Just before the meal, Gu Fengsheng finally returned. He had changed into another suit from an equally expensive designer brand and was wheeled into the private room by a waiter. The disheveled look from earlier was gone. He appeared refined and dignified, every gesture revealing an air of privilege.
The one thing that hadn’t changed was his gaze. It still rested on Ning Shao.
The meal stretched from noon until evening. Besides the dining table, the private room had all sorts of entertainment facilities, including a pool table, a game room, and a screening room. Many guests were reluctant to leave.
After all, the hotel’s top-floor guests were treated as honored guests. They weren’t rich second-generation kids[1]This corresponds to the Chinese expression “fuerdai,” referring to people born into wealthy families, often with an implication of inherited privilege. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3733360_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3733360_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); like Gu Fengsheng; they could work their whole lives and still never enjoy this kind of lifestyle.
But Ning Shao was tired of it all.
She was weary of socializing, and sick of watching everyone wear a mask as they drunkenly bragged about their lives.
She decided to go home.
“I’ll drive you two home,” Gu Fengsheng said when he learned that Ning Shao and Li An’an wanted to leave.
Before they could refuse, he added, “I’m the one who changed the gathering place to here. It’s so late, and I don’t feel comfortable letting you two girls go home alone.”
Ning Shao heard the unspoken meaning behind his words.
He had arranged the gathering, so naturally he was paying for the hotel meal himself. But even if you had the money, getting into a private room on the hotel’s top floor wasn’t easy. It had to be booked a month in advance.
This wasn’t simply a matter of money.
Li An’an didn’t catch his meaning. Seeing that A Shao wasn’t keen, she was about to politely decline, but the next moment she heard A Shao accept.
“Then we’ll take you up on that.”
…
The inside of the Maybach was pitch-black. A chauffeur was driving. Li An’an wanted to sit in the back, but Gu Fengsheng didn’t give her the chance. He got there first, sitting beside Ning Shao at a careful distance.
They dropped Li An’an off first. Once they arrived, Ning Shao lowered the window and said goodbye to her.
The car started up again. With the heater blowing, Ning Shao leaned against the window and gazed outside.
Perhaps the warm air lulled her to sleep. Or perhaps it was because she had taken medicine that morning and forced herself to stay alert until now. Her cold had yet to clear, and her exhausted body could hardly keep her eyes open. They kept drooping against her will, and soon she slipped into sleep.
Gu Fengsheng, who had been watching her intently, noticed at once. His pupils, hidden in shadow, narrowed, making the artificial right eye look hollow and lifeless.
“Click…”
The partition between the front and back seats rose with a faint sound.
Like a starving dog, Gu Fengsheng reached for Ning Shao in desperate haste. He didn’t dare touch her skin, afraid of waking her. The instant his fingertips brushed her hair, his nostrils flared involuntarily.
Saliva pooled in his mouth, and he swallowed again and again. He felt that his obsession with Ning Shao had sunk into his bones. That obsession was desire, too, and it swept over him like a tidal wave.
His father had made arrangements for him, and women had approached him because of his family background and looks. But aside from Ning Shao, Gu Fengsheng had never felt this way.
Unsatisfied, Gu Fengsheng let his fingers drift closer to her lips…
The car suddenly slammed on the brakes. Completely unprepared, Gu Fengsheng crashed into the door on the other side. Before he could even register the pain, a violent impact caved in the door beside him. His whole body was flung into the air inside the car. His vision went black, and then came a stab of agony so intense that he passed out.
“Skrrt—Bam!”
The expensive car was crumpled and forced to a stop by the roadside. The driver had reacted as quickly as he could to dodge the cargo truck that had suddenly barreled toward them, but the truck seemed to have eyes, striking the rear passenger side with pinpoint accuracy.
No one should have survived such a violent collision. Yet the driver was only dazed and battered. He stumbled out through the other door and instinctively looked toward the back seat.
Through the window, he saw the beautiful woman still asleep. The crash hadn’t hurt her at all. Like a sleeping beauty, she was now shrouded by a shadow, tall as a bear.
As if sensing his gaze, the shadow’s head turned a full 360 degrees. Defying all logic, it squeezed through the narrow gap in the window and stared at him eerily.
The driver’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted.
*
Hospital corridor.
“Beep, beep—”
The ambulance siren sounded through the walls and reached Ning Shao’s ears.
A few drops of blood had spattered onto her pale yellow down jacket. Dried, the blood had turned dark and stood out starkly against the fabric.
Her raven-black hair fell in a curtain over her shoulder, veiling part of her face. The skin left exposed was as pale as snow. Sitting on the metal bench, she looked like a figure in an ink painting.
“Were you traveling with Gu Fengsheng?”
A voice came from above her.
Ning Shao raised her head, dazed. She saw a policewoman in uniform. The tangle of thoughts in her mind finally settled, as if she’d found someone to lean on. She nodded. “I was.”
She had been so exhausted that she’d fallen asleep in the car. A doctor in the ambulance had woken her. Only then had she learned that they’d been in a terrible crash.
A cargo truck had run a red light and slammed into their car, crushing it out of shape.
The driver had a concussion and a few minor injuries, but Gu Fengsheng, who’d been sitting in the back seat right where the impact was worst, had been seriously hurt. He was still in the emergency room, and no one knew whether he would survive.
The policewoman who came to speak with her poured her a cup of warm water and held it out. Once Ning Shao took it, she sat down beside her and said, “Do you know? Of the three people in the car, you were the only one who wasn’t injured. You were even asleep at the time. The crash didn’t affect you at all.”
It was unprecedented, unheard of—almost eerie.
Ning Shao had been in the back seat too. She should have been hurt, even if not as badly as Gu Fengsheng. There was no way she could have come through completely unscathed; she should at least have felt some impact.
Ning Shao fell silent, staring at the cup in her hands. Her wrist trembled, making the water inside quiver and ripple.
Of course she knew.
On the ambulance ride here, the doctor and nurses had all looked at her strangely, as if she were a monster. They couldn’t believe she hadn’t been hurt in such a serious crash.
Ning Shao could feel the policewoman’s gaze fixed on her face, as if she were trying to find some clue.
But Ning Shao herself was just as bewildered. She didn’t understand how she could have survived the crash without a scratch simply by falling asleep.
She wanted to say something, but when the words reached her lips, nothing came out.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know anything.”
Ning Shao looked up and met the policewoman’s searching gaze, just as she expected. She didn’t look away. Her expression was honest, and her fear still carried the shock of what had happened.
The policewoman asked a few more questions, then left the hospital without bothering her further.
Her colleague was waiting outside. When the policewoman came out, he said, “We checked the road cameras. There was nothing unusual. The truck driver was fatigued, and that caused the crash.”
Then he asked, “How did it go with you?”
The policewoman took a deep breath and answered slowly, “The surviving woman showed no signs of anything unusual. She doesn’t know anything. She must have just been lucky.”
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