Jianjun thought back to the day he had received the letter.
During that period, things had been terrible for his entire family.
His father had just died in prison, his mother was down physically, emotionally and psychologically.
His sister had refused to talk to anyone after returning from school and had simply locked herself inside all day long.
Things didn"t get any better after the Song elders came to pay them a visit; asked his mother to kneel and make him promise to never contact their daughter since she was going to get married to someone else soon.
He had been carrying these burdens and looking for a way to survive with his family plus, he had been searching for a way to retrieve his father"s corpse but there was no means because according to them, it was the "government"s property"— Just like when they had been searching for a lawyer to prove his father"s innocence but no matter how hard they had tried, there were no lawyers willing to help with their father"s case even though he had offered more than enough from the money he had been saving for years since his parent"s account was frozen.
At that time, they only had their apartment. And they knew that with the way things was going, they wouldn"t be able to keep the apartment for long.
Thankfully, they had Helene to support them.
Helene did come around everyday to the point where she didn"t bother to return to her tiny apartment. She stayed with them and helped them out with whatever she could do to help.
Since Mrs w.a.n.g and Cixi were both down and Jianjun was rarely at home, no one bothered to do the dishes, clean up, or prepare their meals.
Helene had offered to do it. She pleaded and tried to cajole them everyday to eat something at least.
She had taken it up on herself to help them run the house till they become stable again.
She went to the market, shopped for groceries etc.
One day when he was returning home from the prison his father had died in, he saw a taxi parked in front of their apartment and saw Helene standing by their blue gate while talking to a woman whose face he couldn"t see since she was facing Helene.
They rarely received visitors especially at that time when things were chaotic for his family so he strained his eyes in other to see who it actually was.
As he continued approaching, he thought she looked familiar and when he saw her hand something to Helene and quickly walked to get inside the taxi that had been waiting for her, he saw her face and realised it was Anna, Changyu"s maid.
His eyes widened when he saw her. He had been trying to get in contact with any of them but he hadn"t been able to.
Now, Anna was in front of his house?
He knew the only reason she would appear there was because of Changyu and the thought of finally receiving a letter from her excited him.
Even though he had swore to her parents that he was never going to see her again. Even though his mother had knelt down to those people to apologize on his behalf, the thought of her finally sending a letter delighted him. It made him feel she still cared about him at least, even though her parents had said otherwise.
Without thinking about anything else, he quickly ran straight to stop Anna"s taxi from leaving but it was already too late. The taxi already sped off and because he hadn"t looked properly before crossing the road, he ran directly in front of a motorcycle that immediately collided with him. Causing him, the young man riding it and the motorcycle, cras.h.i.+ng to the ground.
Helene, who was about entering inside, heard the sound made as a result of the collision and it got her attention.
When she saw the person who had been involved in the accident, her eyes bulged out. She screamed in shock before racing towards the scene of Jianjun and a young man both lying on the ground beside a near-broken motorcycle whose wheels kept rolling on the ground.
Both men wailed and grunted as Helene approached them.
"Are you okay? What happened?" Helene asked in worry as she crouched down beside him but she had no idea what to do next.
Despite the pain, he turned to look at the other guy and noticed he was a delivery person in his mid twenties. The Pizza he had been carrying were scattered all over the ground.
"Mister... Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?" Helene asked him first.
The area was kind of isolated so there was barely any car around. Besides, it was not a major road but a street so there was no one there at that moment except for the three of them.
"I"ll go get Mrs w.a.n.g" She said before getting up but was pulled back down by Jianjun.
"Why did she come?" He managed to ask in spite of the pain he was going through.
"What"s in your hands? Let me see"
The young man who had been involved in the crash with him looked at him with annoyance.
He had caused their accident. Shouldn"t he be wondering how he was doing and taking responsibility for this? Why was he talking about something else?
But inasmuch as he wanted to complain, he didn"t have the energy to do so because of the excruciating pain he felt on his left arm as a result of the fall.
Helene looked at her hand and saw she was still holding a small envelope.
She quickly hid it behind her and stood up. "I"ll call the ambulance first" She tried to reason with him as she still kept the envelope hidden behind her but Jianjun refused. Whatever she was holding was more important than anything else.
"I won"t repeat myself. Hand it over" He winced after the words came out.
Helene looked like she was struggling with something as she looked at him.
She knew he was not going to relent and they both needed medical attention as soon as possible.
She noticed Jianjun had been pressing down the side of his belly while his ankle had blood around it.
There was no physical injury on the other man"s body but it looked like he was really suffering from pain.
She swallowed hard and slowly brought the envelope into sight.
"Is... that a letter?" He asked with interest as he quickly reached for it with all his might.
"What else did she tell you? What did Miss Anna tell you?" He asked eagerly but he saw her shake her head.
"She mentioned nothing else. She only said it was a letter from Changyu. That is it" Helene answered with teary eyes while her body shook.
"I"ll go call the ambulance" She quickly ran back inside the house while he opened the letter to read its content.
"To the Jianjun w.a.n.g who thinks he is so precious.
You think you are something because I told you I loved you? Don"t you know who I am? I am Changyu. Song Changyu! Even as a granny there will be a queue of people who want me.
So did you think you were special because I offered myself to you? The answer is, you"re not. You"re just like every other guy. And I could have ten of you if I wanted. Have you heard already? I"ll be getting married to a Governor"s son. See? I also didn"t think there was something serious between us.
You can have fun with your life—but I hope it"s a miserable life. I hope you and your entire family become wretched. As for this child I"m carrying, you don"t have to bother about it. I"ll make sure to get rid of it because I don"t want no w.a.n.g blood around me. My only regret....was meeting you. Live your entire life in sorrow and loneliness. I, Song Changyu... Curse you!"
Even before the letter ended, he had already began to feel tears dripping from his eyes.
"No.. This is not her.. This is not her letter."
He looked up to see Helene and Cixi watching him. He didn"t know when they had both arrived there since he had been so immersed in the letter— Reading and rereading to make sure he was not seeing things.
But no matter how hard he tried to not believe it, he knew it was her handwriting. He shook his head in disbelief.
He saw Cixi looking at him with worry and anxiety before s.n.a.t.c.hing the letter from him.
"That"s not her writing right?" He asked Cixi hopefully before turning to look at Helene.
"Where is the original letter? Did you swap it? Please show me the original letter... I beg you" He cried hard as he pleaded for the impossible.
Now, he no longer felt the pain from the accident. It was his heart that was shattering into pieces right now.
"Please stay still so I can attend to you" Cixi yelled at him before placing the first aid box she was carrying on the ground.
At that moment, they all heard the blaring siren of the ambulance heading their way.
"She was preganant? Why didn"t I know? Why didn"t she tell me about it?" He asked no one in particular as he crumbled the letter into a ball with his hand.
With the acc.u.mulation of everything he had been going through in the past few months, this sudden accident and the unexpected letter he had just received, his system could not hold it anymore and caused him to collapse even before the ambulance arrived.
"From Helene." Jianjun said to Changyu.
"Miss Anna asked her to give it to me."