To You, My Beloved

Chapter 41: No Other Option but to Endure V

The air in the car smelled of an intimate physical encounter.

With every breath that Gu Qingcheng took, this smell reminded her of the humiliation that she had just endured. She couldn’t tolerate staying in the car for another minute.

Ignoring the discomfort and pain that she was feeling, she gritted her teeth and adjusted her disheveled clothing slowly. Then, with a quick glance at Tang Shi, she pushed the door open and lowered her head to get out of the car as quickly as she could.

Tang Shi had expected to see indignant hurt in Gu Qingcheng’s eyes, to see her tears, but her dark eyes were dry and bore no signs of tears at all.

Once again, the familiar feeling of defeat stirred in Tang Shi as he watched her through the window, noticing that she was walking a little unsteadily toward her home. She appeared to be limping a bit, probably because he’d been too aggressive when he’d possessed her, causing her pain.

It was a long time after Gu Qingcheng had disappeared into the yard of the Gu family home before Tang Shi stirred slightly and slowly turned his gaze back to the inside of the car, to where Gu Qingcheng had just been seated.

He noticed a damp patch on the black upholstered car seat and, reaching out to touch it, realized that it was blood. Then he picked up, from the side of the seat, a bloodied nail that had been broken off.

Holding the nail, Tang Shi felt a choking sensation in his throat. It was not a good feeling.

They never used to be like this…

If that incident three years ago hadn’t taken place, he would never have treated her with such contempt or not taken responsibility after having slept with her.

That incident was something that he never, ever wanted to bring up again in his life. It was like a sharp thorn lodged deep in his heart.

If the truth were told, he hadn’t wanted their relationship to end up like this. But, if he hadn’t resorted to these tactics, would she still be repeatedly hanging around him as she was doing now?

Dumping her was not an option, because he couldn’t bring himself to let her go. If he had simply accepted her and married her, he knew that she would, at the earliest opportunity, hide as far away as possible from him and not be as subservient as she was now, when she was trying so hard to please him.

…

Not wanting her family to see her in this disheveled and sorry state, Gu Qingcheng entered her home through the backdoor, skirting the main part of the house and heading straight up the stairs to her bedroom on the second floor.

Back in her room, the first thing she did was to take a shower. It was as though by doing so, she felt she could wash away the humiliation that she had suffered from Tang Shi.

After her shower, Gu Qingcheng stood in front of the floor-length mirror in her bedroom and, seeing the many bruises on her body, looked decidedly miserable.

The bruise on her neck, where Tang Shi had bitten her that night at the Red Garden Resort Village, was still visible because its purple color hadn’t fully faded away. The wound on her palm, where her nail had pierced her skin, sent pangs of searing pain through her.

Keeping her eyes lowered, Gu Qingcheng changed quickly into her pajamas and went straight to bed. Wrapping her quilt tightly around herself, she tried to fall asleep, but couldn’t, despite feeling exhausted.

And just as she was tossing and turning and grappling with the myriad things in her head, her mobile phone rang.