Chapter 3

In my third month of pregnancy, the sickness became severe. The place where I worked fired me.

I never received that month’s wages.

After all that work, all those pennies scrimped and saved, he had simply stolen them.

I tried a few folk remedies, but none ended the pregnancy.

In the fifth month, I stopped in a city along the way. I couldn’t hold on any longer. I found a small shop and called my mother.

After listening to enough of her sneers and mockery, I quietly begged her to send me some money. I didn’t dare tell her I was pregnant. I said I’d been hit by a car.

My mother swore and asked why it hadn’t killed me. She had no money. Then she hung up.

It began to rain. I stood on the busy road, watching the cars pass, then clenched my teeth and walked on, my face expressionless.

As I passed a bend, dazed and distracted, I really was hit by a car.

To my surprise, the driver was the rich young man who had once pursued Gao Min.

His name was Zhang Xin.

He’d had a little to drink. Even though he suspected I had staged the accident, he didn’t dare call the police. Resting one hand on his car window, he looked down at me, chin slightly raised. “How much do you want?”

He didn’t seem to recognize me. I looked at him, gritted my teeth, and named a sum.

He swore and accused me of extortion. I just kept repeating the number. Only that much. That was all I wanted. Blood ran down my calf with the rainwater, barely visible in the darkness. I felt no pain.

I needed the money for surgery, for recovery, for a room. To stay alive.

At last, he impatiently took out his phone. “Come here, then.”

He grabbed my phone and scanned the code. My hands were shaking. He transferred the money, and I saw an extra zero at the end.

My breathing quickened. I opened my mouth. “I… I think that’s too—” He glanced at me and tossed my phone back. As he turned, he noticed a coin in the car and casually threw it to me too. Then he rolled up the window and drove away.

I looked in the direction the car had gone. I knew he couldn’t see me, but I stayed where I was and bowed, deeply, deeply.

A second later, a long blast of the horn sounded from the direction he’d taken.

I didn’t wait any longer. I found a cheap hotel and rested properly that night, planning to have the procedure the next day.

I’d read too much about infertility and lasting complications after abortions to cut corners on this. I went to the best public hospital in the city for an examination.

Obstetrics and gynecology were together. If you wanted the baby, you went to obstetrics. If you didn’t, you went to gynecology.

I didn’t want this child. Yet it had grown inside me for months. Even after saying I didn’t want it, my heart still gave a painful twist.

I came out holding my examination slip and almost walked into a man whose face was full of joy.

The instant he saw me, that joy turned to terror.

“…You? You! Why are you here? What do you want?” Fu Liu’s voice was tight. He immediately looked over his shoulder.

Only a few months had passed, yet he was completely different. He wore a well-fitted shirt and a watch. His old glasses had been replaced with gold-rimmed ones. He looked cultured and gentle.

His gaze traveled from my face to my belly. Now he was rattled. “You’re pregnant.”

He looked suspicious and panicked, like a bird caught in a net.

I had imagined so many ways to get revenge, rehearsed my fury countless times. Yet now I couldn’t move. I shook all over, my chest felt as though a boulder was pounding against it, and I couldn’t breathe.

So it was true. Anger beyond endurance could leave you voiceless.

Fu Liu dragged me into a nearby corridor. With a thud, my back struck the cold wall.

He babbled, frantic and incoherent, saying he was so surprised, so happy to see me. Then he asked why I was here. Had I married? What was going on?

“I’m not married,” I said. “Where did you go that day?”

He immediately began making excuses. There had been trouble at home; he’d had to leave. Later, he’d finally found work at a new company. Things were hard, and he hadn’t wanted to drag me down. On and on. He said he would treat me as a younger sister from now on and take good care of me.

I waited until he finished. “Where’s my money? You slept with me that night. Hadn’t you got enough out of me? Why take my money too? Oh, right. Did you use it to pay the penalty for canceling that employment agreement? If you hadn’t stolen my savings, I might have had the abortion already. We might never have met again. Maybe this is fate. How convenient. The baby needs a father.”

The moment I finished, Fu Liu said, “Who knows if it’s even mine?”

I looked him in the eye. “I can have it. Then you can take a paternity test.”

Fu Liu immediately softened. His gentle tone barely concealed his superior contempt. “How much do you want?”

He looked exactly like the sort of rich man he had once hated most.

A woman called his name outside. He moved closer and lowered his voice. “How much money? Whatever you want, I can give it to you.”

I smiled. “I want more than money. Can you give me that too?”

I wanted revenge on Fu Liu.

And the best revenge was to destroy him slowly, slowly, from the inside. To make him frightened, frantic, helpless. To have him begging like a dog, wagging its tail. And then deliver the killing blow.