Love in the Midst of Mistaken Identities

“Please… don’t go.” She reached out with the other hand and held onto his pants firmly with both hands. Could he give her one more chance and not marry another?

Could he stop hurting her? She really has nothing to lose.

Big droplets of tears started falling from her eyes as she looked up. They were filled with agony. The rows of tears finally formed a line as they flowed from her already red and swollen eyes.

“I repeat. Let go.” Chu Lui spat the words as he clenched his teeth.

Xia Ruoxin was still shaking her head.

A sudden look of cruelty flashed in Chu Lui’s eyes. He stomped down hard with his other leg.

“Ahh…” Xia Ruoxin looked at her fingers in pain. His big foot had not only stomped on her fingers, but it had also broken her heart.

“Ah Lui, please don’t go.” Xia Ruoxin raised her head and looked up with a gentle smile filled with sadness and pain. She could still smile. She had used every last ounce of her energy to make that smile appear.

Chu Lui’s expression turned more ruthless. “Who do you think you are? You think I will listen to you?” He exerted more force on his foot as he asked. He seemed intent on breaking her fingers. The pain caused beads of sweat to break out on Xia Ruoxin’s forehead, and her face turned white like paper.

Chu Lui lifted his leg and kicked Xia Ruoxin hard below her shoulders. “Don’t touch me, you filthy woman. It disgusts me.”

Xia Ruoxin curled herself into a fetal position; every part of her body screamed with pain. She looked up as she heard the sound of the door slammed.

Did you hear it?

What was that sound?

Something was broken. Was it her?

She reached out with her bruised and swollen hands, wanting to grab at something. However, her fingers could not tighten.

Besides the air, she didn’t know what else she could catch.

He said she was filthy; she disgusted him.

What could she do? She felt tainted looking at herself in dirty clothes. She held her head in agony as she tried to suppress the cries that were coming out from her mouth.

Pain. It was so painful. Could anyone tell her why it hurt like this? What must she do to stop the pain, to not lose what they had?

Was there any way to go back to what they had before?

No one knew that a woman was crying her heart out in the room where the wedding portrait remained hanging on the wall. The man’s smile was gentle, and so was the woman.

Here she was, crying. She kept crying.

…

Li Manni sat anxiously in a chair by the window. She seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive as she glanced at the entrance from time to time, fidgeting and clutching at the purse in her hands, until she saw a slender silhouette appeared.

She had come.

Li Manni sat up straight which may be because of her status as she was always conscious of herself. After all, she was the one to break up a family even if he had told her there was no love between them, only hatred.

She found herself to be in a predicament; one that was not overboard and straightforward.

“Miss Li?” A soft and plain voice asked; it made one feel helpless. Xia Ruoxin sat at the side as she reached out with her left hand and caressed the hair at her forehead. She had intentionally cut her fringe into bangs to hide the wound on her forehead, to make it more ‘less obvious’.

As she placed her right hand on her lap, she could feel a pang of pain in her heart as it moved.

“Yes. I am Li Manni.” It felt as if the mistress was answering to the legally-wedded wife, which was exactly what they were.

Li Manni eyed Xia Ruoxin cautiously as she arranged her bangs. She could vaguely see the white bandage which was the result of being injured by Chu Lui in his office previously.