Chang Chi, seeing no one helping with introductions, angrily drove her car straight into the gate. The security guards dared not keep it closed and had to open it, letting this rabid woman rush inside.
The car bulldozed through the flower beds, and as Chang Chi looked up to Hang Yishao’s room and saw the lights on with a faint silhouette, her tears turned into laughter. She grabbed her luggage and ran upstairs.
The moment she pushed the door open, the scene Chang Chi witnessed was seared into her memory forever: a woman was wrapped in Hang Yishao’s embrace. Without thinking, she threw herself at them, her freshly manicured nails clawing at the shameless woman’s face.
As hair was ripped out, Hang Yishao, seeing the two women struggle together, shouted angrily and tore them apart.
Chang Chi, gasping for breath, sat to one side. Her sense of grievance, compounded by Chang Mei’s scolding today, assailed her nerves. She bit Hang Yishao like a lunatic as he tried to pull her away. Security from downstairs, hearing the commotion, all rushed in.
"What happened?" Su Qingzhang was hurried over by a call from the Hang Family. People from both the Su and Hang families had gathered at City Hospital.
Su Ziceng and Yan Wuxu were the last to hear the news. When they arrived, they caught Hang Yishao and Chang Chi just as their wounds were being bandaged.
Hang Yishao’s arm, nearly bitten into by Chang Chi, required lots of iodine for disinfection, and several layers of bandages to wrap properly.
Several tufts of Chang Chi’s hair were torn off, her scalp gruesomely exposed and bleeding, her hair mixed with large chunks of skin looked ghost-like.
"What a sin," Hang Mu held Hang Yishao, heartache evident, while Hang Yishao turned his face away.
Initially, Chang Chi was supported by a nurse, but upon hearing Su Qingzhang’s scolding and the ensuing fierce gaze of Chang Mei, she burst into a fit of loud weeping. Pointing at Hang Yishao, she sobbed incomprehensibly, "He... he bullied me."
Hang Yishao leaped up in urgency, causing his hand to throb in pain again. He glanced quickly at Su Ziceng, then said with hatred, "Chang Chi, shut your mouth."
With a "slap," both Hang’s parents were shocked still. Hang Yishao, the Heavenly Pride pampered and indulged by everyone, including his parents who gave life to him, could not fathom being slapped publicly.
Chang Chi was frightened into silence, as if the slap Su Ziceng delivered had struck her own face. Su Qingzhang slammed his cane down hard, about to step forward, but Yan Wuxu immediately held him back.
Chang Mei watched Su Ziceng, whose hand was still poised in the air after the slap. Everyone, including Hang Yishao, was dazed by the gesture.
"That question should be directed at you, Hang Yishao." After a year, which felt like decades, Su Ziceng seemed to see again that cold man who left with Bai Sisi from the auction, elegantly departing.
"Have you had your fun? It’s always you, the perpetual child, causing endless worries, acting rashly without cease. Do you realize you exhaust everyone around you, body and soul?" Su Ziceng used all her strength to voice the shadowy words of death, suppressed deep within her heart, finally letting them out.
A pain surfaced deep within her soul; Su Ziceng started to cry, her vision blurred with tears as she looked at the face she had been infatuated with for decades.
At that moment, Su Ziceng realized she didn’t love the Hang Yishao before her, but rather the obsession within her heart. The events unfolding with Chang Chi were a live reflection of her past. She should have been exultant today, taking pleasure in the disaster, yet she couldn’t bring herself to feel it.
"Ziceng," Hang Yishao, restrained by his parents, struggled to break free. He wanted to reach for Su Ziceng, but she turned and walked away, not once looking back at him.
He was like a child abandoned, yearning to draw her attention but using the wrong means. Today’s slap would be ingrained in his memory; one day, he would make her look back at him.
All was muffled by Chang Chi’s crying. The crowd thickened, an endless sea of white overwhelming those who gazed upon it with fatigue.
Chang Chi was confined to her home by Chang Mei following that night, and Hang Yishao was forced by his parents to cease his reckless dealings with women.
Su Qingzhang did not blame Chang Chi or Su Ziceng for their disrespect. Instead, he watched as the doctor was ordered by Chang Mei to administer a sedative to Chang Chi, then stood by her bedside with the gaze of a compassionate father, watching her fall asleep.
Yan Wuxu, after making a few mocking comments, was scolded by him. Helpless, Yan Wuxu went back to her room alone. As she closed her door, she saw Chang Mei collapse weeping into Su Qingzhang’s arms, who was softly comforting her.
Yan Wuxu felt suddenly weak. Whether it was Su Ziceng or Chang Chi, their willfulness and troublemaking, it was all permitted.
If it were her involved with someone from the Hang Family today, would Su Qingzhang also treat her transgressions with the heart of a forgiving father? Remembering the scolding she had heard from Su Qingzhang earlier, Yan Wuxu shrank back into herself.
That night, within the Su Mansion, Su Ziceng had a restless sleep. In her dreams, images of Qiao Chu, Chang Mei, and Ye Taina kept haunting her mind.
Yan Wuxu, curled up in her blanket, pulled out comforter after comforter from the closet, seeking warmth in the middle of the night, but she still felt frozen to the core.
She dreamt that Su Qingzhang pushed her away; left utterly alone while Chang Mei laughed loudly by her side, and Kelly’s female students mocked her. Mysticism class’s words echoed through the night: "Shallow palms cannot hold wealth, a lack of red amidst white signifies short-lived fortune, kindness in youth forges a worry-free old age." Finally, a beam of orange light enveloped Yan Wuxu. It was the light of "Orange Love," and Yan Wuxu knew, everything depended on herself. (To be continued. If you work, please visit Qidian to cast your recommendation ticket and monthly ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation.)