Although there was a small hiccup in the middle, the walk had been quite pleasant overall. By 2:00 PM, it was Jiang Wu’s usual time for a nap. After Shen Yifeng returned from his walk and received a phone call, he headed upstairs. Jiang Wu assumed he was off to handle work. Just as Jiang Wu found a comfortable position to drift off to sleep, his phone rang.
It was Lu Xin. The moment Jiang Wu picked up, he heard her wailing on the other end. All his sleepiness vanished instantly. “What is wrong? Did someone bully you?”
“Jiang Jiang,” she sobbed, “I have had my heart broken.” She then broke down into more loud wails.
“Huh?” Jiang Wu was bewildered. Wasn’t Lu Xin out having fun? How did she end up with a broken heart? Before he could process it, he heard her pitifully plead, “Jiang Jiang, please come keep me company. I am so sad.”
“Send me your address,” Jiang Wu said.
“Okay.” Her voice was thick with congestion, sounding absolutely miserable. Jiang Wu comforted her softly for a moment. After hanging up, he considered mentioning it to Shen Yifeng, given that she was his cousin, but as the thought crossed his mind, a message arrived from Lu Xin with three exclamation marks telling him not to tell Shen Yifeng. Seeing those marks, Jiang Wu realized just how much Lu Xin feared her cousin.
Taxis could not be hailed within the residential area, so Jiang Wu had to ask Uncle Liu to drop him off at the main gate. He gave Uncle Liu a vague reason for heading out, which the housekeeper happily accepted. Since he had promised to keep it a secret, he did not ask Uncle Liu to drive him to the destination and instead hailed a cab once outside the gate. He reached the hotel Lu Xin had messaged him in no time.
“Room 512, on the fifth floor,” she said over the phone.
Jiang Wu registered at the front desk and headed straight up. As soon as he entered the room, Lu Xin gave him a bear hug, smearing snot and tears all over him. “Jiang Jiang, I knew you were the best!”
Jiang Wu was taken aback by the girl’s disheveled state. Not knowing how to comfort her, he stood awkwardly, letting her cry on his shoulder. After a long while, she finally pulled away. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, her usually beautiful, silky curly hair was a tangled mess, and she radiated an aura of profound grief. Jiang Wu had never been in a relationship and used to think the dramatizations on TV were exaggerated, but seeing Lu Xin, he realized it was not an exaggeration at all.
Watching her continue to tear up, Jiang Wu silently opened a bottle of water and handed it to her. “Drink some water.”
Lu Xin took a sip and buried her face back into his shoulder to sob. Jiang Wu sighed; he truly had no idea how to console her. But Lu Xin did not seem to need consolation; she just choked out her tragic love story between sobs.
In short, a wealthy girl hid her identity to date a poor boy, but when her identity was exposed, the boy felt he was not good enough for her and broke up with her.
“How dare he break up with me!” “It is not like I meant to hide it from him!” “He misunderstood everything himself!” “Men are all trash!”
After that outburst, she resumed wailing. Jiang Wu felt his heart ache for her; after all, besides Shen Yifeng, she was the only friend he had made in this world. “Stop crying. Out with the old, in with the new. You are so beautiful and young; you will meet someone better.”
His words did not help, and Lu Xin continued to cry her heart out. Jiang Wu stayed by her side. Finally, around 5:00 or 6:00 PM, she stopped. She patted her stomach and whispered, “I am hungry.”
I thought you were going to cry all night, Jiang Wu thought. “Let us go eat.”
They headed out. During the meal, a young couple sat at the next table, and Jiang Wu spent the entire time on edge, terrified that Lu Xin would be reminded of her heartbreak and start sobbing again. Fortunately, Lu Xin was entirely focused on her food, deaf to the world around her.
After dinner, it was already dark. Jiang Wu wanted to take her back, but they passed a bar, and Lu Xin insisted on going in for a drink. She boasted that the best way to get over a relationship was to enter a new one quickly and that she would make that dog of a man regret it. Jiang Wu had a headache; he could not leave a girl alone in a bar, so he had to follow her in.
Inside, the dim lighting, deafening music, and people grinding on the dance floor made Jiang Wu uncomfortable. He frowned and followed her closely. Lu Xin headed straight for the bar, ordered a bottle, and began chugging. Jiang Wu could not stop her and could only sit beside her, thinking he would drag her out once she was drunk. But as she drank more, Jiang Wu grew worried.
He reached out to snatch the glass from her hand. “Xiner, that is enough. Stop drinking.”
“But I am so sad. Give me back my glass, I want to drink!” Her eyes were unfocused, and her cheeks were flushed; she was clearly quite drunk.
Jiang Wu decided to use his trump card: “Then I will have to call Shen Yifeng.”
At the mention of Shen Yifeng, Lu Xin’s hand stiffened. She gave him a pitiful look. “Jiang Jiang, you cannot do this to me. Are we even friends?”
“It is because we are friends that I am stopping you.”
Jiang Wu checked his phone; it was nearly 8:00 PM. “Xiner, let us go back. You can drink more when we get home, okay?” he coaxed gently. He wanted to go home but could not leave her alone.
Lu Xin, now truly drunk, looked up at him, giggled, and then promptly slumped onto the bar counter and fell asleep. Jiang Wu did not know whether to laugh or cry. He stepped forward to support her, but just as he touched her arm, a figure appeared from nowhere and shoved him aside. He had not been prepared, and the force of the shove caused him to twist his ankle severely.
The sharp pain made Jiang Wu furious. He steadied himself and looked up to see a handsome young man standing beside Lu Xin. The boy glared at him viciously, then scooped Lu Xin up into his arms and walked away.
Jiang Wu was stunned for a moment, but he quickly snapped out of it. Ignoring the agonizing pain in his ankle, he tried to chase after them. Unfortunately, the injury was severe, and every step felt like walking on blades. By the time he reached the bar entrance, the boy had vanished.
His fair face was beaded with cold sweat from the intense pain, and his lips were deathly pale. But he was too worried about Lu Xin to care about his ankle, as a girl alone with a stranger was a dangerous situation. Just then, a drunkard bumped into him, and his phone fell out. Jiang Wu looked at it, his spirits lifting.
Anxiety makes one lose perspective; I almost forgot I had a phone.
He pulled up Lu Xin’s number, but no one answered. He hurriedly searched for Shen Yifeng’s number. Before dialing, he prayed that Shen Yifeng would have his phone with him. Perhaps his prayer was answered; the call connected immediately.
“Jiang Wu?” Shen Yifeng’s voice came through.
The moment he heard Shen Yifeng’s voice, an overwhelming sense of grievance and helplessness surged within Jiang Wu.