Translator: Helliot
Editor: P’Raikantopeni
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“These are all the things I bought. There’s wallpaper and even some clothes. Meng Fu, I bought some for you, too.” She pulled Meng Fu’s hand over while speaking, putting the bags into his hands.
It just happened to be his injured hand where his wrist was no longer strong enough to be able to bear heavy weight. At once, a frown formed on his brow before he switched it to his other hand without a fuss.
Xie Zhenzhen walked on, looking happy.
Meng Fu followed her all the way home and put the bags down before asking, “Zhenzhen, where did you get the money to buy everything?”
After a pause, Xie Zhenzhen answered as if nothing was wrong, “Meng Fu, I still have money on my card. Don’t worry, I didn’t steal the money.”
She had borrowed it from one of her friends. In fact, her card had long since been frozen, but she could not just sit around at home until Meng Fu returned. Even half a day was too much to bear for her. She needed Meng Fu to stay with her, not going out to work because of money.
She took out a beige sweater from one of the bags and held it out in front of Meng Fu. “Meng Fu, I bought this for you. What do you think?”
Then, she pressed the sweater to Meng Fu’s body to check the size.
Meng Fu stood still.
“Meng Fu, try it on.”
Meng Fu took the sweater off. “Zhenzhen, you should return this.” He knew based on Xie Zhenzhen’s personality that she must have bought something expensive.
He did not have any need for such luxury items, nor did he have any desire to use them.
“Why?” Xie Zhenzhen looked confused.
He folded the sweater and placed it back into the bag.
She reached out and touched Meng Fu’s sweater lightly. “Why, Meng Fu? Your sweater is clearly too big for you. Why won’t you wear the one I bought you?”
The gray sweater was very loose on him, further highlighting how thin his body was.
That was because these were not his clothes but Gu Ze’s. Ever since being discharged from the hospital, he moved straight into Gu Ze’s home, eating his food and wearing his clothes. It was also Gu Ze who gave him this sweater to wear.
When the topic was brought up by Xie Zhenzhen, he felt as if he were surrounded by Gu Ze’s presence, a presence that vaguely scared him.
Xie Zhenzhen took the sweater out of the bag again, insistent that Meng Fu put it on.
In the end, Meng Fu agreed, taking off the gray sweater. As he did so, his undershirt lifted, revealing the fair skin around his waist.
It was for only a moment.
“Meng Fu…”
He looked at her in confusion, the brand-new beige sweater still in his hands. “What’s wrong?”
Xie Zhenzhen reached out to pull up Meng Fu’s clothes again.
There was an obvious patch of red on the skin there.
Xie Zhenzhen lightly prodded her finger on the red mark, frowning. “What happened here?”
Suddenly remembering something, Meng Fu’s ears flushed red instantly, a tidal wave of shame and embarrassment crashing together. Those marks were left by Gu Ze the night before he left. Gu Ze kissed and licked his skin with great force between nibbles while he bore it all silently with gritted teeth. Only when he could endure no longer would he raise his voice to plead, repeating apologies like, “I’m sorry, Mr. Gu. I was wrong,” over and over again… even if those words fell on completely deaf ears.
Gu Ze would only continue tormenting him, making his life hell in his own way.
It was only that he never would have thought that vestiges of those marks would still remain after three days, or rather that he hadn’t even realized that those marks were left to begin with.
“Meng Fu…”
Meng Fu quickly pulled his shirt down and put the beige sweater on, acting as if nothing was wrong. “It’s nothing, I just bumped into a table, that’s all.”
“How careless.” Xie Zhenzhen dispelled her suspicions and examined Meng Fu with the sweater on, sighing in admiration, “Meng Fu, you look so good in this sweater, just like a sunny prince.”
A faint smile lifted up the corners of Meng Fu’s lips.
It was a genuine smile. This moment provided a rare warmth that had passed him by a long time ago.
Xie Zhenzhen buried her face in Meng Fu’s chest. “Meng Fu, don’t go out to work; just stay here with me. I have money. We can live a peaceful life together. Our child needs you.”
Meng Fu was silent, only lightly squeezing Xie Zhenzhen’s shoulders.
There was a feeling of helplessness, unease, and powerlessness to resist, the inability to escape the fate that God willed for him. Xiao Yi was still with Gu Ze, and he had promised Gu Ze he would stay there. Besides that, he still had the lives of two people to account for.
Peace was a word that left him far behind, too far behind…
–
The first day, Gu Ze asked, “Secretary Wang, has there been an update?”
“My apologies, Chief Gu. There are no updates as of yet.”
Gu Ze smashed his ashtray to the ground, the glass shattering into unrecognizable fragments.
The next day, Gu Ze asked with a frown, “No updates yet?”
“No.”
At once, Gu Ze threw his pen at Secretary Wang’s face, the sharp tip grazing his cheek and leaving a bloody mark.
The third day, Secretary Wang informed him before he had even asked, still no updates.
Gu Ze stood up all of a sudden and walked right up to Secretary Wang’s face, grabbing him by the collar and questioning him brusquely, “Where on earth is he, huh? Where? What am I even keeping you around for? How are you still unable to find him?!”
“Chief Gu, we will find him as soon as possible.”
“I’ll give you two more days. If you can’t find him then, you can walk yourself out of my office,” he spat coldly before releasing Secretary Wang’s collar.
Secretary Wang, who had been working for Gu Ze all these years, had never seen Gu Ze ever this mad at Meng Fu. He seemed irritated, like a rampaging beast.
However, there was clearly great fear buried beneath that anger. He feared that Meng Fu may never come back again, worried that something had happened between him and Xie Zhenzhen, that he might sleep with her. These thoughts made him irrationally angry, and he had to constantly remind himself over and over again that Meng Fu deserved to die. Gu Ze, you should be hating Meng Fu.
Secretary Wang left after receiving the order while Gu Ze returned to his seat.
He pulled open his drawer where a stack of albums were placed, all filled with pictures of Meng Fu. Once upon a time, he had looked through these photos, enjoying Meng Fu’s pain, but now, he was using them to nurse his loss.
The photos showed a young Meng Fu, looking up at the blue sky when he was released from prison, an airy and gentle expression on his face. His neck was slender and fair. Despite being in such a dirty place as prison, he looked just like a holy white swan.
Year after year, the man’s face in the photos grew more refined as time passed. Gu Ze’s fingers traced the faintly pale lips of the man in the photos. He had kissed those lips before, lips that were neither as soft nor as sweet as a woman’s.
And yet they fascinated him.
But now, those lips were now going to be kissing another woman.
It felt like shards of glass had been cast into his heart, digging out tears of blood.
He threw the album violently to the ground and trampled it under his foot. Turning around, he smoked a cigarette in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Before the cigarette burned out, he crushed the butt into a new ashtray and squatted down again, picking up the album and wiping off the stains with his sleeve, his white cuffs sliding over the face in the photo.
Meng Fu was eighteen then. Those should have been his best years, years that he should be enjoying in university.
Later, he tore up his acceptance letter in front of him.
“Meng Fu, our grudge is not over yet,” so how could you escape?