The Present.
Zhao Moyao blamed himself for everything that happened to Zhao Lifei [1]. He regretted allowing his Xiao Fei to be engaged to a man as scummy as Zheng Tianyi. Even to this day, he lived with that guilt. At night it was the worst. He would get nightmares and relied heavily on sleeping medicine. Wiping her memories was his decision and he did it forcibly. He never meant to do it without her permission, but one thing escalated to another.
Even when Zhao Lifei was a child, she knew how to read and write things beyond her age. When she arrived at the institution, she demanded to go home. She knew what the place was from a brochure she took off the receptionist desk.
When Zhao Moyao tried to make her behave, she threatened to annex him from her life and hold her breath until she turned blue. So, he took her back to her parents' house where for the first time, she felt safer than being at his house. He didn't mean to have people forcibly kidnap her on a stormy night, but it happened anyway. And now look at where his actions had gotten her, she was deathly afraid of thunder.
Zhao Moyao might've not directly contributed to the harsh humiliation and downfall from three years [2] ago, but he still played a factor in pairing the two together. "Where is she?" His voice left for zero arguments.
"Don't you want to test my grandson's loyalty for your granddaughter?" Yang Mujian queried, tilting his head. "It would be quite interesting to see his true intents towards her by the speed he finds her."
"I don't have time for your games, god damn it, WHERE IS MY GRANDDAUGHTER?!" Zhao Moyao roared. In a fell swoop, he knocked everything onto the floor with a loud CRASH!
"You're going to have to kill me to find out." Yang Mujian didn't blink or flinch at the dramatic tantrum Zhao Moyao was throwing. It seemed one of them was finally able to crack. "You see, this is why I despise caring for someone. Look at where she has gotten you. You've lost your control so quickly just because a woman is involved. How pathetic."
"Don't start that bullcrap with me." Zhao Moyao snarled, "You might've tried your best to wipe this scene from existence, but I remember it as if it was yesterday." His voice became low and threatening, "I will never forget your reaction when your wife died."
Yang Mujian's smug and arrogant look dropped. No one dared to mention the late Matriarch — not unless they wanted to suffer the worst death known to humanity. "Son of a bitc—"
"Pardon me, I meant your wife's disappearance." Zhao Moyao stood up with his cane. "What? Did you think that just because her body was never found, she's dead?" He tossed his head back and let out a burst of booming laughter, wiping his eyes of unshed tears.
Yang Mujian's face morphed into sheer desperation. "Where is she?" He stood up with Zhao Moyao, not allowing this man to leave until he got his answers. He wanted to find her, no, he needed to find her. She was the only woman who loved him without any intent behind it. She never judged him and everything about her was just so...good. He could never forget her, the woman who risked her life on many accounts to save him.
Zhao Moyao turned his back to Yang Mujian and strolled to the door with the tiger trailing behind him. When Zhao Moyao was close to sliding the door open, Yang Mujian grabbed his shoulders and snarled, "WHERE IS SHE?! Where the hell is my wife?"
Zhao Moyao didn't bother looking at Yang Mujian. "Maybe when you have the conscience to tell me where my granddaughter is, I will give you the exact location of her house...or grave. It's all up to you."
"Don't play with me, Zhao Moyao. I know where your granddaughter is and I will not hesitate to kill her."
"That is fine with me. I have many more granddaughters and heirs, but you only have one wife. Don't you?" Zhao Moyao was bluffing, and he was confident that Yang Mujian wouldn't see past it. With how crazy this man was right now, there was no way he was rationally thinking.
Besides, Zhao Moyao already had a suspicion about where she might be. The only thing left to do was personally contact Yang Feng. "You have until midnight to give me an answer. Until then, please know the location of your wife is hanging on a thin thread." Then he sauntered out of the room, leaving Yang Mujian in his demise.
- - - - -
It was thundering.
Zhao Lifei didn't know if anyone else in the house was awake, given how late it was already was. She didn't want to burden or cause inconvenience to anyone. Her only salvation was hiding under the covers of her bed, whimpering and shaking all by herself. When the first strike of thunder slammed the sky, she tossed her body into the pillow and screamed into it.
BOOM!
"NOOOO!" A bloodcurdling scream broke out, loud enough to shatter glass and wake up the man next door.
BAM!
The door slammed open and a disheveled Jiang Zihui bolted into the room with a frantic look on his face. "Where is it? I'll kill that person!" He came with a loaded gun, ready to ruin anyone that laid a hand on his precious butterfly.
Then he realized there was no one else in the room. Just her. His guard dropped and he visibly relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief. "What's wrong, my little butterfly? Did you have a nightmare?" He could see a tent on her bed where she was presumably sitting in a ball position.
With one harsh tug, he yanked the blankets off her and sure enough, his prediction was right. When she peered up at him, her face filled with pain and tears made his heart crumble into millions of pieces. His heart went out for her and he dropped the gun in his hand. It loudly clattered onto the floor to which she made a glance. For odd reasons, she recognized the weapon as a Mark XIV pistol. H-how was that possible? Why did she know about guns?
Jiang Zihui pressed his lips together at the whimpering woman. "What is it?" He pinched the spot between his brows and picked up the fallen gun. He tucked it in front of his waistband and waited for her to say something.
Her hazel eyes were dark and moistened with unshed tears. Vulnerable and ignorant, he could take advantage of her right now. But he didn't. He stayed by the bedside and waited for her to calm down on her own. He was already regretting his decision to lie to her this morning, he didn't want to give her another reason for hating him. "It's just thunder. What is there to be afraid of? You're safe and in a house where a strike will never harm you."
Zhao Lifei's eyes shook at his insensitive words. It spoke the truth, but she didn't want the truth. A part of her was yearning for comfort just as the void in her heart was begging to be filled. Whenever she looked at him, she always felt like her heart was searching for something… or someone. His cruel words shook her back to reality without him touching her.
"Are we really wife and husband?" She murmured, her eyes running up his chest and meeting his eyes. Uncertainty flashed across his face, similar to the one in her heart.
She was giving him a second chance. This was an astronomical thing that would only come once in a lifetime for him. Jiang Zihui breathed out and ran a hand through his hair. "What makes you think we aren't?"
"Even if I had forgotten my memories, I know I would never marry a man who couldn't comfort me." Zhao Lifei knew she was taking a risk here. Everyone in this house was a foreign person of unknown background. Just as they had taken care of her, they could also harm her without hesitation. She was prepared to fight, even if it meant bolting out of this house in the middle of the night.
"It's because you have never shown me this side of yours." Jiang Zihui lightly said and it was the truth. He didn't know about her abnormal fears of thunderstorms. If he had known earlier, he would've done something to prevent the noise.
"You don't seem like a bad guy." Zhao Lifei slowly said, "So, please, answer me honestly. Who are you?" For some reason, her eyes continued to sway back to the gun. She felt some sort of familiarity towards it.
"I've already told you, my name is Jiang Zihui and I am—"
"I'm offering you a second chance here. Don't waste it."
Jiang Zihui swallowed. Was she implying that she remembers something? He finally forced himself to stare into her eyes and he immediately wished he didn't. They glowed in the darkness. Like the eternal flame of the Phoenix, they pierced right through him. "General Jiang Zihui of the Second Squadron. In your eyes, I am a friend turned foe, but I believe myself to still be a friend."