Chapter 4

Fu Liu now had a new girlfriend.

They had come to the hospital because her period hadn’t arrived that month, and they wanted to see whether she was pregnant.

Naturally, he hoped she was.

He talked at length about her. She was his boss’s only daughter. He confided how awkward and difficult his position was: people misunderstood him, thought he was a schemer living off a woman. No one at work respected him, and his future father-in-law made his life hard in every possible way. He had it so rough.

He was trying to awaken my sympathy.

But I looked at the expensive watch on his wrist, at what he spent on a single meal, at that faint air of melancholy he affected to seem deep. I despised the hypocrite more with every moment.

At just the right point, Fu Liu brought up our old love. He recalled how we had met and our life together. To excuse his despicable behavior, he said he really had loved me. That was why he had wanted to possess me completely before leaving, so his life would hold no regrets.

He had made me a trophy.

I asked whether he didn’t love his fiancée.

Suddenly wary, Fu Liu said of course he did.

He quickly changed the subject. He had found an excellent private hospital, the best doctor. The procedure was guaranteed to do no harm to my body.

I looked at him and reached out to catch his wrist. After a long hesitation, I asked uncertainly, “If it really won’t hurt me… will you still come to see me afterward? Will you still want me? I honestly don’t know… how to keep going anymore.”

Fu Liu looked incredulous. He jerked his head up, stared at me, and licked his lips.

I withdrew my hand and lowered my eyes. “Forget it. Look at the state I’m in…”

“No, no. You’re lovely, Xiao Zhou. I… I just didn’t expect this.” He rubbed his hands together.

I smiled at him.

Every sound and every image was being recorded.

I didn’t even have to lead him. His own behavior gave me better material.

I had accepted his money and didn’t reject his advances. Everything I said was so meek and submissive that he eventually began reminiscing, in detail, about how wonderful that day had been and what it had felt like.

“They say a girl never forgets her first man. Is that true?”

“It is.” My smile deepened. Very slowly, I answered, “It really does… stay with you forever.”

I didn’t trust the hospital Fu Liu had chosen at all. Rather than put my body in his hands, I would trust an unfamiliar doctor.

But my pregnancy couldn’t wait any longer.

I put my plan into action ahead of time.

First, I sent him part of the recordings I had been making since the day we met again.

His message came almost immediately. “What is this supposed to mean?”

I said I wanted to visit his new home.

“Zhou Zhou, are you insane? My father-in-law bought that place. There might be people there right now…”

He had only sent the first message when I sent the second audio clip.

He had no choice but to invent an excuse to leave a company meeting, then find a reason to take me, terrified, to the new home in that luxurious residential complex.

Those recordings made Fu Liu my puppet.

I tormented him in little ways.

I watched him frantically lie, one lie after another. Watched him rage and fume, helpless to do anything. Watched him sob and beg, groveling. Watched him swallow it all. Like a cat toying with a mouse.

Fu Liu had once said that people at the bottom could only climb by stepping on the backs of those even lower than themselves.

Now I finally understood. Stepping on the back of scum like him felt wonderful.

The last time, he knelt before me and knocked his head against the floor, promising a huge sum if I would spare him.

I wasn’t stupid. Taking that money would make it extortion.

Besides, I didn’t want his filthy money.

But this piece of scum wasn’t worth another moment of my time.

On the night I was due to leave for the surgery, I organized all the recordings and written documents and sent them to Fu Liu’s beautiful, wealthy fiancée.

Sent.

My train was at eleven that night. I bought an ice-cold Sprite and drank it, sip by sip.

At nine, a woman called. She said she wanted to meet me.