Feng Xinying went to her room and started crying loudly. It wasn't crying, it was kind of desolate sobbing, which made her feel as though she was drained of all hope. He sank her knees in front of her bedside where her mother's photo was kept, not worrying about the scratch her knee received by a sharp side of the bedside. Her tears dropped on her dress and her gasping wails echoed around her room. She picked her mother's photo and ran out in the balcony of her room. It had started raining heavily as the water and wind lashed inside the balcony making her wet. It was chilly and her tears mingled with the rain. She was in pain, which flowed from her in the rain. She held her mother's photo near her chest and clenched the fist of other hand so tightly that the sweat trapped inside. Her sobbing was akin to as though she had lost her mother again.

She thought that she was no more wanted in this house. Her father could give her nothing more. She sank to knees in the balcony not caring about the cold marble that made her skin blotch. There was no one to witness her pain or come to comfort her. Her father must be attending to that woman. She always wanted to tell him that I am there for you. Why didn't he understand?

If he didn't need her, then she also didn't need him. All she needed was her self-control. Slowly the eighteen-year-old Feng Xinying rose from her place and went inside, drenched to the skin. Without changing her clothes, she wiped her tears and started packing her bags. She collected her pa.s.sport that had valid visas of many countries. She had to leave this place to feel better, feel free from those emotions.

She left a short note on her bed in case it was ever discovered.

After packing, she went to take a shower. It was already past 1AM in the night. Softly, she tiptoed downstairs. Without making noise Feng Xinying went to the garage and woke up a driver. The drivers and the guards were used to her erratic schedules and moods and so none of them said anything.

"Take me to the airport," she said to one of them. The driver took out a car from the garage that was full with thirty different types of cars and opened the door for her to sit down. She started her journey. As the car drove to the airport, she thought that it was time for her to leave, for good. What went through her at that time was difficult to comprehend. She was pained but she felt the need to protect herself, her heart and her soul because the damage was too much to bear. She was broken into pieces. She was leaving an empire behind her to find her own way. She was going to find people who loved her and treated her well. Though she had a feeling at the back of her mind as to whether she was walking in a storm…

On way to the airport, she bought an online ticket. The car stopped in front of the airport and she walked inside. She looked at the world outside, her current situation and then turned with a jerk as if leaving it for good. She entered the airport, went through the security check-ins and immigration and sat down for her flight. It was already 4AM now and she hoped that she didn't b.u.mp into any familiar figures, as way too many people knew her.

The flight was supposed to take off at 5AM and she waited for the announcement in front of her departure gate. She had put a scarf around her face and pretended to sleep so that no one accosts her.

The boarding was announced and she left to stand in the line for business cla.s.s, which was ushered in almost immediately. She had selected a side seat in the corner of the aircraft. She settled over there and quietly sat down in her place as she waited for the plane to take off.

She was so tired physically and mentally that she found it hard to stay awake. All of a sudden she noticed a man looking at her intently from the corner of her eyes. She averted her gaze and slowly lifted the blanket over her face. The plane started to taxi on the runway. She felt relieved. There was no way now for anyone to stop her. She was leaving it all behind her to soar in the air.

She was leaving a place that had been her coc.o.o.n since her childhood. More than the pain she felt for leaving her world, she was excited about the future. And because of that she wanted to bury this pain to deal with it later on. As the plane took off, she felt that a part of her soul was imprinted on its skyline. She may come back again…