Imperfect Desires

"Why is everyone so keen on keeping an eye on us?" questioned Darren helplessly. 

"Because I announced that we'd be moving out," replied Xiu.

"We are really moving out?" asked Darren.

Xiu nodded her head, "We are." She touched her stomach that had begun to protrude now. With a gentle look in her eyes, she said, "I want to give birth to my son at a quiet place."

"But this house is filled with love and warmth of people who care about you," reminded Darren.

Xiu gave him a small smile as she replied, "Right now, I don't need that. I just need some space. A personal time that only belongs to me and my son."

"Wait. Why am I not included?"

Xiu gave him a look, "Since when do I have to specify things clearly? Isn't it obvious that you'll be where I am?"

Darren nodded his head in agreement, "That makes sense." He took a pause before asking, "So, when do you want to move?"

"I'm waiting for two things," said Xiu. "First, I want to watch the storm that I brewed destroy everything. Second, I'm waiting for our house to get renovated before moving."

"And for how long this silent storm is gonna go on?" inquired Darren.

Xiu gave him a meaningful look, "This silent storm has started to rage. Now, it's only gonna engulf whatever and whoever comes in its way."

Just as Xiu said, the silent storm of hers had really begun to pick up the pace now. She had used everything she had in her hands to start a power struggle within the Xin family. She had already come to a conclusion that whoever had been playing the role of the mastermind had been in the Xin family. And this person had an agenda. Either revenge or power! 

Well, whichever it was, she was gonna use her ways to make that mastermind crawl out of his hole! 

While Xin Zemin had been staying around his daughter and had completely neglected the Xin family's business. The internal strife had reached a new peak under Xiu's excitement behind the scene. But that wasn't enough to alert Xin Zemin because each of those people would try to hide their claws whenever Xin Zemin was around.

However, they won't hesitate to use the same claws to tear each other apart. Xiu was currently playing the role of the fuel that turns the spark of fire into a raging flame. From Destiny's investigation, she already knew that there was no one clean in the Xin family. Each person was worse than the other. 

Right now, Xiu only threw on the stone of suspicion in between that power struggle and all those people instantly turned their claws around and pointed at each other. Each one of them had been trying to tear the other by exposing the wrongdoings but while doing so, they were forgetting that just like you could throw the black water on others, someone could do the same to you.

In this manner, Xiu had actually saved herself a lot of trouble. While each and everyone was fighting among themselves, Xiu had done her best to keep Xin Zemin away from all of this. Although she could destroy the image of the Xin family with what she had, she wasn't keen on doing so. 

But that was just for the sake of the two fathers she had now. Since they both loved her so much, she couldn't just hurt them knowing very well what their family's name and honor meant to them. She actually felt pity for her two fathers who had managed to stay grow out of the mud to become so bright. The rest of the Xin family was nothing but muddy water.

That's why she had to do some cleaning before allowing these two fathers to restore their honor. 

*Ding!*

Xiu took her cellphone and checked the message she received.

IAmMochi: I can't believe it but the plan worked!

Xiu's eyes sparkled but nothing could be seen on her face. She had been smiling lesser and lesser. Her words were also growing fewer and fewer. But instead of feeling bothered by it, Darren found it quite interesting. Because her silence had grown comfortable now. She wasn't as restless as before. The restlessness that made her talk nonstop seemed to have vanished now.

XX: That's good to hear.

IAmMochi: But Xiuxiu, I have a question.

XX: What?

IAmMochi: How do you know what Chen Xiu said to Xin Suyin before death?

Xiu paused for a brief moment. She obviously couldn't say that it was because she was Chen Xiu.

XX: What do you think?

IAmMochi: If I could guess, I wouldn't be asking you. I've thought about it repeatedly, it just doesn't make sense at all. But it seems Xin Suyin's guilty conscience is truly eating her alive.

XX: Let's give her some final blows then.

IAmMochi: *excited emoticon* I'm at your service! You just tell me how to shoot and I'll do it!

Xiu was pleased to hear that. Originally, she had a different something planned for Xin Suyin but after learning the truth about her real identity and her real father. Xiu changed her mind. 

Now, she wanted Xin Suyin to suffer in the agony of losing a child just like her father did! She wanted her to suffer in the living hell she created herself! 

With that plan in mind, for the past one month, Xin Suyin had repeatedly been seeing and hearing the voices of 'ghosts.' Or more particularly, it was only one 'ghost'; Chen Xiu's ghost. 

The plan started with Xiu sending Xin Suyin a letter that had all the details of her first encounter with Chen Xiu. It contained everything down to the last detail. Obviously, Xin Suyin didn't take it.

But then came a second letter... This time, it had the details of how Chen Xiu was kidnapped and taken to Xin Suyin. How she was locked up there for days and how she almost died there. It also included how Chen Xiu died inside in that cage that Xin Suyin built for her out of hatred.

This letter made Xin Suyin a little uneasy. She tried to find out the source but couldn't do so. It led her nowhere. But it didn't end there, she thought the people involved in that kidnapping were just trying to scare her to get some money. So, she waited for someone to give her a call. She waited and waited. And finally, the call actually came after two weeks.

But the words that she heard were, 'Mom, why did you kill me?'

Xin Suyin who had never been scared of anything in her life, felt her blood running cold. The one thing that had taken a toll on her emotions had been the death of Chen Xiu. She believed she had killed her 'daughter.'

And Xiu had planned to use that very thing against her. The third letter she sent to Xin Suyin was today and it was written with blood along with the pictures of Chen Xiu's dead body. This time the letter had only a date and at the rightmost corner, 'three minutes' written on it.

Others won't be able to make sense of such a letter but a guilty person would always think of what he did wrong. The date was the day Chen Xiu committed suicide. That 'three minutes' represented the very last phone call that Chen Xiu had with Xin Suyin before dying. 

It was nothing but a reminder.

And unsurprisingly, the letter served its purpose. Xin Suyin killed all those subordinates who had been involved in Chen Xiu's kidnapping all those years ago. And for the very first time, she had done the killing with her own hands. The blood on her hands had derived her crazy and before she could make sense of anything, she started hearing the heart-wrenching cries of 'Chen Xiu' calling for her mother.

The same mother who killed her!

But none of it was her illusion at all, because those heart-wrenching cries were indeed echoing around her. Why? Because Xiu's accomplice had followed her plan to play a clip from Chen Xiu's movie where her mother indeed killed her and she was still calling for that heartless mother.

Since her life had been quite dramatic, Xiu chose the most childish way to way make Xin Suyin suffer but the woman who had been trying to hide her guilt for years finally brokedown under her pressure. 

Because just last night, she broke everything in her house and walked on glass shards running around looking for her daughter who was calling for her. Although everything seemed simple, Xiu had actually been using her experience of being a mentally unstable person quite well. She had spent enough time with psychologists to know how human emotions worked. 

The worst prison you can gift someone is the one inside their own head. Sometimes, illusions are far terrible than the reality you live in.

After all, right now, Xin Suyin's brain was somewhere in between. She couldn't face the reality where her 'daughter' didn't exist and she couldn't bring herself to enter her illusions where her 'daughter's' cries echoed every minute. And that was the cage, Xiu planned on gifting her. The one that was neither in reality and nor in any phantasm.