Chapter Eleven: You Will Regret This
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I staggered as I placed the erhu into the case lying on the floor, then carried it toward the front courtyard.
Xu Zhixia was right. I really was useless—so useless that I could not even protect the last thing my father had left me.
“Brother Jiang…”
Xiao Zhu hesitated, unsure whether to stop me. His face was filled with guilt. I did not blame him; he was only working for Xu Zhixia.
“Leave him alone. If he refuses to appreciate kindness, let him get out!”
Xu Zhixia’s furious, humiliated voice came from behind me. She had always been like this. Even if everyone in the world were wrong, she could never be.
It did not matter. I no longer cared whether she was right or wrong.
“A son like that probably means his father was not much better.”
“What did you say?”
I stopped and turned around, my eyes bloodshot as I searched for the speaker.
Perhaps I looked especially terrifying at that moment. The few male models began nervously backing away, shoving the blond-haired one forward.
“He said it. It has nothing to do with the rest of us!”
“Y-Yes, I said it. So what? What are you going to do about it?”
I gently set the case on the table and swept my gaze around the room before fixing it on a beer bottle.
It was still unopened and had a fair amount of weight in my hand. Gripping it, I walked toward the blond-haired man one step at a time.
I stared darkly into his eyes and spoke each word distinctly.
“Go on. Say what you just said again. I didn’t hear you clearly.”
The blond man swallowed. He was obviously frightened, but after glancing at the people around him and at Xu Zhixia, he forced himself to be brave.
“What difference would it make if I said it again? You’re a useless piece of trash. Your father was an old piece of trash too—neither of you is worthy even to carry President Xu’s shoes!”
The next second, the beer bottle shattered against his head. Liquor mixed with blood and streamed down his face.
One hand clamped around his throat. In the other, I held the jagged half of the broken bottle, its sharp edge pressed against his cheek.
“Let’s see which is harder—your mouth or your head!”
“You were enjoying yourself when you were insulting me just now, weren’t you? Come on, keep going! Let’s see whether you can walk out of here in one piece today!”
The blond man had taken the blow squarely and was still dazed, but the pain shooting across his face brought him back to his senses.
Men in their line of work lived off their faces. Their looks were their capital. If his face were ruined, he could forget about clinging to a wealthy woman; even finding someone willing to marry him after turning over a new leaf would be difficult.
Seeing that I was serious, the blond man no longer dared to act tough. His voice had already begun to tremble with tears.
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“Brother—big brother, I was wrong. I really was. Please don’t do anything rash. We can talk this out!”
“Now you know how to talk things out with me? I have never seen a male escort act as arrogantly as you.”
“You were so pleased with yourself when you were throwing your weight around and bullying people under someone else’s protection. Now you’re calling me big brother? Too late!”
I tossed the beer bottle aside and drove one fist after another into the blond man’s face.
I might have been a patient on the verge of death, but I was still a man with blood in his veins. How could I let some male escort insult me and my father like that?
“Keep insulting me! Go on, keep going! Let me hear what else you have to say, you bastard!”
“You called me useless? Take a good look at yourself! You’re nothing but a whore who sells herself to women and offers her backside to men. What right do you have to insult me?”
“When I was running a company in Tianhai, you probably had not even learned where to squat and play in the mud!”
The blond man was pinned beneath me, unable to fight back against my wild, skilless punches driven by nothing but rage. He glanced at his “colleagues,” none of whom dared step forward, then gritted his teeth and shouted to Xu Zhixia.
“President Xu, save me! President Xu!”
Xu Zhixia finally came to her senses. She rushed over and tried to pull me up, cursing at me.
“Jiang Jian, have you gone mad? How dare you beat my man right in front of me?!”
The elaborate manicure on her hands dug painfully into my flesh as she struggled, even drawing blood.
I freed one hand and flung her away, glaring at her viciously.
“Stay away from me, Xu Zhixia. Do you really think I wouldn’t dare hit you?”
“You—you…”
When she saw that I refused to stop, Xu Zhixia practically screamed.
“If you keep hitting him, you’ll beat him to death! Stop at once, you lunatic!”
I looked down. The blond man’s face was swollen and bruised, his features crushed together.
His face had turned a purplish blue from the pressure of my grip around his throat, and his eyes were beginning to roll uncontrollably upward.
I could not actually take a life. Swaying slightly, I rose to my feet and gathered the case back into my arms.
“Xu Zhixia, I truly regret ever falling in love with you.”
I gave Xu Zhixia a bleak, bitter smile.
“You said I was a dog, didn’t you? Xu Zhixia, you are not even as good as a dog.”
“If I devoted myself to raising a dog, it would still wag its tail at me. I loved you for so many years, and this is how you treated me.”
“Since you love Pei Zhixing so much—so much that you were willing to marry me just to take revenge on me for him—why don’t you go die for him?”
“How dare you say something like that to me? Jiang Jian, you will regret this!”
“Xu Zhixia, remember this: I owe Pei Zhixing nothing, and I owe you nothing. If you have any dignity left, get a divorce as soon as possible.”
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With that, I stopped looking at her and walked over to the pile of belongings that had been thrown outside.
Clothes and the like did not matter. I could always buy them again. But replacing my identification documents would be a troublesome process.
After finding everything important, I hugged the belongings to my chest and walked toward the front courtyard without looking back.
Watching me leave so resolutely, Xu Zhixia hysterically smashed everything on the table onto the floor.
“Jiang Jian, I will make you regret this!”
Xiao Zhu ventured to speak.
“President Xu, don’t you think this has gone too far…”
Xu Zhixia exploded like a powder keg.
“Too far? This is what he owes me! If not for him, how could my Brother Zhixing have died?”
“He thinks he can simply get a divorce and escape from me? Not a chance. He can forget about it!”
“I have not tormented him enough yet. Unless I agree, this marriage is not ending!”
Only after throwing a long fit did Xu Zhixia remember the blond man lying on the floor.
“What are you all standing around for? Take him to the hospital!”
After leaving the villa, I turned back for one last look at the place where Xu Zhixia and I had lived for five years.
How had I never noticed how ugly this house was?
With an armful of belongings and nowhere to go, I thought for a while and decided that I could only go to Ji Leqing’s place first.
I left the villa complex and hailed a taxi by the roadside. Yet every vacant taxi passing me instantly switched its sign to occupied.
With no other choice, I took out my phone and called a ride-hailing car.
The driver kept glancing at me through the rearview mirror, looking strangely nervous.
I turned toward my reflection in the car window and immediately understood.
Fair enough. In my current disheveled state, I was lucky not to be mistaken for a mental patient and locked away in a psychiatric hospital.
“We—we’re here.”
The moment the car door closed, the ride-hailing driver hit the accelerator and sped away, as though I were some kind of plague.
I stood at the entrance to the residential compound, grateful that hardly anyone was coming or going.
“Sir, if you are not a resident here, I’m afraid you will have to leave.”
A young security guard in a neat, sharply tailored uniform approached me. His tone was polite, yet carried a firmness that allowed no refusal.
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