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01 | Overture
publish date:
2020-09-24 13:37:21A wedding day that had to be the most special day had turned out to be the opposite for her.
When one talked to her naïve self twenty years ago, she would say that wedding was all about a handsome prince, white beautiful lacy dress, flowers, and beautiful rings. She used to dream all of it until she had grown up to the reality where a wedding wasn’t as beautiful as a fairy tale.
Tsai Meiying didn’t become a queen of the day just like any brides. All she wore for her wedding day was a plain blazer suit she wore for work. When another couple posing with their marriage certificate feeling merry, bitterness was the only thing she felt when she left the National Household Registration Office with a marriage certificate in her hands.
Now she understood why a piece of paper could be as restraining as cuffs — where both her hands and ankles shackled from freedom. One could see thunderstorms around her and her partner when they leave the office, but not the younger couple who was happily posing with their marriage certificate. The bride looked glowing in her white short dress, ring finger sparkled with the diamond ring with micro pavéband she always dreamt of wearing.
Around the couple, the sun was celebrating their happiness, blessing them with the light that emphasised the bride’s natural make-up on her dainty face — making her look like a flower goddess.
She, on the other hand, was mocked by the sunlight as it defined the dark circle contours below her eyes. Her unruly hair fell around her face as she lowered her head to avoid any attention, afraid that she might be seeing one of her many patients.
Looking down to her own dull and plain golden band, she sucked her inner cheek, not at the disappointment on how plain her ring was but rather on the partner she was sharing the ring with.
The said man walked past her. The pleasant scent mixture of leather and sandalwood rushing across her skin in a gust of cold air, so pleasant she hated that it was coming from him. With both gloved hands shoved into his pockets, he stopped in the middle to look over his shoulder as if commanding her to follow him, which she obsequiously followed.
Unlike her, he looked like a groom even in the suit he wore daily. His height easily towered the people he walked past by. However, his dark thick eyebrows and strong jawline defined the icy personality he had, making the passer-by too afraid to look at him.
Climbing on the passenger’s seat, Meiying buckled her seat belt and had her eyes staring at the busy road of Taipei at that noon.Her eyes stopped at the Taipei 101 building that gallantly stood in the heart of the city, proudly declaring how much the city was progressing since the year 2004.
She loved watching the tower when it adorned in sunset shade from the Elephant Mountain since she was young, telling herself that she would conquer everything in her life just like how the building easily towered every building in the city. She always held tight onto that belief.
At least until that day . . .
The day when a cold-hearted man named Wang Huijing came out of nowhere and stole that belief away from her. In just one day, he trounced that perfect life into the state where she could no longer imagine what would she become in the future.
‘As I stated, other than seeing your father, you’re free to continue your jobs, your social life. You can even date as long as it’s just a date,’ he said with eyes focused on the road. His gloved hands were both on the steering wheel. It was almost unthinkable to see anyone wearing gloves on daily basis nowadays so she couldn’t help but wonder if it had something to do with his occupation.
Meiying cynically chuckled, shaking her head as she said, ‘Are you regretting this marriage now? We’ve just registered our marriage and now you’re saying that you’re okay with me having affair behind your back? How romantic.’
‘You stay out of mine and I stay out of yours. Did I make myself clear?’
Oscillating her face towards him, she made a short tantalising laugh. ‘You’re the one who seized the freedom to continue my private life the moment you made me sign this legal fiction!’ She slapped the document with the back of her palm twice. ‘This is Taipei for God’s sake! It won’t be long until the whole city knows!’
‘I’m not asking for your opinion. Do we have an agreement?’
‘Whatever.’
Just when he stopped the car because the light was red, he tilted his head in her direction. Apair of black eyes werestaring right into her as if he tried to pierce his logic into her.
‘Yeah, I understand,’ she finally said with a rancid expression just to stop him from looking at her. An earthquake was shaking her most inner part with rage, but knowing how emotion would only show her weakness, Meiying clenched her fists. Ever since she met him, she could no longer count how many she had killed the man inside her mind. Even at that moment, she imagined herself skinning him alive.
Huijing straightened his position when he heard the answer he wanted and drove the car silently into their house.
The irony of the situation was laughable if it was someone else in her position and not her. She had signed the contract she mustn’t and bid farewell to her freedom to the man she didn’t know.
If she was a Princess Mermaid and she was given the choice to kill the prince to get her freedom back, then she wouldn’t spare a second thought to seize the opportunity . . .
But there was nothing she could do now . . .
Except to accept her fate and reminisced the day when it was all began . . .
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author's note
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Thank you for taking your time to read my newest book, The Ripples!
I never thought about releasing a mystery book but I think I’ll just give this story a chance to see how am I doing in this genre. Of course it wouldn’t be my story without romance. LOL~
The story is taking place in Taipei, Taiwan so yeah, the characters will all be Taiwanese so I apologise in advance if you have to adjust yourself to the names. Since we’re talking about name, I will reveal the main characters’ names:
Wang Hui Jing [王揮靖]Hui (揮) means wave while Jing (靖) means peace and tranquillity.
Tsai Mei Ying [蔡梅英]Mei (梅) is taken from Meihua (梅花), the plum blossom flower while Ying (英) means petal.
I hope that you’ll understand why I chose the names for them as the story progress!
Please follow me in Twitter & Instagram @RikkaLiao!
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