Chapter 15: A Tragic Pact of Love
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Although it was daytime, the bedroom curtains were drawn.
Qu Bonan was reclining against the headboard, his collar slightly open, his sleeves rolled halfway up to reveal arms corded with prominent veins. One hand held a cigarette; with the other, he was suggestively hooking a finger into Chen Su’s lingerie.
At the sound of the door opening, he looked up, the hand holding the cigarette coming to a halt.
“When did you get back?”
Apart from the slight hoarseness in his voice, Chen Su could not detect the slightest panic in him at having been caught doing something improper.
Suppressing the turmoil in her heart, she walked in and closed the door behind her. “Just now.”
Qu Bonan sat up and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.
“I was going to take care of it myself.”
His tone was mild and unhurried, as though her appearance had come at precisely the right moment, as though it were only natural.
“Since you’re back, help me?”
He said, help me.
The Qu Bonan of the past never showed weakness. Only when desire took hold of him would he ask her for anything.
And every time, Chen Su would obediently comply.
“Brother.” She bent down, picked up the cigarette pack from the bedside table, then turned her back to Qu Bonan and lit a cigarette before the floor-to-ceiling window. “I came back this time to get my things.”
She turned around. “I’ve already rented a place.”
Qu Bonan’s gaze paused. He rose and walked up behind Chen Su, wrapping his arms around her waist.
“Su Su, don’t be childish.”
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His chin rested in the hollow of her neck. “You haven’t even graduated from university yet, and your job isn’t stable. If you go live on your own, neither I nor our parents will feel at ease.”
Chen Su stared at the tobacco between her fingertips and gave a quiet laugh. “Why do you assume I’m being childish?”
“I told you. I’ve grown up.”
She pushed Qu Bonan’s hands away. “You can’t take care of me for the rest of my life.”
She stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray, then stood and drew back the curtains. Opening the wardrobe, she began packing her things.
She took none of her clothes or cosmetics.
All she took were the photograph of her parents and several paintings she had made herself.
Ten minutes later, Chen Su finished packing and turned around. Qu Bonan had already dressed and once again resumed his usual refined, aloof appearance.
It was as though, in all those four years, they had never shared any intimacy at all.
She felt a weight pressing against her chest. Forcing down the ache, she said, “Brother, I’m leaving.”
Qu Bonan said nothing.
Unwilling to leave it at that, Chen Su glanced from the corner of her eye at the lingerie on the bed. Pretending to be casual, she said, “If you’re going to do this sort of thing in the future, remember to lock the door.”
She picked up her suitcase and left the villa.
Rain had begun to fall again in sparse, scattered drops, and Chen Su had no choice but to hail a taxi.
As the car gradually pulled away, the Qu family villa receded farther and farther into the distance.
Sitting in the car, Chen Su watched the fine beads of water misting the window and could no longer hold back her tears.
The driver was a middle-aged man. Seeing Chen Su, a girl about the same age as his daughter, crying, he immediately grew flustered.
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“Miss, why are you crying all of a sudden?”
He tried to comfort her. “Did you have a fight with your family? My daughter is the same way—she’s always arguing with me. But family doesn’t hold grudges overnight. Give it a few days and everything will be fine.”
Chen Su wanted to tell him that she was not even part of the Qu family. How could there be any grudge to hold overnight?
But she could not say it.
She wiped away her tears and fell silent.
Half an hour later, the car stopped at the entrance to the residential complex where Chen Su had rented her apartment.
After paying by scanning the code, Chen Su was just about to get out when the car door was suddenly wrenched open with tremendous force.
The man nearly tore her from the car.
When she saw who it was, Chen Su froze. “Brother?”
Qu Bonan’s face was dark. Without saying a word, he hoisted Chen Su over his shoulder and shoved her into the passenger seat of the Red Flag National Ceremony.
With a roar, he rounded the front of the car, got in, and slammed his foot down on the accelerator.
Watching the Red Flag National Ceremony launch almost explosively from the curb, Chen Su showed no sign of panic. Instead, she let out a mocking laugh.
“Brother, if we died in this car accident, would that count as dying for love?”