Chapter 277 - Kindness Is Repaid (2/2)
His reaction earned him a giggle before Xiu lifted her hand to ruffle his hair catching him off-guard. But as he opened his mouth to show his displeasure, Xiu's hand shifted to the side of his face as she stared right into his eyes. As he saw, her eyes softened and so did her voice as she continued, ”More importantly, Dylan, you're that special person who made me finally realize that Chen Xiu wasn't just a failure.”
Dylan stared back at her in bewilderment while she added, ”You made me realize that I never hated being an artist. In fact, I loved it when I could connect with people through my acting. But till the end, what I hated was being a celebrity. A celebrity who had no right to freedom. In fact, I wasn't even allowed to laugh, cry, love or hate. But everyone else was allowed to peep into my privacy. Everyone had a say about how I should love MY life except for me.
”You said Chen Xiu was like a breath of fresh air in your life. She was your smile. You said she made you fall in love with life itself, but do you know what life was for her?” Dylan was in a daze; just looking at the emotions stirring in her eyes. He could feel her pain through her words, so much that the rims of his eyes turned red as he shook his head. Xiu tried to offer him a smile as she went on, ”Life was a prison for her. A prison she had no way of escaping.”
”You're right, she lacked everything in life that you had. But that phenomenal way of her life that you described was wrong. You seem to have a wrong impression of me, I wasn't the goddess you actually believed me to be. The reason why I seemed so hopeful was that a caged bird only has hope. The hope of freedom. I was also like that. I only had hope in life.”
She caressed his face as she breathed, ”Thank you for loving Chen Xiu. Thank you for loving the girl who couldn't love herself. And thank you for making her realize that she didn't work in vain. Because trust me, it feels good to know that I was once able to inspire someone like you. Also, thank you for not letting the dreams of those kids break after I chose to give up on life.”
”You know that?” Dylan croaked out.
Xiu nodded her head slightly, ”My baby told me what you did for me. It means a lot to me.”
Indeed, when Darren told her that the orphanage she used to visit had been taken over by Dylan, she was really shocked. And even more so when she learned that he had taken over her project of making others dreams come true.
Dylan couldn't help himself as a tear fell down his eye. Instead of saying anything, he hugged her and muttered, ”You're an idiot if you think that you were a failure. You were anything but a failure. Actually, you're foolish. Do you even realize how many people had been graced with your kindness? How can you even think that kindness won't be returned? Even if people forget, the universe has a way to repay your kindness with kindness. Especially for someone like you who put a roof above hundreds of kids and put a smile on millions of faces.”
At that moment, Dylan knew one thing for sure. The person before him was his goddess Xiu. But the real her. Not the version he had imagined, instead this was the real her; the one he didn't know. And realizing that she was really alive made him feel comfortable and relaxed.