Chapter Thirteen: He Finally Realized She Was Gone

Meng Shuyue was overjoyed beyond expectation. She quickly opened the bottle cap and fed the medicine to the man. After finishing, she let out a sigh of relief and took a few sips of water herself from the bottle.

Not long after drinking, the man leaning against the tree slowly opened his eyes. Meng Shuyue set down the bottle and looked at his stern and rugged face. When he opened his eyes, it was as if a cold, noble, incomparable gentleman from a picture book had come to life.

How could this man be so handsome?

Why did he seem to be surrounded by a rosy glow?

Meng Shuyue felt her mouth go dry and drank a few more sips of water. As her lips touched the cool bottle opening, she saw through the glass the man’s throat moving up and down, and his muscular chest revealed beneath the shirt collar he was pulling open with his hands.

The bottle slipped from her hand and fell into the floodwaters beneath the tree, the once-clear sweet water inside instantly tainted by the muddy current. A gust of wind carried it farther and farther downstream.

On a branch above, a small bird that had been searching for its home stopped for a moment, looking around. But the continuously swaying tree trunk frightened it, and it was forced to leave this treacherous, flood-ravaged place with nowhere to rest.

Meng Shuyue could never have imagined that the herbal medicine she had concocted—mixing a hallucinogen with an aphrodisiac, designed specifically for Song Shijing and Su Yanyan—would end up boomeranging back to harm her.

*

By dusk, the clinic had closed early with no one inside.

Outside, the steady drizzle continued, dampening the road before the door.

Song Shijing glanced toward the end of the road but still saw no sign of Meng Shuyue. In frustration, he slammed the door shut but left it slightly ajar without latching it, thinking that when Meng Shuyue arrived, she could simply push it open.

Having not slept the entire previous night, Song Shijing fell into a drowsy sleep as soon as he lay down.

In his dream, his body felt tense and uncomfortable.

In the darkness, he searched everywhere for water but found none, calling out hoarsely, “Shuyue, Shuyue!”

Finally, he saw her—his Shuyue—half-hanging against a tree trunk, one foot dangling in the air.

In his hazy stupor, he rushed over but saw a man lying on top of her. Her usually clear black-and-white eyes were swollen from crying.

*

Terrified, Song Shijing hurriedly tried to pull the man off her but was devastated to find his hands passing straight through the man’s body. All he could do was cover his ears as the creaking tree branches swayed, straining as if about to snap.

He cried out in anguish, shouting, “She’s my wife! Let her go! I’ll take her!”

His words jolted him awake.

Opening his eyes, he found a woman lying across him.

Su Yanyan was circling his neck with her arms, her red lips near his mouth.

Startled, Song Shijing pushed her off.

Su Yanyan fell backward to the floor, wincing in pain.

She looked up and glared with wide eyes at the scholarly and handsome man before her.

He still wore glasses perched on his nose, exuding an air of erudition.

Yet, she never expected such a gentleman to have dreams like that—holding and kissing her moments ago.

But the name he called out chilled her to the bone.

He kept calling “Shuyue,” saying, “Let her go, let me come,” words unbearable to hear.

Su Yanyan clenched her fists, teeth grinding in fury.

The boy who once swore eternal love for her had changed his heart!

She was just one step away from marrying into a wealthy family, ready to seal their fate, yet the problem lay in the man’s changed feelings.

Still adjusting his shirt in a flustered and timid manner, Song Shijing warned Su Yanyan, “Yanyan, I’ve always treated you like a sister. How can you climb into my bed? I have a fiancée.”

Su Yanyan sprang to her feet, fastening her buttons while crying, “You’re lying! Treat me like a sister? Then why did you help me check my body like a brother would? I don’t care. You’ve already seen everything. Today, you have to take me!”

Startled, Song Shijing jumped up and rushed to the door.

Just as he was about to leave, the woman’s sobbing voice broke out behind him.

“Song Shijing, you’re a coward! If you don’t love me, why did you steal Meng Shuyue’s job for me? For me, you ignored how heartbroken she was, gave her wages away, and repeatedly pushed her aside! So you must love me, right?”

Song Shijing’s hand froze on the doorknob, his heart inexplicably aching with her words.

Had he really done so many things to hurt Shuyue for Su Yanyan’s sake?

*

Suddenly gripped by an unprecedented terror, he dashed into the night without looking back.

Behind him came the woman’s cries.

But Song Shijing no longer heard them.

He seemed to be flying as he sprinted all the way to the lumberyard.

The rain outside continued to drizzle. Because he ran so fast on the slippery ground, he stumbled several times.

By the time he reached the dormitory door at the lumberyard, he was drenched, gasping for breath.

He peered through the dark crack of the door, his heart tightening painfully.

That girl must have hidden inside in the dark to save oil for the lamp.

“Yueyue, open the door. This time I went too far. I’ll keep my distance from Yanyan from now on. Let’s live well together, okay?”

“Just open the door and let me in. I’ll help you move. Tonight, come stay at my place. This place isn’t fit for living. Don’t worry—we’ll get married as soon as we return to the city next year…”

He rambled on, even talking about having children someday, his eyes and brows smiling with hope.

Suddenly, a laugh came from behind him.

Startled out of his blissful reverie, Song Shijing turned, only to be blinded by the beam of a flashlight.

It was the village chief’s wife and the lumberyard’s steward, an elderly father and daughter.

The village chief’s wife pointed at Song Shijing with a disdainful smile.

“Dad, look at this man. Usually he looks like he’s constipated from too much studying, and now here he is, putting on a show of deep feelings.”

“Why doesn’t he push the door open and see if she’s still inside, listening to his crying?”

“Shut your mouth,” the old man scolded his daughter and turned to leave.

After all, Meng Shuyue had instructed them not to tell him where she had gone.

They hadn’t gone far when Song Shijing urgently called after them, “Is Shuyue not home? It’s so late and raining again. Where could she have gone? Could she have run off to the village chief’s house again to do something shameful? Doesn’t she care about what people say...?”