By the ti Zhang Xiaoshan returned to the village office, Bai Shutong had locked the door from inside.
"I left your shoes by your door. I’m sleeping next door, so if you need anything, just call ."
"Get lost, you thug,"
Bai Shutong cursed from within her cocoon of blankets.
Zhang Xiaoshan felt guilty, like a thief, and as he needed a favor, he obediently went to sleep in the next room.
Soon, Zhang Xiaoshan drifted into dreamland.
But Bai Shutong was suffering.
She curled up in the blankets, eyes wide open.
Though she often went into the mountains for interviews, it was always during broad daylight and with colleagues; she had never spent a night in the mountains—wasn’t this just too frightening?
Had she known this place was so eerie, she wouldn’t have co.
Whatever she feared seed to co true.
"Crack, crack, crack"
The old screw-in light bulb hanging from the ceiling crackled with the sound of electricity.
It flickered on and off.
"No, this can’t be happening?"
"Crack."
The next mont, the dim yellow light bulb burst with a sound of exploding electricity and gave out for good.
"Oh my god."
The room plunged into darkness, and Bai Shutong was close to losing her mind.
She pulled out her cell phone.
She checked it—no signal.
"What in the world is this place?"
Driven by sheer terror, after so hesitation, she got out of bed in the dark and fumbled in her suitcase for a black object with a cord, resembling an old-fashioned "brick" phone.
Because she often went on field interviews, she had a satellite phone with her.
Aside from a work number for her newspaper office, there was one more private contact slot left blank.
She stared blankly, hesitated for a long while, but still dialed out.
There was no answer from the other end.
Nevertheless, Bai Shutong beca more persistently insistent.
Finally, the call connected!
"What do you want? Didn’t I tell you not to contact anymore? It’s over between us."
A man’s voice, low and suppressed, ca through as if he was hiding sowhere to take the call.
Bai Shutong listened to the man’s reproaching words and spoke with a tinge of grievance in her voice.
"I, I, I didn’t want to contact you anymore, but, but I am now in a very dark house, and I’m really scared. Can you just talk to for a bit?"
"Just, just for a little while."
Bai Shutong’s tone was very ek.
But the man didn’t show a shred of compassion.
"Didn’t you always like sleeping alone? Every ti I wanted to be intimate, you refused . If it wasn’t for that, would I have married soone else?"
"Now I have a child. You want to chat with you in the middle of the night? Are you sick?"
Bai Shutong said with a hint of sorrow.
"You’re talking nonsense! It was clear that you were seduced by her superior family situation, which could provide you with a good job. That’s why you betrayed our relationship."
The man on the other end was candid.
"So what if that’s true? With her, not only do I get her body, but I also get her family’s money and connections. What can you offer ?"
"I, I..."
Bai Shutong was at a loss for words.
"Daddy, what are you doing?"
Suddenly, a child’s innocent voice ca from the other end.
"Uh, Daddy’s using the restroom. I’ll be right out,"
The man first responded to the child and then addressed Bai Shutong.
"Alright, I’m done talking nonsense with you. I’m going to go sleep with my wife. You can keep your chastity to yourself, okay?"
Without saying another word of concern, the man hung up.
When Bai Shutong dialed again, the man had already turned off his phone.
"Wuwuwu..."
Bai Shutong crouched on the ground, covering her face and sobbing quietly, as if afraid that Zhang Xiaoshan would hear and mock her, keeping her sobs very low.
Afterward, she pulled out a small knife.
She carved a deep cut into her arm, blood surged out, but she felt no sense of pain.
The agony within her far surpassed that of her body.
The scars on her arm had accumulated in this way.
Her relationship with the man on the other end had started in university. At that ti, she was just a freshman, and he was a graduate student, years older than her. Overwheld by his ardent pursuit, the naïve her had fallen for him. He had repeatedly proposed to be intimate with her, but she, with her strict upbringing, had always refused. She firmly believed that intimacy should be aningful and reserved for marriage.
Latter, she discovered nurous videos on the man’s phone of him with various won.
They were shocking and unspeakable.
When she hysterically confronted him, and cornered him in a hotel room, not only did he feel no sha, but he and the other woman beat her together, leading her to attempt suicide.
Latter on, as the man was about to graduate, he married the daughter of a faculty mber to secure a job at the university.
This incident had beco a festering wound in her heart.
Love her? She had long stopped loving him, but she couldn’t accept it.
Even though she knew there was no possibility with the man, she still felt truly unwilling to let go.
Especially when she was abandoned for the man’s future prospects and desires, yet he insisted it was because they hadn’t been intimate before marriage.
She began to question herself, what was the real reason?
Was that kind of life so important that it could affect a couple’s love?
Had she loved the wrong person, or were all n in the world the sa?
Maybe she should use Zhang Xiaoshan for an experint?
Perhaps she should sleep with Zhang Xiaoshan just once?
Maybe this man, who seed not so bad, could give her an answer?
"Hoo hoo hoo."
The autumn wind outside blew fiercely.
The noise startled Bai Shutong out of her reverie.
She pricked up her ears, listening to the sounds outside.
The noise seed to get closer and closer to the room.
Suddenly, she thought she saw a ghostly face appear at the window.
"Aah!"
Frightened by a scream, she burst out of the room and ran toward Zhang Xiaoshan’s room.
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