34. Cherish

The woman in the red gown leaned against a bar, looking sad, lonely and depressed. It looked like she had drunk quite a bit, she held a bottle of whiskey in her hand, an empty glass beside. It was as if she had drunk from the glass but it was not enough, so she started drinking directly from the bottle. Her eyes were downcast, it was like she was stopping herself from crying out loud.

She looked so beautiful even when she was so sad. The gown she was wearing felt like she had just come from a party. Everybody wanted to know what had happened to the sweet girl they had seen before. Her smile could light up anyone's day, so why was she in a bar, this dejected. Who hurt her? They wanted to hurt anyone who made the girl sad.

The men in the room did not even realize it was a picture they were looking at. It felt too real to them, they were spiralling into the story RuQian had created. Well it was her story but no one knew that.

After this, all the people were waiting for the next picture to see what had happened to the woman. These pictures were like a thriller novel, each one was a chapter making the readers crave for the next one. Ren Wei moved on to the next chapter, I mean picture.

In the next picture, the woman was sitting down on the barstool at the bar, the whiskey bottle in her hand, but her eyes were turned. She was staring at a couple, the guy had his arms around the girl and they were whispering in each other's ears.

This time her expression only had one emotion, longing. There was no jealousy or hatred but just pure longing. They did not know if it was that boy who had hurt her or if it was another man who she missed but she longed for that love.

That was when they understood why the bright girl from the first three pictures was in a bar. She must have broken up with her boyfriend but the way she looked at the couple felt like something else. Maybe the man she was dating had left her for another woman.

The next picture was of the woman's back. She was leaving the bar, her back was hunched slightly, her head drooped down. It was as clear as day, the woman was heartbroken. Even though her face was not visible, this picture was the hardest to digest, there was just too much sadness in this photo. A smooth leg was visible from the slit in her dress.

But then they saw something which attracted them. The woman was holding onto a piece of candy, a lollipop, the rainbow coloured one. This candy was the colourful one in this gloomy grey picture. This candy showed that the woman was going to recover, she would be able to pull herself through this situation. It was as if the picture was centred around the candy. It gave everyone hope.

Then they saw a small kid in the corner of the room holding a similar lollipop in his hand. Looked like the kid had given her the candy, maybe he wanted to cheer her up. The woman held onto the candy with a death grip showing the veins on her hand as if she was holding onto her life, she must really be holding on to her life. She had been so depressed before, she could have thought of killing herself.

That was when someone remembered the quote by Horace, 'Clogged with yesterday's excess, the body drags the mind down with it.' The woman looked miserable right now but the candy she was holding onto brought hope to everyone, hoping she would be all right by the next picture. All the executives and shareholders were now looking forward to what would happen next.

Even Tang Wen was completely engrossed in the story, he did not realise he just called the same girl a bitch a few minutes ago. Everyone turned to Ren Wei urging him to show them the next picture in this story.

In the next picture, it was once again the woman's back, this time wearing a grey pantsuit, in front of glass doors, it was an empty office inside. The woman's face was again not visible but her back was straight and anyone could clearly tell she was confident. The dejected, broken woman was now a confident businesswoman, it looked like she owned that place.

The next picture was of the woman looking through some documents and there was another woman standing beside her in a secretary attire, face blurred, holding onto a few more documents. This was a side profile of the woman's face, she was concentrating on the details in the documents, there were no other particular expressions on her face. This picture, was by far the normal one considering the mind blowing ones before.

The last picture was the one that had everyone wide eyed and jaw dropped. It was a full picture of the woman slightly leaning on her desk in her office, legs crossed, arms crossed over her chest, staring directly at the camera a smirk on her face, eyes burning with power. Each person in the room felt scared when they saw this picture.

It was like the woman was able to look at them through the screen, it was like she could see into their soul, this was the same look the madam boss gave. All the shareholders in the room shuddered at once, they knew this expression, this look too well. This was the expression madam boss had on when she was going to torture people, not physically but they always thought physical pain would be easier than butting heads with madam boss.

This picture reminded them too much of their madam boss. Grandfather Zhang was dazed in his chair, this was the expression his wife had on every time she negotiated with a company, his granddaughter resembled his wife too much. He turned towards Xiao Qian who was literally asleep in the middle of a meeting!

He nudged her awake, RuQian slowly opened her eyes, looked around and remembered she was still in the meeting. She saw the last picture displayed on the screen, it was her business face. She first thought against using it because her grandfather had told her in her previous life that she resembled her grandmother a lot when she worked but then she went with it.

This was a part of her, she had worked for years in her past life, this side of hers had to be recorded in her first portfolio. This portfolio was the reminder she had of her past life even if everything that happened in her past life was completely different to how she hoped her life would pan out, she would cherish it.

In this life, she would turn her life around and get revenge for herself and her mother! This she vowed to do and she would see it through.