A Twisted Love Affair-Chapter 159: Where does she live in Su City?
The car left the garage. The ground was wet and soggy; the rain had lessened. Still following the south road, the windshield wipers swung back and forth methodically.
Shen Jing looked out the window. The spot on the roadside where the accident had occurred no longer showed any sign of the Bentley. Only a towing company was handling the red sports car with its severely damaged front end. Even Zhuang Ming was gone.
Shen Jing withdrew her gaze. If he had pushed Wei Wenxin away at that moment, pushed her away, perhaps I wouldn’t want to be angry anymore, she thought. Now, no matter how I think about it, I can’t find a reason to forgive him.
Reminiscing about their past interactions, those occasional moments of tenderness, the sometimes cold, sometimes doting indulgence, all surged into her mind.
She made plans to get a foot massage with Liang Yingning. Upon reaching their destination, they booked a private room.
From the moment she entered, Shen Jing lay back on the couch, enjoying the service in silence, staring intently at the dazzling night sky decoration on the ceiling, lost in thought.
Liang Yingning was a bit jittery due to this sudden abnormal behavior. What’s going on? she wondered. I’ve never seen Shen Jing this reticent before; no matter what happened, she always smiled so sweetly.
Clearly, Liang Yingning had seen Shen Jing cry before, but Shen Jing hadn’t said why, just soaked her feet in the middle of the night.
Fortunately, the masseuse was articulate and started a conversation with Shen Jing, who occasionally responded with a few words.
"It’s cold, my body feels chilly, and the bed is cold," Shen Jing said. "Coming here for a foot massage feels good."
The words, spoken in her local dialect, just slipped out.
Liang Yingning sighed with a smile. Her sweet Jiaojiao dialect really suits her, she thought.
Shen Jing lay face down. As the masseuse helped lift her arm, her waist was stretched upwards with the motion.
She let out a sound from the soreness, yet asked the masseuse to continue applying more pressure.
This pain in my waist is less than a tenth of what Zhou Luchen caused me, she thought.
The masseuse stepped on her calves. As the pain numbed her nerves, her mind grew muddled.
Liang Yingning reminded the masseuse, "Be gentle. Don’t hurt her, or you’ll be scolded."
The masseuse, of course, didn’t understand the implication behind Liang Yingning’s words and lightened her touch after inquiring.
Whenever Zhou Luchen was brought up, Shen Jing visibly deflated.
"Did you two have a fight?" Liang Yingning asked.
Shen Jing said, "A fight would have been fine. But he doesn’t argue with anyone; he just chooses to ignore them."
Liang Yingning sipped her juice. "There’s a problem."
Shen Jing lay on the bed, her pajamas loose. "He held Wei Wenxin."
Liang Yingning responded nonchalantly, "That’s not surprising. Just because you saw it, does that mean it doesn’t happen when you don’t see it?"
Not to mention Zhou Luchen’s unpredictable whereabouts; even Chen Yao from their circle had to wait for his availability to arrange gatherings. One could usually see him at the Wei Group’s monthly shareholder meeting.
"Wei Wenxin said it herself before: either she doesn’t marry at all, or she marries Zhou Luchen," Liang Yingning added. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
Shen Jing understood. Who cares who others marry?
She closed her eyes, her fingers picking at the pillow. "But he doesn’t come home."
"That’s normal. We were all surprised by how often he returned to Yunding. He has many houses; he can stay wherever he wants." Liang Yingning turned on her side, propping her head on her hand to look at Shen Jing. "Don’t invest real feelings in him. He said he wouldn’t marry you. He said it himself."
"You were going on blind dates back then. He actually wasn’t planning to interfere with whom you married. However..."
Interfere with what? Zhou Luchen merely cared that the women who were with him weren’t fickle. He wouldn’t allow it, Shen Jing guessed. The answers to many things weren’t hard to find.
For instance, those ten minutes at the Zhou Family gate. All the way there, I even wondered if he planned to take me to the Zhou family home. I was so uneasy at that time. In the end, that wasn’t it; I just waited in the car, not daring to show even a hint of my emotions.
Liang Yingning sat cross-legged and gestured for the technician to leave. After a while, only the two of them remained in the private room.
Liang Yingning leaned toward Shen Jing’s ear. "Zhou Luchen is really not an easy person to figure out. When you were with him, even I felt it was strange. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, yet it also seemed so normal. Maybe he was just attracted to your beauty."
This time, Liang Yingning spoke her honest thoughts. A relationship solely driven by material desire and hedonism could never last long, no matter how one looks at it. Beyond these, Zhou Luchen wouldn’t offer anything else.
Just then, her cellphone rang. Shen Jing opened her eyes and grabbed it.
Why is it Zhuang Ming? she wondered.
She paused, sniffled, then pressed answer, holding the phone to her ear without feeling like speaking.
Zhuang Ming asked, "Miss Shen, why aren’t you at Yunding?"
Shen Jing, remembering the camera in the living room, retorted, "He didn’t come back either, did he? I’m afraid of the dark when I’m alone, so I don’t want to go back."
"Then please be careful."
I even wanted to ask where Zhou Luchen was, Shen Jing thought, but she didn’t. She hung up heartlessly.
That night, Liang Yingning dragged her around to play, spend money, and indulge in Shanghai’s most expensive services. They stayed in a hotel room, where Shen Jing lay in Liang Yingning’s arms.
Anyway, I wouldn’t dare cry about these messy things in front of Zhou Luchen. I could cry from pain, from grievance, from showing weakness, but I just don’t want to shed tears over love in front of him, she resolved.
Liang Yingning fed her grapes, and she ate them while sniffling. Liang Yingning laughed so hard she snorted.
At dawn, Shen Jing parked the car back in the garage, took a Didi to Su City, and went to work.
It had rained and thundered during the night. She hadn’t asked Zhuang Ming to pick her up; instead, she turned off her phone and took a bath. Submerged in the bathtub, she only surfaced when she could hardly breathe. Looking at herself in the mirror, her body was dripping wet. Her gaze traveled downward, to the curves of her chest where a row of purple teeth marks lingered—the ones Zhou Luchen had fiercely left that night, which still hadn’t faded.
「-」
Zhou Luchen returned to Yunding that evening, only then noticing the umbrella in the guardhouse.
The security guard said, "It’s Miss Shen’s umbrella. She came out to give it to someone the night before last and dropped it here."
Zhou Luchen glanced at it, pondered for a moment, then said without taking it, "Throw it away." The security guard had no choice but to take it back.
Zhou Luchen parked the car and went upstairs. The housekeeping had just left, and the room was neatly arranged. The little kitten was curled up on the sofa, fast asleep, seemingly undisturbed.
He dialed Shen Jing’s number. It was off. His brow furrowed slightly. He didn’t call again, picked up his car keys, and turned to leave.
The little kitten woke up with a start, stretched its front legs, and MEOWED at the man’s retreating back.
Liang Yingning hadn’t expected to receive a relentless barrage of calls from the Crown Prince of the Zhou Family in the middle of the night.
Holding her breath, Liang Yingning asked, "Do you... do you need something?"
A deep voice from the other end replied, "Address."
Liang Yingning closed her eyes and, with a clenched jaw, informed him, "Jinyuan Apartment in Su City, Room 62 on the 9th floor. Just knock on the door. She’s definitely at home."
Finally, the call ended. Liang Yingning breathed a sigh of relief, pressed her hands together, and prayed. I thought he wouldn’t come looking for her after all, she mused.
On Shanghai’s inner ring elevated highway, traffic flowed steadily. A pure black limited-edition Lamborghini WHOOSHED past other cars like an arrow, weaving through the traffic with superb driving skill. The powerful roar of its engine gradually faded into the distance.
The black supercar drove for some time. The traffic thinned out, mainly because the expressway to Su City was under construction and closed for the night. It wouldn’t open until 6 a.m., necessitating a detour via the Jinghu Expressway.
Zhou Luchen leaned his head back against the seat, glanced at his watch, changed lanes for the exit, and turned back towards Pudong.
Perhaps, in that moment of impulse, Zhou Luchen had wanted to see her. Perhaps, if the road hadn’t been under construction, the black sports car, at its speed, would have reached the Jinyuan Apartment building within sixty minutes.
He didn’t make it.
