Chapter 59
Fu Ziyu & Han Yumeng’s Side Story
‘One Day’ (Part 2)
At this time, Fu Ziyu suddenly looked up and looked all around him. His face changed, and he asked the customer service assistant beside him, “Where’s the young lady who came with me?” He had not noticed Han Yumeng was behind him. She immediately came forward and said, “Ziyu, I’m here.” Fu Ziyu’s expression relaxed when he saw her. The assistant lowered her head to smile as she walked away. He held her hand and said, self-mockingly, “I was afraid you’d left again.” Han Yumeng was briefly silent before she replied, “How could I do that? I don’t ever want to leave you again.” Her voice was too flat. Fu Ziyu dropped the clothes he was holding, turned, and hugged her.
The shop assistants remained silent, and the passers-by continued hurrying by. They embraced for a long, long time.
——
It was dark. As the twilight closed around them, Fu Ziyu stood at the ground floor of his apartment block, watching her drive away in her unremarkable black car. A day had passed. A once-in-a-lifetime day, when he had been blessed with her presence next to him once again, had ended. He wanted to smile, but he found his eyes were already full of tears. He turned and went upstairs. Each step felt as if he was walking in the wilderness.
He got home and turned on the lights. The entire apartment was silent and grey. He pulled open the curtains and stood in front of the window for a long time, as if he was likely to stand that way until the end of time.
Han Yumeng returned to a hidden location. The interior was dark, and that man was not sitting quietly by the window waiting for her, as was his usual practice. She felt her entire body go weak, and she almost collapsed. The many shopping bags in her hands fell to the ground.
Suddenly, someone grabbed her in a chokehold from behind. She felt cold all over, but she still had to keep up the pretence of being calm and keep on smiling, as if she were enjoying herself.