The elevator slowly descended from the twenty-eighth floor.
Lin Qingqian’s pale face was reflected in the mirrored walls.
She raised her hand and gently touched her swollen, reddened cheek.
It hurt, but more than that, she felt numb.
Chen Ge had smashed her phone just moments ago. The screen was pitch-black, and it would not turn on.
Fortunately, she had backed up all her important data, and her contacts had long since been synced to the cloud.
It was just that she could not even call a car now.
The elevator reached the first floor, and the doors opened.
The apartment lobby was brightly lit. The security guard sat behind the front desk, playing on his phone. When he saw her come out, he looked up and greeted her. “Miss Lin, heading out?”
Lin Qingqian smiled and nodded. “Mm.”
The moment she stepped out of the apartment building, the cold winter wind, mixed with fine rain, struck her in the face.
She straightened her back and strode into the curtain of rain.
It was already half past nine at night, and there were very few pedestrians on the street.
Streetlamps cast dim yellow halos across the wet pavement, while the rain beat against the umbrella in a monotonous rhythm.
Where should she go?
Lin Qingqian stood by the roadside, watching the traffic stream past.
Haicheng was the city where she had worked for five years, but at this moment, she could not think of a single place she could turn to.
Her parents had divorced during her third year of university and each had started a new family.
Her father had remarried and settled overseas, while her mother had married into a neighboring province. Both of them had children of their own, making her the unnecessary one.
Her friends… most of them were mutual friends of hers and Chen Ge’s.
Now that they had broken up, those relationships had become awkward as well.
There was only Xiaoxi.
Thinking of her best friend, Lin Qingqian managed to steady herself somewhat.
There was a public telephone beside the convenience store, and she dialed Xiaoxi’s number.
The call was answered after three rings.
“Hello? Who’s this?” Xiaoxi’s voice carried its usual vitality.
“Xiaoxi, it’s me.” Lin Qingqian’s voice was somewhat hoarse.
There was silence on the other end for two seconds before Xiaoxi’s pitch suddenly rose. “What happened to you? Your voice sounds wrong. What happened?”
“I broke up with Chen Ge.” Lin Qingqian tried to keep her voice steady. “Xiaoxi, can you come pick me up?”
“Where are you?” Xiaoxi asked crisply.
“At the convenience store downstairs from my apartment.”
“Wait there. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” With that, Xiaoxi hung up.
Lin Qingqian ended the call and went to wait beneath the eaves outside the convenience store.
The rain grew heavier, and the wind drove it against her, soaking the hem of her dress and the tops of her shoes.
Once the cashmere had absorbed the water, it became heavy and icy, clinging to her skin with a bone-chilling cold.
She hugged her arms and stared blankly at the curtain of rain.
Many scenes flashed through her mind.
Three years ago, on a rainy night just like this one, Chen Ge had stood waiting for her with an umbrella outside the teaching building.
She had just finished an internship interview and had been drenched like a drowned rat.
He had draped his coat over her shoulders and said, “From now on, I’ll come pick you up whenever it rains.”
Two years ago, he had taken her home to eat with the Chen family.
Mother Chen had not given her a pleasant look from beginning to end. After the meal, she had said to her in private, “Miss Lin, the threshold of our Chen family is high. Not just anyone can enter.”
A month ago, Chen Ge’s eldest brother, Chen Ke, had died in a car accident.
At the funeral, Mu Zhenzhen had cried herself unconscious in Chen Ge’s arms, and he had held her with such natural ease.
Lin Qingqian had stood to one side like an outsider.
The sound of a car horn rang in her ears.
“Beep-beep—”
A white Audi pulled over by the roadside. The window rolled down, and Xiaoxi poked her head out. “Qingqing! Get in!”
Lin Qingqian hurried over, opened the door, and sat in the passenger seat.
The heat inside the car was turned up high, instantly driving away the chill in her body.
“Holy shit! Your face!” Xiaoxi drew a sharp breath when she got a clear look at her. “That bastard Chen Ge really hit you?”
Lin Qingqian said nothing, merely fastening her seat belt.
Xiaoxi stared at her for several seconds before her eyes suddenly reddened. “That animal… How dare he…”
“Xiaoxi, just drive first,” Lin Qingqian said softly.
“Okay, okay. Let’s go home first.” Xiaoxi wiped at her eyes and started the car.
The car merged into the traffic flowing through the rainy night.
Xiaoxi’s apartment was in an old residential complex in the city center. It was a one-bedroom apartment with a living room—not very large, but decorated very warmly.
The walls were covered with photographs of her and Lin Qingqian from their university days. In them, the two girls wore carefree, unrestrained smiles.
“Go take a hot shower first. I’ll make you some ginger tea.” Xiaoxi pushed Lin Qingqian into the bathroom, then dug a clean set of pajamas out of the wardrobe. “Wear mine. They’re all newly bought.”
The bathroom filled with mist.
Lin Qingqian stood beneath the showerhead. The hot water washed over her body, but it could not wash away the cold in her heart.
The swelling in her cheek hurt even more under the stimulation of the hot water. As she looked at the disheveled woman in the mirror, she suddenly felt that woman was a stranger.
Who was this?
Who had she become over these three years?
For the sake of a man, she had given up a job opportunity in Jingbei, distanced herself from her family and friends, endured the difficulties imposed on her by his family, and had even begun to doubt whether she was truly unworthy of him.
How foolish.
“Qingqing, are you all right?” Xiaoxi knocked on the door from outside.
“Almost done.” Lin Qingqian turned off the water, dried herself, and changed into the pajamas.
When she stepped out of the bathroom, Xiaoxi had already brewed the ginger tea. She had also taken an ice pack from the refrigerator and wrapped it in a towel. “Put this on your face, or it’ll be even more swollen tomorrow.”
Lin Qingqian took the ice pack and pressed it to her cheek. The cold made her shiver, but it did ease the pain.
The two of them sat on the sofa, and Xiaoxi handed her the ginger tea. “Can you tell me now? What exactly happened?”
Lin Qingqian cradled the warm cup in her hands. After sitting in silence for a while, she slowly began to speak.
From discovering the ambiguous relationship between Chen Ge and Mu Zhenzhen, to obtaining the evidence, to what had happened at the hospital that day.
She spoke very calmly, as though she were telling someone else’s story.
But Xiaoxi’s fists clenched tighter and tighter as she listened.
“Fuck! Those two cheating bastards!” Wen Xi paced angrily around the living room. “Is Chen Ge even human? He hit you for the sake of his mistress? And that Mu Zhenzhen—she threw herself down the stairs and then framed you for it? Why doesn’t she go act in movies?”
“She did act, and she acted very well.” Lin Qingqian smiled bitterly. “Chen Ge believed her. Mother Chen believed her. Everyone believed her.”
“Believe that bullshit!” Wen Xi sat down beside her. “Qingqing, we can’t just let this go. We have to expose their crimes and their ugly faces!”
“Once someone has no shame, nothing can hurt them. Chen Ge cares about his reputation,” Lin Qingqian said. “Do you think he’ll admit it?”
Wen Xi fell silent.
Chen Ge would not admit it. He cared too much about his reputation; admitting it was impossible.
The two brothers had been involved with the same woman, and she had even become pregnant. If that scandal got out, the Chen family would be utterly ruined in Haicheng.
“Then what are you planning to do?” Wen Xi asked.
Lin Qingqian took a sip of ginger tea. The warmth slid down her throat, making her feel somewhat better.
“Xiaoxi, I’m going back to Jingbei.”
Wen Xi froze. “Going back to Jingbei? What about your job? You were just promoted…”
“I’m resigning.” Lin Qingqian’s tone was firm. “I can’t stay in Haicheng anymore. Chen Ge was right. If he wants to, he really can make it impossible for me to get by in Haicheng. The Chen family does have some influence here.”
“So you’re just going to accept this?” Wen Xi asked unwillingly.
“Accept it?” Lin Qingqian laughed, a cold glint shining in her smile. “No. I’m just going to fight back in a different way.”