Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Inside the bar, Zhang Qiong was drinking herself into a stupor.

Li Shihao frowned at the pile of empty bottles in front of them. “Drinking this much on an empty stomach without eating a single bite… that’s brutal.”

Zhang Qiong grabbed his shoulder and drunkenly shoved a glass of liquor toward his mouth. “You drink too.”

Li Shihao leaned back. “I’m not drinking. I have to dri-”

Before he could finish the word “drive,” Zhang Qiong forced a mouthful of alcohol down his throat.

Li Shihao swallowed in shock. “Now I can’t drive! My driver isn’t available today!”

Zhang Qiong countered, “I’ll find you a designated driver. You’ve already had the first sip, so keep going!”

Before long, Li Shihao was drunk, having been plied with glass after glass by Zhang Qiong.

He looked at her with hazy, bleary eyes. “You know, you’re actually quite beautiful.”

Zhang Qiong tilted her head back and let out a series of silly, drunken giggles. “Thanks.”

Li Shihao asked, “What was today all about?”

“What do you mean ‘what for’…? Why I cried, or why I asked you to stay with me?” Zhang Qiong asked.

“Explain it all to me, goddamn it,” Li Shihao said.

Zhang Qiong’s vision was starting to spin. She rubbed her eyes and said, “Hahaha, I want to ask you why, too.”

Li Shihao frowned. “Why what?”

“Why did you ruin my life so badly?”

Li Shihao slapped the table, his speech slurred and incoherent. “…Don’t talk such bullshit. When have I ever hurt you?”

Zhang Qiong’s face was flushed from the alcohol. She beckoned him with a finger. “It’s too loud in here. If you want to know, come closer… I’ll whisper it in your ear.”

Li Shihao moved closer and pulled Zhang Qiong into his arms.

Zhang Qiong struggled to sit up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and began to speak right against his ear.

The music in the bar was booming. With one ear filled with the thumping bass and the other with Zhang Qiong’s garbled confession, Li Shihao’s expression gradually grew somber.

Suddenly, he felt a dampness on his shoulder. Looking down, he saw that Zhang Qiong’s tears had already soaked through his shirt.

Zhang Qiong fell asleep against his shoulder. He propped her up and took a long, serious look at her tear-stained face.

“Wake up. Tell the driver which neighborhood you live in.”

Zhang Qiong was jostled awake by Li Shihao once they were in the car.

She opened her eyes to find herself sitting in the backseat with Li Shihao, her head resting on his lap.

“Xinda Residential Area. Turn left at the gate, the building at the very back.” After dropping those words, she slumped back onto Li Shihao’s lap in a drunken stupor.

By the time she woke up again, the car had reached the building.

Li Shihao hooked his arms under hers and dragged her out of the car. “We’re here. Which unit is yours?”

Zhang Qiong kept her eyes closed, pointing randomly at the air. “This one, see? This is the door, that’s the shoe cabinet, my bedroom is at the end… Don’t, don’t leave. Stay and help me… help me check the bathroom. I can’t take it anymore… I swear, I feel like-like killing someone…”

Li Shihao asked, “Which floor!”

“Fourth floor, on the right…” Zhang Qiong mumbled.

Li Shihao hauled her upstairs and opened the front door.

Zhang Qiong had been on the verge of passing out, but the moment she entered the apartment, she suddenly became agitated. “Don’t leave, okay? Don’t go! Don’t leave me here alone!”

Li Shihao turned on all the lights. “I won’t leave yet. Do you have any water? Let’s get some water.”

Zhang Qiong didn’t hear a word he said. Weeping, she pulled Li Shihao into her daughter’s room and pointed at the window.

“Look, it was right here… She hung so many dead rats right here!”

She dragged Li Shihao to the bathroom. Wiping her tears with one hand, she pounded on the door with the other. “And here! She hid in the bathroom to scare me! That’s exactly how she knocked! Then she’d comfort me on WeChat… I thought it was you! I always thought it was you!”

Immediately after, she dragged Li Shihao into her own bedroom. With a sharp *clatter*, she yanked open the bedside drawer and began to sob with her head bowed. “And these things… I told her about them too. I told her everything. She knows everything now. I have no dignity left. I really can’t stay here anymore…”

Li Shihao looked at her, his heart aching.

Still feeling the effects of the alcohol, he pulled Zhang Qiong into an embrace. “It’s okay. You’re drunk today, so just let it all out. Cry.”

Zhang Qiong said, “Don’t blame me for being so forward today, okay? I just broke down the moment I saw you at the bank entrance.”

Li Shihao replied, “I don’t blame you. I’m drunk too. I won’t remember a thing tomorrow.”

Zhang Qiong suddenly took Li Shihao’s face in her hands and began to kiss him frantically-from his lips to his cheeks, then down to his neck.

Li Shihao pushed her back slightly and firmly gripped her chin, asking word for word, “Do you know what you’re doing right now?”

Zhang Qiong blinked.

Li Shihao scooped her up, threw her onto the bed, and stripped off her dress in a few swift motions. As he pressed her down, Zhang Qiong greedily inhaled the faint scent of tobacco on him.

“Do you have cigarettes?” Zhang Qiong asked suddenly.

Li Shihao’s movements faltered for a beat. “What?”

Zhang Qiong said, “Now. Smoke for me. I want to smell it.”

Li Shihao shook his head with a smirk. “Interesting.”

He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took one out, and lit it.

As if she were on drugs, a greedy light shot from Zhang Qiong’s eyes. She leaned over Li Shihao, sniffing him all over like a dog.

Li Shihao took a drag and blew the smoke directly into Zhang Qiong’s face.

Zhang Qiong broke into a coughing fit. Once she caught her breath, she lunged at him again, using her mouth to seal Li Shihao’s…