Lu Xinyi couldn’t only stand frozen in her spot as she stared down at her cousin. Never did she think that there was someone else who’d witnessed her mother’s death.

“Yes, I was there. Your mother arrived that night, looking for Chairman Sun but ended up meeting Aunt Mingai instead. Their arguments were really loud that night that it had woken me up from sleep.”

That night, Sun Feiyan had a slight fever and went to sleep early only to be awakened by loud voices coming from the study down the hallway, and then screaming could be heard downstairs.

Sun Feiyan was a girl in her eleventh year by then. After being disturbed from her slumber, she slid out of her room to see what had caused the screaming. The hallway towards the stairs was dark, but she could clearly see Sun Mingai standing on top of it, looking down with disdain in her eyes.

This wasn’t the first time Young Feiyan saw her aunt like this. There were times that she thought that Sun Mingai was out of her mind as she spent the nights drinking and crying in her room, disregarding Chairman Sun’s words.

However, the look she had that night slightly differed from what Young Feiyan was accustomed to.

While the servants panicked as they saw Sun Meixiu’s bloody head at the foot of the stairs, Sun Mingai turned her back to her sister and walked away in the opposite direction from Feiyan. -.

As Sun Ruying fled away in fear for her life, the servants were terrified as they were forbidden to help their miss by Sun Mingai.

“Xinxin…” Sun Meixiu’s eyes were brimming with unshed tears, her eyesight turning blurry by it.

“Auntie…” Sun Feiyan knelt down beside her aunt and cried. Why wasn’t anyone helping her aunt? Where did they all go? Her father had just passed away a few months ago, and now, she was going to lose Aunt Meixiu?

Her young mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Why did her other aunts refuse to help Aunt Meixiu?

“Yan’er, is that you?” Sun Meixiu lifted her right hand as if trying to reach out to her niece.

“Auntie…” Sun Feiyan had once again found herself crying. She hadn’t cried when her father died—that even during his funeral, she refused to shed tears; and yet seeing her Aunt Meixiu abandoned by everyone couldn’t stop her tears from falling.

She took Sun Meixiu’s hand midair and placed it on her wet cheek. After her father’s death, Aunt Meixiu was the only one who cared for and loved her as if she was her own child.

This woman was thoughtful enough to make long-distance calls to check on her and send gifts and trinkets that she might enjoy. This one auntie reminded her that although she felt alone for now, there would be a day she wouldn’t be alone anymore.

Young Feiyan had always wanted to leave the Sun Estate. Just by the stories she had read from her aunt’s letters for her, it must have been nice to live peacefully away from the capital. She wanted to go and leave the Sun family, and yet she was trapped here and forced to live in a huge prison called home. Chairman Sun had subjected her to several lessons that filled her day.

From music lessons to art lessons and foreign studies, Sun Feiyan hated them all. She wanted to live a normal life with her cousin.

“You should leave before anyone sees you.” Sun Meixiu heaved a breath. It was as if she had trouble breathing at her condition. “Auntie wouldn’t be able to protect you if her sister found out you’ve seen me like this.”

Sun Meixiu thought that her niece was too young to witness such cruelty. If she died tonight, Feiyan would bear this trauma as long as she lived. She was still a child for god’s sake.

“But Auntie… you need to be brought to the hospital.” Sun Feiyan insisted. She could already notice her aunt losing consciousness, and she started to panic.

“No, Yan’er. You must listen to Auntie this time. I cannot force you to forget the thing you’ve seen, but you need to protect yourself and my baby girl. She’s waiting for me to come home. You must promise me… you must promise me not to allow my baby to live in this place.” Sun Meixiu’s eyes were starting to lose their focus as she was now looking blurry on her niece with watery eyes.

“Leave this place, Yan’er. You don’t deserve to live like them…”

Young Feiyan shook her head, refusing to leave. She held her aunt’s hand tighter. How could she abandon her? She certainly could not leave her like this!

“No, no, no! Stay awake, Auntie! I’ll find someone to help you!” She released Sun Meixiu’s hand and ran towards the backdoor of the mansion.

She needed to find help, but where would she go?

The only thought that filled her mind was to find Chen Anqi and seek help from the outside to help her Aunt Meixiu.

It was dark and raining heavily outside. Sun Feiyan didn’t care how much she tripped and fell on the mud as she was desperate to find an adult to help her. She did find one when she saw the old gardener running to find shelter. She knew that this man could be trusted as he had also helped her sneak out her letters for her Aunt Meixiu to be sent outside.

However, when they came back to the mansion half an hour later, they were too late as Sun Meixiu’s body was nowhere to be found; and the floor was sparkling clean again. One wouldn’t have thought that something had happened here as there were no remains of the event.

—-

After telling Lu Xinyi the events of that night, Sun Feiyan had once again shed tears for her failure.

“So Xinxin, can you forgive me for being useless? Can you forgive me for not being able to save your mother in time? I didn’t kill her, did I?” There were desperation and guilt in her voice that caught Lu Xinyi off-guard.

Was this really the Sun Feiyan she knew? The Sun Feiyan she knew never showed her weaknesses to anyone. Everyone thought that she was an Ice Queen—a cool, composed, and unemotional woman. A woman with a beautiful face but with off-putting personality and repulsive attitude.

Sun Feiyan was also a kind of woman that every man was intimidated to approach and every girl looked up to.

Like the rest, Lu Xinyi thought that Sun Feiyan was very narcissistic and had little regard for another’s interests and feelings and that she never showed little or no empathy to anyone until now.

It seemed that Sun Feiyan’s bad-bitch attitude didn’t happen overnight. It took a long life of suffering, pain, and just plain unluckiness to turn into a cold ice bitch that she was.

Even an Ice Queen like her knew how to cry when hurt.

Lu Xinyi covered her mouth in shock as she watched silent tears stream down her cousin’s face. Just how much pain did Sun Feiyan endure all these years? How could she blame her for her mother’s death when she knew that Feiyan was also a child at that time?

She sat down next to her cousin and wrapped her arms around Feiyan’s shoulder.

“It’s not your fault, Feiyan. You didn’t kill my mom. I know she’ll agree with me saying this, but you aren’t the one to blame for her death.”