I smiled as I watched him take the cup, raise his head and swallow it in one gulp, but my heart felt like a needle piercing my neck. Birds of a feather flock together, and he was indeed as annoying as Shen Xieyi. Later, Xieyi went to study in another city, and I simply sought freedom.
On my birthday, I went to Barbie with a bunch of people. When I entered, I happened to meet Zhan Dongzhen with his clients. He first saw me, then the group of people around me. He paused but said nothing. I guess he had heard that I was a complete jerk at that time. I drank until dawn every night and occasionally took drugs at the instigation of some people. Others didn't dare to control me, and no one dared to tell my father.
"Hey," I called him first, "Master Zhan is here to hang out too, long time no see."
"Ms. Shen."
He still only has these three words.
I felt uncomfortable immediately and started drinking as soon as I entered the room. People came and went in the room, some of whom I barely knew. The music was so loud that it gave me a headache. Everyone was a little crazy, and a woman even took off her top and stood on the table to perform a striptease.
A man reached out to lift my skirt, and I slapped him away in disgust, but then I got drunk and felt like I was floating around, so I just let them do it. Suddenly, the door to the box was pushed open, and the room was filled with fog and smoke, so I couldn't see the face clearly. A slender figure walked in and turned on the headlights, which made me squint my eyes in displeasure, and I didn't forget to curse a few words.
I looked closely and it turned out to be Zhan Dongzhen.
He pushed through the crowd and pulled me up, "Shen Xieqing, come with me." Then he dragged me out of the box without saying a word.
His hands clamped around me and I couldn't move them away.
I screamed, "Let me go!" and started to bend over and bite his hand.
He was indifferent.
I had no choice but to let him pull me along until we left Barbie and reached the supermarket across the street.
The cashiers in the supermarket all glared at us. I knew that one of us was wearing heavy makeup, while the other was pretty and gentle.
I deliberately pursed my blood-red lips and said to the cashier, "What are you looking at? I'm a prostitute, and he's a client."
The woman opened her mouth wide and didn't come back to her senses for a long time, which made me laugh out loud.
He went to get the mineral water from the freezer in a bad mood. As soon as he came out of the supermarket, he poured the bottle of ice water on my head, which scared me.
"Wake up your mind," he said.
The ice water flowed down my face, across my neck, onto my vest and chest, and I shivered. It was so cold that I felt my feet, which had been stepping on cotton, were now on solid ground. At this moment, a car with sirens blaring suddenly appeared in front of Barbie's door across the street, and a group of police officers filed in. I suddenly understood what had happened, and I was a little scared.
"Why do you want to help me?" I asked dejectedly as I sat in his car.
He didn't answer, but handed me a pack of tissues and said, "Wipe your face."
He was very focused when driving, always looking straight ahead, and he didn't look back when he gave me something. I turned around and saw his profile, which was very handsome.
What did he call me just now? Shen Xieqing.
Shen Xieqing.
I smiled secretly.
Finally she is not Miss Shen anymore.
"I'll take you back," he said. "I'll keep it a secret for you this time, but don't get involved with those people. If you're addicted to drugs, quit as soon as possible. You're the elder sister, and you should set a good example in front of Xie Yi."
The corners of my lips, which were originally raised, froze and became stiff.
Freehand! Freehand! Freehand again!
The next day, the news reached my father's ears and he was furious. I had never seen him so angry at me before and he locked me up at home for three days.
I heard his mother say to him, "You usually don't care about her. You just give her money to spend and spoil her. Now that something's wrong, what's the point of beating and yelling at her? Your daughter is in her twenties. If it weren't for what happened to you outside, why would she be so rebellious?"
"There you go again. I'm wrong in this and that. It's wrong to care about her, and it's wrong to ignore her. So what do you think I should do?"
Mom sighed deeply: "How about... find someone to tie her up. When she gets married, find someone to take care of her."
"Find someone?" Dad sighed, "It's not that easy to find someone just by saying so."
"Isn't there a ready-made one?"
Dad asked, "Do you mean Dongzhen?"
"I think that child is good, knows everything about him, is quiet and doesn't talk much, and has a gentle temperament, unlike his two younger brothers."
"But write sunny..."
"I'll go talk to my daughter here, and you go to the Zhan family. That child especially listens to his family." The mother began to assign tasks.
In the evening, my mother came to talk to me and mentioned this matter.
"I think Dongzhen is really good. Fortunately, you are all young, so you can settle things first and slowly get used to each other. If it really doesn't fit, we can talk about it later."
I said with a straight face, "Whatever you want to do, it's useless for me to say anything now."
It was a done deal just two weeks later, and I never expected that even though he avoided me like the plague, he would still agree to it.
The parents of both parties went out to eat together. I waited outside the bathroom and mocked him: "I committed a crime and had no choice. I didn't expect you to be so happy about it."
He said calmly: "As long as it suits the old man's wishes."
Maybe in his heart, unless it was that person, it didn't matter who he married. But what was the point of him thinking about her? She only knew how to chase the boy from the Li family all day long and had no time to care about him.
I snorted coldly: "You deserve it!"
Not long after, my father asked me to join Hairun to help him with his work. My life seemed to be on the right track, and I no longer contacted those bad friends. Half a year later, my mother wanted to hold a simple ceremony and set the wedding date. I deliberately called Xieyi just to piss her off. Unexpectedly, she ran back in one breath and deliberately disappeared. Zhan Dongzhen didn't sleep all night to find her. Later, he heard that he seemed to see Xieyi get on a long-distance bus to City C, and he chased after her without hesitation.
I have never seen Zhan Dongzhen disobey his parents or do anything unexpected, but he didn't even come to the engagement ceremony for that girl, which embarrassed both families. I even had the urge to kill someone. I counted how many men wanted to marry me, Shen Xieqing, but he just ignored them. Now he didn't even come to the engagement ceremony, embarrassing me in public, how many people laughed at him? What was his intention
I was so angry that I called him, but he said, "You shouldn't have provoked her with words. Xieyi is young and more fragile than the rest of us."
I gritted my teeth and answered, "Yes, it's all my fault. It's my fault that she's young, it's my fault that she's fragile. It's also my fault that she deliberately made you lose your mind. From the moment she was born until now, there's nothing that I'm not to blame for."
"That's not what I meant, you..." He sighed, "Blame me, it's all my fault, I asked her something I shouldn't have asked."
I held the phone, my eyes wide, "What did you ask her?"
He was silent for a long time on the other end of the phone before saying, "Nothing."
"you are lying!"
He must be lying. He is a man who cannot hide anything. This is what happens when he lies.
What did he say to her? What could he have said to her that caused Xieyi to be like this? I can guess it without even thinking.
"Zhan Dongzhen, listen to me!" I shouted into the phone in anger, "I, Shen Xieqing, would rather die than live in disgrace. Although I don't love you at all, I can't tolerate a man who wants to marry me ignoring me like this. No matter what Su Xieyi wants from me, I would rather destroy it than give her a single cent."
I uttered those decisive and harsh words, but I felt my eyes getting moist.
"If there is a next time," I took a deep breath, trying hard to take back the wetness, "If there is a next time, either I die or I will make her die!"
After saying this and hanging up the phone, I suddenly felt something sliding down my face. I am a person who doesn't cry, because if I cry, my makeup will be messed up, which doesn't look good at all.
These days, I quit smoking, drinking, taking drugs, and making friends that he didn't like. I wore a skirt suit and went to work at Hairun from nine to five every day like a clerk. I tried hard to learn how to live, and it was very hard. But in the end, he didn't care at all. I suddenly felt that how could I be so humble, almost like a woman in the boudoir waiting for favor, so low. I'm not writing casually, but I laugh when I think of the way she used to stick to men.
In this world, what can Shen Xieqing want that no man can get
It turned out that his life was not worthy of me, I was only suited to a world of luxury, so I went back to my old habits. After that, no matter what I did in Hairun, they didn't dare to expose me because of my identity, and let me embezzle money.
Later, Hairun and Li’s cooperated to develop shopping malls.
Many years later, I met Li Zeliang again, who was in charge of the Li family after returning to China. I heard that he was smart when he was in high school, but his personality was more arrogant and rebellious than mine. Later, after the eldest son of the Li family died for some reason, he completely changed. The Li family deliberately sent him here to study and take the college entrance examination, isolating him from his previous friends. He seemed to have really changed, and his evil spirit was shed, and he allowed Xieyi, that girl, to toss him around.
He is an extremely outstanding man, no wonder Xieyi is so reluctant to part with him. He is calm and reserved at one moment, cold and arrogant at another, and he will unconsciously erect a transparent wall in front of people to prevent anyone from approaching. Sometimes, when I am with him, I will suddenly feel lost for a moment.
Once, I said to him, "You've been back home for so long, didn't that girl pester you to come back with you?"
He didn't react at first, but when he realized I was talking about freehand painting, he smiled softly. This man who usually treats laughing as a job, unexpectedly showed a slight tenderness at the corners of his mouth when I mentioned freehand painting.
He looked at me, almost the first time he looked me in the eye, and then said, "Actually, you look a bit like Xieyi." He never mentioned private matters when talking to me, but this time was an exception.
I said disdainfully, "Impossible. If I grew up like her, I would never leave the house."
He smiled again when he heard that.
I remembered the provocative words I said to Xie Yi before: since she wants to snatch Zhan Dongzhen, why can't I snatch Li Zeliang
But after we actually met, I realized that this was impossible. I would not fall in love with him, and he would not be interested in me either. Because, at heart, he and I are the same kind of people.
He probably has the same feeling as I do.
Someone asked me to speculate in futures, and I lost a lot. I tampered with the accounts of the cooperative project and tried to make money in various ways to make up for the gap. This never-ending mending almost expanded into a black hole.
Zhan Dongzhen and I had scheduled our wedding for December, but the approaching date did little to dispel the shadow of gloom that the black hole had cast over me.
The day the truth came to light, I felt like the world was falling apart. After my father knew the truth, he didn't scold me like he usually did. Instead, he held my hand and said, "Xieqing, Dad knows that you have always resented me because of Xieyi and her mother. So it's not that you don't want to obey me since you were a child, but Dad feels sorry for you and makes you angry. It was Dad who made the mistake first, which made you so uncomfortable. Therefore, the worse you think you are, the greater the revenge you take on me. Really, it's Dad's fault."
I burst into tears.
My father called Li Zeliang, and then there were only three of us in the office.
Dad said, "Zheliang, if a son is not well educated, it is the fault of his father. No matter what Xieqing did, it is my responsibility. I know you and Xieyi are good friends, so just let Xieqing go for Xieyi's sake."
"Dad!" I called him crying.
My father patted me on the shoulder and continued, "Xieqing will be a bride in a few days. Now I will bear all the troubles she has caused."
"Actually," Li Zeliang said, "Uncle Shen, we can also..."
"There is no other way, unless you are willing to destroy your brother's hard work and drag the Li family into the water." The father smiled and shook his head, "It's not worth it, remember, it's not worth it. You are a businessman, not a philanthropist. It doesn't matter whether Hairun exists or not. I have two daughters, and they are the most precious wealth in my life. Xieqing has Dongzhen, and Xieyi has you. As long as both of your families are doing well, I will be satisfied."
Li Zeliang remained silent.
When he was about to leave, his father suddenly called him: "Zheliang!"
He turned around and stood still.
The father said, "I hope you won't let anyone else know what we said. It will be bad for Xieqing's future. And especially don't tell Xieyi. Please don't tell her anything. She's still a child and can't possibly understand these things. If she knew what I did for Xieqing, she would definitely dislike her even more."
Li Zeliang was stunned for a moment, and it took him a long time before he nodded solemnly.
"You promise?" the father asked.
"I promise." He said slowly.
A promise is worth a thousand gold.
My father smiled and said, "Can you go to Germany to see her for me tomorrow?"
"This... I'm afraid I can't leave."
"Go ahead, I'm here."
I should have sensed something at that time.
It was not until the next night when I opened the study door and saw my father's cold body that I suddenly realized that those words yesterday were a farewell.
It was all my fault. I killed my father. He loved me so much, how could I have doubted his love for me before? I was so sad that I went crazy, but I didn't dare to tell anyone. Li Zeliang and I promised him that we couldn't tell him, couldn't tell him, couldn't tell him...
I was in mourning, looking at the dress I had prepared for the wedding, and suddenly I felt ironic. Who would still want to get married? But for my father's wishes, we still had to go to register tomorrow, and just register hastily.
Then the whole family suddenly received another piece of news—Xieyi committed suicide.
I will always remember Zhan Dongzhen's expression when he heard this. His fair face instantly lost all color, like a pale piece of paper, and then was covered with a dark blue. Xieyi's mother cried so hard that she almost fainted. She had never been abroad before, and it would take several days to apply for a passport and visa immediately. No one knew what was going on over there, and even Li Zeliang could not be contacted.
He said, "I'll go take a look at the freehand painting." His tone was more resolute than ever before.
I said, "No! I won't allow it even if I die!"
He looked at me and said, "Write clear..."
It was the first time I heard him call me that, and I suddenly felt sad. He said that just to make me let him go and find a freehand brush. Everything is freehand brushwork, freehand brushwork.
Mom said, "After all, Xieyi is your sister. Dongzhen should go and see her. He is the only man in our family and he has to support us."
I widened my eyes and asked him, "You still choose freehand painting, right?"
He frowned slightly, and stared at me with his clear eyes for a long time, but did not answer. In the end, he still took his passport and went to the airport.
I don’t know if he remembers what I said. I said: If there is a next time, either she dies or I die.
I stood on the third floor of Shen's house, staring blankly at the sky. Zhan Dongzhen's departure seemed to have cut the last string of my heart. I hated him. Why did he let me fall into it, but never came close to me
Dad, you are wrong. You cruelly abandoned me, thinking that I would be happy if I had him. In fact, he never belonged to me, so - I want to go with you.
I smiled slightly, then jumped down with a light leap.