Echoes of Lotus District | Chapter 45 | A Heart of Stone | Novela.app

Qi Lian would have to be blind not to recognize that she was in a bathroom. "Are you alone?" he asked, his brow furrowed with suppressed tension. In Yu Mo’s memory, Qi Lian only ever had two modes. The first was how he had been at the very beginning: cold and indifferent, as if the world could explode and it would have nothing to do with him. The second was the way he had become later: doting on her so much that even if she poked a hole in the sky, he would indulge her. His current expression was something she had never seen before, and she wasn't quite sure how to handle it. Yu Mo looked at him without speaking. They had discussed this the day before; he should have known the answer. "Do you have to hide in the toilet just to make a call? Am I some kind of shameful secret?" Yu Mo rubbed her brow. "I’m very tired, Qi Lian. Don’t go looking for trouble." "You didn't reply to my messages all day. You cut off my calls. Fine, keep it from your parents, but why keep it from your ex-husband? Is he not allowed to know you’re with another man? Are you planning to sleep in the same bed tonight?" "Qi Lian!" "I’m coming to get you right now! You’re coming back to Jinning with me! Just make up some excuse for your mother tomorrow." "Impossible! This is an annual tradition. I wouldn't be able to explain it. Nothing is going to happen. If anything were going to happen, I wouldn't have gotten a divorce. Just go to sleep." Qi Lian was standing on Yu Mo’s balcony. It was a rare day without rain, yet it was more stifling than usual. Even with the air conditioning on inside, he couldn't sit still. He felt like he couldn't breathe, so he had stepped out for some air. Outside, there wasn't a hint of a breeze. It was hot, and swarms of mosquitoes circled him. He was so frustrated he felt like kicking the balcony railing. "Yu Mo, I told you, you can do whatever you want, just don't torture me! You’re torturing me right now!" The branch-like veins on his left hand, hanging at his side, pulsed violently. "When Qi Shuai goes out to hack someone, I can stop him. But if I go, no one can stop me! You probably don't know this, but I’ve never lost a fight since I was a kid. Later on, I mostly stopped using my fists, and gradually, people couldn't even figure out what I was capable of." Yu Mo sat on the edge of the bathtub to save her strength. The more she listened, the more unsettled she felt. Her slumped posture gradually straightened. "What are you doing, Qi Lian? What do you want to do? Are you threatening me?!" Her head buzzed. She was stunned by the thought she had just voiced. She wasn't a teenage girl who thought a hot-headed, impulsive man was cool. She thought of Qi Shuai with his knife—were they both the same? Was it really as the saying went, that she had been "conquered in bed" and was now seeing him through a filtered lens? She said calmly, "Qi Lian, let’s talk tomorrow when we meet. I’m hanging up now." She reached out, her finger hovering over the red end-call button, but she couldn't bring herself to press it. Qi Lian’s eyes made her heart waver; it was a look that was both wounded and furious. He pursed his lips and said nothing, nor did he hang up. That gaze was uncomfortable even through a screen. They stared at each other across the digital divide. Xue Shen stood outside the bathroom door and called out, "Mo Mo, the cake from FANTASY is downstairs. I’ve asked the front desk to bring it up. I ordered a random bottle of red wine. Hurry up and come out." Qi Lian’s expression shifted. The silent, wounded look vanished, replaced by a sneer of mockery. "A brief parting is better than a wedding night, and a moment of a spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold. No wonder you didn't have time to answer my calls." He nodded. "Fine, Yu Mo. You told me you don't like complicated relationships, but you’re playing the double standard game perfectly. Come back and tell me who makes you feel better." With that, he disconnected the video call. Yu Mo pressed a hand to her forehead. The fire had already been burning bright, and that last comment was like a bucket of hot oil poured from the heavens. There was no saving this. There was a bakery near her father’s hotel that made a rum raisin cake she loved. Every time she came to Shanghai, she would order it. For her mother’s birthdays over the past few years, after they finished their work and returned to the hotel, they would order a cake for a late-night snack. She had forgotten this year, but Xue Shen had not. She took a distracted shower. When she came out, Xue Shen was pouring the wine. He glanced up at her briefly before returning his focus to the task. Xue Shen was a handsome man; there was a certain beauty in the way he did things slowly and deliberately. Yu Mo sat on the sofa and tugged at the collar of her pajamas. Only after putting them on in the bathroom did she realize there were marks on her collarbone and neck that couldn't be hidden. She felt a flash of irritation. Flaunting a new lover in front of an old one was not a dignified thing to do. She suspected Qi Lian had done it on purpose; his erratic behavior the night before now had an explanation. Except for the first day, he had always been very gentle. If she showed even a hint of discomfort, he would be more nervous than she was. But last night, he had been reckless, and he hadn't reacted even when she said, "I'm tired." Xue Shen set the bottle aside and began to unpack the cake box. The long red ribbon added a sense of ceremony. Yu Mo said, "A-Liang, I don't have much of an appetite. I don't want to eat." Xue Shen seemed unaffected as he carefully sliced a small piece of cake and handed it over. "Just have a little then. It’s your favorite." The scent of rum mixed with cream was cloyingly sweet. In the middle of the night, to someone with no appetite, the mere smell felt like a weight of indigestion in the stomach. Yu Mo took the cake but didn't touch it. Xue Shen held his wine glass, glancing at her through the liquid before averting his eyes. He couldn't quite hide the heartache that flickered there. For the first time in his presence, she had come out of the shower fully and properly dressed. Her neck bore the marks of another man. She wouldn't eat her favorite cake. Everything was gone, like a beach after the tide has washed over it. Only he remained stubbornly in place, letting the gale tear at him and the loneliness swallow him, until he turned into a weathered statue. Images flashed before his eyes. Her neck stiffened as she argued fiercely with him; her eyes welling with tears when she was scared; her face flushing as she dodged him in a panic; and the way her eyes would light up with excitement as she threw herself at him. It was all over. He knew her too well. On the surface, she was like the softest fruit, making one worry she might burst at the slightest touch. But her heart was as firm as a rock. "What kind of person is he?" he asked suddenly. "An ordinary person." "An ordinary person who can make you abandon me to choose him must have some extraordinary qualities." "No, I’m serious. He’s someone you would completely look down on. One ordinary person found another ordinary person to live an ordinary life—so ordinary you wouldn't even want to hear about it." "Even so, is it better than being with me?" Yu Mo didn't speak again. She finally decided to take a small spoonful of cream and press it to her lips. That thin layer of white was like a dusting of frost on a meadow. *** Xue Shen had finished his glass of wine. The dark clouds in the sky suddenly dispersed, revealing a moon like a silver plate. In the middle of the night, the weather that had been overcast all day finally cleared. In the messy, overgrown boxwood bushes downstairs, summer insects chirped incessantly. Qi Lian covered his face and rubbed it hard with both hands. His phone, which he had nearly smashed, lay discarded on the balcony. Something like an insect was gnawing at his heart. It had been biting him all day, making him lose his appetite and his focus at work. Now, he couldn't even sit still. Anyone who had worked with him knew how strictly he enforced safety on the construction site. In their line of work, a slight lapse in attention leading to an accident was common; if luck was truly bad, the price was a life, a hand, or an eye. A while ago, a colleague he’d met a few times was cutting a hole in a wall when the machine’s kickback knocked him off balance. He fell from the twentieth floor. A life in its twenties, with elderly parents and young children at home. That open window became his gateway to hell. He left behind no savings and no insurance; his widow and orphan had to rely on the pity of colleagues to scrape together enough money to survive. Qi Lian had seen too much of this. Many in their trade were arrogant and defiant. To put it bluntly, their vision didn't extend an inch past their noses. They had plenty of strength, but the food they ate only went to their muscles. In ten years, he had heard every variety of tragic story imaginable. At first, he wouldn't allow people to wear flip-flops or smoke on his sites. Some felt restricted, their fragile egos unable to take it. They would quit out of "pride" rather than take his orders, badmouthing him behind his back as a pretender. Even Qi Shuai would be scolded mercilessly if he wasn't careful. And today, he himself had committed the ultimate sin on his own site. He had been distracted the entire time, cutting a two-centimeter groove into three centimeters. He hated this version of himself. He took a deep breath, and for the first time, his rationality emerged to take the upper hand. He remembered sitting under the eaves with his grandmother as a child, soaking up the sun. Every time his grandmother mentioned "Su Daji," she would grit her teeth in hatred. Even before he understood anything, he knew that some women were enchantresses. Did King Zhou of Shang feel the same way he did now? How much did he actually know about Yu Mo? Was it just because he couldn't look away from her that he had become so hopelessly infatuated? Qi Lian was no fool; how had all his principles vanished? She had sent a WeChat message later: *I haven't forgotten what I promised you.* He hated her. What was more pathetic was that even while his rationality held the upper hand, he knew perfectly well in his heart: he had to have her. He hated himself even more. The next day, the weather cleared completely. The summer heat was steaming, making it even more unbearable than before the rain. Qi Lian went to his house early. The renovation was basically finished, with only some finishing touches left. By mid-morning, he packed up his things and went home. Being restless while working was a major taboo. When he got home, he went straight for a shower. Opening the bedroom door, he realized the air conditioning was on. His heart skipped a beat. Sure enough, there was someone lying on the bed—a thin, small figure, lying on her side with her back to the door. He felt all the emotions he had suppressed screaming their way back to the surface. He walked around to the front of the bed in a few strides, looking down coldly at the person there. Yu Mo saw him approach. She looked up listlessly, then lowered her eyelids again. This look was undoubtedly fuel to the fire. Qi Lian’s temper flared instantly! She didn't even have a single word for him! "What? You’re back, but you left your soul behind?" he asked mockingly. Yu Mo looked up and glared at him. There was something in her eyes he couldn't decipher, something that made them seem to burn. "Maybe I shouldn't have come back at all!" As she spoke, she flipped over nimbly, turning her back to him, and pulled the sheet over her head in one swift motion. ***