A Graduation Gift

Cassandra looked around the auction hall and all she could see were a number of unfriendly, snooty and self-obsessed faces.
Attending the auction with the Tang family was the last thing Cassandra wanted to do. More so when Rufus counldn't come
along, she thought she would just somehow kill the time alone by attending this activity. But having to meet Cloris and Ivy just
made it more suffocating for her. It's true when they say one can't avoid one's enemy.
Ivy's voice pierced through the silence of the hall. And then it was soon followed by the price chasing game.
Four million, five million, six million...and suddenly there were numbers buzzing and paddles being raised all across the hall.
The most stylish women, the who's who of the city, graced the hall persistently and passionately by raising their paddles for
many top lots. Everyone's eyes were sparkling with hope, expecting that they could win the precious gown.
"Eight million!"
Lyndsy raised her paddle and uttered her price clearly. A bunch of well styled heads turned towards her following her voice.
A live broadcast of this spectacular event was going on over the giant screen. The camera panned on Lyndsy and Cassandra,
who were sharing the same table. And suddenly Cassandra's face flashed on the big screen. Absolutely unprepared and
unexpected, she came to be noticed by everyone in the hall which made her feel rather awkward.
Jill was the first to spot Cassandra. She opened her mouth in surprise and patted Ivy on the shoulder.
"Look, Ivy!" And she pointed at the screen.
Ivy moved her eyes to follow the direction Jill was pointing at and looked towards the screen. And her eyes stilled over the two
most elegant and gorgeous faces as pretty as roses. They were so attractive and bereft of any kind of malice.
Over the screen Lyndsy and Cassandra were seen exchanging looks. Lyndsy lowered her head and whispered something to
Cassandra's ear, and then both of them smiled happily. The beautiful camaraderie shared by the two of them made quite a sight
for the eyes that were gazing up at the screen.
The amity shared between them, made people who did not know much about them feel that they were such close friends.
However, Ivy could not keep her eyes on the smiling face of Cassandra for a long time.
She just turned her face promptly towards Jill and said, "Auntie Jill, I had planned to win this dress for your collection. But now it
seems to be a difficult task. Look at her, Cassandra's friend, Lyndsy. It looks like she is holding the trump card,"

Ivy clenched her paddle and gritted her teeth. No matter what the result would be, she had to at least win Jill's faith.
Jill's face became ashen as she fixed her seething gaze at Cassandra—the one woman she could not bear the sight of. She
could clearly remember how the Tang family had a narrow escape from getting involved in a law suit thanks to Cassandra's act of
plagiarism. That woman was the root cause. Had it not been for Horace who defended Cassandra, she would have bombarded
her with every cursing word she knew.
Jill muttered under her breath, 'Her mistake was an unpardonable blunder. But shouldn't she be locking up in the room and
reflecting on herself? How dare she show up so happily at this auction? What a shameless woman!'
Sitting on the chair, Lionel could not stop himself from admiring the radiant beauty of Cassandra that was a befitting match to the
elegant Lyndsy who was sitting by her side. His gaze froze at her mildly smiling face as he thought, 'People who did not know
her must have thought her to be a star or something like that.'
Ivy peeked at Lionel only to find that his eyes were fixed on the screen. She winced her face as the look on Lionel's face tugged
at her heartstring but on the wrong note.
She kept her eyes painfully fixed on Lionel, witnessing his admiration towards Cassandra. And her mind went back to the time
when she had seen the same gaze in his eyes before. It was the time when Lionel met her for the first time. She remembered
how he stared at her silently with such deep eyes. Lionel seemed absolutely unalarmed by Ivy's eyes being on him as he could
not remove his gaze from Cassandra's face.
Knowing that Ivy could not compete with Lyndsy, Jill was not reconciled at all. That woman, Lyndsy, seemed to be quite intimate
with Cassandra. In any case, Jill decided that she would not allow Lyndsy to win that dress. She thought that was the most she
could do to make Cassandra feel upset.
"Ten Million!"
thus Jill raised her paddle and called out her price.
The well groomed heads turned once again to follow the voice and there was pin drop silence in the hall as everybody just
exchanged looks with absolutely startled eyes. Ten million! This price just went far beyond everybody's reach.
Lyndsy maintained a cool and nonchalant expression on her face. Rather she just smiled distantly, with disdainful and teasing
expression on her face. Her lips curved to one side as she cast a quick glance on Jill. Then raising her paddle with a decided
look, she uttered, "Twenty million!"

Everyone gasped at the bid now. It was just too high!
Ivy was stunned as well. She was surprised to hear Jill's bid price since she had never expected Jill to be so excited to bid for
herself. But what was more surprising was that Lyndsy offered twenty million at one time!
Jill was infuriated. The breathing pattern changed as she sat there seething in anger. She was not ready to take this challenge
lying down. Jill straightened her spine, clasped her paddle and readied herself to announce her bid. But Ivy held her hand and
stopped her.
"Auntie Jill, don't. She came here to win today!"
Jill was unwilling to give in. She could not tolerate others challenging her or competing with her. What took the peace of her mind
all the more was that Lyndsy was Cassandra's friend!
She narrowed her eyes towards Cassandra. Now she hated her all the more.
Finally, Lyndsy won the dress. At the end of the auction, Michelle invited Lyndsy to give the winner's speech.
Lyndsy accepted the invitation. There was a mysterious smile on her face as she addressed the guests who were present in the
hall, "Here I'd like to announce something openly. Hopefully, you're not thinking me to be hitting the headline."
Everyone looked at the enigmatic Lyndsy, the winner of the best actress award on the film festival that took place not so long
ago, waiting for her to speak.
"I wanted to win the dress today. But I did not want it for my own collection. I wanted to make some contribution to the rare
diseases foundation. This dress once belonged to a princess. I'm afraid it will only get piled up on my shelf if I take it home, and
I'll be the only one to appreciate its beauty, which is not something that I want. I don't want it to stay idle inside my wardrobe,"
she paused for a second and then continued, "therefore, I'd like to send it to one of my friends.
And this friend of mine is, Cassandra Qin!"
The very mention of the name broke the silence inside the hall and the noise of low voices and whispers spread through the hall.
Everyone was surprised and started discussing with each other, "Cassandra Qin? Who is Cassandra?"
Jill literally bounced out of her seat. Her eyes popped out as she stared at Lyndsy. This was just unbelievable for her.
"What?"

Cassandra was flabbergasted to hear her name in Lyndsy's mouth. She stared at her with her jaws dropped.
It was the first time that she had met Lyndsy. Even though they had spoken to each other, she had merely just told Lyndsy her
name. But Lyndsy smiled happily revealing her intention to pass on the dress to Cassandra. Cassandra creased her brows and
tried to decipher the reason behind this gesture shown by Lyndsy.
Why did Lyndsy want to give the dress to Cassandra? Cassandra was utterly confused and shocked.
Was this a free lunch? That was just too shocking to be real. Cassandra could not believe her ears!
Lyndsy looked at Cassandra with a smile on her face. The shutterbugs followed Lyndsy's eyes and in a matter of a few moments
the cameras started flashing in front of Cassandra's face, blinding her with the lights.
The Miss Etiquette walked towards Cassandra and led her to the center of the stage. Cassandra's mind was in a mess. She just
followed the Miss Etiquette like a puppet and stood on the stage looking completely blank. Now, since she was on the stage
already, she could not shy away from making a speech.
She took a deep sigh and thought how she wanted to keep a low-profile attending this auction. And now things turned out to be
completely the other way round.
Cassandra forced a smile on her face and greeted the guests. Her addressing speech was proper and decent, receiving a well
deserving round of applause.
Looking at Cassandra getting all the media attention, Cloris clenched her fists in anger and jealousy.
'Why? Why Cassandra is always so lucky? Lyndsy even promised to send such an expensive and precious dress as a gift to
her!' Cloris thought to herself.
"Your sister is not destined to be an ordinary girl. She will eventually get on a bigger stage and become famous!"
Arthur commented to Cloris while applauding with others.
"Yeah, sure. My sister is excellent, as always!"
Cloris held back her anger and smiled sweetly. However, in her mind, she was seething with anger and cursing Cassandra.
Jill stood up with a dark face.

"Let's go! There is nothing interesting here anymore. What a hypocrite!"
Ivy stood up as well to show regards to Jill. Seeing the seething anger on Jill's face, she felt somewhat delighted.
She heaved a sigh trying to conceal her smile. After this, Cassandra had hit the top place in Jill's hate list. What else could Ivy
ask for?
'Oh, Cassandra! Even though you had that dress, you have lost it badly with Jill! No one can help you, well, too bad, ' Ivy thought
to herself.
The auction was over. Cassandra bit her lower lip as she felt awkward to receive the dress. She hesitated as she approached
Lyndsy, trying to find words to reject her gift.
"Lyndsy, I really appreciate your being so nice to me. But it's just...this gift is too expensive. I just can't accept it,"
Cassandra stated in an extremely earnest tone. In her opinion, pretending to accept the gift politely and giving a thankful speech
in front the media were enough. She could never accept such an expensive gift from anyone, no matter what. It was worth
twenty million, after all!
"Actually, the gift is not from me. Someone wants to gift it to you through my hands. You don't need to thank me."
Lyndsy smiled as she raised her eyebrows and caught the petrified look on Cassandra's clueless face when she heard Lyndsy's
words.
"Not from you?" Then who is it from?"
Cassandra thought Lyndsy was trying to convince her to accept the dress by coming up with an excuse. It was Lyndsy who bade
during the auction. There was no one else with her. Was it possible that there was someone who made her to do this on his or
her behalf?
"Why don't you just stop asking? Someone asked me to do this today. But what happened on the red carpet earlier was
absolutely unexpected. You have helped me. And I got to know you better. So, have I been a good actress today? What do you
say? Huh?"
Lyndsy smiled mysteriously as she spoke. She really liked Cassandra. Not everyone would like to offer a hand to a stranger,
after all. Most of the time, people would prefer to stay away from such hassles.

However, questions kept popping in Cassandra's mind. Someone asked her to do this? Cassandra's face became tense as she
tried hard to figure out the mind behind this act.
Whoever it was must have been equally influential and wealthy to have asked the best actress to put up this act? And how much
that person might have paid her for this act?
Why that 'someone' wanted her to do this? What was his purpose by sending her this expensive dress?
As Cassandra remained lost in her thoughts, Lyndsy left the hall guarded by her bodyguards. Finding Cassandra standing alone
with a stiff frown on her face oblivious to the surrounding, Michelle walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder to bring her
back from her reverie.
"How do you feel? I'm afraid you will really hit the headline tomorrow. Oh my god! A twenty million's dress. He is so generous!"
'He!' Cassandra seemed have grabbed a clue in her words. She turned towards her hastily and asked, "Do you know him?"
Cassandra opened her eyes widely as she requested for the information from Michelle. She felt that the truth was about to come
out.
"Ha ha. A play on my stage. How could I not know him?"
Michelle replied with a question and smiled. She felt that Cassandra was pretty cute with her eyes staring wide.
"Who is he? Please don't keep me guessing. I have to return it to him,"
Cassandra pleaded Michelle for the answer. The dress worth twenty million was just like a hot potato. She could not bear to hold
it for long, especially not knowing who it was from.
"I promised him to keep it a secret. So I'm afraid I can't tell you now. But don't worry. I'm sure you'll come to know about it very
soon! There's still something I need to take care of. I have to go now. Bye."
Michelle walked away after finishing her words, leaving Cassandra alone. A possible name was wandering in her mind. The
name of the mysterious man was on the tip of her tongue.
She could not believe that it could be him. But he was the only possible one.
When her dress got spoilt the other day and she ran on the street aimlessly, he had told her, "Don't be afraid, Cassandra. I will
send you a unique dress later. I promise you!"