Chapter 34 - The First Secret

Feng Xuan was in the kitchen cooking breakfast when Qing Chen, already dressed in his work clothes, came in.

"What do you think about a party?"

She looked up from her butter she just put on top of the pancakes. "Party? What kind?"

Qing Chen's face contorted. "There's a charity event happening in the hotel tonight. Father thinks it would be good if we would be seen in the event."

Feng Xuan slightly nodded. "Oh, alright. What is the charity for?"

"Something about a disease I cannot pronounce."

Feng Xuan smiled. "Okay," she said. "I don't have classes today."

"Have fun shopping," he said to her and sat down. She placed both of their plates on the table and they began to eat.

"How formal is the party?" Feng Xuan asked.

"Wear a long dress," Qing Chen said.

"Do you want to match?"

Qing Chen stopped chewing. "Match?"

"Yes, let's wear matching colors," Feng Xuan smiled. "It sounds corny, but that's the joke."

Qing Chen chuckled. "Sure, get me a tie and a pocket square?"

Feng Xuan nodded, already feeling excited about the next few events of the night. "Who will be there?"

"I honestly haven't taken a look yet. I wasn't really interested in attending it."

"Will your grandmother be there?"

Qing Chen fought the urge to laugh. "I'm not sure. But most probably, yes." These kinds of events invited the rich of the rich to raise the most money. There was a high probability that his grandmother would be there as a guest. "Why do you ask?"

Feng Xuan shrugged. "I don't know. I kind of want to get close to her. Is that weird?"

She did not know if it was because she was kind of feeling lonely that she wanted to get to know more of the people around her or that she somehow felt like she was finally worthy of Qing Chen in his grandmother's eyes that made her so daring suddenly.

"No, it's not," he said. "Maybe you two will be close."

After breakfast Qing Chen already left Feng Xuan. She immediately phoned her cousin who agreed to meet her at the mall for lunch. She also got a room in The Kingly so they could get ready there instead of going all the way home and coming back.

"That looks divine," she said when Wang Yimin got out of the dressing room.

"You don't look so bad yourself," Wang Yimin grinned. She was wearing a turquoise dress that thinned to transparency at the bottom. She was like a sea wave.

"I don't know about the sleeves," Feng Xuan answered and pulled at it.

"Because it does not work like that!" Wang Yimin pulled the other sleeve down and raised the other one. "There! That's how it should be."

"It's heavy," she complained because the dress was dotted with Swarovski glass.

Wang Yimin's kind face smiled at her and she pinched her cheeks together. "You look beautiful anyway. That's what matters."

Feng Xuan pouted.

"You're a trophy wife," Wang Yimin did not even sugarcoat it. "Dressing up in fine and expensive clothes is one way of making your husband proud. You add to his reputation."

She sighed, fully knowing what they were half joking about. "I'm merely an accessory."

"Speaking of, any progress?" Wang Yimin asked, pulling the skirt of her dress and slipping her feet on some of the shoes before her, looking what would be the perfect match.

Feng Xuan was more than ready to tell Wang Yimin about Qing Chen's tattoo. But she had already told her cousin about everything else. She wanted to keep something that was just between her and her husband. It would be their first secret—although she was not sure how much of a secret it was.

"We're going on a steady pace," Feng Xuan told her cousin instead. "But… you know… I don't know what I'm supposed to feel. I want to rush but I really don't? Do you get me?"

"Ohhh," Wang Yimin said in amus.e.m.e.nt, twisting her ankles to get another view of the shoes. "Qing Chen is a really busy person. My Zhou Shan's schedule was nothing next to his. You could try taking a leap of faith."

"Is that what you did?" she asked.

"Yes, I dropped by his office randomly, taking him out for a day just stuffing our faces or watching movies," Wang Yimin replied. "Add that element of surprise between the two of you. It might work."

"It's not that I am complaining, but I am starting to feel why people kept on pushing us."

"You naïve girl!" Wang Yimin laughed. "You like your husband."

"Of course I like him."

Wang Yimin shook her head. "You like like him. You're like a high school teenager! You couldn't wait! You're excited! Isn't that the best thing?"

Feng Xuan suddenly felt like clawing at her face. "Why, why, why?" she asked. Why was she having this urges? Was she really getting attached to Qing Chen already, not in the level of a friend?

She didn't think it was really possible for her to look at him as a friend. She met him on the day of their wedding. Of course her mind was already programmed that Qing Chen would be her love interest. Maybe this was all just the chemistry inside her head.

Feng Xuan shivered. That was right, she whispered to her mind. This was all just the serotonin and whatnot.

After the dress fitting, they went to a salon because Wang Yimin did not want to stress herself with their looks for the night and she didn't want to tire herself.

The party started at around seven in the evening and the cousins had just finished their preparations and were waiting in their rooms for their husbands. It was Zhou Shan who came first.

Feng Xuan was already bored within two minutes of being left alone to her own wits. She started playing on her phone and was in the middle of it when she heard the knock on the door.

Qing Chen stepped inside wearing a deep blue suit. Feng Xuan immediately smiled, the under-layers of her champagne color dress was hinted with blue. She fastened the light gold tie to Qing Chen's throat and slipped the pocket square in its place.

They stared at themselves in the mirror afterwards. "You look beautiful," Qing Chen told her.

"Thank you," she said. "You look equally handsome."

"You're ready then?"

"For what?"

"The red carpet."

Feng Xuan almost rolled her eyes at the idea of having a red carpet for such an event. But she guessed, these people also had tabloid pages of their 'rich society' and wanted to act like celebrities. At the same time, she was excited. It was the first time she would be walking on such a carpet where photographers shouted your name for you to look at them.

She gasped in surprise when she heard them calling her as the blinding lights kept on blinking in front of her. She put on her best smile and clasped Qing Chen's arm tighter.

"It was so hot," she said as she felt a few beads of sweat on her forehead when they finally got inside the room. The red carpet had been flooded with box lights that had warmed her face and neck.

Qing Chen carefully reached and fanned her hair from the nape of her neck. She was so thankful for the blast of wind that went there that she almost didn't feel the slow beating of her heart with Qing Chen's gesture.

Tall tables and circular ones were scattered all over the place. At the front a stage was assembled with a podium.

"An auction," she said to Qing Chen who just took a leaflet from the person by the door.

"All proceeds will be for the cause."

Qing Chen was right, the disease was not something they could pronounce. "Are you looking to buy something?"

Qing Chen handed her the leaflet. "Only if you're going to buy something."

On their way to the table, they stopped multiple times to socialize with people. Some of them, Feng Xuan already met at their wedding. About the new people, she tried to remember their names, silently muttering them under her breath but after the tenth person, she gave up. It would be impossible to remember all their names at once. Perhaps another time.

Qing Chen sat her on their table as he went to the event manager to check if everything was going well when Feng Xuan felt a cold hand on her bare shoulders.

"Hello, you," the woman said.

Her lips spread into a smile. "Aunt Chunhua."

"How are you, child?"

Feng Xuan hugged the woman. Aunt Chunhua was her mother's best friend. When Feng Xuan looked for her the day of her wedding, her father told her that Aunt Chunhua was sick. "I'm doing good," she answered the plump woman.

She had the arms of a mother, a touch that Feng Xuan had been longing in years. She was warm and tender.

"How are you?" she asked Aunt Chunhua.

"In and out of the hospital," the woman answered.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What for?"

But the old woman ignored her question. "You look so much like your mother," she said and caressed her cheek. "It's a shame she was taken from you in the worst possible way."

Feng Xuan leaned to her aunt's hand. "Accidents happen."

Aunt Chunhua took her hand back in a snap, like Feng Xuan's cheek burned her. She was looking at Feng Xuan with her beady eyes and her lips, red, said, "Your mother was murdered."

Feng Xuan felt a cold chill on her spine. "She died in the car accident."

Aunt Chunhua shook her head and whispered, "She was killed." Then Aunt Chunhua gripped her forearm, to the point that Feng Xuan winced at the pain. "She was killed, she was killed, she was killed!"

Feng Xuan gasped when Aunt Chunhua was suddenly ripped away from her. A slender and younger woman was shouting, "Ma, you said you were going to be in your best behaviour."

"She's alive!" Aunt Chunhua laughed maniacally. "She's not dead!"

If felt like an ice shard had been inserted in Feng Xuan's chest. She stood up, wanting to ask more questions as the rest of the people stared at her once favorite aunt. But she felt a hand on her arm, she knew immediately that it was Qing Chen.

Two men dressed in white suits wheeled Aunt Chunhua out of the room and the music was already turned up again.

"What did she tell you?" Qing Chen asked.

She looked at him, feeling light-headed and cold all over. "Nothing of importance."