Chapter 177 - 4.3

No one had ever thought that such a vile action could be executed, but it did.

A man, who proclaimed himself as a fan of Xu Jiaqi loved her so much that he.. kidnapped her.

The kidnapping lasted for seven days in total. A whole week where each second felt like hell to the little Xu Jiaqi.

In those seven days, he treated Xu Jiaqi like a broken music box. He bought a cheap violin using whatever money he had left before he started up his plan. After fleeing with Xu Jiaqi, he forced her to play the instrument over and over again. He forced her to sing with a smile, just like the way she did inside the shows she did.

Since Xu Jiaqi was riddled with pure fear of this crazy situation, she couldn't perform well. How could she still smile when faced with this sort of situation?

She played the songs as tears rolled down her cheeks, her sobs interrupting the bizarre sounds coming out of the instrument because her hands were shaky. It created an extremely heartbreaking performance that would draw pity from a normal person.

But not the culprit, not him.

When this happened, he would curse at her and even hit her sometimes, saying that she was a fraud and that she was untalented. That she was worthless for not being able to play properly in front of him, a fan. He didn't even provide her with proper meals, nor did he let her sleep peacefully.

He was a man with a broken soul. He was incapable of feeling the slightest bit of pity as he dealt with Xu Jiaqi like she was an object.

It was like he deliberately aimed to make Xu Jiaqi's life hell even though she hadn't done anything to him.

The perpetrator had been embroiled with a series of tough situations. He used to have a stable job and a happy family, but everything crumbled down as he got into large debts for gambling. He lost his job, his wife, and his daughter. His mind was crushed again and again, and he began to harbor negative thoughts when he saw Xu Jiaqi's shining presence.

She was the complete opposite of him. She was so bright and lively, like a ray of sunlight. While he had to live day by day struggling to even get a spoonful of rice because nobody wanted to associate themselves with him.

He was rather smart, too smart for his own good. He was able to locate and identify Xu Jiaqi's schedules. The child would of course not be watched 24/7, even if she had a tight schedule. He was prepared to leave everything behind, and was eerily fixated in achieving his goal of kidnapping Xu Jiaqi.

His reason was that Xu Jiaqi looked similar to his daughter. It was a nonsensical reason. Because Xu Jiaqi, except for possessing the same hair and eye color, didn't hold a speck of resemblance whatsoever to the pictures of his daughter.

Perhaps, it wasn't Xu Jiaqi. The target of his deeds wasn't only the innocent child, but also her family as a whole. The Xu family was successful and had a lot of fame to their name as a harmonious family. They've held a reality show where they showcased a day of their lives, and the viewers could see how happy they were as they spent their lives together.

Their bright smiles and overflowing happiness. For someone like the bastard kidnapper, perhaps it was a deadly blow to his mind. A vivid trigger for his past.

Still, for that sort of reason, he killed a little girl's soul.

There was nothing that could pardon his crime. He was imprisoned, and Xu Jiaqi's family made sure that he would get the worst punishments possible. However, the man did not even get a lifetime sentence in prison, meaning that he would have to get out one day and be released into the world.

But Xu Jiaqi, the little girl, would always remember the incident that scarred her forever. She would never be able to recover from the pain, and would always have to suffer in the shadow of her trauma.

Xu Jiaqi, who was traumatized by the incident found herself unable to bear the same love she had for music in the past any longer. Every time she tried to pick up her instruments, her hands trembled, and she wouldn't be able to play the pieces that she once performed in front of thousands of people waiting to see and support her.

She could no longer sing with a pure heart like she once did. It was like an object was permanently lodged inside her throat. Every time she tried to sing, she would remember the feeling of her throat burning after being strained so much when she was kidnapped and forced to sing anything the man wanted. She still remembers his loud shouts that would hurt her ear. She remembered her own wails when she broke down. The voices that haunted her every night when she went to sleep.

Talking took a toll on her, not to mention carrying out entire songs. Singing was now an impossible thing for her.

Xu Jiaqi lost her passion in music and had her mental state plummet down to the ground. She began to distance herself from people, having an innate fear of everybody else. Even the smallest gestures like reaching out their hands to her would freak her out and make her cower. She associated music with extremely negative thoughts even though it was the subject that she used to adore the much in the past.

Ultimately, she was a child. In the stages of life, are children not the most impressionable phase out of all of them?

This was just the beginning. One of the disasters that existed in her life. It was not the end, not at all.

There were still many more trials and challenges that were waiting for her to fall into.