EPILOGUE

‘Tell me what I should do.’ Gui has contemplated for seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and she has not come to a decision yet. 

Gui holds her hands together as she stares at the garden before her. There were gardeners tending to the garden, making sure that everything was kept in place. Deep in her memories, she could run for hours, chasing, hiding, tagging and laughing at everything around her. She didn’t have much friends back then so the ones who played with her were daughters/sons from keepers in the house—or occasionally, her parent’s friends daughter/sons. To say the least, she still have fond memories.

She sat on the bench, eyeing the birds fly through the sky. They can soar and be wherever they wish to go, she can’t say she didn’t envy them—who doesn’t want to fly? 

She eyes her butler standing beside her, he had been out and about, attending to the matters of the estate that she didn’t know belonged on his list of priorities. Nonetheless, she felt comfortable with him around her. After her father passed, he was the next father figure in her life. Gui pats on the seat next to her and her ears twitched when she heard him reject her offer. She didn’t understand how he could still be standing after he did all that walking. 

“Do I need to use my I-am-now-a-heir-so-listen-to-me-and-sit?”

“I still won’t listen to you Miss.” She pouted at him and he laughs at her childish behaviour. Clearly this wasn’t going the way she had hoped it would. “Whatever, whenever you feel tired, take a seat okay?”

“Yes, Miss.” He peers at her face and smiles brightly. “What’s on your mind? Have you gone through the entire collection in the library?”

“No.. it’s not it…” He looks over to the garden and smiles. “There is no right choice if that’s what you are trying to think about.”

“So where do I begin? I don’t know what to do. This estate is my home…” 

As she trails off, she can’t help but mix her feelings, memories and reasoning behind her decision-making. She sighs, she is officially the worst decison-maker in history. 

“However there are choices that are close. I don’t know how you are feeling about this but I do know that you love this property dearly. I love watching you grow and I don’t lie Ying Jie. I have been working for this family for so long, its still a pleasure.”

Ying Jie began to tear up when she felt his hand on her shoulder, comforting her.

‘Even if I didn't say anything, you've made up your mind right?’ He lightly squeezed her shoulder one more time before excusing himself, going back to work. 

Wu Ying Jie became an sole heiress at the age of 18. Not many know how she feels and very little know the predicament she is in. How can a girl her age accept this big role? She sat through the morning, tracing her next steps in her new life.

“Did you sleep out here?” Gui turns to see the man of the hour himself, Dean. He wore a plain navy shirt with plain jeans, she smiles as she watched him approach her. Even in this laid-back style, she can’t help but wonder if she harboured any feelings for him. As he took a seat respectively next to hers, he leans back and gets himself comfortable before eyeing her. He knew that she wanted time, time to think about her life and for the next days to come, this decision will be life-changing.

“Thank you Dean.” He caught her gaze. “Thank you for always being with me.” He smiles, leaning his head back to close his eyes. “This feels like a goodbye, are you leaving me?”

“I have been counting my blessings.” He turns to look at her and smiles again, flashing his whites at her. “Have you told my dad yet?”

“I was going to until you popped up.”

“I always did have great timing.”

They burst out laughing. After exchanging a few more words, he got up and made his way back to the front where he parked his car. Gui picked up her cell and dialled Uncle Fujioka before she finds a way to change her decision. After discussing it over the phone, she weighed her decision and with a firm nod, she confirmed it. There was no going back now. 

—Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick—

The day has come. The day everyone has been talking about has come. This was their moment, their time, their day. 

Apple stares at her dad and smiles happily when she saw Emma Jie Jie talking with her classmates around her. Mrs. Yan and Mr. Yan took a seat respectively next to Mr. Fujioka who greeted them happily. 

“Where are you headed off to?”

“Europe, I have a couple of meetings and presentations to do.”

“I don’t know why I bother asking you Mr. Big-shot.” Fujioka laughs. “I can say the same to you Mr. Big-shot clock maker.” Mrs. Yan chuckles as she leans in to the two old bickering friends beside her. “He’s going to Europe as well!” 

Mr. Fujioka burst out laughing as Mr. Yan looks over to his wife who casually shrugs, glancing over to her son who was chit-chatting to his circle of friends while everyone waited for the ceremony to begin.

Mrs. Wu signals her people to take lots of shots of her girls. She has been waiting for this day to come for so long. To say she wasn’t excited would be a complete, utter lie. She glances beside her and smiles at Prime Minister Qiu who was also telling his people to take a couple of pictures of Sheng Yi. 

“Looks like the children didn’t work out.” Mrs. Wu looks over at him, he’s probably talking about Ying Jie and Sheng Yi. “Unfortunately it did not. Kids these days aren’t like us back in the day. I hope we can stay friends.”

“Of course we will stay friends. Although I hoped I would become in-law’s with you, I can’t force what can’t be forced.”

“I hope we don’t have any hard feelings between us.”

“No, not at all. It took me a long time to get use to this free-speech the kids are having right now. Times are changing. My son and I don’t see eye-to-eye sometimes but given the circumstances, I want to try to understand him a bit more. Being a single-parent isn't so easy, wouldn’t you say so Mrs. Wu?”

“I agree with you completely.”

Mrs. Wu looks at her girls and crosses her eyebrows. Free-Speech?

“Thank you for joining us today as we support the success of our students and honour their accomplishments over the past three years. It is a day we celebrate their remarkable achievements as we watch them embark on their next stage of their lives as engaged citizens of the nation. As we honour our graduates, we also want to recognize the tremendous foundation of support that helped them achieve their goals. Family and friends who have encouraged our students to realize their potential, goals and dreams—thank you for coming together to celebrate with them. On the behalf of S.H. and S.H. International, I offer our sincerest congratulations to our graduating class as they continue to light their path through the rest of their lives. Graduates, congratulations! On the count of three, together—one...”

The president of the board from both schools stated as he lifted his cap off his head. The entire student body stood up and on the count of three, they all threw their caps in the air with loud cheers and uproar from both families, friends and students.

Aaron came over and swept Gui off her feet, twirling her around with the biggest smile from the two. Their high school days are officially over. When her feet reached the floor, she wraps her arms around him—with his arm circled around her waist, they lean in and kissed each other.

“Did you get accepted?” Calvin flashed a peace sign and all his buddies congratulated him. “You are looking at the awesome Chef Calvin Chen!!” Wu Chun laughs, he high fives him. Then Calvin says, “I wish you the best of luck future businessman Wu Chun!”

“Looks like everyone I know is going into business—you, Gui, Aaron, Jiro, Sheng Yi and Fabien.”

Reen has her eyes set on working in fashion. 

Rainie graduated with full honours and accepted into the Faculty of Medicine at TNU. 

Mei Mei is going to follow her passion; she always wanted to appear on the big screen. 

Ah Wei will follow his dreams; to become a soccer player. 

While Dean is going to continue his father’s legacy, you are looking at Taiwan/Japan’s upcoming top lawyer. 

Everyone has their goals set. 

—Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick—

A month passed.

“So this is what you decided… can’t say I’m not surprised.” 

Gui and Rainie were standing by the front doors to the estate. No matter how difficult the decision was, she has no doubts that this was the almost prefect decision. Rainie stares at the boxes and luggages that was being carried into the moving van. 

The news came to them a three days ago. Wu Ying Jie have decided to take back the estate with the intention of restoring everything back to it’s original state. She wants a place she can call home again. With the agreement she made with a few of her parent’s business execs, she found Rainie and Reen’s old home—the house they lived in before they came to know the Wu’s. Of course, she told Rainie and Reen to hear their opinion. They knew they wanted a clean start but going back to their old place didn’t strike Reen as a ‘fresh clean start’ but Rainie surprised Gui the most with her response. Rainie grew to the late Wu, she loved how passionate he was about everything but… in her heart, she will always be her daddy’s girl.

“Will you be fine living all by yourself?” Rainie spoke up. “I will be fine, I have a house full of people whom I love and trust. Will you be okay? Going back to your new home?”

Reen came over and crosses her arms. “I won’t.”

“We will get through this.” She looks over to Reen and smiles. “We will help each other out okay?”

Reen heaves a big sigh before giving in. “I’m going to miss this.” She whispers lightly as the two sisters looks around the estate again. Gui smiles. They have gone through a lot of difficulties together.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!!!!” Stepmom states as she threw her hands up in the air as an act of disbelief and maybe a hint of surrender? The girls look over to her and sighs. 

“Come on mom, I want to go now.” Rainie says as Gui caught the genuine smile Reen had on her face. “It’s over mom.” 

“Augh, I can’t believe you girls are giving up. I always thought you were the good girl Ying Jie, the one who will forgive and let us continue to live with you in the estate.”

“Stop trying to pin all of this on her.” The words Rainie told her mom shocked her. “W-W-What did y-you my beautiful daughter s-say?!”

“I wouldn’t forgive you if you burned all my clothes and shoes mom, I didn’t understand it now but after seeing all my things being packed up, I am just glad that I didn't have to go through what you put Ying Jie through. You can’t even bring those things back… they have been thrown into the fire after-all.” Everyone gasps at Reen who shrugs. “So mom, let’s go before anything else happens.”

“Y-Y-You! How dare you talk to your mom like this!” Stepmother Wu looks at Ying Jie. “How dare you make them say this to me!”

She was about to slap her when Ying Jie caught her hand. “Y-Y-Y-YOUUU! UNHAND ME RIGHT NOW!”

“I want you to leave right now. You have no control over me anymore.”

Rainie and Reen took their mother by the hand. “Let’s go.” Reen whispers as the sisters look at each other once more. “This is it, bye Ying Jie.” Gui found it hard to say bye so she give them a small nod. She follows them out, watching Reen and Rainie quietly her out before she does anything she will regret. 

After the car was no longer in sight, Gui walks back inside and traces her steps into the library where she finds herself sitting on the ledge. She didn’t feel like reading, she didn't feel like doing anything, she was just staring blankly through the window at the garden. 

“I’m proud of you Gui.” She didn’t have to look at the person to know that it was Dean. “I’m really proud of you Ghost.”

She found herself crying. Dean leans back and smiles. He would offer a tissue but she wouldn’t accept it. Thats just the way she is.

“I’m curious, why didn’t you get her to sign the divorce papers? I would’ve done everything I could to cut my ties with her.”

“I don’t know why my dad choose to marry her. I don’t know what they saw in each other but marrying her was not my choice, it was my dad’s. I know he wanted a mother figure for me but I can’t bring myself to force her to sign for divorce. So I decided to leave it there. Aren’t I silly?” She explained to Dean.

In addition to all this, there was one more important factor she noticed. A fool can’t be blind to this. Stepmom can’t stand Ying Jie being the child of the women who he married first. She found love in Mr. Wu but it wasn’t the feeling of love that tied the two together, it was one-sided. Her father wanted a mother figure in Ying Jie’s life but he didn’t know that stepmom harboured feelings for him. Thus, whenever stepmom saw Ying Jie, her stomach knots and the reason why she treated her the way she does. 

Dean shakes his head. “I am proud of you, really.”

“Thank you.”

“My dad feels the same way. He wants to let you know how proud he is.”

Then Dean passes her a tissue. “Do you want to wipe it away or do I have to?” Gui smiles, taking the tissue from him. She can't help but smile at the thought, there was a time in her teeenage years where she fell for his charms. Would he be her first love? 

“Okay, here’s what we are going to do. We have to celebrate this huge change in your life and I have been instructed to bring you to Juifen, everyone will be there.”

“Jiufen? Aaron’s hometown?” A smile broke out of his face. “What’s happening there?”

“Do you really want to know…” He leans in. “Sorry, can’t ruin the surprise.” 

When he pulls back and flashes that signature grin, Gui wanted to wipe it off his face but she can’t bring herself to so she joins in and smiles with him. Yes, he was her first love. “Come on, you don’t want to miss this.” 

"If I ask Aaron, will he give in and tell his sweet girlfriend?"

"Ask him, I will like to hear what he has to say." Gui playfully punches him on the arm as they make their way to Jiufen.

—Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick—

How many ticks can one man listen to without going crazy? Aaron walks out of the house and admires the clear, ambient scenery before him. He can almost lie down on the floor, put a hat over his face to hide the sunshine and sleep if he wanted to. It was that kind of day. If it wasn’t for his buddies tagging along, he would’ve done it.

“What’s this?” Wu Chun asks but got no response from Aaron. He signals Calvin, Show Luo, Xiao Gui and Jiro to come over. “What did you find?” The boys eyes widen when they saw the sketch Aaron put together.

It was a rough sketch off a ring with roman numeral numbers all around. Aaron looks over at his buddies who suddenly pounced on him, dangling the sketch right in front of him. He took a chance to take it back but he knew he wouldn’t succeed with all of them on him. “You live up to your nickname oil-stains.” As his friends continues to joke around, Aaron grunts, he was never going to hear the end of this.

Somewhere down the future, this sketch will be the real thing. It will take him down on one knee and propose the next important question he will have to ever say in his lifetime. 

Some girls dream of finding their glass slippers but that’s not the case in this alternative telling.

The End, thank you.