A Twisted Love Affair-Chapter 237: Do you love me this much?"_1

The plane tickets had been booked early. Just two or three hours later, dawn broke.

Finally, the news came out, not through regular news reporting, but a video posted by a resident of the southern USA. Chaotic gunfire could be heard, along with the blasé voices of bystanders discussing the recent deaths of two foreigners.

Dead. Foreigners. And they had to specify they were foreigners. Foreigners...

It was the first time Shen Jing had directly seen such a scene in a video. She tried to find any clues before the blogger deleted it. Her hand trembling, she silently closed the door and returned to her room.

Sun Qiyan didn’t allow her to leave the house. It was almost like he’d cut off her internet, watching over her to prevent her from secretly hiring bodyguards and sneaking off to Chicago. Even the luggage for her return trip was packed. The person arranged for airport pickup was already at the door, about to take her to the airport. The predawn flight and time difference meant she would arrive in Beijing just in time. This was a decision Sun Qiyan made unilaterally, without asking her, as she was no longer in the mood to listen to anything. At that moment, all Sun Qiyan wanted was to take her away. If something truly had happened to Zhou Luchen, he didn’t want her to stay here either. He thought.

But on that day, after he accompanied her to the airport waiting hall and she checked in, he turned around, and she had just vanished. In fact, knowing she would turn back, Sun Qiyan gave up calling her back. Once again, she had tricked him into going back to China alone while she stayed behind in New York by herself.

Sun Qiyan told the flight attendant, "We’re changing our flight; we won’t be boarding for now."

「...」

At the United Bank Headquarters, employees were going about their business as usual. How tall, how awe-inspiring and majestic, but Shen Jing had no desire to admire it. Standing in front of the entrance, she felt so insignificant. She just stood there, watching the executives in their suits come and go, observing the tightly secured organization.

The only person who recognized Shen Jing was Zhou Luchen’s female secretary, the one who had tenderly taken care of the sick Zhou Luchen. Secretary Song recognized Shen Jing. Before entering the building, she merely said to her, "We have already sent people to Chicago; they’ve been on it since last night. As for the rest, Miss Shen, you don’t need to know too much. It seems irrelevant to you. Please leave. If you linger too long, security will take you as a threat and send you to the station."

Secretary Song’s words were dignified yet cold. She didn’t even glance at Shen Jing as she clicked her high heels and went inside to work.

Even if Secretary Song was unwilling to chat with her, Shen Jing could clearly sense her solemn mood. It seemed that something had happened to him. Whether the two foreign individuals in the video were Zhou Luchen or not, even Secretary Song didn’t know.

Shen Jing turned around and got into the rental car, at that moment, not knowing where to go. Zhou Luchen’s home, Zhou Luchen’s conglomerate—she couldn’t get into either. About everything related to him, it was as if she was being excluded, as if no one cared who she was, as if no one regarded her existence.

Shen Jing looked back, gazing through the rear window of the taxi at the downtown Manhattan buildings. The hundred-story United Bank building had its lights all lit up during the day, one level after another reaching straight into the clouds. Due to the overcast weather, dark clouds loomed over all of Manhattan, threatening to engulf it.

In her mind, she even involuntarily made the worst assumption, filling her with dread—dread that a living person could just suddenly be gone. She trembled as she hugged her knees, covering her face and weeping softly.

"Don’t you know it’s chaotic down south? Why did you have to go there? Why don’t you answer calls? Why don’t you let me know where you are? A wreath isn’t that expensive; when the time comes, I’ll send three wreaths to your grave. Would you be satisfied with that?

"Every Tomb-Sweeping Day, I’ll bring my husband and children to visit your grave, just to show you that I’m living better than you, happier than you, outliving you, having a blast!

"Zhou Luchen, you are a freak! Why were you so good to me? Why did you make me come here? The night before last, weren’t you still able to come and bang on my door? It’s not like I wouldn’t let you smash it. If it’s smashed, it’s smashed. Can’t I just replace it?"

The driver was a dark-skinned man with sparkling white teeth. He listened to her venting, listened to her sobbing. In her crying voice, every word, every sentence was filled with concern and urgency. In the places Zhou Luchen couldn’t see, her emotions became glaringly obvious. It was all left unresolved.

In the end, the driver, quite amiably, said, "Miss, I understand Chinese. It’s no use telling me; you have to tell him in person. Only then will he know your worries, right?"

Looking at his white teeth in the mirror, Shen Jing smiled while wiping away her tears.

"Your boyfriend?" the driver asked.

With blurry eyes, Shen Jing laughed and said, "He’s a very good man, and yet so inexplicably bad to the bone."

The driver laughed. "I can hear it; he’s in your heart."

How could that be? Shen Jing didn’t believe it.

The driver didn’t argue. Instead, he asked, "So, where are we going? Do you plan to cry all the way in my car? It’s quite expensive, you know."

Without hesitation, she said, "I want to go to Chicago."

The driver was just there to take the money, and she had lots and lots of dollars to hand over. She simply had lots of dollars. After the driver confirmed repeatedly, she still said South Chicago.

"Whose wealthy darling are you, getting released to capriciously head to Chicago at this hour? Alright, I’ll indulge you."

As the driver stepped on the gas, as she made up her mind, her phone finally rang just two or three seconds later. She wiped away the tearstains and looked at the extremely familiar number on the screen. As the phone vibrated, it drew away her focus bit by bit, and her vision grew even more blurred.

After a long silence, the driver continued to speed ahead, quite happily. Unconsciously, with numb fingers, she pressed the answer button and put the phone to her ear. There was the sound of rain on the other end. The driver had mentioned that Chicago was experiencing a heavy downpour.

It was clearly Zhou Luchen’s breathing and his voice, low and husky through the receiver. "Crying?"

The moment those two words were uttered, they seemed to wait for her response with profound meaning. Instantly, the defenses in her heart collapsed like a bursting dam. She burst into wails. For her, it was as if a child had their beloved toy snatched away, sobbing as if wronged by the whole world.

This left Zhou Luchen silent, wordless. It seemed he was sensing her worries through the silence and, at the same time, reminding her that he was alright. Her tears fell, one by one, on the back of her hand. The kindness Zhou Luchen had shown her in the past, the unbridled indulgence when they were intimate, the shallow frivolity when he smiled at her—all contributed to how painfully she wept now.

Even though she kept telling herself that she didn’t love him anymore, that it was impossible. But the heartlessness of their breakup couldn’t stop the lingering worry she felt when she couldn’t find him.

She was just afraid...

In the future, when meeting someone like Wang Dafu, who would be there to help her quietly from behind?

In the future, if she wanted to change a light bulb, whose home could she go to?

In the future, if she felt down and wanted to visit the Long Island mansion, whom would she see?

In the future, without him, who would willingly craft a golden cage to keep such a delicate creature as her sister...?

Before long, she heard Zhou Luchen ask faintly, "Do you love me that much?"

Barely articulate through her crying, she said, "Can’t you be less sure of yourself? If you were gone, whose money would I spend?"

Having said that, without waiting for Zhou Luchen to respond, she quickly hung up the call, wiped her tearstains, and said, "Go to the airport. I want to go back to China."

The driver slammed on the brakes. So willful. If there wasn’t someone indulging her and letting her have her way behind all this, the driver wouldn’t believe it. One moment east, the next west.

"Do you want a dollar refund?"