Xia Qianyi opened her umbrella, standing under a street sign waiting for the bus. The street was full of hurried pedestrians, but there were also couples intimately huddling under an umbrella walking in the rain.
Is this love? Having grown up in the shadow of being an illegitimate child, she never dared to have expectations or yearnings for so-called love. From the moment she understood, she had learned through her mother’s silence and others’ mockery and contemptuous looks that her family was different from others. And she was just an illegitimate daughter who couldn’t be shown in public.
At this moment, the long-awaited bus finally appeared. She closed her umbrella and got on, finding all seats occupied, so she could only stand holding the handrail. On the seat next to her, two girls of similar age were discussing a boy. She cast her gaze out the window.
Thirty minutes later, she got off at the last stop, walking up a quiet, broad road. Tall camphor trees covered the path. She walked slowly; the wind was light, carrying fine rain droplets brushing her face, feeling cold. This was a high-end villa area where buses didn’t reach, with luxurious villas nestled among the dense camphor trees. There were very few pedestrians on this road, with only occasional cars passing by.
A bright red Porsche sped from the distance, quickly brushing past Qianyi and splashing her with water before disappearing at the end of the road. She frowned slightly, silently taking out a tissue to wipe herself.
She knew who owned that eye-catching sports car.
Standing at the Xing family’s gate, she pressed the doorbell. Housekeeper Li opened the door: “Miss Qianyi, please come in.”
Following Li through the garden, she immediately saw the bright red Porsche parked among a row of cars. She asked, “Li, it seems quite lively today?”
Li replied, “Today is the young master’s birthday party. Many people have been invited, including his schoolmates and some of the old master’s business friends.”
Qianyi thought to herself, what unfortunate timing.
She stood in the main house’s corridor, able to see through the floor-to-ceiling windows the bustling scene inside. She told Li, “I won’t go in. Please tell the old master I’ll wait for him in the study.”
Li acknowledged and went to deliver the message.
