Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
He didn’t light up his cigarette with the lighter in his hand. After a long while, he slowly removed the cigarette from the corner of his mouth.
“Your simple self-sabotaging statement blocked all I had to say!” He removed the unlit cigarette from his mouth and flicked it in the ashtray. “Lin Nuan, your words sound nice in theory. You say you admire me, but every single condition you listed were so targeted and they clearly marked me off of your list. Every single sentence you said was clearly and personally targeting me.”
Fu Huai’an raised his dark eyebrows. His eye bags looked heavy and engraved into his face. His eyes were calm as water, yet they could see through her.
“You used to be the gem of the Lin Family, living a pampered and luxurious life. But you also lived by yourself after leaving them, so I have no right to accuse you of being naive and say you only crave novelty, that the life you imagine yourself living wouldn’t last.”
“It would have been better if you didn’t admit you had feelings for me—so I could still use the reason of getting you to confess—but you had to admit that and say you admired me. After sleeping together, you list out a bunch of rigid rules and conditions that personally reject me out your door.”
Fu Huai’an still had that calm composure, and there was no detectable emotion in his tone. However, the outline of his face began to tense up and look cold and stiff.
The atmosphere inside the apartment became cold and serious because of the change in his expression.
Lin Nuan picked up the glass of water and took a sip. She didn’t know what to say. He was right—every single sentence she said was an outright rejection to him.
After a long silence, he put the lighter on the table and slowly poured himself a glass of water. He said, “The first time I saw you was in June of 2014 in Iraq.”
Fu Huai’an looked at her through his dark pupils, his gaze deeper than ever.
Lin Nuan paused as she put down the glass of water. As she looked at Fu Huai’an, her heartbeat accelerated.
In June 2014, Lin Nuan was following the flight line Wen Moshen took to look for traces of him.
Ever since the opposition force ISIL had taken over several cities in Iraq in 2014, there were several cases of missing flights or flights that had accidents when crossing the region and were all somewhat related to the terrorist organizations.
There were sayings that terrorists had shot down the flight Wen Moshen took. There were even people uploading blur images online, claiming that nearly ten survivors were sent to the capital of Saladin to be rescued.
Lin Nuan carried that strand of hope to go to Tikrit City. Yet when she almost reached it, she heard that the opposition forces already occupied it.
After the government army checked her passport, they aggressively sent her on the bus to Samarra.
The government soldiers said that there was a company run by the Jiang Family’s Heavy Industry Suppliances in Samarra. It was safer for Lin Nuan to be there since there were nearly five hundred employees and families stationed there back from China to await the helicopter to fetch them away.
Lin Nuan asked them about the crash of T-324, yet nobody knew about it.
On the dawn on the 22nd, Lin Nuan reached Samarra with a group of other people. Lu Xiangsi, the pregnant wife of the chief executor of the Jiang Family Heavy Industry Suppliance Company, welcomed her.
Upon hearing her describe the crash of the flight, she knew that there was someone very important to Lin Nuan on that plane. She admired her courage to seek the person without giving up hope and looked after her with great care.
On the dawn of the 22nd, Lu Xiangsi’s husband, Jiang Ming’an, took around ten people to the assigned spot to wait for the helicopter that was going to fetch them to the safe camp.