Sara looked at Cixi with shock written all over her face. "Miss....Chang... Yu"s parents killed... grandparents? She stuttered in disbelief. 

She had never expected that at all!

"Isn"t that enough reason to hate her?" Cixi asked in-between tears.

Sara staggered up and moved closer to Cixi. 

"It...it really is true?" As much as she tried to not believe it, she really couldn"t help it if it was the truth.

"Would I make up such stories? Her parents did that. And she couldn"t stop them. How do you expect me to see her and act normal? Do you even expect me to listen to whatever nonsense she has to say? But you....you had to bring her here. In front of me!"

Cixi sounded extremely hurt as she spoke with tears running down her eyes and down to her cheeks. 

Sara could not control it and also found herself crying with her Aunt.

Was this the reason why her father had been living this way? Was that why he was always sad?

"What happened? Why did they do it?" 

Sara asked her. She was really curious to know the reason why Changyu"s parents did that to them. 

"Your father liked her. It was..."

She paused to cry for a bit before she continued.  "It was the only mistake he made. He loved her so much and I really feel bad and terrible because I had been the one trying to bring them together. I thought she genuinely liked him. But..." 

She stopped talking and plumped down on the bed with both of her hands covering her face as she cried to the memories of the past. 

Sara sat down beside her and patiently waited for her to say something.

"I was preparing for my exams in school abroad as at the time it all happened. I had no idea what was up here since I was in medical school. I guess they hadn"t wanted me to know about it because no one told me what was happening back home. No one told me the restaurant had been closed by the government and that your grandfather was in prison for a crime he hadn"t committed. No one told me your grandmother was beaten when she tried to meet that witch."

Sara"s tears flowed even more as she heard her Aunt speak. With the way Cixi was sounding, Sara understood how hurt she felt.

"Can you imagine the thought of living without your father? Imagine Mr Li"s parents doing something bad to this family. Are you ever going to forgive him or forgive them at all?" 

She stood up and looked at Sara with glazed eyes. "Her parents didn"t want her to have anything to do with us especially after they found out that she was dating your father. At first, we didn"t know she was from that "Song" family because she hid it from us and told us she was from an average family. We knew how ruthless those people were because even the government and police didn"t have a say in whatever they did. If we had known, we wouldn"t have allowed her to work in the restaurant since everyone avoided that family like a plague. If I had known.....I wouldn"t have tried to s.h.i.+p her with your father. Every single day, I feel like it was all my fault. I don"t even want to start thinking about how I returned home after I began to hear rumours from school mates who were also from Country B, to find out that my father was dead. I don"t want to talk about how Changyu never came all those years to apologize. I don"t want to mention how my mother died from hards.h.i.+p and heartbreak. I don"t even want to mention how your father and I lived—how I dropped out of school, how we had to use our last cash to leave this country because a lot of people treated us like criminals. We would have just thought it was bad luck. It would have been easier to accept that it was all bad luck. But that witch"s parents came to us to tell us how they had warned my father and promised him that he was going to get rid of all of us. They also told us Changyu was going to get married to a Governor"s son or something like that and he made a stupid remark saying he was the winner while we were the loser." Cixi laughed drying as she narrated. "Her father promised to spare us if only your grandmother knelt down to beg them and also made your father swear to never meet her again." Cixi began to cry again as she added. "Do you know how painful it was seeing my mother kneel down before those dirty things and we couldn"t do anything? Your father had also reluctantly swore to never ever see that woman again till the day he dies."

Life seemed to have been drained out of Cixi as she remembered everything. The memories she hadn"t wanted to remember.

The Songs should be grateful that she wasn"t planning on taking revenge. So she would also prefer it if Changyu stayed on her own—away from all of them.

But then, remembering her brother still loved that woman regardless of everything they had gone through, she was heartbroken. 

"Aunt... " Sara called in a weak voice as she stood up to hold her. 

"Let us ask her. I don"t think she is the kind of person to do that. I promise you... If she actually permitted that, I am going to stay away from her and hate her for the rest of my life." Sara promised. 

"Ask her? Ask her!? Have you been listening to me at all? What is there to ask her? Look at me Sara...Look at the father you love so much. Do you like how we"re both living? Try comparing the way she lives to the way we do. Do you know how long it took your father to set up a restaurant? Do you know how many years it took us both to save money to send me back to medical school? Do you know the effort your grandmother made to wipe off the w.a.n.g family name? She had even forced us to change our names because she thought we wouldn"t be able to survive or be accepted in the society if we continued to bear our real names but we had refused it. Why should we hear from her? Even if she wasn"t aware, does it make any difference? Her parents did this to us! Do you think your father likes living this kind of life with a small miserable unknown restaurant when he could easily have a nicer and better one like he had always dreamed of? Think about what happens when he owns a big restaurant and then people suddenly realise he was w.a.n.g Jiahao and Ma Shufen"s son who added opium to the meals they sold to the world. What do you think is going to happen to your father then? What do you think is going to happen to you and all of us? That woman is the most powerful woman in the country but look at us!" Cixi yelled in frustration.

Sara looked at her with wide eyes as she listened to everything her aunt said. It was even more difficult to swallow now. 

"Sara think. Please think and stop acting solely based on your emotions. You might get us into trouble if you do" 

Cixi walked out of the apartment, leaving her luggage behind.

She hailed a taxi and after thinking of where to spend her Christmas, she thought of this place she was currently standing at. 

She looked inside what used to be her family"s restaurant. The entire place was dusty, old and dark. For years, she hadn"t been here. She didn"t even know who owned it now— Whether it was the government or someone else, she had no idea.

Herself and her brother had both promised their mother that they wouldn"t come here and would live their lives carefully and quietly. But.. she was here now. 

After having that conversation with Sara, she was even more sad now. She was happy though that she hadn"t mentioned anything about Changyu"s pregnancy to Sara. It would have been something else and she was sure her brother would never forgive her for telling Sara.

As she looked inside the used-to-be restaurant, she felt a rush of emotion as she remembered how everyone had been happy at one point.

How she used to tease Mr Park and call him Park Bun, how she used to steal her brother"s s.h.i.+rt to sell to Changyu, how Changyu had quarreled with her and calling her a bad friend because she had been close to Helene also.

She also remembered the smiling faces of her parents as they both cooked together.

Her eyes began to blink rapidly and no matter how hard she tried to stop it, she couldn"t. She sat on the dusty floor and with a weak voice, she said "Merry Christmas Mother.... Merry Christmas father" And after the words came out, she broke into tears.