I Hope You Know, You Are My Home.

NOTE: Please play "Forest Fire" by Brighton to get the full effect of the chapter.

Even if I never wanted to get married, opposing the rules set by the same society that had shunned me, the traditional wedding vows meant far more to me than anyone could ever imagine.

Of course, that didn't mean I would jump into it.

But goddamn, when I looked into his eyes staring at me with so much love, I suddenly didn't care about legality and society.

___________________

A week later, Qiu Yue was on the set, but Qiao Feng hadn't been there to watch her like he always did.

Since the day they'd started shooting, he'd been there looking at her with such adoration it drove everyone mad. Not that Qiu Yue toned it down, they both only had eyes for each other.

Even when Qiu Yue was acting, she could do well because the main character very much resembled her real temperament and all she had to do was imagine Qiao Feng as the male lead.

It also reminded Qiu Yue of things she'd kept hidden away in her memories.

In this scene, the female lead in the movie, Liang Qiu had found out who the man she'd fallen in love with was.

She'd never seen the Regent on the day her family had been killed, not properly anyway. From her hiding place, she'd caught a glimpse of the hairpin he'd been wearing that day.

Fen Long had never thought to hide his hairpin when he spent time with his lover, the one person he was pretty sure he was in love with. It was because he only wore it out when he wasn't acting as Regent. He'd hidden everything else that could let out his actual identity, except for that one thing.

Ironically enough, even if Liang Qiu hadn't recognized the rest, the hairpin was one thing she couldn't forget.

Looking at the hairpin, she slowly collapsed backwards into a chair with a glass of wine in her hand.

How could it be? She'd known that the man she'd chosen to love wasn't a saint. She knew his hands were stained with blood.

But why, why did he have to be the one person she couldn't let live to complete her revenge?

Knowing what she knew now, did she hate him?

Somehow she couldn't. How could you love someone that had killed everyone else who could've given you love, albeit in their own twisted way?

Instead, her grip on the glass tightened as she allowed herself to hate her family a little bit.

She couldn't hate him.

She couldn't blame her family.

She couldn't complete her revenge but nor could she leave it be. Not anymore.

Even as thoughts of her revenge rang in her head, glimpses of her moments with him flashed in her head.

Her grip on the glass got tighter and tighter until it finally shattered. The pieces couldn't fully jump out as most of them were stuck in her hand. Until she unclenched her hand and the pieces of glass fell to the ground sharply cracking against the ground.

As her blood mixed with the transparent shards to drip down, Qiu Yue looked almost wistful...

"It's still so beautiful..."

She whispered.

Qiu Yue sat there, unmoving, unable to snap out of of the scene, out of her head. What if Feng betrayed her?

What if?

And the rest of the crew was immersed into the scene until Ms Crystal finally seemed to snap out of her reverie as blood keep dripping from Qiu Yue's hand.

"Cut!"

"Is your hand actually bleeding Qiu?!"

Being the one closest to the camera, Crystal realized quickly that Qiu Yue's prop glass hadn't been made of candy, but was actually glass.

Qiu Yue too snapped out of her thoughts and finally felt the sharp pain coursing through the palm of her right hand.

"Ouch ouch ouch!!!"

In the midst of the panic of getting Qiu Yue treated and finding out how the glass prop had been switched no one could find time to question how affected Qiu Yue had been by the scene.

She'd actually crushed the glass in her hand because she'd started thinking of her own life, her actual life. And then she'd started to think about what would happen if Qiao Feng betrayed her.

She hadn't even felt the pain and the line she'd said wasn't part of the script.

Of course, there remained the question, who had switched the glass?

In another part of the city, back at the company head office in A Country, Qiao Feng field all his reports while receiving the proposals for offers Qiu Yue had received in the meantime.

Qiao Feng looked at the gloomy sky through the windows and sighed, hoping it would rain already so that he could see the clear sky again.

As he walked briskly to his office, he heard someone call out for him and turned to look at them.

Liang Ziqin stood on the other side of the corridor, waving at him enthusiastically. But it also seemed like she was trying to look around and find someone else, that someone being Qiu Yue.

She clicked her tongue in disappointment as Qiao Feng told her he was here alone today.

When Qiao Feng locked his office door and took the elevator to go out for lunch, Liang Ziqin followed him.

Qiao Feng had been about to pass the security check to go outside when a man in a brown trench coat pushed past him, going inside and the office door slammed loudly as two more men shut them.

Qiao Feng could see the shift in atmosphere and immediately retreated to a corner with more people. Three more men, adding to the original three, all armed with guns took the center.

One of them fired two warning shots at an empty spot in the wall as everyone screamed and shouted in terror. Qiao Feng could only curse his luck as he kept quiet and tried to keep the attention off of him. It might have seemed cowardly but he couldn't be bothered to care about that if he died by charging at them now he wouldn't be doing anyone any favours.

His priority, anyhow, was to go back to Qiu Yue.

Liang Ziqin, though not a professional, had been trained by her grandfather's orders. She also knew that with Shi Dong still upstairs her best bet was to stick to Qiao Feng, so she followed him.

Except it wasn't going to be easy for her to stay unnoticed. Being the female lead wasn't easy.

Like many might have guessed, the target of this attack was Liang Ziqin. As she held the reins to her grandfather's entire estate and connections, it wasn't wrong to say she was even more valuable than a golden goose.

When the man in the centre asked for her by name, a few of the people around her couldn't help but turn to look at her. Even the merc hadn't expected to find her that easily.

Well, that wasn't entirely true, if the world had gone the way it was supposed to, Qiao Feng would've been one of her lovers and being next to her, he wouldn't let her into harm's way.

The situation now was very different though. Shi Dong who had slipped downstairs could tell that Liang Ziqin was in danger. So when the men turned to look at her, knowing he shouted at Qiao Feng, turning all attention to him instead.

The men knew of Shi Dong, so when he shouted at Qiao Feng to protect Liang Ziqin, it didn't take them much time to jump and attack him.

Gunshots rang out as Qiao Feng moved, his eyes turning cold and hard, knowing Shi Dong had used him as bait.

Qiu Yue heard gunshots on phone. One of the other managers had called her up immediately after the men had isolated the ground floor. People on the other floors and the ones outside the building were not harmed or in danger.

She'd just finished the scene, and instead of fear, she went cold. Instead of crying, she'd simply looked at the assistant with her, who was wide-eyed with fear, to get in the car.

Her hands shook as she held the steering wheel, for once her hatred for driving didn't even cross her mind. But even as her hands shook, no one noticed it, no one could see the fear in her heart, because it wouldn't come onto her face.

By the time she reached the office, police had already closed off the area and the ambulances were carrying away injured people to the hospitals.

The men had been caught, the building had been breached.

But she couldn't find Qiao Feng in the people standing aside unharmed, waiting for a family.

She ran up to one of the officers asking him about Qiao Feng, introducing her as his girlfriend. As he checked the list of injured people, he told her that Qiao Feng was on the list of people shot. Who had to be transported to the hospital. Calmly she asked him to check if he'd already been taken to a hospital and if yes, which one.

When the man jogged away to find out, Qiu Yue's hands tangled like they did when she was really really scared and had no idea what to do. She wasn't sure what she was doing but her nails dug into her skin as her fingers twisted around each other, again and again, trying in some way to express the fear and anxiety in her heart.

Unable to keep waiting, she walked a little bit to looked at the people sitting there, sitting in ambulances. People who hadn't been injured too badly and would be transported as part of the second batch.

Then she heard someone call her name.

"Qiu Yue."

And it was his voice.

And she whipped around to see him sitting on a gurney, looking pale as he leaned against the ambulance.

He's insisted on going with the second batch, not because he was caring but because he wanted to see Qiu Yue here, not in the hospital because he'd known she would be scared.

And looking at those shining eyes that barely gave away her tears to others, he knew he was right.

Qiu Yue ran forward almost, big pauses a few meters away from him, not knowing what to do.

Seeing the way her hands were hurting herself, the way her teeth bit into her lips as tears swelled in her eyes, Qiao Feng felt relieved that he'd stayed.

Raising his injured arm, he beckoned for her to come forward.

"Ah Yue, come here."

His left shoulder was wrapped in bandages and so was his right thigh. Qiu Yue knew in her head that if they were full-fledged gunshots he would've been taken to the hospital long ago, but her brain wasn't working properly.

The way his eyes looked at her with worry. Why? He was the one hurt, so why!

Tears bubbled up in her throat as she let out a sob.

"I'm fine-"

His soft, concerned voice continued, but she lunged forward before wrapping her arms around his shoulders, finally not able to hold on.

She'd been so scared, after losing him like that last time, she'd been so scared that this time... this time she would...

Qiao Feng stifled the wince of pain when Qiu Yue hugged him, touching his injured shoulder. Instead, he kept whispered to her.

"It's okay... I'm fine, I promise, I'm not hurt..."

He kept softly reassuring her, over and over again as her quiet but heartbreaking sobs finally and slowly turned to occasional whimpers as she steadied herself.

Letting him go, Qiu Yue pulled back, her eyes red as messy tears still traced her face. She sniffled, placing a hand on his face, brushing his cheekbone lightly with her fingers as she whispered to him.

"Don't do this again... I don't think, I don't know if I can handle that..."

Even though he wasn't at fault, Qiao Feng only used her uninjured right hand to pull her palm closer to his lips, and kissed it. Without breaking away from her gaze, he said softly, "I won't, I promise."

A small whimper escaped her again as she looked at a small cut he had on his forehead.

Qiu Yue pulled her hand away from him, reaching around her neck, undoing the chain she'd worn every day since she'd come into this world. She turned away from him as she took out the ring that hung from that chain. The same ring she'd bought for Huo Zi Feng.

Qiao Feng was about to reach out to Qiu Yue, seeing her turn away from him when she suddenly knelt down on one knee in front of him.

His lips parted and gasped slightly as his breath was stolen from him. She held the same ring he'd seen for months now, around her neck, in her fingers.

"Ah Yue..."

It was almost involuntary. He, he just had no idea what to say.

"Listen."

Qiu Yue said, her voice quivered and was hoarse from crying but her words were firm.

"God, I thought I wouldn't be able to say this to you."

She took a deep breath, "To hell with my dislike for the society's rules." Even though she'd try to prepare herself, tears slipped out of her eyes and her breathe shuddered as she spoke.

"I don't care about all that, I care about you. And I want you to know that-" she swallowed the lump in her throat, "that you are my home. And I want to go back to you for the rest of my life, wherever we are."

"Yes. I want a wedding, and I want to be married to you, Qiao Feng."

"If you'll have me, I want to go back home to you, forever."

Seeing her, crying, looking every bit like a mess Qiao Feng thought he'd never seen someone so beautiful in his life. He couldn't help but lean forward, capturing her lips with his fervent love for her. The kiss was rough, hurried like he couldn't explain everything he felt to her fast enough. He broke apart the kiss long enough to look into her eyes.

"Yes", he breathes out, before pulling her closer for an even longer kiss as he tasted her salty lips, and he felt tears fall from his own eyes as he finally felt something in him break.

Amongst the press, flashing away with cameras, their colleagues who couldn't look away from them, the two who had captured everyone's attention could only see each other.

E/N: Goddamn it, this chapter was so hard to edit. That shameless author left me so much work. Ugh curse you!!