The man was dragged away.
Ye Jinghuai held An Nuan and also walked towards the warehouse door.
From beginning to end.
Ye Jinghuai's eyes were not on Tong Zhitong for even a second.
No surprise.
It seemed he had expected it long ago - everything was Tong Zhitong's doing.
Nor was there any cruel revenge against her.
It was as if he had truly verified what Tong Zhitong had told her:
She had said, Ye Jinghuai would not kill her.
An Nuan's hands were wrapped tightly around Ye Jinghuai's neck.
She didn't want to investigate further either.
After all, whatever had happened between Ye Jinghuai and Tong Zhitong, whatever promises they had made to each other - that was between them. She had no right or qualification to interfere.
That he could save her from danger at this moment was already more than she could ask for.
She would not make further demands.
What mattered was that she also did not want Ye Jinghuai to be stained by too much blood.
Ye Jinghuai, holding An Nuan, suddenly halted in his steps.
Behind him came Tong Zhitong's hysterical screams: "Ye Jinghuai! For the sake of An Nuan, you would go to such lengths with me?"
An Nuan was startled.
She didn't quite understand Tong Zhitong's meaning.
When she turned back she saw many men walking towards Tong Zhitong.
This scene...
Even if nothing had yet happened, An Nuan could guess what Ye Jinghuai intended to do to Tong Zhitong.
There was no denying it.
Compared to killing Tong Zhitong, letting Tong Zhitong suffer gang rape was worse than death for her.
"Ye Jinghuai, you might as well just kill me!" Tong Zhitong looked at Ye Jinghuai's tall back with bloodshot eyes as he held An Nuan tightly and tenderly in his embrace.
She had thought Ye Jinghuai would dedicate his very life and human rights to his mission, but never expected that for the sake of An Nuan he would abandon it all.
Was he still deceiving himself about not loving her?
Her tears streamed down uncontrollably. "Kill me, let me die, so I'll never have to feel heartache for you again! I'll never have to endure your indifference again. You don't know how much pain I've endured over the years, how much my heart has hurt for you!"
Ye Jinghuai's icy expression betrayed no trace of emotion.
Even in the face of Tong Zhitong's gut-wrenching sobs,
An Nuan saw no reaction at all from Ye Jinghuai.
This man would have to be utterly heartless to remain so utterly unmoved.
An Nuan truly could no longer discern what kind of person Ye Jinghuai was.
"Do you think I'm treating An Nuan this way just to kill her? Yes, I want to kill her because she makes me feel that to you, she's somehow special. I can't accept that by your side, even if not me, there would be any woman at all! What matters most is that I've had enough of your indifference. I've had enough of your apathy towards me! Even if you kill me, at least I'll have died by your hand. At least for one moment, you'll remember me - remember a woman who loved you more than life itself!"
"I won't." Ye Jinghuai's frigid voice formed a stark contrast to Tong Zhitong's hysteria.
His expression betrayed genuinely no hint of emotional fluctuation.
His icy voice emphasized word for word: "Killing you would be no different from killing anyone else. It wouldn't cause me any emotional disturbance whatsoever, much less make me remember you..."
"Then why don't you just kill me!" Tong Zhitong demanded desperately.
"Because of Xuan," Ye Jinghuai stated bluntly in four words.
Words that could well and truly plunge Tong Zhitong into the depths of despair.
So that was why.
Why she could act so unconstrained before Ye Jinghuai - it wasn't because he was reluctant to harm her, only because of someone else.
She laughed.
A cold, sardonic laugh.
She said, "Ye Jinghuai, have you really never loved me at all? Even for a..."
"Not for an instant," Ye Jinghuai interrupted her directly.
"Then why did you sleep with me?!" Tong Zhitong confronted him. "Why did you get me pregnant?!"
"The person who slept with you was never me."
"......" Tong Zhitong froze, stunned in place.
No.
It was Ye Jinghuai himself.
That night when Ye Jinghuai had been drugged and then made passionate love to her.
She refused to believe Ye Jinghuai was capable of losing control.
A man like Ye Jinghuai - even with a knife at his throat he wouldn't do something against his will. A mere drug counted for nothing. If Ye Jinghuai was unwilling, even on the verge of exploding he still wouldn't have touched her.
It was precisely because of love
that he truly went to bed with her.
All her persistence, all her beliefs that had upheld her to this point, collapsed in an instant.
She was like a shell that had lost all spark and vitality, nothing left but a thoughtless husk.
"Said your piece?" Ye Jinghuai's icy demeanor was terrifying.
Tong Zhitong's tears continued streaming down.
Right then she truly couldn't utter another word.
So that was how things stood after all.
She really had been building castles in the air all this time.
She really had been too full of herself.
The arrogance, the smug satisfaction, the slight sense of superiority she'd felt for being special to Ye Jinghuai - in this moment all of it had shattered.
She laughed through her tears.
She said, "Ye Jinghuai, so heartless as you are, do you really not fear going to hell?"
Truly not afraid
of one day being punished by God?
"That's my business and none of yours." Ye Jinghuai's chill was unrelenting.
It could leave a woman who loved him torn open and in pieces.
Through vision blurred by tears, Tong Zhitong watched Ye Jinghuai's retreating figure carrying An Nuan away, looking so cold and merciless.
She yelled at his back: "Ye Jinghuai! A bloody, terrifying man like you will surely one day be abandoned by women as well - abandoned just as you've abandoned me!"
Holding An Nuan, Ye Jinghuai halted in his tracks.
In that moment An Nuan saw his Adam's apple bob up and down.
Clearly, he was somewhat emotionally affected.
"Ye Jinghuai, An Nuan doesn't love you at all!" Tong Zhitong shouted from behind them.
An Nuan's heart missed a beat.
She reflexively held Ye Jinghuai's neck tighter.
She bit hard into her lip.
Right then she truly did not know how to explain.
How to explain
that her survival up till now had indeed been purchased at the cost of her own innocence.
Even if
her innocence remained intact.