Su Yuebai’s heart suddenly felt tangled, unbearably complicated. The pain was beyond words, stuck in her throat, tears welled up but refused to fall. All of this… was her own doing!
She stood frozen in place for a long time before finally regaining her senses. Then, she frantically called Zhang Xiaofeng again.
“Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off.”
“Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off.”
“Sorry, the number…”
In just ten minutes, Su Yuebai called Zhang Xiaofeng more than thirty times. Without exception, every call went unanswered—his phone remained switched off. Finally realizing what that meant, she hurriedly borrowed another phone to try again. But this time, after just one ring, an icy voice message came through: “Sorry, the user you dialed is currently on another call.”
He had rejected her call!
Su Yuebai crouched helplessly to the ground, dragging her hands across her face with force. She was in agony—utter agony! In the past, Zhang Xiaofeng would never have treated her this way. He wouldn’t even hang up on her, let alone refuse to answer her calls. He had always treated her gently. No matter how she acted up, how spoiled or unreasonable she was, he would indulge her, care for her with warmth and love.
There was one time when she asked him, “Am I being too unreasonable sometimes? Like I don’t think about your feelings at all?”
“It’s fine, Yueyue. You’re cute when you act spoiled. Just go ahead and be yourself—I’ll always forgive you.”
Thinking of that, Su Yuebai suddenly felt like crying.
Back then, no matter how wildly she behaved or how hard she threw tantrums, Zhang Xiaofeng would see it as endearing. He never saw her as unreasonable—only adorable. Those memories came flooding back, and Su Yuebai felt hollow inside… on the verge of tears.
She once asked him, “But I smashed your phone! That phone was something you saved up for all summer by working nonstop!”
It had been after a small argument—she couldn’t even remember the cause—but in a burst of anger, she smashed his phone. Only after seeing the shattered screen did she realize she had gone too far. She asked him that question, and he merely smiled and said, “It’s nothing. Just a small matter. In this world, nothing is more important than you. Could a phone possibly matter more to me than you?”
At the time, Su Yuebai was deeply moved. Yes, they were lovers. They were in a relationship. Of course they should value each other more than anything else. But now… what had she turned him into? What had she treated him as?
She felt suffocated. Once again, she dragged her hands across her face. Her eyes were already brimming with tears.
After a long, long time, she finally stood up and walked home, dazed and lifeless.
As soon as she entered the living room, Su Yuebai saw her father, Su Qianghai, watching a comedy show on TV and laughing heartily. Her mother, Wang Dajuan, was also cheerfully enjoying it. The two of them were completely absorbed in the program, not caring one bit about Zhang Xiaofeng’s whereabouts.
Su Yuebai felt a pang in her heart. How could they be so heartless? Was there no room in their hearts for concern? They still had the mood to watch television and laugh like nothing had happened. Did they not care whether their son-in-law was dead or alive?
Seeing her come in, Su Qianghai turned to ask, “You’re back?”
“Did the police call you?” Su Yuebai asked.
Su Qianghai pulled out his phone from his pocket and saw several missed calls. He said, “I forgot. I was too focused on the TV and didn’t hear it.”
Su Yuebai felt bitter. She raised her voice, “Dad, the police found him! He’s safe! But… he rejected all my calls!”
Su Qianghai’s smile froze instantly, then he cursed, “Son of a bitch, what a temper he has!”
Wang Dajuan’s face darkened too, sneering, “Coming from some poor backwater, and he dares act so arrogant? He actually dared to reject your calls? How impressive!”
Seeing how the two of them responded, Su Yuebai sighed deeply, said nothing, and walked straight upstairs.
“Wait, daughter, don’t get upset. The more anxious you are, the more satisfied he’ll feel. We must win this battle. He’s obviously throwing a tantrum with you. Stay calm—don’t mess up our strategy!” Su Qianghai shouted confidently from behind.
Su Yuebai sighed again but said nothing and continued walking up.
In her room, she stared at the bed they had once shared so many times. Her heart felt heavy. A sudden wave of emptiness, loneliness, and sorrow rushed over her. She couldn’t breathe.
“Before, it was always me hanging up on him. He never once hung up on me. Even when the call ended, he’d wait for me to hang up first. He never ended the call himself. But now, he hangs up without hesitation… even rejects my calls. So this… is what it feels like to be ignored?”
Su Yuebai muttered to herself, heart aching and suffocating.
Only now did she truly understand what it meant to be neglected. She remembered the first night Zhang Xiaofeng moved in. Her mother had made him sleep in the storage room. There wasn’t even a bed—just a hammock. He had looked shocked, knowing it was a deliberate act of humiliation. But he simply looked at her, saw she didn’t object, and chose silence. He accepted the insult and went to sleep. The next morning, the maid chased him out, saying, “I need to clean. No one’s allowed to sleep here!” He had no idea where else to go.
Su Yuebai’s wrists trembled as bitterness and guilt surged within her.
Later, although no one asked him to, Zhang Xiaofeng always fed the family’s shepherd dog. He was extremely attentive, doing it every day. She once asked him why. He wouldn’t say, but under her insistence, he finally replied, “Yueyue, I’m an outsider here. Even the maid looks down on me. Only that dog doesn’t. I feel like it’s the only one that sees me as an equal, so I want to be kind to it.”
God! What kind of heartbreaking words were those? Back then, she thought he was being overly sensitive—that a man shouldn’t care so much about pride. But now she realized… it wasn’t about pride. It was about dignity! Human dignity! It was about loneliness… despair… the helplessness of being treated as less than others while living under someone else’s roof!
And who started all this?
It was her!
She was the one who insisted he move in and live with her family. But why had she always sided with them? Her parents were too cruel!
Even so, Zhang Xiaofeng kept forgiving her. He never left out of anger. But this time, like a snowstorm, it wasn’t just one flake at fault. One humiliation after another had finally crushed his heart. He left, devastated, with nothing left to hold onto.
Once, at lunch, despite the maid being there, her father still made him cook. He was already exhausted from work. After rushing home, he cut his finger in the kitchen—blood dripping everywhere. Her father saw it and didn’t even react, just cursed, “You can’t even cook? What the hell are you good for?”
Wang Dajuan was even harsher, yelling, “What’s the use of you?”
They didn’t care and just told him to keep cooking. Zhang Xiaofeng, teeth clenched in pain, still finished the meal. Even the maid couldn’t bear to watch, but no one dared speak up. After the food was done, he went to a small clinic alone to wrap his wound, then stood outside the gate eating with a bowl in his hands—his figure so desolate.
God, why didn’t she care back then? Why didn’t she ask or step in? What was wrong with her heart?
When he finished eating and was about to drive the Santana to work, she finally said, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I can endure this. But understand—it’s for you. I’ll bear anything for you. You’re the best in my eyes. Meeting you was the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Alright then. Be careful at work.”
“I’m leaving. Oh, and the wind is strong today. Don’t catch a cold. I don’t want a repeat of last time. I can handle a fever of 42°C, but you can’t. If you were to get that sick, I’d be in unbearable pain.”
The past flashed before her like a tidal wave. Su Yuebai’s wrists trembled violently. She suddenly clutched her head and burst into tears.
Tears streamed from her eyes like a dam breaking, flooding down in waves. Her sobs wouldn’t stop. Her heart ached terribly. She felt like it had been sawed open, cut into countless pieces, bleeding on the floor, unbearable and excruciating.