Zhao Pingjin got out, slammed the door forcefully, opened Lu Xiaojiang’s car door, and looked at Huang Xitang. His handsome, fair face was overcast with anger, his voice deep and ominous as he suppressed his rage. “Get out. We’re going home.”
Xi Tang had no choice but to get out.
Only two people were in the dazzlingly golden elevator.
Xi Tang kept her head down in silence.
“So unhappy?” A faint, mocking tone.
“No.” Xi Tang answered calmly with a wooden expression.
Zhao Pingjin glanced at her reflection in the golden mirror of the elevator, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. “What, do you resent me for ruining your little affair with Lu Xiaojiang?”
Xi Tang strode out of the elevator, ignoring the person behind her.
Zhao Pingjin opened the front door, standing in the living room, looking at the still-silent Huang Xitang. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier that you liked Lu Xiaojiang? I could have stepped aside.”
Xi Tang suddenly looked up, her voice as cold as if soaked in water. “Zhao Pingjin, he was just giving me a ride. Why make such a big deal out of it? You were busy entertaining your father-in-law, and you won’t even let me get a ride?”
Zhao Pingjin’s eyelid twitched slightly, but the smile at the corner of his mouth deepened. “What, you’re upset that I was entertaining my future father-in-law?”
Xi Tang turned to leave. “What does it have to do with me?”
Zhao Pingjin said coldly, “Then why the attitude the whole way? I give you so much money every month, and you give me attitude in return?”
Xi Tang stood at the door of her room. “Buying laughter with gold. Mr. Zhao has always been so generous.”
Zhao Pingjin raised an eyebrow slightly. “What’s this? Feeling insulted?”
Xi Tang smiled faintly. “Not at all. People like us only recognize money, not insults.”
Zhao Pingjin furrowed his brow slightly, walking slowly toward her, his clear features changing to an icy calmness. “Indeed. Miss Huang, dealing with all those filthy men in Hengdian, I’m amazed you could do it so enthusiastically.”
Xi Tang felt her heart sinking bit by bit, though her expression remained increasingly calm like still water. “What do you care who insults me? How are you any different from those men?”
Zhao Pingjin’s face gradually turned pale with anger. He raised his hand against the wall, yanking the coat off her body. “In your eyes, am I the same as all the men who want to sleep with you?”
Xi Tang raised her head defiantly. “That’s right.”
Zhao Pingjin roughly pressed her head, pushing her toward his room, his voice filled with inexplicable hatred. “Even Lu Xiaojiang has realized it by now, yet I’m still so stupidly clueless. Tell me, how much did Lu Xiaojiang pay you back then?”
Xi Tang’s hair was torn by his grip, a sharp pain spreading across her scalp. Her patience had reached its limit after the entire evening. She forcefully pushed him away, trying to run out. “Let go of me!”
Zhao Pingjin grabbed her arm, pinning her firmly against the wall, his eyes reddening. “You’ll never be tamed, will you? No matter how I treat you, you’ll always be this heartless, won’t you?”
Xi Tang struggled mightily to break free from his grip, her foot kicking hard at his knee. Zhao Pingjin winced in pain, his elbow pressing against her shoulder as he violently tore at her expensive dress, which ripped with a sharp sound. Xi Tang quickly covered herself with her hands.
Zhao Pingjin laughed bitterly in his extreme anger. “Why hide? Aren’t you experienced in this line of work?”
She gritted her teeth, punching and kicking him with all her strength, trying to break free. Zhao Pingjin remained unmoved, pressing down on her body, brutalizing her at will, gripping her neck. Xi Tang struggled frantically, her teeth sinking deep into Zhao Pingjin’s neck. Zhao Pingjin flinched in pain, his hand viciously tightening around her throat. Xi Tang couldn’t breathe, her face turning purple, yet she stubbornly made no sound. Zhao Pingjin’s cruel face was covered in frost, staring at her motionlessly. At that moment, he truly wanted to strangle her. If she died by his hands, he would be free—free from this blind obsession, free from this poison that was slowly killing him. Even if he would suffer for a lifetime, it would be better than being tortured by her like this.
The air seemed to solidify. The person pinned against the wall, like a piece of paper, slowly stopped struggling.
Xi Tang began to have hallucinations—colorful, spinning visions. Her body felt lighter as if slowly floating away.
She closed her eyes, and all around her was silence.
Suddenly, a small “ding” sound.
The diamond necklace around Xi Tang’s neck suddenly broke, the shining beads scattering, grazing Zhao Pingjin’s hand, sliding down her body, and rolling onto the carpet.
Her white neck now showed traces of blood.
Zhao Pingjin froze for a second, then abruptly released his hand.
Xi Tang coughed violently, her elbow supporting herself against the wall, her body trembling as she gulped in air.
Zhao Pingjin’s expression was suppressed to the extreme, his eyes filled with endless darkness. “You’d better not provoke me. In this city, many people disappear without a trace.”
Xi Tang thought of Zhong Qiao, feeling waves of mingled grief and anger. She held her head high, unable to suppress her rolling hatred. “I know. The lesson from the past is unforgettable.”
Zhao Pingjin’s expression was contemptuous. “No one is innocent. When schemes fail, they resort to suicide.”
It was like falling into an ice pit.
At that moment, Xi Tang only wished her heart was made of stone, yet it still felt pain. “How is Mr. Zhao any better? Keeping cheap, glamorous starlets while marrying a socially suitable fiancée. Do you think you’re some morally upright gentleman?”
Zhao Pingjin said coldly, “I never claimed to be a gentleman. Besides, when you got together with me, didn’t you already know I would eventually marry?”
Xi Tang felt cold, her whole body trembling slightly. “What does your marriage have to do with me?”
Zhao Pingjin turned away. “Good that you understand. You want money, I give you money. Coming to Beijing was your choice. I warn you, this circle is small; we’ll inevitably see each other around. Don’t push me. I never indulge women who put on airs of untouchable chastity.”
To be so debased, and worse, to have brought it all upon herself—Xi Tang suddenly felt a bitterness she couldn’t suppress. She choked back tears and asked, “If you’re getting married, why did you come after me?”
She suddenly turned her face, her large eyes filled with tears.
Zhao Pingjin suddenly felt uneasy. He kicked aside a chair, irritably loosening his tie. “Get out.”
Xi Tang, with disheveled hair, futilely clutching the torn half of her dress, ran out of his room.
In the morning, Zhao Pingjin walked out of his room. The house was quiet; the living room curtains were half-open, but no one was there.
He glanced at Huang Xitang’s room—the door was half-open, and the kitchen was empty too.
Walking to the living room, he saw that the floor-to-ceiling windows were tightly closed, but a figure stood outside on the balcony—a thin, slender body wearing a plain white crêpe satin shirt and a large red tasseled coat, leaning against the balcony railing, smoking.
The morning smog was heavy.
Her silhouette appeared hazy as if floating in the wind.
Zhao Pingjin stood for quite a while before his vision gradually cleared. He continued watching, and Huang Xitang remained standing there, motionless.
Only her right hand holding the cigarette occasionally moved to her lips, pale blue smoke rising faintly.
As Huang Xitang lowered her head to extinguish the cigarette, she saw him standing inside the glass window. She glanced at him, then immediately looked away.
She held the cigarette pack in her hand, stubbornly turning her back to him, still standing motionless outside.
Separated by a glass window, she was worlds away.
Her phone was casually placed on the sofa as usual.
Zhao Pingjin slowly sat down on the sofa and opened her phone. He saw a red silhouette in the camera—a beautiful profile, snow-white skin, black hair dancing in the wind.
Behind her was Beijing’s awakening central district—a whole expanse of hazy skyscrapers, a flourishing stone forest built of steel and concrete.
Since Huang Xitang had come to Beijing, Zhao Pingjin often had this feeling. Though she lived with him, it felt as if her world was far removed from his.
She was by his side, seemingly docile and submissive, yet always poised to leave.
It was infuriating, yet there was nothing he could do.
Suddenly, some white specks appeared in the camera lens. Zhao Pingjin refocused, moved the phone away to look, and realized it had started snowing outside.
The snow fell rather urgently; looking through the window, it floated in the air like cotton fluff.
Zhao Pingjin raised the phone again and pressed the camera button.
The first snow of winter in Beijing scattered like salt, falling on her black hair.
Huang Xitang still stood there, lightly wiping the snowflakes from the tip of her nose, showing no intention of coming inside.
Zhao Pingjin looked down at the photo he had taken. Just as he was about to close the phone screen, he suddenly remembered noticing a familiar photo when he had glanced at her album earlier.
He opened her phone’s gallery again.
Zhao Pingjin was momentarily stunned. How did Huang Xitang have this photo?
He enlarged it for a closer look. It was a screenshot of her chat with Ni Kailun. In the screenshot, Ni Kailun had sent her a photo. The person in the photo was him—his back view, with a woman intimately on his arm. Looking at the shopping mall in the background, he remembered it was during his birthday when Yu Xiaoying had returned from Los Angeles and stayed in Beijing for over ten days.
During that time, Yu Xiaoying had clung to him every day, asking him to accompany her shopping… Ni Kailun must have encountered them at the mall.
Ni Kailun had written in large letters: Wake up sooner rather than later.
He didn’t know how long she had looked at this photo, but when she saw him, she hadn’t mentioned a word.
He slowly put down her phone.
In the morning mist and fine snow, Huang Xitang still stood outside. He gradually realized that perhaps she knew he would never go out there, which was why she stayed outside. Out there, where the wind howled, where she was free, was the only place she could be alone.