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The perfume scent was light, sweet, and calming. It was the exact opposite of Huo Yunshen’s current behavior.
He held her waist, tightly fitting her into his embrace, as if he wanted them to be fused into one.
Yan Qing was screaming on the inside but was in reality shocked speechless. She was able to grab ahold of a nearby show piece and prepared to smash it over Huo Yunshen’s head.
To smash…or to not smash?
Yan Qing hesitated. She understood that he wasn’t a complete hoodlum who was doing this for the sake of fulfilling his perverseness. She could empathize with him. Even now, although he was hugging her, he wasn’t being frivolous. Every action of his revealed his utter happiness.
But the problem was that he got the wrong person!
Yan Qing decided to attempt for a peaceful resolution. She placed the show piece back down and pushed back on his shoulder to create distance. “Mr. Huo, has your head cleared up now? Are you able to calmly listen to a few words?”
Huo Yunshen breathing on the nape of her neck deepened. “…. What did you call me?”
“Mr. Huo.” Yan Qing emphasized. She lifted his head, forcibly creating distance between them once again. “You’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m not Yun Qing. I just happen to look a bit like her. I coincidentally met you at the bridge earlier, but it was just a coincidence!”
Huo Yunshen’s gaze dug into her. He searched every inch of her face, as if wanting to peer into her soul. “Qingqing, don’t scare me. I can’t bear it anymore.” He caressed the hair near her temples.
“How did you get this wound? What happened? That plane crash ——” He gritted his teeth. “Were you in the plane that crashed? Where did you end up going? I looked for you for three years, everyone said you were already gone. But I didn’t believe it! Yun Qing would never abandon me!”
If it weren’t for the situation, Yan Qing really wanted to praise President Huo’s eyesight. She did have a scar near her temple. She didn’t even remember how it came to be, though her mother said it was from when she fainted and hit the edge of a glass table. The wound had already healed long ago. Now, there was only a light trace. She didn’t even see it when she looked into the mirror, yet President Huo saw it with a glance.
She sighed. She didn’t really want to yell at a man consumed by lost love. Patiently, she repeated for a third time. “I am not Yun Qing. I’m another person. Before today, we’ve never met. Do you understand?”
It was like Huo Yunshen didn’t even hear. His hand moved down to her neck. He tilted up her chin, making her look right at him.
“I didn’t believe that you were gone…But the court declared in black ink that you were dead. Our cat, ever since you left, he was sick. Last week he finally closed his eyes. I went to every animal hospital, no one could save him. I used to despise him the most for taking up your attention and love. I used to never touch him. But that day…. I carried him, I buried him at the little hillside you used to love.”
With every word he said, Yan Qing felt her heart fill with bitterness. She fixated on him, forgetting to struggle.
It was like Huo Yunshen’s throat was filled with sand. Every word bursted out coarsely.
“Three days ago, I dreamed of you. You told me, Yunshen, don’t look for me. Yun Qing is no longer in this world anymore.” He continued with a bitter smile. His tears dripped onto her face. “I thought you came to me to say goodbye. I thought that that cat went to go find you. He knew where you were. I couldn’t lose to him. Qingqing is mine. Even in death, I wasn’t going to let you go!”
Yan Qing’s chest ached. Unconsciously, her hands formed into fists.
Huo Yunshen’s grip tightened. “You once said that no matter who was the first to go, if the other one jumped off that bridge, we would still be together! I stood up there, and you came to pull me down. And now you want to tell me, you’re not Yun Qing?!”
He ripped back her shirt collar, exposing a cherry-sized pink mark on the side of her neck. “This is Yun Qing’s! And you still want to say you aren’t her!”
Yan Qing realized Huo Yunshen hadn’t listened to her. He didn’t even want to understand. She wasn’t surprised that he noticed her mark. But to make a fuss about it and say that it was Yun Qing’s? She was having none of it. She couldn’t communicate with this man like this.
Yan Qing pulled her energy together and pushed with all her might. She swiftly jumped off the bed. “Huo Yunshen, you can miss her all you want! But don’t bring in unrelated people to vent! Tell the people outside to get out of the way, let me go!”
“Go?” Huo Yunshen charged forward, eyes red. “Say it again!”
Yan Qing bellowed, “I’m leaving! How many times do you need me to repeat it! I don’t know you. To me, you are a complete stranger!”
Huo Yunshen’s heart smashed to pieces.
The same lips that had declared her love for him countless times, were now denying everything they had.
There was no emotion for him in her eyes. It was all ice, resistance, rejection.
Huo Yunshen was in boundless infinite pain. He pulled her by the waist. “Qingqing, did you forget me?”
Min Jing stood outside the door. Grasping the Ziplock bag in his hand, he nodded silently. He agreed with Shen-ge’s guess.
Yun Qing seemed to have lost her memories. That itself might not be shocking. But it was clear that the gap in her memories were replaced with a complete and detailed false past.
Now, Yun Qing had her own supposed memories and logical past. It was a completely new identity. No matter what they said, she wouldn’t believe them. Even if they tested the hair in the bag with her DNA, she would still believe that the results were orchestrated.
Inside the room, Huo Yunshen pulled Yan Qing along with urgency. “This is our room. Our bed. You’ve been living here since university. Do you remember?”
Yan Qing could no longer keep up with how many times she said she didn’t.
Huo Yunshen was like a helpless child, searching endlessly for anything that could reawaken her memories. Finally, he knelt and pulled out a glass globe from inside the night drawer. “Look, this is the eighteenth birthday present you gave me. You said you were going to ensure that my life was without regrets…”
Yan Qing was at her breaking point too. She cut him off: “That’s not me!”
He tried to give the globe to her, but she refused to hold it. The fear of not being able to leave was growing. In the middle of the push and tug, her arm waved, sending the globe crashing to the ground. At the same time the glass shattered, she blurted out: “Huo Yunshen, I really regret saving you!”
The whole room froze.
The globe laid in pieces beneath their feet.
Huo Yunshen lowered his head and said slowly, “Qingqing, are you regretting that I didn’t die?”
The whole room froze.
The globe laid in pieces beneath their feet.
Huo Yunshen lowered his head and said slowly, “Qingqing, are you regretting that I didn’t die?”
Yan Qing could hear that there was something different about his voice. She made a break for the door. But his blood red eyes could already see her movements.
Huo Yunshen used his already loosened tie and fastened it around her wrists, tying the other end to the bed’s headboard.
“What are you doing…” Yan Qing couldn’t believe it. “Are you kidnapping me?”
Huo Yunshen knelt by her side and stroke her cheek. Softly he answered: “Not kidnapping. Just holding you here.”
He could no longer suppress his madness. “In this bedroom, it was you who once told me that if you ever forgot who I was, I should grab onto you until you remembered who I was to you!”
He kissed her lips. Huo Yanshen used his bare hands to pick up the glass pieces one by one. He staggered to his feet.
At the door, he glanced back, looking at the knotted tie. “I won’t stay in here. I don’t want to hurt you. I’ll be in the living room. Just call for me if you need me.”
The door was locked from the outside.
For the first time in her life, Yan Qing wanted to curse directly at someone. Huo Yunshen was even willing to hold someone captive? And he still had the nerve to tell her to calm down?
What was next? If she didn’t listen, was he just going to kill her? Or set the room on fire and commit murder-suicide?
Yan Qing imagined all kinds of possibilities. But in reality, Yan Qing didn’t even have any more energy to be afraid. She sank to the floor.
What was she going to do ….?
What about dealing with this like those hostage situations in movies? First pretend to be Yun Qing to pacify him. And then find the opportunity to escape?
Yan Qing quickly rebuked the idea. If she admitted to being Yun Qing, that insane Huo Yunshen would never let her go. Even so, her current residence was probably discovered now so there was nowhere for her to run to. Hotels, airplane tickets. Anything that needed to be purchased with ID probably wouldn’t be safe either.
“Sister An Lan is still waiting for me to go film her show.” She muttered to herself. “I just signed the contract…”
Yan Qing suddenly looked up and jumped to her feet. That’s right, the show!
An Lan had emphasized for her to bring her luggage and items tomorrow. They were going to start by filming daily life in the contestants’ dorms. The film site and the dorms were far away from the city. The location was in a renovated school in a suburban area. Being in the midst of staff members and 100 contestants would be her best camouflage.
Even if Huo Yunshen found her, he still would need to consider the reputation of Huo Corporation. He would at least curb his actions then. It would definitely be safer than her being outside alone.
Yan Qing glanced at the only window in the room. The window overlooked the back of the building. She could avoid any guards near the residential community’s front gates.
Making sure she was making minimal noise, she attempted to shimmy out of the knot. She realized that although the knot was complicated, it wasn’t tight. But it was as difficult to maneuver as Huo Yunshen himself.
Sweating, she prayed to Buddha for help. When that didn’t work, she turned to Yun Qing.
Yun Qing, please help! Your husband is in a crazy episode right now!
Fiddling with the knot, she twisted her left hand outwards, feeling the knot suddenly loosen. As if her body had found a hidden instinct, her hands adjusted the angle of her hold on the knot. Within ten seconds, the tie fell onto the bed.
That was it?!
Yan Qing let out a deep breath. She was sure Yun Qing was a goddess. From now on, Miss Yun was the goddess of her heart!
Yan Qing softly tiptoed and pulled out all of the bedsheets, covers, and thick clothes she could find in the room. She swiftly tied them together, creating a rope.
She opened the window slowly and threw her makeshift rope down. This was only the third floor; she could do it.
Yan Qing tied up her long hair. Lithely, she climbed onto the window sill. Following the rope out, she crawled down from the window. Her legs swung out haphazardly before they finally found their footing on the outside A/C structure.
Just as she prepared to make her way down, she discovered that the windows of the bedroom and the living room were right next to each other. The light was still on. She could see inside clearly.
Everyone had been removed. Huo Yunshen sat alone in the large space.
For just a moment, Yan Qing took a good look at him. The anger she saw on his face last had completely washed away.
Huo Yunshen was sitting on the floor, resting his back on the bedroom door. His imposing figure was slouched down, with his head lowered. His bloodstained hands were tinkering with pieces of broken glass, carefully using glue to put the pieces back together.
He held the awkward glass assembled in the palms of his hands, as if it were a priceless treasure.
T/N: I just want to cry…
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