Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen: News of Shen Tingxiao's Engagement

After shutting down her computer, Jiang Yunzhou sat alone in the study, quietly staring at her phone.
After a while, she opened the chat window with Shen Tingxiao. All of the messages there were from her; he had not replied to any of them. A knot of worry tightened in her chest. Why had he left without saying anything to her at all? Even if he could not explain what he was doing, he should at least have told her where he was going. He had made her worry for no reason.

Jiang Yunzhou rubbed at her tangled hair, tossed the phone to one side, and went directly to sleep. Although Shen Ruizhang’s help had improved matters at the company, the firm’s finances were still far from easing. The pressure still bothered her, yet she kept sending Shen Tingxiao messages every day, asking if he was all right.

Another day passed with no word from him, and Jiang Yunzhou began to fear something had happened. Her anxiety grew unbearable. While she was busy at the office, a message from Shen Ruizhang flashed on her phone, and before she could read it, the screen lit up with a call.

She hesitated when she saw it was him, then answered. The call ended almost immediately. Just as she was exhaling in relief, it rang again. The urgency in it made her jump; she grabbed it at once.

“Hello?”

“Zhouzhou, did you see the message I sent you?”

“I barely had time to check. What is it?”

Shen Ruizhang’s voice carried a faint edge of grim amusement. “It’s not important. I just noticed you’ve been looking for Shen Tingxiao lately, and I happened to see a message about him, so I forwarded it to you.”

Her eyes brightened. “Do you know where he is? Is he safe? Nothing has happened to him, right?”

Hearing how much her heart was tied to that one boy, Shen Ruizhang felt a twinge of discomfort, then a slow smile tugged at his lips as he thought of the article. “He’s safe. He just went out, and it seems he’s met someone he likes.”

Jiang Yunzhou stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“Shen Tingxhao appears to be engaged to a woman. I already sent you the news. Just read it. Zhouzhou, if he already has someone he likes, can’t we just get on with our lives?”

He was not done yielding. He was trying to make a real game out of a false one.

After she hung up, Jiang Yunzhou immediately opened the message from Shen Ruizhang. It was a front-page headline: the engagement of Shen Tingxiao and the daughter of a business tycoon from M Country. Her gaze clung to those words until her eyes burned, and only when they grew wet and sore did she shut them. She turned off the phone and refused to look at it again.

The whole day dragged in dull gray silence.

After work, she walked out and kept walking, only to find herself somehow at the hospital. She went to Mrs. Shen’s room. She did not go inside; instead she stood outside and watched through the glass. Mrs. Shen was asleep, so Jiang Yunzhou didn’t dare disturb her. She sat on a chair outside the room for a long time.

Only when the attending doctor noticed her did she come back to herself.

“Miss Jiang,” he said, “are you here to ask about Mrs. Shen?”

She gave a small nod. “How is she doing?”

“She’s doing well. If things continue like this, she should be discharged soon.”

“Thank you.”

After checking on Mrs. Shen, Jiang Yunzhou left the hospital in silence, walking alone into the street. All she could think of was the news of Shen Tingxiao’s engagement to another woman. She tried to clear her mind, but could not. She did not want to go home, yet had nowhere else to go. Before she knew it, she had reached the flower shop Shen Tingxiao had once given her.

The flowers were in full, vivid bloom. She opened the shop door and stepped inside; a rush of fragrance surged into her nose. She inhaled deeply, and the oppressive heaviness in her heart seemed briefly filled by the scent of flowers.

Inside, she pulled a chair and took from her bag a bottle of liquor she had just bought. She did not know why, but tonight she wanted to drink badly. She did not want a bar, no crowds—only to sit quietly alone with her pain.

Jiang Yunzhou uncorked it and drank, mouthful after mouthful, until suddenly tears clouded her vision. She did not resist, letting the tears slide down her cheeks and blur everything before her.
She muttered to herself, “It must be fake, surely false. Shen Tingxiao could never be engaged to another woman. Didn’t he say he wanted to marry only her? How could he do this?”

As she drank, heat rushed through her. She loosened her collar and, swaying slightly, took a large swallow. She rose unsteadily and reached for a blue rose by her side. The saturated, almost luminous blue petals stung her eyes, and she tightened her grip on the stem. The rose, not yet freed from the root, snagged against the thorns and pricked her hand through the skin. For one brief second the pain snapped her back to herself, then the intoxication swept her over again.

Half-dazed, she flung the rose aside.

“Ha… so you’ve fallen for someone else, have you? Then all right. I… I’m not the one you need to have. It’s all right, it’s all right. If you like her, then like her. And I wish you happiness.”

Tears covered her drunken face, and her heart hurt with a raw, sharp ache. She sank slowly back into the chair, dizziness turning the room strange and uneven. She even tossed the bottle away, then wrapped her arms around her head and crouched in silence. Soon she drifted and slid forward, resting her weight on the table.

Night wind entered the room, cold and thin. The wind chime rang, thin and silver, and she frowned behind closed eyes at the sudden noise.

Then a familiar scent drifted into her nose. She tried to open her eyes, but her exhausted lids would not lift. She felt something soft against her forehead, a gentle, repeated patting. The drowsiness dragged her under, and though the repeated touch annoyed her, her head was so heavy she had no strength to open her eyes. She waved a hand weakly, brushing against something.

For a moment, she felt only that at last she could sleep again.

After a little while, she felt a weight settle over her back, as if someone had draped a garment over her. She mumbled once, then shifted to the other side and kept drifting.

By morning, a figure had been sitting by her side all night, and only then did it leave.