Sixty-nine

So, under the force of that sharp rebuke, the grip Mo Mo Zhang had on Ting Ting Fan’s wrist loosened, her arm falling limply to her side. Zuo Xiang cast a long, piercing glance at Ting Ting Fan, his keen gaze lasting no more than two seconds before he seized the dazed and devastated Mo Mo Zhang, breaking through the crowd and striding out of the beauty salon.

"Let go of me! This is my own business, I’ll handle it myself," she struggled, but he paid her no heed. Dragging her along, he threw her into the car. Only after they’d driven far away did Mo Mo Zhang’s initial embarrassment and reluctance erupt into agitation.

"Zuo Xiang, stay out of my affairs! This is my business!"

He slammed on the brakes, pulling over to the side of the road, his eyes blazing with a fire that seemed to consume both himself and her.

"Your business? Mo Mo Zhang, do you have any dignity left? Have you gone mad?" His face had turned ashen, every nerve taut with tension. He yanked a white towel out of the glove compartment and, without a word, pressed it against her head, roughly scrubbing back and forth with neither care nor gentleness, as if he wished he could force her bewildered head straight back into her neck.

"Enough!" Mo Mo Zhang could hardly breathe under his wild and brutal assault. Her arms flailed, pushing his hands away in desperation. She flung the towel back at his face, hair in wild disarray, all semblance of composure lost; and her expression was even further removed from any trace of poise.

A few bits of fruit still clung to her cheek as she glared at him, her jaw clenched in fury, unable to tell whether the marks on her face were dirt or bruises. "I’m stupid, I’m crazy, I have no shame—I haven’t cared about these things for a long time! I made a mistake and dragged others down with me. Even knowing it’s useless, I can’t just pretend it never happened and do nothing! Dignity? That word has nothing to do with me now. Zuo Xiang, what does this have to do with you? Why are you wading into this mess? Walking away like this, that glass of water I took was all for nothing! For nothing!"

All she’d needed to do was jump once more from that archway—it wasn’t high enough to kill her—and everything would have been resolved. But with his sudden appearance, everything was thrown into turmoil. All her efforts were wasted!

"For nothing?" Zuo Xiang suddenly recalled her words: "You promise not to trouble him or his company anymore." Now, hearing her cry "for nothing" stung him even more deeply than witnessing her desperate act of self-harm. It was as if poisoned needles were stabbing relentlessly into his chest, robbing him of breath.

"You went through all this for that Jiakai Song?"