Your Love Rival.

Liu Xiyue's smile faltered on hearing the question.

Heck! She was going all crazy because of this lady and she was not even aware of her love rival. Had she never seen the news of her getting linked with First Young Master?

Indeed. Jiang Ying Yue had really never watched the news, she had heard about the rumours of them but never paid attention to those because according to her, she would be the world's biggest fool if she believed what she saw and heard.

Moreover, she was really not aware of the identity or name of that woman. All she knew was that she belonged to the family who had been long-time friends with the Lin.

Staying in the City S, amidst the upper-class families for a couple of years had given her a lesson that whatever you see, heard or speak always had a second side to it. No matter whether that is a situation or a person.

"Well...you did not recognise me?"

"It's alright, let me introduce myself. I am Liu Xiyue, Old Madam Liu's granddaughter."

"Oh." Jiang Ying Yue's attention was diverted toward the paintings as she continued admiring them. Most of the paintings displayed in the exhibition were Chinese art which was purely delineating the essence of life through nature. Landscapes, birds, trees, flowers, mountains and everything that signifies life were what the paintings involved.

It was wonderful how most of the paintings embraced and implied the same base; nature, yet the combination of each stroke, use of widely divergent colours, shapes, techniques, tones, and textures engendered different expressions of sentiments, emotions, angles, slant, attitude and chiefly manifested a sense of beauty and life.

It was mesmerising!

The art galleries she visited in Europe were different in terms of the expressions depicted in paintings. They were more of presenting the actual real-life illusions that also symbolized life but often failed in evolving the sense of life, unlike Chinese art.

She was certainly not interested in having any more conversations with Liu Xiyue. On top of that, call her rude but the girl was not giving her a good vibe. It was much better if she stayed away from Liu Xiyue if she planned to not go through some other messed-up issue today.

Seeing that she was going like this, Liu Xiyue started panicking.

Oh no! She can't go like this!!!

How would she know about Brother Lin then?!!

"Umm...Miss Jiang, how is brother Lin? Ever since we had to forcefully break u- oh sh** I mean I have not heard from him since you guys got married...he was feeling guilty and depressed because of the sudden marriage back when he came to meet me for the last time so I was wondering if he was still the same or have he started living normally?"

Jiang Ying Yue finally paused in her steps, thinking she had hit the nail on the head and gave rise to envy, Liu Xiyue started rejoicing.

So what if you are the one enjoying the lifestyle of Young Madam Lin, jealousy is a more brutal emotion that takes away every joy of life.

Still standing with her back facing Liu Xiyue, Jiang Ying Yue chuckled as if she heard a nice joke. Not bothering to even move her body, she only tilted back her head slightly to meet Liu Xiyue's eyes, "I don't understand what you are exactly trying to do but if you are that much bothered about his condition...call him."

"I believe his number should be still the same...so he would definitely pick up your call unless you are somebody who has never been important enough to him or whom he did not want to talk with. But that should not be the case with how you just described your relationship to be."

"So call him. Now if you are done please stop bothering me by coming on my way and I request you to not hinder my sightseeing."

Sightseeing? Liu Xiyue's eyes blankly stared at the back of the departing person. What sightseeing? It was just an art gallery not some vacation spot...!!!

And why the heck whatever she just spoke did not seem...to perturb her? Could it be that their relationship was not even that close that whatever he did with his life couldn't even make Jiang Ying Yue give a damn about it?

If that was really the case... then she would have to notify her Grandmother as soon as she could. Probably they still had a chance with First Young Master. Thinking of this Liu Xiyue started jumping up and down in happiness completely forgetting about where she was.

Coning back to reality, she saw people staring at her weirdly. Giving them awkward smile, Liu Xiyue sprinted off to where her Grandmother was.

Jiang Ying Yue was not worried about whatever nonsense the other person had just uttered. She already knew half of what Liu Xiyue verbalised deliberately was a lie. The way she was trying so hard to make her believe that something was between her and Mr Lin already gave her away.

If she had wished for her to fall for the provoking so much, she should have come with the acting skills that could match what she was saying. With those acting skills, she could never succeed. The glint of glee radiating from her face and eyes was just too hard for Jiang Ying Yue to ignore.

She was somehow missing Qin Zihao as she went far in the gallery. He was more knowledgeable regarding paintings as he had mentioned how he once learnt paintings for a couple of years to impress someone.

Moreover, he was better at dealing with people than her with his humorous approach whereas she was pretty direct with her words about what she wished.

Or she should have just asked Zhou Jingyi to accompany her.

Coming across one of the paintings, she was amazed by awe as that painting took her breath away. It was simply...too beautiful!

The painting was from the ancient period. The landscape constitutes of crystal clear waterfall running between the two cliffs, falling with a burbling sound on the surface and then making its way from between the huge rocks to flow as a river to approach the nearest village which was enhancing nothing but peace.

Trees, shrubs, a variety of beautifully coloured flowers on the side of the river, birds flying up high in the sky, small huts of the village and a very beautiful palace right in the middle of the landscape, surrounded by the breathtaking green steep hills was a feast for the eyes.

Jiang Ying Yue was not sure if it was allowed but if possible she would like to buy this.

Watching her looking at the painting so intently, the assistant of the section who had just given detail of one of the paintings to someone else approached her, "Would you like a description of this painting, Mam?"

"Oh- yes please."

"The origin of the painting exactly is not known and even who the painter was. But going through the techniques and the canvas used, it can be dated back to the 3rd century. The painting is one of how other ancient Chinese paintings are but what makes this one different is how beautifully it is stroked. The technique used was pretty popular during the 3rd century but even it is displayed uniquely."

"The landscape is so beautifully painted making us arrive at the conclusion that it was painted imagining how the painter wished for the reality to be as back at that time, villages and palaces were not modified to the extent as much are shown in the painting."

"Or it could also be that he was illustrating his life through the medium of landscape. Might be that his reality was different from how he wished the reality to be."

"There are so many scenarios one could reach while thinking about this painting. Every great artist had shared their different view regarding the inspiration behind it so making it a mystery that what exactly the painter was thinking as emotions depicting through it is so intense."

"Can I buy it?"

The assistant was shocked. She was probably the first person who wanted to buy it. For the past few years, it was put every year in the exhibition and initially its position used to be right in the middle. But after hearing the exceptionally great price of this particular painting due to its unknown origin most of the people lost their interest in it as they found it no different from other paintings.

So gradually it lost its importance.

"Mam, I would like you to check its price first."

"No need for that, I will buy it."