Bird in a Cage

After saying their goodbyes, Tang Xin and Amy followed the program crew's vehicle to the seaside. A serene sea breeze blew from the azure sky, rustling the broad palm-colored leaves that shaded the golden beach.

The beach was crowded. A party ball event was currently underway. Girls leaped high into the air, swatting party balls toward the crowd. Whenever a youth was accidentally hit, the onlookers would cheer and jeer as the victim picked up a bottle of champagne from the cooler and downed it in one go, while the girls covered their mouths and giggled bashfully.

People in the sea wore swim rings, pushed back and forth by the rising and falling waves. Someone started it first, and then everyone began singing together. Their free, lighthearted voices echoed under the blue sky, carrying far into the distance.

Tourists smeared on sunblock and lay lazily on the sand, their skin tanned into varying shades. Some lay on beach mats, while others lay flat on their backs; the gazes behind their sunglasses were either fixed on the brilliant clear sky or the scenery beneath the girls' skirts.

Amy cursed everyone on this beach with genuine malice, hating these people for being able to enjoy their vacation time, singing while drinking chilled wine, while she had to run around for the siren miracle.

Amy bared her teeth in a grimace. In her eyes, the tourists lying on the beach seemed to transform into fat, white worms wriggling their pale bodies. She lifted her foot and stepped over someone's back, completely ignoring the protest from the person behind her.

Just as the man was about to lose his temper, he saw a blue-haired girl walking over from the side, offering an apology. He was instantly stunned, swearing he had never seen such a beautiful girl in his life. Her clear eyes seemed capable of holding the stars and the sea.

A long while later, his companion came over to find him prone on the ground, weeping bitterly. His companion was bewildered. "What's wrong with you?"

Recalling that white dress blooming like a blue iris, the man wiped his face, which was a mess of snot and tears, and choked out, "I saw Aphrodite on this beach."

Along the way, Tang Xin was recognized by many. Given her current popularity at the Star of Art, she was far ahead of most top-tier stars. Many young men from various families secretly vowed to capture this girl's heart and earn the envy of their peers.

Fortunately, they considered themselves noble hunters of affection and did not lower themselves to approach her directly. They merely watched from afar. In contrast, several giggling tourist couples approached with postcards, asking the girl for signatures and well-wishes.

After walking along a relatively long coastline, the sound of the ebbing tide reached their ears. In the distance, they saw a mansion. The courtyard of the mansion was overgrown with weeds and surrounded by a stone wall twice the height of a man. A sign at the entrance read: Closed, No Entry for Tourists.

As they moved closer, they saw the mansion, spanning several hundred square meters including the courtyard, sitting right on the beach. The three-story structure was already covered in dense climbing plants, looking from the outside like it was draped in a green blanket that moved with the wind.

"A-Xin, your popularity is really high now," Amy said as she naturally pulled back the caution tape and entered the mansion's perimeter.

Tang Xin dazed for a moment. She remembered that face wiping away tears in the snow and felt like she had been deceived. Unconsciously, she had reached a height that once seemed unattainable, chasing the shadow of her idol step by step alongside the blonde girl to reach where she was today.

Tang Xin followed her into the mansion. The photographer behind them held his camera, his sturdy body struggling to step over the yellow caution tape before giving them an OK gesture.

The two nodded and pushed open the rusted iron gate, stepping into the mansion's courtyard. The garden had been taken over by green ivy, the flowers and plants in the pots had withered, and the once-shaped bushes had grown into bizarre, grotesque forms. Despite the vibrant life within the courtyard, it gave off an indescribable sense of deathly silence.

Amy pushed aside the weeds that reached her waist and said, "Why were you so resistant to the Winter family before, A-Xin? I heard that guy Ayin Winter sent people to the Iris Orphanage several times to take you away, but you refused every time."

"The Iris Orphanage—that's the one in the Keyboard District, right? The educational resources in a place like that must be terrible."

"All the children at the Green Emerald Orphanage receive specialized one-on-one services."

"If you were willing, and grew up under the resources of the Winter family, wouldn't your fame as a Starry Singer have been known to everyone much sooner?"

As she spoke, Amy didn't get a response from Tang Xin. She turned around and found Tang Xin standing still, saying nothing.

"What's wrong?"

Tang Xin remained silent. She remembered a scene from a long, long time ago. That woman, after getting drunk, went mad and rushed into the orphanage. Classes were in session, and the strange woman embraced her young self under the bewildered gazes of countless people. The woman said she had the man from the Winter family wrapped around her little finger, and that she could finally come for her, to acknowledge her as her daughter and take her to a better place.

In every word, that woman reeking of alcohol emphasized how powerful that man was, what kind of family she had married into, and how many social classes she had leaped across.

She hadn't known this woman. Only later did she learn from the orphanage director's mouth that this woman was the mother who gave birth to her.

The woman said she had already planned her future for her. As long as she went to the Winter family with her, she just had to find a man in the family to marry later. She said she was a Starry Singer, a coveted prize, and that the people in the family would surely fight over her.

She had been less than eight years old at the time, yet she listened to her biological mother trying to give away her future to a man over forty years old. She listened to the woman telling her she should be submissive, learn to be obedient, and please the people in that family.

Perhaps the woman was just raving in her drunkenness, or perhaps that was truly what the woman thought in her heart.

From that moment on, she understood that the woman had no affection for this daughter she had never met. Coming to find her wasn't about giving her a better life; she only wanted to use her as a stepping stone to establish herself within the Winter family.

Her thoughts gradually returned to the present. Tang Xin said, "I don't want my future to be controlled by others. I don't want to be a puppet, and I certainly don't want to lose even the right to choose for myself."

Amy realized she might have said the wrong thing. "Sorry, I didn't know about your past, A-Xin."

Tang Xin shook her head and said nothing more.

Let bygones be bygones?

She could not tolerate such a sentiment.

If all suffering could be dismissed so casually, should those who endure the injustices of fate simply be lectured by those in higher positions?

Compromising with the heavens time and again, reconciling with fate time and again.

Should a person simply be submissive, constantly numbing themselves with that sentence as they grow up through repeated harm?

Whether it was her peers in the orphanage, the people at the academy, or the people in the families, everyone compared her to that woman. The word 'filthy' was too painful for her, too piercing to the eyes.

Because of that woman, she had suffered much unjust bullying and treatment. Even to this day, her lack of initiative and her weak personality were like a Secret Malice Poison the world had inflicted upon her, deeply etched into the innermost depths of her heart.

During their conversation, the two arrived before the main doors of the Siren Mansion. The two weathered red-wood door panels loomed before them, exuding a heavy atmosphere.

Tang Xin pressed her hand against the door and slowly pushed inward.

One day, she would break free from all shackles and fly out of the cage.