Cheng Lan still didn’t speak, staring blankly at the brilliant sunlight outside, while her heart felt moldy with dampness. Lai Hui could only discern some emotions from her eyes: anger, malice, mockery, and… There are people who, after being insulted or hurt, think not of recovery or reflection but of revenge; without a plan, they fall into a state of self-fantasy, imagining various ways to retaliate. The more she was hurt, the more she fantasized about revenge a hundredfold, a thousandfold, finding a twisted pleasure in the imagined torment of her enemies. Lai Hui saw that gleeful light in Cheng Lan’s eyes, a light she was very familiar with. In elementary school, the naughtiest boy in class bullied her, drawing a mustache on her face with a brush. After school, her arch-enemy, Xiao Lu, deliberately came over, bent down to look at her face, and exclaimed, “Wow, Lai Hui, look at your face, it’s so ugly!” The students around all looked at her curiously, some covering their mouths to laugh, others laughing out loud. Lai Hui ran home crying, and in the mirror, she was indeed ugly! After washing her face, she sat in front of the mirror, fantasizing about Xu Wenqiang from “The Bund” being her brother, beating up the boy who bullied her, and publicly scolding Xiao Lu: “You’re the ugly one!”
Now, recalling, the eyes in the mirror were no different from Cheng Lan’s. Lai Hui sat with her for a while before leaving, hoping Cheng Lan would, like her, forget about it in a year or two. Just like how the boy who bullied her became her good friend in high school, and Xiao Lu was only someone to compare hairstyles and outfits with, not a real enemy. Although as a child, she listed the boy and Xiao Lu as her arch-enemies, vowing to take revenge when she grew up! Did she get revenge? No! Life has too many hardships to remember them all. If Cheng Lan faced the loss of a loved one like she did, she wondered if she’d still think that giving up everything for love was worth it! One could say Lai Hui wasn’t loyal, but getting slapped was really just a small matter! Even though she was also scared yesterday!
In the VIP ward on the seventh floor, Lai Ru Yun was awakened by the voices of Xiao Yu and Lai Hui. Her cloudy eyes circled around before settling on Lai Hui, her wrinkled, yellowish face smiling, “Not working today?” Lai Hui peeled a lychee and put it in her mouth, catching the seed in her palm, “Mom remembers the dates quite well. I finished my work, so I came to see you.” Xiao Yu spread out a hot towel to wipe Lai Ru Yun’s face, interrupting, “Didn’t you see the calendar, Sister Hui? Your birthday and holidays, Aunt made sure I noted them down, and she always tells me when you’re off—” Lai Hui approached the bedside; the calendar on the table was facing Lai Ru Yun, visible as soon as she turned her head. She took the towel from Xiao Yu and carefully wiped her mother’s hands, which were now thin and peeling, hands that once could braid her hair and style it fashionably for clients, now needing others to move them. For five years, she had been her mother’s only pillar, counting the days for her “holidays” to visit. As the hot towel passed over the back of her hand, the skin felt wet, the sweat and white flakes smoothed out. A flash of emotion passed through Lai Hui’s eyes as she took out a tube of hand cream from her bag, squeezed some into her palm, and gently massaged it into Lai Ru Yun’s hands, soothingly rubbing between her fingers. “Mom, Jiayi is back!”
She could no longer think that fulfilling her mother’s life was her only duty. The reunion with Jia Yi was something she could no longer keep bottled up inside. She was so eager to share it with someone, and her mother was the one she most wanted to share her feelings with. Ru Yun excitedly opened her mouth, looked at Lai Hui with guilt, but ultimately made no sound.
“He has a girlfriend now, Mom. Don’t worry, I don’t love him anymore. We’re just friends now.” Lai Hui was rubbing her hands absentmindedly, her eyes probing her mother’s expression.
“He said he wanted to come see you. At least he still has some conscience, remembering how you always saved the best food for him back then. But I didn’t let him come. Mom, what would be the point of him coming? Just to upset you?”
“He has a girlfriend now?” Ru Yun murmured, then added, “It’s also fate. Jia Yi first came to our house, I think it was during your summer vacation. That boy was so diligent; he finished all the heavy work that we couldn’t do in just two days. I really liked him from the bottom of my heart, thinking you two would have a good future, so I didn’t object even though you were young. Sigh! Xiao Hui, since you can’t turn back, don’t think about it too much!”
“I’m not overthinking it. Besides, I was the one who suggested we break up. After all these years, how could I even think of turning back?” Lai Hui pulled out a tissue, wiped her hands, and said with an air of nonchalance.
“Xiao Hui, tell me the truth, did you break up with Jia Yi because of me?” Ru Yun had always been concerned about this, and seeing her daughter willing to talk about it, she tried to ask.
“No, after we went to university, for some reason, we kept arguing. Maybe we knew each other too well, and when the flaws couldn’t be hidden anymore, we started to dislike each other.”
“Sigh, that’s because you were too young, didn’t know how to handle relationships.”
Perhaps that was it. What had happened to them back then? Lai Hui couldn’t figure it out. Love has no logic; when it loses direction, it turns to impatience, tearing at each other, hurting one another. Once lost, reason returns to the mind, and clarity comes. But with clarity comes regret!
Chapter 10
Xie Jia Yi signed his first contract since taking office with Zhou Yuqian, a subcontract for MOIO’s new product, amounting to fifty million. Apart from having his secretary transfer ten percent of the profits into Xie Jia Yi’s overseas account, Zhou Yuqian also hosted a grand entertainment for MOIO’s executives at “Emperor’s Palace,” a members-only nightclub in City A, known for “where the elite play and the masses are plentiful!”
The term “plentiful masses” indeed gave ordinary people some face; consuming there was faster than throwing money into a fire pit. To illustrate, there was once a home invasion and murder in City A where the victim was a hostess from “Emperor’s Palace.” The robber only managed to snatch two thousand dollars before she screamed for help. He covered her mouth, stabbed her a few times, and hastily grabbed some jewelry from the table before fleeing. Those pieces of jewelry fetched twenty thousand when sold, but when the police caught him, they were puzzled and asked, “Why didn’t you take the box under her bed? It had ten million in it!”
As for why that unfortunate woman didn’t bank her money but foolishly kept it under her bed, that’s another story not worth delving into, but from this, one can see the exorbitant consumption at “Emperor’s Palace.”
Zhou Yuqian reserved a suite styled after an Austrian palace. Once everyone arrived, glamorous hostesses led out a variety of beautiful women, each with their own allure, from pure to seductive, a true bouquet of flowers. Everyone picked according to their tastes. Xie Jia Yi chose a girl with a hint of “innocence” in her features, while Zhou Yuqian, a regular, had his usual companions, sparing him the effort of selection.
Amidst the red lights and wine, the “gentlemen” were soon tipsy, shedding their suits, unbuttoning their shirts, and playfully touching the girls. However, Zhou Yuqian and Xie Jia Yi left their girls aside, half-heartedly discussing unimportant business.
