Mysterious masked woman

It was only after Qin Yufeng left that Bai Liyue let her tears fall. Those hot tears of pain, hurt, and hopelessness streamed down her cheeks and she squeezed her eyelids shut in the hope that her tears would stop. But, they didn't. Her choppy breathing and watery eyes remained for quite some time and she simply stood by there, unmoving.

She felt so dead inside, hopeless, exhausted, and empty. Her heart wailed in anguish and her eyes looked blank. She looked at the calm sea, wondering and wanting to numb her heart. But the more she tried to forget it, the more it hit her with pain.

All she could recall were his hurtful words of taking her dreams away from her and shattering them into several small pieces. Those words kept echoing in her ears like a terrible scene from some haunted movie. Her husband was extremely powerful and going against him would only give her more failure. At the same time, her mind recalled that stupid contract she signed before getting married to him.

She was bound by the contract. Even if she wanted to go against him, the contract wouldn't let her.

More tears gushed out of her eyes as she thought about her miserable life. Why? Why did she choose to get married to him? She jumped into the pit herself and now, there was no way out for her. Even if she wanted to separate from him, he wouldn't let her. As he said, she would already fail even before going to court.

Why?

Why was he doing this to her?

He knew how much she cared about her dreams and how passionate she was about them. Then how could he do all of this behind her back and act like a caring husband who understood her pain in front of her?

How could he stand in front of her without feeling any remorse for his actions?

Bai Liyue couldn't understand. She walked slowly towards the front of the deck and held onto the cold railings. Her teary eyes gazed at the bottomless sea, watching the calm waves blankly. Her heart wondered about her next move. All she knew was that he wasn't going to let her fulfill her dream and this wasn't sitting well with her heart.

Was this it?

No!

For three years, she had already lived a life of suffering, listening to his commands and catering to his whims and orders. She never spoke a word against him because she knew it was useless. Forgetting her real self, she lived like an obedient puppet just for the sake of the contract. But now, she was done playing that role!

She needed to do something, anything. So, what if he was the most powerful man in the entire country? So what if he was the Mafia king? She wasn't scared of him. Being an actress was her dream and nothing or nobody can stop her from achieving it. Before she didn't know what was stopping her, but now she knew.

However, how was she going to achieve her dreams when that man controlled every aspect of her life. This was the problem.

How was she going to do this?

As Bai Liyue was gazing into the sea, she suddenly felt someone's presence behind her. Thinking that it was her annoying husband again, her brows twitched with irritation. She only needed some time alone to grieve. Was he not going to let her have that too?

"Qin Yufeng!!! Why don't you understand? I only needed a few - Oh!" Bai Liyue paused. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw that it was not her husband but someone else. With an embarrassed look, she quickly apologized. "I am so sorry. I thought it was my husband."

The woman in the red gown smiled and shook her head. "It's okay. I can understand. You have a lot of things going on in your mind."

"W-what?" Bai Liyue was confused. She looked at the unknown masked woman in red and wondered why she was talking to her.

Looking at the confusion on her face, the woman in red smiled. She stood next to Bai Liyue and held onto the cold railings tightly, her eyes gazing into the starry sky. "I am sorry. I didn't mean to overhear your conversation with Mr. Qin. I simply wanted a breath of fresh air when I suddenly stumbled upon you two having a figh- a heated conversation." she said.

"You can call it a fight. I don't mind."

The woman in the red smiled. "You know, until today, I thought you were a woman running after vanity, money, and fame. But looks like I was wrong. Infact, everyone here has a wrong perception of you. Everyone here thinks that you simply married Mr. Qin because he has a lot of money while he married you because of your beautiful face."

Bai Liyue chuckled bitterly. "I know that. They don't dare to say that but I know what they think of me in their heart. After all, who I am? For them, I am just a cunning woman who succeeded in seducing the most powerful man in the country? A trophy wife, right?"

"Well, that's because no one knows the real thing. I never thought you were trying to be an actress," the woman in the red said.

"I was... but I don't know about the future," Bai Liyue sighed. Now that everything was out in the open, her chances of trying to fulfill her dreams were even less than before. Qin Yufeng declared that he would never let her do that, then he would do everything in his power to make sure that she would do as he says.

"You shouldn't let him stop you," the woman said. "No man on earth has the right to stop a woman from achieving her dreams, not even the woman's husband."

Hearing the woman's words, Bai Liyue sighed. "But how? You don't know him. If he says no, then he would never let me step inside that industry."

"Then separate from him," the woman advised.

"I want to but he won't give me a divorce."

"Well, you know, there are other ways of separating from him," the woman smiled mysteriously.

Bai Liyue frowned. "Like what?"

"Death."