Jia Yi was furious these past few days. That night, upon hearing from a classmate that Lai Hui had been looking for him, he went to her school the next afternoon. At the dormitory entrance, he encountered Xiang Qing, who was on the phone. He walked over and asked, “What is it that you can’t say over the phone?” Xiang Qing glanced around, then pulled Jia Yi into a secluded corner and whispered mysteriously, “I think I can’t hide it from you anymore. Lai Hui hasn’t returned to the dorm for several days. She took a leave from school this morning, and since she’s neither sick nor in pain, I’m curious about what’s going on. I heard —” her eyes rolled around, and she whispered into Jia Yi’s ear, “she has something going on with her boss…” Jia Yi felt a rush of blood to his head, his face turned crimson, and he glared at Xiang Qing with a fierce look, barely managing to utter, “You… nonsense! Nonsense!” Xiang Qing lamented, “Jia Yi, I’ve always liked you. I know you love Lai Hui, and I only hope for your happiness. If it weren’t for my feelings for you, I would have kept this from you like the other girls in the dorm.”
Jia Yi was stunned; his face turned even redder. He had never considered that Xiang Qing liked him, though nothing could come of it with her, her affection still greatly satisfied his male vanity. Seeing he was somewhat convinced, Xiang Qing continued, “I’ve seen Lai Hui’s boss; he brought her to school once. He’s very young, very handsome, and rich. Any woman would like him, especially since they spend so much time together.”
A mix of ice and fire, first his vanity was inflated, then extreme self-doubt chilled him to the core. One hot, one cold, truly unbearable. He still retained some rationality, asking around among students. Indeed, when Lai Hui first started working, she did stay overnight at the company to get up to speed, but others would not say it this way. They only said she hadn’t returned to the dorm for several nights, and now she had taken a week off, and he didn’t even know where she was. Jia Yi was enraged, thinking back to how Lai Hui often praised her boss in front of him. The more he thought, the more he hated, occasionally cursing, “Good, very good, so good you’re willing to crawl into his bed.”
Jia Yi also took leave to search for Lai Hui, waiting at her school gate every day from dawn until the moon was dim and the gates closed. He stood alone, his shadow sticking to the gray wall, looking so insubstantial. Sometimes, the thought of Lai Hui possibly sleeping with that unknown man tore his heart apart, and tears would unintentionally flow.
One day, he met Lai Hui’s best friend, Xu Nuo, at the school gate. He stepped forward to stop her, about to ask about Lai Hui’s whereabouts, when Xu Nuo, in panic, fled, murmuring, “I don’t know where Lai Hui went, don’t ask me.” She ran off in terror as if a ghost was chasing her for her life. Jia Yi was certain Xu Nuo knew the truth, which was why she avoided him. At that moment, he was filled with despair, only thinking, “If you want to degrade yourself, I won’t treasure you anymore. Go with whoever you want.” He still stood at the gate, just to see Lai Hui and then break up with her.
Xu Nuo indeed knew the truth, but the real truth was that when Xiang Qing pulled Jia Yi into the corner, Xu Nuo had seen it. Back in the dorm, she confronted Xiang Qing. That evening, on her way back to school from the bookstore, Xu Nuo was dragged by several men into an unfinished building. They stripped her clothes and took turns molesting her. In her despair, just as she was about to resign herself, Xiang Qing appeared. The men, cursing, said, “Just when we were getting into it.” Xiang Qing coldly said, “Remember, I made a deal with your boss, just to scare her.”
The men left, and Xiang Qing picked up Xu Nuo’s clothes from the ground and threw them at her face, grabbing her hair, warning, “Don’t meddle in other people’s business. If you dare tell Jia Yi, just wait for these men to tire of you and sell you off somewhere else.” Xu Nuo stared in terror at her roommate, unable to utter a sound, only trembling. After a long while, she finally asked, “Who are you really? Why are you doing this to me and Lai Hui?”
Xiang Qing laughed coldly, “I’m a student of a prestigious university, what else could I be? I didn’t plan to do anything to you, but you’re too meddlesome. A warning is always good. That bitch Lai Hui got me beaten; how could I not take something back from her?” Her expression turned even colder, “Let me make it clear, I sold Lai Hui to a gang leader for a hundred thousand. I’ve already taken the money. If you dare mess things up, I can’t guarantee what that leader might do to you.”
Xu Nuo forgot how she returned to school. The streets were lit with neon lights, dazzling like brocade, but she moved like a frightened bird, dodging every passerby. Occasionally, someone brushed past her, and she would scream in terror. Is there any law in this world? Could anyone hear such a desperate cry? Did the enforcers know of such lawless bullying? This was a city of death — at twenty-one, Xu Nuo learned not to trust any living person.
Chapter 29
Both Jia Yi and Lai Hui remembered that day it was drizzling, with a misty, not-quite-foggy spring chill. The school wall outside was soaked, showing patches of dark purple. The sycamore trees by the road had shed their leaves, with green moss covering the roots, piling up like a heap of glistening jade, sparkling with water droplets. They stood under the sycamore tree, the rustling sound filling the air. Lai Hui held a black-and-white checked umbrella; from a distance, it looked like a white house with a black roof. She tried to move the “roof” to shelter Jia Yi, to shield him from the rain and mist, but he coldly pushed it away with his hand, flipping the umbrella. The black umbrella rolled several times on the road.
“Let’s break up!” Jia Yi, who had stood outside the school gate for several nights, had a pale face and purple lips from the cold.
“I didn’t hear you clearly!” Her voice was so low and soft as if she didn’t want him to hear or repeat it.
“I said, let’s break up, Lai Hui, I don’t want you anymore!”
