Unfortunate Event I

Hanging her head in defeat, not needing to say anything more, Li Qinyang walked across her room to where she could see her suitcases that she had zipped back up after retrieving another outfit and her backpack. She picked both up off of her bed. Then, she proceeded to make her way to the door. Along the way towards the door, she saw the scheming smiles from both Ning Chu and Li Ching, the dismissive look of Madam Chen, a neutral look from Master Chen, a sneer from Chen Wenyan, and another dismissive look from her father.  However, the last reaction mattered the most to Li Qinyang, the simple dismissal wasn't what she wanted from her father. Li Qinyang had hoped that he would ask her to stay.

Once Li Qinyang made her way down the grand staircase, she trudged her suitcase behind her towards the mansion's large music room. She had to see it one last time before she left. When Li Qinyang reached the massive doors that blocked the entrance into the music room, she took a deep breath to get a grip on all of the emotions running through her. Pushing open the doors, Li Qinyang entered the room, leaving her suitcase at the entrance, but she left her backpack on her shoulder.

In one corner of the large room, Li Qinyang spotted her violin case. The maids must have mistakenly or purposely put it in here she thought to herself. She quickly picked the violin case up and put it outside of the music room, next to where she left her suitcase so that she wouldn't forget it.

Re-entering the room, Li Qinyang let herself refocus on her main target for coming in there in the first place. It was the two gigantic pianos which sat diagonally from each other. Her eyes briefly glanced at one of the pianos - it was all white with the exception of some gold detailing. That piano was the first piano and instrument that her mother had gifted her. It held great meaning to her and seeing it for the first time again in years, since she couldn't take it with her abroad, her eyes began to tear up. However, she didn't start to feel as if she was on the brink of a tear fest until the moment her eyes landed on her mother's own piano - simply black but elegant.

Li Qinyang walked over to her mother's piano and took a seat on the stool. She then lifted the lid of the piano, realising at the same time just how dusty it was. It seemed that the instruments in the room hadn't been cleaned in a long time, maybe not since the moment she had went abroad. She was angered by this. Hoping to calm herself, she grazed her fingers across the keys. She didn't press any of them since she didn't want to alert anyone of her presence in the room. She wanted this moment to be private. She knew this would be the last time in a long while before she would see her two of her only companions left in this big mansion, the pianos, again.

Knowing that she had to leave the mansion before the others, upstairs, came down and found her in here, which may give them another reason to further torment her already shredded heart, Li Qinyang exited the music room with one final glance back. She made a promise to herself that she would return to take both of the pianos with her. She firmly believed that they both belonged to her and only her, no one else seemed to care about her mother's memories but herself. If they had cared enough about her mother's memories or had known her mother well enough, they would have understood her love for music and how precious that piano had been to her, they wouldn't have disregarded it like that.

Warily, Li Qinyang gripped her violin case before swinging it over the opposite shoulder, to the one that carried her backpack, and she hastily wandered down the hallways towards the mansion's main entrance. She would not cowardly run away through a backdoor, like the kitchen's. She would hold her head high, and she would exit the mansion as if she owned the place. She would maintain her dignity... but she would do it quickly as she rapidly moved towards the mansion's main doors which she could now see.

Li Qinyang had made it outside of the mansion's doors but only for her to realise the long haul that it would take to reach the mansion's main set of gates. To make matters even worse, as she began to trudge her suitcase behind her, beginning the long journey to the gates, the thunderous clap followed by the deafening boom of thunder echoed in the air. The sky that was mostly cloudless earlier with the sun peeking through, was now clearly overtaken by the gloomines of the pack of clouds gathered together. The sky had darkened evidently.

Li Qinyang groaned in annoyance, the sky had just began to downpour. It was such a horrendous time for this to be happening, Li Qinyang thought to herself. Nevertheless, she still had to continue on.

As she slowly made her way back up the driveway, the opposite way she had come in the car earlier, Li Qinyang began to feel a wave of melancholy but also dread wash over her. She had no where to stay, no place to live. Since she had only just returned to Country K, she had planned to stay at the mansion, hoping to be closer to her father after all of the distance. She had hoped to make up for some of their lost time, but that was now impossible. She hadn't made any other living arrangements. What was she supposed to do now? The rain was coming down faster, drenching her already light clothing, soaking through them.

She continued to plod through the puddles that had quickly gathered on the ground beneath her as she thought back to a time where everything was wonderful and all well in the world, right before that unfortunate event. Li Qinyang had always referred to it as an unfortunate event, because she could never bring herself to admit that the person was now gone, that what happened, had indeed happened. She was still in denial after all these years.

_________

Many years earlier, outside of the Li mansion. A month after Li Qinyang had received her big gift - right before the unfortunate event...

A man exited the driver's seat of a expensive, luxurious car before rounding it to the other side's back passenger door. The man opened the door then bowed to the person inside with a small smile on his face, "Little Miss,"

A small figure then hopped down from inside of the car enthusiastically before quickly running inside the mansion with a little bag strapped onto their back. However, the little figure remember to call out, "Bye, Uncle Wang. See you tomorrow!"

The driver who had exited the car was indeed Chauffeur Wang just as the little figure, who had stormed into the mansion unannounced, was a much younger Li Qinyang who had just returned from a day of school and then her piano lesson.

Li Qinyang had just turned five years old about one month ago. Her mother, Qin Wenling, had bought her a big gift as an early birthday present. It was that same white and gold piano. Luckily, her mother had also brought her another gift which was a violin for the actual day of her birthday. Over the past month after having recieved her mother's encouragement, Li Qinyang had become even better in her piano classes, making her mother even more proud of her than she already was. This resulted in her mother granting her another instrument, the violin, since Li Qinyang was already taking violin classes, along with the piano ones.

Today, Li Qinyang had great news to deliver to her mother again about her piano lessons in specific. Li Qinyang had made a good habit of updating her mother on any of her new achievements or progresses. She loved to see the joyful and radiant smile that would spread across her mother's face. Li Qinyang would do anything to see that proud smile light up her mother's face, Li Qinyang had made it her mission.

So, as Li Qinyang rushed into the foyer, too excited to pay much attention to her surroundings, she accidentally crashed into someone who was much taller than her, an adult, in front of her, and she almost fell backwards. Fortunately, the grown up held onto her shoulders, helping to stabilise her balance.

"Silly, little girl, you were running too fast, not looking at where you were going properly again and bumped into me." A voice came from above the little girl. Li Qinyang tilted her head back, looking up at the owner of the voice, her smile still bright and her energy not diminished in the slightest. The owner of the voice was Housekeeper Su.

Seeing the little girls enthusiastic smile, Housekeeper Su could only sigh helplessly before saying, "You could have injured yourself-" she paused, "What has you so happy and excited?"

"Sorry, Aunty Su," the little girl started off apologetically, "I have great news for mother!" Li Qinyang then said proudly, her smile widening by the second.

"Oh, you do-" Housekeeper Su began before abruptly pausing as if she had just remembered something. She then went completely still, a brief flash of sorrow passed through her eyes. Slowly and agonisingly, a lone tear dropped from the crevice of her eye, down her cheekbone until it dripped off the edge of her jaw, onto the hand that was still placed on Li Qinyang's shoulder.