Another two days pa.s.sed and just as the rumours were starting to settle down, it was disclosed that Miss Yu Yue was going abroad for a year long study exchange programme. Things became lively again. Before anybody could even react, the heiress had already left the country without settling the matter. This left a rotten taste in people's mouth. But it was only like that for the ones who didn't have much brain power. For people who were astute this was a loud and clear message. This portrayed that the legitimate child wasn't happy with the new addition to the family, she wasn't keen on the other's actions but she wouldn't loose her composure for someone she didn't place in her eyes. This also indicated that she had enough respect for the patriarch to not put him in a difficult situation of making a choice between his own flesh and blood and wanted to maintain the peace of the family. Also, discerning people could make a guess that this would also put pressure on the patriarch to not show any favour to his new child that excedded the limits as that would lead to consequences that no one wanted to see.

It could extrapolated that this was the best outcome for everyone involved. If Yu Yue had tried to create a scene it would have had a negative impact on her image, made their family into a mockery and forced Yu Jian to take a stance.

This was exactly the effect Su Li had wanted and achieved. She hadn't planned to have some kind of a showdown with Yu Yan. She had just wanted her to break the lamp of her own accord and then it would have given her a reason to get out of the residence. She also knew that sometimes silence was the best answer to all the unasked questions. Now, everyone would be kept going in circles as to the reason why she had left the place without a proper talk or goodbye to anyone and they ll react accordingly to the most probable answer they might have reached. This way it wouldn't give Yu Yan a chance to make any kind of hue and cry over what had happened. Also, it would be more difficult for her to attain forgiveness from Yu Jian. Afterall, the illegitimate child had intentionally angered and hurt the heiress so much, that she had taken the voluntary decision to leave the main residence to get away from the toxic atmosphere.

She hadn't talked to Yu Jian or anybody else about what had happened or shared her feelings with anyone. Simply, three days later she had left the country in the wee hours of the morning without a single word to let them stew in their imagined guilt, anger, resentment or whatever emotions anybody felt regarding the incident. Let them be, afterall it didn't concern her. Thinking back to the time she had left, the only person she had seen or even spoken remotely to was Xun Zixi. Actually, even that had been a conincedence otherwise she would have left without anybody being the wiser. Thinking about it, she couldn't help but recall the conversation she had with him.

He had been pa.s.sing through the garden when he had seen her lugging two suitcases behind her. It hadn't taken him more than a second to understand everything.

"Miss Yu, it is improper of me to say it but still you shouldn't leave your own house in the middle of the night without informing anyone like a thief."

She hadn't known what to reply to him since she hadn't felt at home since they day she had left her own world. Everything she had said yesterday to Yu Yan had been the original Yu Yue's thoughts and she had just put them into words but she obviously couldn't say that this wasn't her home so she had just looked at him and replied, "I need to get away from here for sometime or it'll derail my mind from the things that are truly important to me."

He had tried to persuade her with soft tactics, "Miss when master gets to know in the morning that you left without a word to him, it'll hurt him more than anything else."

"Sometimes you need to hurt the other person for a short period of time than to let them live with regrets later on."

When he had realised that soft tactics wouldn't work on her, he had suddenly changed to hard ones, "Are you running away? Are you giving up your position, your future to the other person? Why not stay here and let the other person see you living a good, fulfilling life. I believe that would hurt them more. You leaving like this is asking to be ridiculed by others. They'll think you don't have the confidence to face challenges head on."

She had been somewhat angered by him but didn't want to continue the topic any longer and after giving him a hard stare had turned around to leave.

He had caught her suitcase from behind her. She had been astonished that he would be so presumptuous to stop a master of the family but then thinking about his loyalty had given him some leeway and just pulled the suitcase from his hands and he had easily let go.

"Miss, all this is yours, n.o.body has the right to make you run away from here but if you want to leave to get some peace of mind, n.o.body would stop you either. We all will eagerly await your return."

Hearing him proclaiming his loyalty, she had smiled and left. He had followed her to the gates. After everything had been stowed away, she had turned her head towards him, scrutinized him for a few moments and left two sentences for him.

"Take care of the master of this house and don't let him come to any kind of harm from outsiders or from people living in the house. Tell my father I don't blame him for anything that has happened in the last few months and I love him."