Chapter 9: Lies, Part 2
The alley was dark and cramped. He was silent for a long while before he slowly opened his mouth.
“Why don’t you use that card anymore?”
Gu Zhi had her back to him. Her slender neck was snow-white, and her wide coat and pants were on her, making her tall and graceful self look small and helpless. She was silent, as if she hadn’t heard what he had said. She continued to walk in the light outside the alley, as if he would do something bad to her.
He was a little impatient. He grabbed her hand from behind and pulled her. He went around to Gu Zhi’s front and stared at her, his voice raised. “I’m asking you.”
“It hurts…”
Gu Zhi’s whole body shrunk, as if she had been scared by him. She let out a light and airy cry of pain.
He was in a daze and had let go of his hand. He looked at her, who was looking down and was lightly rubbing the red halo on her wrist. Her long and narrow eyebrows and eyes were furrowed, as if she were in great pain.
“I’m asking you something. Why are you leaving?”
“The wind is too strong. I didn’t hear you clearly.”
“I called you twice.”
Gu Zhi then raised her head and met his gaze. She then glanced at the black in the deep part of the alley, and the corners of her eyes were dotted with a red halo that made people feel pity. “You scared me.”
The implication was that he was too fierce. Su Yu knew that he might have been a little out of control. He looked at the soft woman in front of him for a long time and couldn’t find a single trace of her old self.
His annoyance was forcefully suppressed, and his tone slowly cooled down. “I’m asking you why you’re not using your card anymore. Why are you thinking of experiencing life?”
“Yes. I want to try a different kind of life. It’s not good to always use that kind of thing.”
“Haha, is that so.” He curled his lips, and there was no smile in his eyes.
“Yes. Let’s go home. Otherwise, the groceries will not be fresh.”
Gu Zhi slowly turned around. She walked a few steps, and her shoulders were trembling a little. It was not until half of her body was exposed to the light that her face was a bleak and pale, almost transparent, as if she were dead. He did not see the hand that was shrunk in her sleeve, and it was trembling.
Her heart was broken in her embarrassment. She was not a person who would easily lose her composure. Others had never mattered in her eyes. How could she be affected? She was flustered at the counter, just because he was watching her from behind. The gaze was too hot, like facing the sun. Her embarrassment was nowhere to hide.
“No…”
The voice was chasing after him from behind again. The two of them had not shown such a tangled look since they had met. She hoped so much that his incessant chatter was in other places, and not when she was at her most pathetic and helpless.
“You turn around. I still have something to ask you.”
Gu Zhi closed her eyes and slightly raised her head. The sunlight was still dazzling through her thin eyelids. She slowly turned back.
“Did it cost you a lot of money to get treated? Your illness… isn’t it…”
He stared at Gu Zhi’s eyes. Her deep brown pupils were plain, and he couldn’t find anything.
But there must be a problem. There must be. It had nothing to do with the treatment. That wouldn’t cost too much money. She had just taken over the Gu family at that time, but she had been recuperating for a year at a critical moment. The clues were slowly being connected in his mind, and they were slowly outlining the prototype of a guess.
He gritted his back molars, and his eyebrows and eyes were slightly raised, and a hint of strong and roguish energy was revealed. “I’m quite short of money now. Give me that card of yours to spend.”
“You’re short of money? Okay… I’ll transfer it to you when I get back.”
Gu Zhi was stunned for a moment by his words. She came back to her senses, and her hand was holding the small leather bag on her shoulder. She nodded. “Send me your card number later.”
“There’s a bank nearby. Isn’t it more convenient to withdraw money directly?”
“Xiao Yu…”
She was in a daze, and her lips were slightly parted. She looked at him as if he had suddenly changed into a different person. He was irritable and impatient, and he was so cold that it was as if he would kill her. She lowered her head, and her gaze was evasive. “I… I’m tired. I have to catch a train at night. Let’s go back quickly.”
“Does the young lady of the Gu family still have to take the high-speed train? Even if it’s to experience life, isn’t this a little too down-to-earth?”
Su Yu grabbed her hand and forced her to turn around and look at him. His expression was plain. “Didn’t you promise me to find you if I was short of money? What? You want to go back on your word so soon?”
“I… no. I said I’ll give it to you when I get back. I’m now… I…”
She seemed to have been hurt by his brute force again. Her long and snow-white neck was shrunk in his coat, and her face was full of panic. She, who had always been strong and in control, was now with a cry in her voice, and she was as innocent as a child. “You really don’t have to force me.”
Gu Zhi lowered her head, and his breath was a little hot on her forehead. The two of them were enveloped by a heavy and low pressure. After a long while, she raised her head and looked at him. She was careful, and there was a hint of a plea. She was humbly begging him to not ask any more questions.
But he seemed to have to ask to the end. He didn’t want to let her go at all. He was mercilessly forcing her. “Give me the card.”
For a moment, he couldn’t snatch it away. Gu Zhi was holding the shoulder strap of the leather bag tightly and was protecting the bag in her arms. She slowly squatted down by his leg, and only a section of her snow-white back neck was stubbornly giving him. A sobbing sound was coming out from between her tightly closed lips and teeth.
Su Yu exhaled a turbid breath from his chest. He felt that he was about to find the truth. He leaned down and his voice was hoarse in her ear, and it was cold. “Gu Zhi, is it interesting to pretend to be pitiful? You weren’t like this before. So pathetic. Are you really the Gu Zhi I know?”
Her trembling shoulder was suddenly stiff. This time, she didn’t hide. She turned her head and looked at him, and her eyes were wide with anger. The whites of her eyes were covered with blood vessels, and the corners of her lips were curved into a sarcastic arc. “Do you think I’m pretending to be pitiful? Yes… you should think of me like that. Anyway, I deserve it.”
“Okay. Then it’s better not to be.” Su Yu stood up and looked down at her dejected state. The high and mighty woman had finally bent her back. He did not deny that there was a hint of a pleasure of a desire for revenge that was trembling in his nerves. “Don’t expect me to pity you.”
Gu Zhi patted the dust from the corners of her clothes and slowly stood up. She was as if she had suddenly aged decades. Her expression was dejected, and the corners of her lips were filled with a bitter taste. The fine lines at the corners of her eyes could not be covered even by her makeup. But she still smiled at him.
“Thank you. Let’s go back. I’ll cook for you.”
The street was full of people coming and going. They were one in front and one behind. She had her head down the whole time, and she had lost her sense of ease. She had not tried to tease him again. She was silent. He was always staring at her back from behind. The sunlight was shining through the leaves, and the shadow that was on the ground was thin and fragmented.
“So your card can’t be used anymore because it’s been frozen.” He had been thinking about it for a long time, but he still couldn’t help but ask her. “You can only pay with your phone, and you don’t have much money left?”
“Who said that? It’s just that the card can’t be used.”
In the end, it was still her. The brief lapse would not take long to be adjusted. She had put on an appearance of being unable to be hurt again. The redness and swelling at the corners of her eyes had betrayed her.
Gu Zhi stopped and turned her head. The corners of her eyes were smiling. “I still have a big villa. It can be sold for a lot of money.”
Then she only had a villa left. Yeah… the money from the sale was enough for most people to live a stable and peaceful life. He might not be able to earn that much in his lifetime. But people are born with a certain base flaw. No one would care how much they had left. They would only regret that they had accidentally lost so much, and that it was not necessary to lose it.
He saw that she was indifferent, and he heard her swear that she would help him. Just talking about material things, she was indeed much better than him now. But he had already climbed up the cliff and was walking back. And she had already walked to the edge of the cliff, and she was one step away from falling.
“Let’s go back. Let’s buy some rice downstairs. I’m hungry.”
He was silent and walked forward. This time, it was his turn to walk in front.
…
He had wanted to give her a hand, but Gu Zhi had not let him into the kitchen. She had really been busy for a whole afternoon. She had put three dishes and a soup on the table. The aroma was alluring, and the taste was very good. He had eaten a bowl of rice, and she had not even finished the one-third of the rice and vegetables in her bowl.
Gu Zhi had put down her bowl and chopsticks with a lack of appetite. She was propping up her head and was looking at him with great interest. In the gap when he was getting a second bowl of rice, she had suddenly asked him, “Do you still remember the Chinese flowering crabapple tree downstairs?”
“I remember.” He had not thought about it and had picked up some food with a blank expression. The dry-fried beef was very spicy, and it was very appetizing. But he was not good at eating spicy food. He didn’t want to waste it, so he had almost finished it. His stomach was as if a fire were burning.
“It’s very beautiful to look down from the floor-to-ceiling window of the bedroom. It’s better than staying in the basement.”
The smile on Gu Zhi’s face had frozen. She might have been hurt by the distant and sarcastic tone in his voice. She had lowered her eyes and had not dared to look at him. She had just felt that her hands and feet were cold.
“I’ve had someone take care of it for a long time. It’s a pity that it’s still dead. I was just thinking of selling the villa.”
“What should have passed should have passed. What should have been forgotten should also be forgotten.”
Her eyes were so pitiful, as if she were at her wit’s end. “Then you teach me… how to forget?”
Su Yu put down his bowl and looked at her. He slowly opened his mouth.
“Gu Zhi, what do you mean? Aren’t you not pretending to be pitiful?”
“Don’t be nervous. I don’t mean anything. I was just asking casually. There’s no need to overreact.”
She smiled sadly and walked into the kitchen to get a bottle of wine. She asked him, “Do you want to drink?”
“Yeah, I’ll drink.” He thought for a while. The burning sensation in his stomach had not yet passed. It was like a furnace.
Gu Zhi went back and got another glass. She filled it and handed it to him. She tucked the messy hair by her ear. “I’ll just have one glass. I have to take a car back at night.”
He nodded. He didn’t seem to think that it was inappropriate to let a woman walk alone at night. He saw her take a small sip. He held the glass and looked at the darkening dusk outside the window. His clear and gentle eyes also darkened.
He took a large gulp. The cold and stimulating alcohol rolled down his throat. There was a kind of a wanton pleasure. His guard was unconsciously and bit by bit dissolved.
The wine was swaying in the glass, and it was soon filled with new wine. No one had spoken first between them. He was drinking the bottle of wine by himself. A red halo soon appeared on the side of his neck. He took another gulp and suddenly said, “Be careful on the way.”
“Hah…”
Gu Zhi lowered her head and chuckled. Her face was in the half-light and half-dark of the dusk, and it was uncertain. Her long and narrow eyes were slightly squinted, and they had become a very thin line. It was like a fox’s cunning. Her deep brown pupils were dyed black.
“Your words are really hurtful. They’re like a knife.” She put down her wine glass, and her nails were grinding on the table and were turning.
“What are you saying these things for?”
He followed her and put down his wine. His heart began to beat faster.
“It’s just like that, one knife after another, and it’s here.” She ignored him and pointed to her chest. “It really hurts so much. It hurts so much that I can’t cry. I can only smile at you.”
Gu Zhi suddenly stood up and walked up to Su Yu. He also wanted to stand up, but he suddenly found that his legs were weak. He could only watch as she forced him into a corner of the wall. Her knees were between his legs, and she was further pressing on him.
Her alluring and bright red lips were parting, and the wine she had exhaled was gentle and slightly drunk. She gently caressed her cheek.
“I really have nothing. That villa was my only thought, and it’s also been sold. Su Yu… I can give you whatever you want. The things I want are all gone.”
She took a deep breath and then forcefully exhaled it. Her well-behaved face suddenly became sinister. “Is it only when I die in front of you that you’ll be happy? You won’t hurt me like this anymore?”
“What are you doing, you madwoman?”
He then realized that the wine was not right. She had been stalling for time, waiting for the drug to take effect. The hand that was pushing her was also easily pushed away, and there was no room for him to fight back. But his face was still calm. “I thought you were almost better. It seems that some things are carved in the bones.”
“Yes. So I’m still Gu Zhi. They all say I’m a madwoman.”
She was rubbing against him again and again, and their breaths were intertwined. She was kissing his collarbone, and then she was going up. Sometimes she was rough, and sometimes she was gentle. In the end, he could no longer feel it. His consciousness had darkened with the sky.
In the end, he only remembered that she had kissed his lips. Her face was close, and he had seen her eyes clearly. She was as if she were on the verge of death, and her sad smile was stunning with a sad and broken beauty.
“Good night kiss.” She had said.
…
He had woken up at one in the morning. He had slept very soundly because of the drug, and he had not had the discomfort of waking up after drinking alcohol.
Actually, he should have thought of it a long time ago. He himself had also been sleepless all night. In the long and dark night, every minute and every second was stretched to dozens of times as long as in the daytime. He could hear the rustling sound from every corner of the room, his own breathing, his heartbeat. But he also felt that the surroundings were so quiet that it was heavy. It was as if the gravity had been doubled, and it was about to break a person’s bones, and it was suffocating.
A person who has been tormented by long-term insomnia will not listen to the doctor’s advice. She must have sleeping pills. He knew very well that the taste of that pain was enough to destroy all reverence, and life was no exception.
He had empathized with her again. He was suddenly a little annoyed when he thought of this.
A lamp was thoughtfully on at the head of the bed. The warm yellow light had illuminated the darkness of this room. The deep night outside the window was dark and gloomy, like a monster that was swallowing all emotions. His annoyance had suddenly disappeared.
He had gotten out of bed and had patrolled the entire room. The table in the living room was as clean as if it had been washed. The kitchen waste had also been packed in a plastic bag and had been taken away, and a new one had been put in the trash can. The black long dress on the balcony and the high-heeled sandals in the shoe cabinet were all gone. In their place were his black coat and long pants, which had all been washed clean.
She had just left without a sound, and she had not even said hello.
She had given him a strange kiss in the morning and at dusk and had then left. Should he take this as her plea for forgiveness or as a self-comfort?
Su Yu touched his lips. The soft and gentle touch was as if it were still there. She was like a fish, and her soft and delicate skin was freely swimming on his body. What was lingering was the sadness he had seen in her eyes before he had fainted.
The high and mighty woman, who was on the verge of death, was as if she had died once again in front of his eyes.
After a long while, he suddenly had an emotion again.
