This is a very difficult chapter to translate. Both of them are so tragic in this one..

Chapter 60

The organisers had made special arrangements for the after party. No one from the media was invited. Some of the stars were there, the guests particularly enjoyed the party till about two o clock in the morning

No one noticed that the bride was absent from the party.

After the wedding, Yan Liang left. It was her wedding night, she had nowhere to go. She drove blindly in the night time streets until she finally stopped. Unwittingly, she had returned to the Xu house.

The property had been gifted by the Yan family to Xu Jin fu and his bride when they had got married. And now, apart from their properties in New Zealand, all other real estate, including this home had been listed for sale. In order to raise cash , this mansion had been spared.

With the help of an agent, the house had sold at a fairly good price.Apparently the new owner was going to stay in this house.

Aunt Liang had accompanied her mother to rest in new Zealand, the house had been lying empty for quite some time now. Yan Liang had the back up keys in her hand. Earlier whenever Yan Liang had come here, the servants had opened the door for her. But now she could only rely on her own strength as she struggled with the heavy iron bolt on the door and exhausted herself.

She had parked the car out front and walked in.

The gardens on both sides of the path were designed by that year’s most famous designer. Yan Liang recalled that every day, early in the morning, the gardener would take care of the garden, so that even in winter , the garden maintained the greenery of spring.

But at this moment, she could see that the garden had withered away.

Eventually Yan Liang reached the main building and opened the door. She saw the empty living room and assumed that the new owner did not like the original decorations and had moved all the furniture.

The wine cellar was intact. Yan Liang walked down the stairs . The aroma of the basement infiltrated her senses as she walked past the wine bottles to select one.. If Xu Jin fu had known that all the wine that he had so painstakingly collected over the years would be given off to the new owner, he would have been angry enough to beat her up..

She could only laugh at herself.

Holding a bottle and a glass, she came back to the living room. Her foot steps echoed in the tall room. There was no furniture so she could sit on the floor as she poured herself a glass of wine.

She kept on pouring glass after glass till she was really quite drunk. She leisurely raised her glass, and facing the wall, she listlessly whispered, “ Hats off to you !”

Who was it that she was referring to?

Was she expressing her admiration for her enemies, her selfish relatives, or for her own disastrous foolishness? Yan Liang laughed, close her eyes and drained her glass in one shot.

Her laughter was still ringing around thE room wheN she heard a click

The sound of the door unlocking..

Yan Liang looked at the door, her vision a blur.

The door was slowly pushed open, and a tall figure entered the hall.

Because of the dark surroundings , Yan Liang could not get a clear view apart from noting the tall and straight stature of a man. She narrowed her eyes to focus as he walked forward from the darkness to the light

A pair of dark leather shoes, slender trousers, a thin shirt, and the emotionless eyes of Jiang Yu Nan.

The minute she recognised him, she smiled disparagingly , bowed her head and poured herself some more wine .

The footsteps moved closer and closer to her. When he was just half a metre away, he said in a low voice, “ You’ve parked the car outside, the outside door is not closed, even your coat fell outside the car.”

Jiang Yu Nan showed her the coat, then put it on her shoulders,

It was heavy coat, but Yan Liang could not feel even a trace of warmth, wave after wave of chill engulfed her body.

He should have expected this woman would only be disdainful towards his hypocritical caring gestures; she murmured, “This is a private place, you are not welcome here.”

Jiang Yu Nan laughed, squatted down to the level of her eyes and spread out his palm to show the keys in his hand.

Yan Liang was stunned.

Taking advantage of her astonishment, he took her glass. Her lipstick had smudged the rim of the glass. He took a sip.

Yan Liang shook her head and smiled at him admiringly , “ You bought this property ?”

Obviously this was a rhetorical question.

Whatever had originally belonged to Xu he had robbed her of it all and so beautifully. Why would he not feel a great sense of satisfaction after the culmination of his revenge plan ?

“ You. Scram”, he said.

Yan Liang had a lot to drink, her body was unstable. As she slowly stood up and was ready to go, Jiang Yu Nan suddenly reached out and pulled her. Yan Liang was was attacked by a wave of dizziness.

The wine bottle upended, the glass spilled and Yan Liang fell to the ground. If Jiang Yu Nan had not reached out immediately to pad her head, she would have been seriously hurt.

Jiang Yu Nan looked at her body from top to bottom. The tears flowing from her reddened eyes – who were they for ?

Yan Liang lay against his shoulder, but in the next second he broke down all her defences

.

“Since you are not willing to divorce now, you can expect that I am not willing to be a husband on paper only ..”

As he said that, he bent towards her and the last trace of light disappeared.

“You are not worthy of Lu Zheng because, here..” his fingers traced her lips, “..here “, he said as his hands reached her chest after slowly tracing a path down her graceful curves , “ here..” as he lifted her skirt little by little, “ …the name of Jiang Yu Nan had been engraved already.”

Panicking, Yan Liang suddenly moved her face so that his kiss landed in her cheek.

Jiang Yu Nan laughed quietly. There was no way to know if he was laughing from anger or from a silent appreciation of her desperate situation.

But the nearby bottle could save her. She reflexively reached out to grab the bottle and started randomly kicking him. One of her kicks hit his abdomen and he cried out in pain. She was finally able to free her wrists . She grabbed the bottle behind her and threw it at him.

“Bang!”

Jiang Yu Nan grabbed her hand holding the bottle and deflected it so that the bottle hit the wall.

The mirror on the wall was shattered.

Pieces of glass flew at Yan Liang’s face. Before she could react, she felt a pair of hands in front of her face protecting it.

After the loud noise there was silence. The pair of hands over her face loosened

The sound of the mirror shattering echoed in her ear. She expected a tingling sensation but instead she felt warm liquid dripping on her face.

Jiang Yu Nan glanced at the back of his hand. There was a small wound. He did not care. With his thumb , he erased the drops of blood that had accidentally dropped on her face and smiled.

Was he relieved that she was not hurt?

Or was he just laughing at her panic?

The next moment, Yan Liang angrily pushed him. She used all her strength to push him. Jiang Yu Nan almost fell and barely managed to stop his fall by using his hands to support himself.

Didn’t it hurt to put pressure on his palms that were embedded with tiny pieces of glass ?

Even Yan Liang frowned as she saw the blood dripping from his wound, but there wasn’t a trace of pain on his face.

If this man was so hard on himself, how could she be soft ?

Yan Liang laughed. She finally realised where she was inferior to him. On the road to revenge , he was definitely her example

Her coat had fallen to the ground, the red wine had dripped into it and stained it a bright scarlet. She thought for a moment, what was the first step in his revenge plan ?

To get close to her, and win her trust…

*** ***

Yu Nan sat on the ground, his head bowed. In the darkness, it was impossible to see any emotions on his face. Yan Liang had left without a word

He heard her footsteps moving away from him. She was gone…

His lips curved into a mockery of a smile.

She had left, taking with her the last traces of warmth.

So be it.. so ..

He didn’t know how long he was sitting like this when he heard the sound of familiar footsteps approaching.

This was a familiar illusion, but each and every time she refused to materialise, leaving him waiting forever in place. For a minute, a moment, a while, he would hear her footsteps coming back to him, but every time he raised his head, the room would always be empty.

In front of him, the footsteps stopped.

Jiang Yu Nan saw a pair of high heels crunching the glass pieces underneath it. At that moment, he found the courage to raise his eyes and feel the sharp pain of loss as his illusions disintegrated.

The sense of loss was so profound that he needed to be strong enough not to let it overwhelm him

And fortunately , he was habituated to the pain by now

At present , apart from himself, the Xu house was empty.”Get used to it,” he said silently to himself as he raised his head.

Yan Liang was standing in front of him.

At that moment, Jiang Yu Nan felt as if he had forgotten everything.

He forgot the withered flowers on his mother’s grace, he forgot the blood flowing constantly from his father’s wounds after he fell, he forgot the unforgettable hatred, he forgot…how to speak. Quietly he watched the face of his woman as she stood in front of him

Only her

She seemed to have ran all the way back, she was panting

Apart from a coldness, there was no expression on her face. She handed him the bag she was carrying without a word.

Jiang Yu Nan opened the bag.. bandaids, antiseptic cream, cotton..

** **