Chapter Seventeen (Part 2): Parting
Lu Yin’s phone was turned off.
Lu Qiang floored the accelerator and shot forward, his fists still tightly clenched.
Genzi grabbed the handle, glancing at him uneasily. After being released from prison, Lu Qiang had restrained himself a lot. Last time when Ah Sheng hit him, he hadn’t even made a sound. But now, over a woman, he had nearly assaulted a police officer.
No need to think twice about what mattered more.
Genzi swallowed. “Qiang-ge, calm down. Or let me drive?”
Lu Qiang kept his eyes fixed ahead.
Genzi tried to fill the silence. “That female cop’s got a really twisted mind, saying anything she wants. Where could sis-in-law even go in the middle of the night?”
Lu Qiang didn’t seem to hear him at all, still unmoving.
After a while Genzi couldn’t help asking, “Ge, where are we going to look?”
A few seconds passed before Lu Qiang finally turned his eyes. “Go home first.”
Genzi reminded him, “Qiang-ge, slow down a bit. It’s basically one after the other. Maybe we’ll run into her on the road.”
Lu Qiang suddenly slammed the brakes. The inertia threw them forward, the seatbelt digging painfully into his chest. The snowy road ahead was tightly packed by tires. A screeching sound pierced the air as the rear tires skidded sideways several meters before the car stalled.
Lu Qiang turned to look at him. Genzi’s eyes were wide, staring out the window. The front of the car was pointed toward the guardrail of an overpass, less than half a meter from going over. His chest rose and fell rapidly, clearly shaken.
Lu Qiang followed his gaze, then loosened his grip on the wheel. Only then did he realize his palm was soaked with sweat. He wiped it on his jeans a few times, steadied his breathing, and needed several attempts before restarting the engine.
Once back on the road, his driving was slower and steadier.
But the whole way back yielded nothing. Until they reached the apartment complex, there was still no sign of her.
Genzi followed Lu Qiang up quickly. At the door, he paused. After a long moment, Lu Qiang finally took out the key and opened it.
A wave of heat hit them, but instead of warmth, it felt even colder.
Only one wall lamp was on in the hallway. The living room was pitch dark, completely silent. Walking through the corridor, they reached the bedroom door, half open, a faint light spilling out. He took two quick steps forward and pushed it open, then froze, hisfists tightening.
The bedding was in disarray. Two pillows were crookedly stacked together. The sleepwear she had taken off was draped on the edge of the bed.
Everything was exactly as it had been when they left.
Lu Yin had not come back.
Lu Qiang lit a cigarette and sat on the sofa, smoking in silence. Only in moments like this did he realize how little attention he had paid to her.
Genzi stood awkwardly for a while, then found a place to sit. He didn’t dare ask anything more. The living room fell into an uncanny silence.
Lu Qiang propped his elbows on his knees, smoking one cigarette after another. Ash and cigarette butts fell at his feet, and before long they had piled up into a small mountain. Lu Qiang lowered his eyes and looked at the mess on the floor. Normally, this absolutely would not have been allowed. Lu Yin would follow behind him every time, nagging him, then patiently clean everything up.
In a moment of distraction, the burning end of the cigarette reached his hand. He flinched and instinctively threw it onto the ground, then reached for the cigarette pack, only to find it already empty. Lu Qiang looked at the pack, crushed it up and threw it down at his feet along with the cigarette butts, then raised a hand and rubbed his face.
Genzi asked, “Can Sister-in-law go back to her parents’ home?”
“Her family isn’t in this city.”
“What about her friends? Why don’t you call and ask?”
“I don’t have their numbers.”
“Her coworkers?”
“Don’t have those either.”
Genzi still wanted to say something, but Lu Qiang patted him on the shoulder. “Go home. Your brother’s tired. I won’t see you out.”
“But Sister-in-law?”
“She’s fine. She’s a grown adult. She can’t just disappear... I’ll talk to her after she’s cooled down and comes back.”
Genzi said, “Why don’t we go look for her again?”
“No need. Go home.”
Not long after Genzi left, Lu Qiang put on his shoes and lay directly down on the sofa, his arm stretched across his eyes. He dozed for a little while, but wave after wave of restlessness made it impossible for him to lie still. He grabbed his keys and went back out.
Although he felt it was impossible, he first went back to his own place to take a look. After that, he wandered around on the road aimlessly. The two of them had never gone to many places together, so it did not take long for him to make his way through them all. Along the way, he stopped at a convenience store and bought two packs of cigarettes, called her several times, then drove the car to the factory where Lu Yin worked.
It was past two in the morning. Outside, orange streetlights illuminated the snow blanketing everything, and all things had lost their edges, merging into one expanse of white. The gates of Duhua Garment Factory were tightly shut. The snow in the courtyard was clean and smooth, untouched by footsteps. Every now and then, a pedestrian passed along the road, bundled up heavily and walking with extreme care.
The air conditioning in the car was off. With every breath in and out, a cloud of mist appeared before him. The window beside him blocked his view, so Lu Qiang lowered it directly. Dry, cold air rushed inside. He pulled his coat tighter at the front, leaned halfway against the seatback, and lit a cigarette.
The car was deathly quiet. Lu Qiang lowered his eyes and stared outside, the cigarette resting between his lips, but for a long time he did not take a single drag. A sudden ringtone rang out. He jolted, and a large clump of ash fell onto the front of his coat. He brushed it off, then felt around on the passenger seat for his phone.
The moment he glanced at the screen, he answered without even pausing.
The other end did not say a word. With the phone pressed to his ear, he could hear her slow, quiet breathing. The muscles of Lu Qiang’s jaw stiffened. He stared straight ahead and said nothing either.
After a full minute of silence, she finally asked, “Where are you?”
Her voice was hoarse.
Lu Qiang’s heart clenched, then steadily fell back into place. At the same time, a surge of anger rose in him for no reason. He closed his eyes briefly and ground out through clenched teeth, “Where the fuck are you?”
Lu Yin said nothing.
He switched the phone to his other hand, adjusted the seat, and started the car. “I’m asking you again. Where the hell did you run off to?”
There was an extremely faint sound of sobbing in his ear, blurred and indistinct. Lu Qiang held his breath and had great difficulty making it out clearly.
He tightened his grip on the phone, his tone immediately softening. “Yinyin,” he called. After another stretch of silence, Lu Qiang took the hand that had been gripping the steering wheel away and gave a bitter, almost pained laugh. “You really don’t trust me that much?”
“Can you let me explain everything to you face-to-face?”
After a long while, Lu Yin softly answered, “Mm.”
He drove at full speed. Along the way, he ran two red lights. The crack in the windshield was too large for him to see the rearview mirror clearly, and he nearly rear-ended the car behind him. Lu Qiang simply kept the window down and drove all the way back.
Lu Yin was sitting properly on the sofa, her clothes still on. She was still wearing that apricot-colored padded coat, the collar pulled all the way up to cover her chin.
The door lock turned softly twice. Then someone slipped inside. Lu Yin turned her head and glanced over. Her gaze was cold and distant, and she quickly looked away again. Lu Qiang stood at the doorway, his eyes fixed on her. Only after a long while did he take off his coat and walk inside.
He touched his forehead with one hand, pulled up the fabric over his knees slightly, and crouched down in front of her. “When did you get back?”
Lu Yin leaned against the back of the chair and looked straight at him, her lips tightly pressed together. Her eyelids were still somewhat swollen and red.
Lu Qiang softened his voice. “I’ve been looking for you all night. Where did you go?” He looked up at her. Two faint lines creased his forehead, his eyes dark beneath them, red blood vessels filling the corners.
Lu Yin said softly, “Nowhere. I walked back from the Public Security Bureau. When I got back, you weren’t here. I waited for a while, and after my phone had charged, I called you.”
“Were you cold?” Lu Qiang reached for the hand resting on her legs. His arm extended toward her, but he grasped nothing.
Lu Yin moved both hands to the sides of her legs, her index finger lightly hooking and rubbing at the seam of her jeans.
He stiffened. He tried to curl the corners of his lips, but the smile looked somewhat ugly, so he simply gave up. His lips drew into a straight line. “You won’t even let me touch you now?”
She turned her gaze away.
He gave a quiet scoff, drew in a breath, then stood up. He pulled a chair over from the side and sat down in front of her. “Do you despise me?”
“Do you think I’m some filthy pervert now? A beast? Someone with some kind of special fetish who likes forcing himself on you?” Lu Qiang leaned against the back of the chair, his shoulders slumped, his arms resting casually between his legs.
The two of them were not particularly close to each other. A pile of cigarette butts from earlier was still scattered at their feet. She had not been in the mood to clean up after coming back, so they were left in a chaotic mess, strewn all over the floor.
Lu Yin cleared her throat. “There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Ask.”
Yet she bit her lip tightly, unable to ask even a single word. She walked and thought the whole way. Avoiding things when faced with trouble was her instinctive reaction. Once the initial impulse had passed and she had calmed down, she realized that running away halfway through had not been rational. After all, she had heard it through a third party, and it was impossible to tell what was true and what was false. At the time, she had simply been terrified by those two words, then heartbroken, desperate, and unable to believe it. All those emotions had surged over her at once, leaving her at a loss. The only thing she wanted was to leave.
She walked for a while, then stopped and sat on a chair by the roadside, recalling the way they had spent the past six months or so together. Although Lu Qiang was overbearing and crude, and liked to run his mouth when there was nothing else to do, he had more or less restrained himself and observed propriety with her. When she was unwilling, he had never forced her. Seen in that light, having that disgusting crime pinned on him really was somewhat unfair.
When all was said and done, she did not completely trust him. His past could not give her a sense of security. That night when he was drunk, he had told her to give him a chance and not leave. Whether he had done it or not, he must have been hiding something.
The wind at night was strong, so fierce against her face that it felt as though it could strip off a layer of skin. Wind rushed into her eyes, and after having just cried, they stung painfully. Lu Yin pulled her phone from her pocket. At some point, the battery had run out.
She did not have a penny on her. By the time she walked all the way back, her entire body had gone numb with cold.
Lu Yin spaced out for a moment, but in the end, she met his eyes. “Officer Tan, she... said you committed rape.”
“Do you believe her?”
Lu Yin only asked, “Is it true?”
Lu Qiang answered that it was.
Her breathing stopped. It was as though all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Her chest felt stifled, and her mind suddenly went blank.
Lu Qiang said, “But I didn’t do it.”
Her lips trembled. “What do you mean?”
Lu Qiang said, “I took someone else place.”
Lu Yin’s heart began pounding wildly. Her brows drew tightly together, and her hands unconsciously clasped together again. This answer was neither that he had done it nor that he had not, yet it was unexpectedly startling. She opened her mouth, her throat tight, unable to say a single word.
Lu Qiang said, “You may have seen that person before. One morning at the bus stop, he was inside the car.”
Lu Yin tried to remember. She had seen that man more than once. She had gotten an even closer look at him at Zhentian Entertainment City. He was tall, broad-shouldered and sturdy, with features somewhat similar to Lu Qiang’s. At first glance, she had even mistaken him for Lu Qiang.
Lu Yin was horrified. She could not help straightening her back, struggling to control her voice. “Why?”
Lu Qiang said, “Qiu Zhen is seven years younger than me. I always treated him like my own younger brother, and we were very close. Back then, I was involved in the underworld. He was good for nothing, and I was the one who taught him how to eat, drink, gamble, and chase women. He was the one who committed the crime, but the responsibility was mine.”
“Just because of that?”
“He took a liking to a girl. He could never get her, so he asked me to help him.” Lu Qiang paused. “The night it happened, I was the one who forced that girl over to him. I thought the little bastard was just fooling around, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. Who would have thought he would actually force himself on her? The girl had a fierce temperament. She wanted to die, and she even slashed his forehead open with a knife. She also hurt herself more than once. She spent a month in the hospital, barely clinging to life, and suffered considerable psychological trauma as well. After that, we originally planned to settle the matter with money, but the girl’s family knew the law, so they reported it to the police.”
Lu Yin’s body sank heavily back into the seat. She tried hard to digest what she had just heard. Knowing the truth did not make her feel much more at ease. She had never seen that girl. In the darkness earlier, she had only caught a hurried glimpse and thought the girl looked small and slender. She did not look very old, yet she had experienced the ugliness and filth of this world.
Her palms were sweating. “What happened afterward?”
Lu Qiang said lightly, “Qiu Zhen was only nineteen that year. He hadn’t fully grown into the person he would become. There was always a chance he could change. The conviction had already been established. His father had connections in both the underworld and the legitimate world, so the test results and evidence were all switched to mine. Everyone knew what had happened, but there was nothing they could do.”
“I went to prison in his place. He was sent abroad and continued his studies.”
That was the whole story. Six years compressed into just a few brief sentences. He showed no particular emotion, speaking evenly and calmly, as though he did not care at all.
After a long silence, Lu Yin’s voice was icy. “Then why did you never tell me?”
Lu Qiang smiled faintly. “I’ve never told anyone else. Rape isn’t exactly something to be proud of.” He leaned forward, bracing his arms against his knees. After a long while, he said, “I was also afraid you’d do what you did today, not listen to anything and suddenly leave.”
She was silent for a moment. “You didn’t do it.”
“It doesn’t really make a difference. I’m still an accomplice.”
Lu Qiang stood up and sat down on the sofa beside her. He placed his palm over the back of her neck and exerted some force, bringing her head down into his arms.
Lu Qiang held her tightly and said helplessly, “This has always been a sickness in my mind. It’s made me suspicious of everything. I was just afraid you wouldn’t believe me and would kick me to the curb.”
The person in his arms remained silent for a long time. “Yinyin,” he called to her. “I’ve laid everything bare for you. Whether you can accept it or not, I’ll listen to whatever you say.”
After a while, the body beneath his hands began to tremble. The sound of sobbing came through. Lu Yin suddenly shoved him away. “I don’t accept it. Why should I? You think you’re so noble, so great. He did something wrong, so he should have paid the price. Who gave you the right to go to prison in his place?”
Lu Yin spoke incoherently, then shoved him hard again. Her face was already covered in tears, as though she had nowhere to release all her grievances. Her accusations came out indistinctly. “You wanted to atone for your sins and make yourself feel better. Did you ever think about me? About the future? Whether you did it or not, you have to carry that crime with you for the rest of your life. What will other people think of you? What will they think of me...”
Lu Yin was sobbing so hard she could barely speak, her face covered in snot and tears. Lu Qiang wanted to laugh, yet he could not help feeling a pang of sadness. “We didn’t even know each other back then.”
She froze, then cried even louder, pounding and hitting him. Her hair was disheveled, her clothes askew, and she looked like a complete madwoman. “I don’t accept it. I don’t accept it... If we have a child someday, and people say his father is a rapist, what is he supposed to do? How are we supposed to explain it?”
“I’m sorry.”
“What gave you the right to drag me into this for no reason? You should have stayed away from me. I never even liked you!”
“My fault.”
“You piece of shit, bastard... Every single time, you just shamelessly clung to me. Do you know how much I hated you?”
“I’m a piece of shit.” Lu Qiang pulled her into his arms and gently patted her back, speaking with utmost seriousness. “If I had known I would meet you someday, I wouldn’t have gotten involved in this mess. I wouldn’t have gone into the underworld, wouldn’t have done anything that hurt people, wouldn’t have drunk, gambled, or chased women. I would have saved my virginity for you, but...”
A sudden little burst of laughter came from his arms. Lu Yin suddenly laughed, wiping away her tears, crying and laughing at the same time.
Seeing her laugh, Lu Qiang also broke into a wide grin.
He was happy too soon. Before he could react, Lu Yin lunged at him and sank her teeth into his shoulder.
Lu Qiang shuddered and let out a low groan of pain, but did not stop her, simply letting her bite him.
She put all her strength into it. Lu Yin could feel her own teeth trembling with the pain, until the taste of blood filled her mouth.
In the end, Lu Qiang gripped her chin and made her let go. His shoulder was already numb. After all that struggling, both of them were panting heavily.
He paid no attention to the wound on his shoulder and wiped her tears for her. “Feel better now?”
No comments:
Post a Comment