Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It wasn’t until I splashed some water on my face in the restroom that I finally felt a sense of reality amidst the chaos.

He wasn’t Zhou Yanzhi.

And yet, he was.

Zhou Yanzhi was the sun in the sky-always gentle, always radiant.

But the year or so he had been missing felt like a vast chasm, a brutal severance.

The restroom door suddenly swung open.

In the mirror, a young and glamorous face appeared behind mine. Her hair fell over her shoulders in heavy waves, and her makeup was so thick it looked like a vivid, painted mask.

It was the woman from earlier.

She arched an eyebrow.

“You?”

A flash of surprise crossed her face.

I turned around, meeting her gaze directly. The woman, wearing heels at least fifteen centimeters high, took a few steps toward me, looking down her nose at me with a haughty glare.

“Stay away from him.”

Her gaze dropped to my chest, filled with the same disdain and contempt I had seen from Zhou Yanzhi.

“Do you really think Brother Yan would be interested in someone like you?”

She curled her lips into a smirk that was both mocking and arrogant, as if laughing at my overestimation of myself.

But I only caught onto that one name. Illusion and reality seemed to collide at that moment, and I felt as if I had found an outlet for my overwhelming emotions.

“What did you call him?”

My voice was raspy. She didn’t seem to hear me clearly.

“What is his name?”

“You just called him Brother Yan-”

I looked into her eyes like a drowning person clutching at a final straw, questioning her with a sob in my voice.

“Tell me-”

“Who is he?”

Is he… is he Zhou Yanzhi?

The familiar name was stuck in my throat; I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

The woman was startled by my reaction. She reached out and shoved me hard, sending me tumbling to the floor.

There was a dull, heavy thud in the cramped space. A sharp pain shot through my tailbone as I lay there in a pathetic heap.

The woman, Song Jing, stepped right up to me and leaned down close.

Her cloyingly sweet perfume was laced with a nauseating, foul stench.

“You don’t even know who he is, little sister?”

“Take my advice: stay away from him.”

“Otherwise…”

“You won’t even know where you’ll end up dead.”

Her last words were airy as they fell, yet they felt like shards of ice piercing my heart.

Before the words could even settle, the door was thrown open again.

The subject of our conversation burst into the small room, panting. The moment he saw me on the floor, I clearly saw his already irritable expression turn several degrees colder.

But in an instant, he pulled Song Jing by the waist, pulled out a stack of cash, and familiarly stuffed it into her bodice with a suggestive smile. “I don’t need you today.”

“I’m going to try something fresh.”

I saw her expression change instantly. She started to speak, “No…”

But Zhou Yanzhi cut her off with a sharp snap: “Get lost.”

Song Jing choked on her words. She looked back at me once, but with the light behind her, I couldn’t make out her expression. She quickly turned back, took off her high heels to carry them in her hand, and hurried away.