12 Hope

Bao FeiYin was excited. Tomorrow was her first day at Aries! She's even asked around today and made sure that in-the-way-Lang Qiu Yue would not be there.

Sadly she hadn't gotten much time to interact with the team today. The as of yet alright Zhou Jia had gotten in Bao FeiYin's way.

So tomorrow she would start and round off all the team members and get them on her side. If they supported her then Huo Zi Feng would too.

People were weak, they changed their minds so easily, so susceptible to deception. It took nothing for them to support her with anything she had ever wanted. No matter what you do, as long as the majority supports you, there are no consequences.

This was that she had grown up believing. And it hadn't proved to be wrong in any way. Bao FeiYin knew how to work her charm, she also knew how to appear innocent.

How could it have been enough for her to live in that shabby dump? Bao FeiYin's ambitions were unparalleled. When she had met with Wang Xi, Bao FeiYin had tasted luxury. But Wang Xi wasn't rich himself, rather he was the nephew to the Lang family's current head. His immediate family, his parents, didn't have many goals and aspirations when it came to money. They were both simple people and did business with NGOs and worked closely to improve lives of farmers, craftsmen, trade workers, laborers, and others who didn't receive what they deserved.

Wang Xi wasn't their biological son but was someone they had rescued from a forest village that had been ravaged in a ripping storm and consequent landslide.

To Wang Xi, their lifestyle was stupid. They had the money, why not use it?

These parents weren't strict. They couldn't spend a lot of time with him because of their work, but every minute otherwise was always spent catering to his every wish.

They were sweet but completely illogical. If you spoil a child, like candy that looks pristine from above and is rotten inside, his thoughts are unrestrained, irresponsible and selfish.

But Wang Xi wasn't stupid, he was spoilt but he also wanted to ensure this sort of a lifestyle. To do this, either his parents needed to inherit the Lang family's treasury, or he had to promote himself up to a place where he could earn without doing anything and stand on everyone.

When he met Bao FeiYin he knew he had found his soulmate. A woman after his own heart she was, maybe not as smart though. Slowly they formulated plans so that they could get not only the Lang family in their palms but even the others, their targets were Huo Zi Feng, Liu Hui, and Yuan ZeXi.

The original plan had been to befriend Lang Qiu Yue and meet with Huo Zi Feng. Then Bao FeiYin would slowly make him fall in love with her.

From Qiu Yue's profile, while the girl was smart, she wasn't good at interacting with people. Sowing discord between Lang Qiu Yue and Huo Zi Feng didn't seem to be a hard thing to do.

But then suddenly when Bao FeiYin looked for Lang Qiu Yue, it appeared that Lang Qiu Yue has taken the academic year off in order to work?

This threw their plans in disarray.They knew they had to hurry and do something, while maybe she wasn't much of a threat it was still out of plans, and their plans had to go perfectly for them to complete it without failure. Only that meant a 'happy ending'.

Bao FeiYin grew impatient with this development, she wanted Huo Zi Feng. She wanted Wang Xi to recommend her for the work if land Qiu Yue couldn't then he could!

But Wang Xi knew that this could blow everything if someone suspected them or something came to light then their connection would be clear as day with this move.

But then the day he overheard his uncle, Lang Zhou, talking about how their Qiu Yue was happy with Huo Zi Feng he knew he had to do something. He felt threatened by this, panic and stress cause some people to lose rational thought. So he finally gave in to temptation and recommended Bao FeiYin.

Bao FeiYin who felt as though everything would go her way closed her eyes and slept peacefully, having no idea what was actually going to happen to her.

Qiu Yue lay on her bed wide awake. Her mind was running at full speed even though her eyes could barely stay awake, she had been trying for three hours but she just couldn't sleep. Though she knew had to get rest, she had to meet his grandparents tomorrow, but her thoughts wouldn't stop coming at her.

She slowly moved her right hand as though trying to reach out to the ceiling.

This had always been a habit, sometimes she'd just look at the back of her hand and think about everything she had done till now, accomplished with these hands.

Even now, even though this body wasn't hers, her habits were showing a difference. Qiu Yue liked her nails long, while the original owner had short clipped nails. This was how her hands had looked even in her own body.

The things she could do were the same even now.

It hit her that... what Huo Zi Feng had said was right. Why was she running away from him?

A silver moonlight fell through her fingers making her look up and she saw the beautiful Moon softly glowing in the night sky, softly blanketing the world.

The city never stopped moving, the lights the flashes, they never waited for anyone. Nothing could ever be predicted, the world and the people in it were constantly changing, in every world.

Even though the consequences of what could happen played in her mind, the hope for something, something she'd never had was the fire and she was being pulled towards it like a moth.

Qiu Yue couldn't even remember when she had started feeling this way, how did she come till here?

It felt as though she was standing on a road with no one and nothing around her. But she knew that in one direction was Huo Zi Feng, but who knew what came after that? And in the direction was the loss of everything she had, the happiness she felt.

Till now she had been waiting for someone, something to give her a sign, to tell her what to do.

She, who had never looked at anyone else to solve her problems, was lost.

But why? All she had to do was choose to run in a direction. Qiu Yue hadn't wanted to regret anything but by doing nothing she was choosing the worst option of all.

A sudden chuckle escaped her as though a weight had been lifted off of her. She pressed her weight onto the railings of her balcony leaning forward and took a deep breath. Then she swung back her hands holding her to the railing as she leaned, taking in the wind and its freedom, the moon and its acceptance of the world.

Slowly in her heart, she came to a conclusion. She had waited long enough, no more.

"Ah Young Master Huo! That thing you ordered is ready. We've crafted it to perfection. It will be delivered to your residence tomorrow morning."

The jovial sound of a very happy shop owner sounded from the other side of the phone. Clearly, the shop owner was very happy to be able to sell his craftsmanship to the Huo family. If he could get this out as promotion, his sales would go up by a lot. At this point, his ornamental and intricately made goods weren't as popular as before.

"Thank you very much."

Huo Zi Feng replied in his usual cold voice, however, today it seemed heavier than ever.

Could he even give this to her now?

Forget it. He would take it with him tomorrow and give it to her along with an apology.

While he didn't feel what he had said was wrong, he did think that perhaps he shouldn't have said all of it at once so abruptly.

Huo Zi Feng took a deep breath and looked out of his apartment room window. The view of the ever awake nightscape of the city lay in front of him. It should him how fast things moved and things could happen before anyone ever knew it.

Qiu Yue has broken probably quite a few laws going faster than traffic lights to reach the office.

From outside she could see the lights in his office were on. Spurred on by the bright light of hope she ran to the elevators, impatiently tapping her feet waiting for it to get to the right floor faster.

She knew he'd be here. He was always here. Even though he probably had no idea but she knew he kept looking at her while they worked. Qiu Yue knew he had no idea she looked at him a lot too.

It was hard not too, everything he did, his work, his words, his eyes... they were all so magically. Maybe it was because he was the male lead but she could never look away.

Oblivious to anything else she ran to his office and threw the door open so abruptly that Huo Zi Feng turned around shock and alarm that changed to surprise when he saw Qiu Yue.

Without even giving him a chance to process she said in huffs while trying to catch her breath.

"You were right. I was running. I don't know why actually that's a lie - I know why. I'm scared of what might happen and I'm scared I'll regret this. But after what you said, I realized that what I'll regret most wasn't falling in love, it was not taking a step towards you."

Qiu Yue's heart was pounding, the running, her feelings, the rush of finally being able to do what she'd wanted to all cane together.

"But I don't care right now. I don't care about tomorrow and how you might change your mind. I know that I won't regret this."

Qiu Yue took a step closer to him and then another and another, till they were standing just two steps away from each other.

She looked straight into his eyes and took a deep breath which didn't help her heart at all, but she continued.

"I like you. You're the first person I've ever liked and I-"

Before she could continue she felt something soft on her lips press hard on them and hands holding her head and waist.

Qiu Yue gulped and moved her hand to his back and pressed herself against him. Her other hand tangled up in his hair as she pulled to get even closer to him.

His lips moved against her and she could almost taste chocolate, Qiu Yue disliked chocolates but right now they had just become everything she ever wanted.

Both of them had no idea when they broke up apart and Qiu Yue laid her head on his chest gasp and he placed his chin on it and laughed.

"I promise I'll never stop loving you. And I won't ever let you doubt this moment."

He lightly kissed her near the corner of the eye, tickling her as he hugged her close to his heart.