Sun Qiushan, Lu Xinyi was more of an older sister to her than Qiyan. Since they were young, her relationship with Sun Qiyan wasn’t the best one. They would always argue about everything, especially her life choices.

However, now, she wasn’t a girl anymore; and she never would be again. No longer did she hang on her mom’s words and promises or want to be just like Lu Xinyi who was able to escape from the Sun family.

Now, the similarities she shared with her older sister irked her; and she was determined to be as different as possible.

That was why opposite of what Feiyan and her sister Qiyan, Sun Qiushan entered the entertainment industry as a music composer. She was thriving well on her chosen career until she disappeared from the industry several months ago.

Never did it cross Lu Xinyi that the next time she’d see Sun Qiushan, she would be round with child. Her younger cousin never had a man in her life—what’s more, she hadn’t gone to dates and had no interest in dating anyone. She’d told Lu Xinyi that she’d be focusing on her career before anything else.

So how did she end up being kept in someone’s basement and pregnant?

Sun Qiushan fell on her knees which forced Lu Xinyi to do the same to catch her fall. Qiushan held her arms like her life depended on it. Lu Xinyi held her close and let her cry. She must have been really scared to be confined in a place like that, but who would dare to keep her younger cousin and treat her like she was some sort of an animal?

Lu Xinyi’s hate towards the person responsible for Sun Qiushan grew stronger as the young woman cried helplessly in her arms. Whoever did this to her cousin, she’d make sure to have them pay a price.

Tears burst forth like water from a dam, spilling down on Sun Qiushan’s face. She could feel the muscles of her chin tremble like a small child, and she looked at Lu Xinyi’s face as if the presence of her cousin could soothe her and save her from the pain she was in.

There was static in her head that resounded once more, the side effect of the constant fear—constant stress—she’d live with. She heard the sounds she made with her own mouth—like a distressed child, raw from the inside. It took something out of her that she didn’t know if she had left to give.

Perhaps, that was the way it was when people experienced hardships. It was like theft to the spirit, an injury no other person can see from her. In Lu Xinyi’s arms, Sun Qiushan felt like a broken doll.

She sobbed into Lu Xinyi’s chest unceasingly, hands clutching at her jacket. Lu Xinyi held her in silence, rocking her slowly as Qiushan’s tears soaked her chest. A tiny lapse let her pull away, blinking lashes heavy with tears… before her younger cousin collapsed again, her howls of misery worsening.

This was the scene that Shen Yi walked into, his wife holding her cousin as they cried on their reunion. The Fu brothers and Jiao Jiao stood behind him and looked away when they saw Sun Qiushan. They knew what had caused her misery, but they’d never thought that she’d suffer like this because of her elder sister.

“What happened to you?” Lu Xinyi held both sides of Sun Qiushan’s face. “Don’t you know how worried I was when I couldn’t contact you? Didn’t you say you’ll go abroad for collaboration?”

There were times that Sun Qiushan hadn’t talked to her for weeks and months because of work. Sun Qiushan was really dedicated to her profession that she sometimes forgot to check her mail and return some phone calls.

For the first few months of her disappearance, Lu Xinyi thought that Qiushan had left the country and wouldn’t be back for some time. However, months passed; and she hadn’t heard a single piece of news about her, Lu Xinyi started to worry about her whereabouts. Her worry only lessened when the album Sun Qiushan was working before she left was released to the market.

Lu Xinyi assumed that Sun Qiushan was probably still out of the country and hadn’t checked her messages. How wrong she was to assume that her cousin was doing well.

“I was about to leave that day when Qiyan called me,” Sun Qiushan sobbed. Her eyes drip with tears. Salty drops fall from her chin, drenching her shirt.

Sun Qiushan had long disregarded her older sister and only talked to her when it’s needed. She longed for her freedom, trying to distance herself from the Sun family; but the surname she bore still attracted some people.

“She told me she needed some assistance with a business deal she was trying to seal. I wasn’t sure how am I going to help her. You know I know nothing about business deals and sorts, but Qiyan insisted that we should meet.” She continued to sob.

“So I went to the place she told me to meet, and then I saw her talking to a businessman. I admit he’s good-looking, but I didn’t like how he looked at me…”

Sun Qiushan continued to narrate what happened during her first encounter with that monster. If only she could turn back the time, she wouldn’t agree to meet her elder sister and this man. She should have left the country and avoided them at all costs.

“But I didn’t know Qiyan had already used me as her bargaining chip to seal the deal she wanted from that man. I begged her not to let him take me away! I begged her to save me, Xin Jie, but do you know what my wretched sister did? She turned her back on me as if my pleas never reached her ears!”