Chapter 7 A Spark in the Dark

Taking the first step is always the hardest, but I did it.Hand-holding, hugging, kissing—I managed to get through all of it, but ultimately, I failed when it came to going further.

It wasn't his fault; it was mine.

He stared at me in shock, his eyes filled with despair and disbelief. I crouched in the corner, knees hugged to my chest, my disheveled nightgown barely covering me, choking back tears and apologizing repeatedly, "I'm sorry."

I couldn't tell him that the moment his hands tried to undo my clothes, I felt an overwhelming wave of disgust.

By the end of the semester, Ye Jingzhan was called back to China by his family. On the day he left, I calmly accompanied him to the airport. We hugged, waved goodbye, and wished each other well.

There were no heart-wrenching farewells or lingering sadness as I had imagined. On the way back, I sat in the taxi, watching the dazzling afternoon sunlight flicker and dance through the retreating branches and leaves outside the window. The sparkling, lively light was so bright that I had to squint.

In that moment of daze, I began to question whether I had ever truly been in a relationship with Ye Jingzhan.

A voice kept asking me: Did I love him?

Perhaps, to me, he was more like an old friend than someone who made my heart race. But if you were to ask me whether I'd be willing to stay with him, the answer would still be yes.

I've only seen that kind of electric, heart-pounding connection between the male and female leads in movies. In real life, I don't know what that feels like, nor have I ever dared to hope for such emotions to happen to me.

If, hypothetically, one day I did meet a man I loved to death, but we couldn't get close or even have physical intimacy, wouldn't that be its own kind of punishment?

So for someone like me, being able to temporarily coexist peacefully with a man is already a great blessing.

And it was precisely because of this mindset that I was able to face what happened next with extraordinary tolerance.

That night, it was already the middle of the night when Lin Xi, ignoring the time difference, woke me up with a series of relentless calls.

"You better have a good reason for this. If you're just drinking and playing games and using me as a target, the first thing I'll do when I return to China is kill you..." Half-asleep and groggy, I finally picked up the phone and shot out a rapid-fire warning.

Lin Xi interrupted me in a panic, "Oh, cut it out. You only know how to bully me. Do you even realize you've been cheated on for so long without knowing it?"

"What?" I had a hunch about what he was going to say next.

"Yes, that Ye Jingzhan, your boyfriend. He's been cheating on you for over half a year, and you didn't notice a thing?"

He had only been back in China for two months. How could he have been cheating for half a year?

I tried to remain calm. "Who told you this?"

"Ha," Lin Xi sneered on the other end. "Do I even need someone to tell me? That b*st*rd has been bragging at every drinking party since he came back, showing off about how he managed to juggle you and several other women at the same time. And the worst part? I actually know some of those women! I had someone look into all the names I could find, and guess what? The one he's been with the longest is an art student. They've been sleeping together for over half a year! I sent you her photo—check your phone."

My mind felt like a muddled mess. "He was in the U.S. two months ago. How could he have been sleeping with an art student back here?"

Lin Xi let out a helpless laugh. "Come on, wake up, sister. That girl is very dedicated. She'd fly across the ocean to see him every month, and Ye Jingzhan covered all her travel expenses. And you? What were you even doing? What's going on between you two? Have you broken up yet?"

I put the call on speaker and opened WeChat, scrolling to my chat history with Ye Jingzhan.

The last message was from two days ago. I had asked him, "What are you up to?"

He replied, "About to have dinner with some friends. Talk later. Love you, babe."

I let out a bitter laugh. What else could I do? Of course, I chose to forgive him. He simply didn't have the heart to formally break up with me. After all this time of not letting him touch me, I should've known better.

So that day, I calmly accepted the reality of being dumped and told Lin Xi that we had already broken up long ago and that he should leave those girls alone.

But today, so much time had passed, and he was still using our relationship as fodder for vulgar jokes in public. I couldn't accept that!

Perhaps it was the alcohol from Shen Jibai's party that went to my head.

Fueled by a sudden stubbornness, I jumped up from the sofa and followed Ye Jingzhan, chasing him quite a distance.

Until I saw a girl in a black deep-V dress wrapping her arms around his neck. He drunkenly leaned in to kiss her.

After a brief taste, the girl shyly pulled back, her shoulders shrinking slightly as she playfully pushed against his shoulder. "You smell so strongly of alcohol," she said, her coquettish demeanor contrasting sharply with her heavy smoky makeup. But that didn't diminish her ability to seduce Ye Jingzhan.

The next second, she was pushed onto the sofa. Ye Jingzhan, now completely uninhibited, threw himself on top of her, pinning her down as his hands roamed freely, kissing her passionately.

My goodness, she's good. No wonder Ye Jingzhan was willing to spend months' worth of airfare to have her fly to the U.S. to serve him.

It only took one glance for me to recognize the girl from the photo Lin Xi had sent—the art school student who knowingly became the other woman.

But at this moment, I could only stand there, dumbfounded, watching their explicit interaction, unable to find an opening to intervene.

After a while, it was the girl who noticed me first, as Ye Jingzhan was busy biting her neck.

"Jiang Li, welcome back to China."

She gently pushed Ye Jingzhan aside and sat up slightly from the sofa, greeting me sweetly.

Clearly, she had long known that I was the star of tonight's banquet.

Ye Jingzhan really is a sentimental man.

Naive and inexperienced, the girl didn't understand the weight of the situation. At this moment, she leaned against Ye Jingzhan with the arrogance of a victor, waiting to see how I would react.

I found it all incredibly boring and turned my gaze directly to Ye Jingzhan. "You're here too, Ye Jingzhan."

In my understanding, people are categorized by their family background. I've never lacked wealthy young men around me, and those young men have never lacked girlfriends. If I had to waste time exchanging pleasantries every time one of them switched partners, I'd have died of exhaustion by now.

So, this girl wasn't worth my attention.

Perhaps out of guilt or awkwardness, Ye Jingzhan froze for a moment, unable to respond. He instinctively let go of the girl and adjusted his collar.

"It's been a while, and yet your brain is still full of sh*t," I said with a smile, cutting straight to the point.

"Always clinging to women who only think with their lower halves, talking about nothing but vulgarities. Don't you feel dirty? Don't you find it boring? Don't you have anything else to talk about?" I continued with a smile, my words sharp and direct.

It took him three seconds to process just how harsh my words were, his alcohol-clouded brain slowly catching up.

"Hah, Jiang Li, do you think you're some kind of rare treasure?" He suddenly stood up, his voice hysterical, as if venting all the frustration and repression he had felt over the years with me.

"You're nothing but a cheap b*tch who I wouldn't even want to touch if you were naked in front of me!"

His anger spiraled into irrationality, drawing the attention of many people outside the booth, who turned to see what was happening.

Just as the situation threatened to spiral out of control, his friends, who had been joking with him earlier, rushed to intervene, trying to calm him down.

"Jingzhan, that's enough.""It's not a big deal. Women say crazy things when they're drunk—why get so worked up?"

Everyone understood that tonight was my event, and if anyone should avoid offending someone, it was the people Shen Jin had invited.

But no one expected that while they were busy restraining the furious Ye Jingzhan, they left an opening for someone else to act impulsively.

Even I didn't anticipate that Ye Jingzhan's art school girlfriend would suddenly charge through the chaotic crowd and grab my hair. Her nails slashed across my neck and cheek with lightning speed, leaving a fiery sting.

It was as if she saw me as her mortal enemy, a stark contrast to her earlier coy demeanor!

Fine, I admit it. The reason I ignored the mistress and openly insulted Ye Jingzhan earlier was to escalate the situation, making it easier for Shen Jin to kick them out.

But how was I supposed to know this girl had such a temper?!

Caught off guard, I was stunned. By the time I reacted, she had completely overpowered me. I could only barely free one hand to push against her chest, trying to weaken her force.

My neck burned with pain.

Fortunately, just as I was about to give in, Shen Jin arrived in time and kicked her away.

Then, I vaguely saw Lin Xi pounce on her like a hungry wolf, plunging the scene into chaos.

A moment later, liquid trickled down from my neck.

I wiped it off, and my hand came away covered in blood. A flash of white light crossed my vision, and a wave of dizziness and tinnitus hit me like a tsunami.

Just as my stiletto heels were about to give out, a pair of strong hands wrapped around my waist and lifted me up before anyone realized the danger.

My feet suddenly left the ground, and in that moment of disorientation, I fell into a firm, powerful embrace.

Through my blurry vision, I saw him looking down at me, his brows furrowed slightly with worry. The hand gripping my upper arm was so tight it hurt.

In that instant, tears of grievance welled up in my eyes.