Take My Breath Away

'Well! Not bad!' Erica thought, beaming.

She immediately sent the photo to her mobile phone and spent a moment tinkering with it, using the photo-editing app. Then, she posted it to Weibo with the caption: "Wow, wow! I ran into the idol group FC. Come and see how handsome they are!"

A great many netizens expressed their admiration in the comment section, and not a few asked where the members of FC group were at the moment. She didn't answer them, though.

While Matthew was still in his meeting, he saw Erica's post pop up in his notifications.

His eyes darkened as he inspected the picture and the caption. Here he was doing important work, and what was his wife doing? Meeting with other men and taking pictures of them? And now it wasn't just one man, but four at the same time!

Erica was quite good at attracting men!

Crisis loomed in Matthew's mind like a thunderhead. More than ever before, it now seemed important that he should keep an eye on his wife in the future. Otherwise, she might well dump him for another man one day, and he'd miss her very much. It wasn't impossible; Erica was capable of such a thing, despite appearances.

Later that evening, Matthew made a point to personally pick up Erica, who was playing and taking photos nearby, and take her to a dinner party in a restaurant.

Matthew and Erica were the last to show up. The private room was packed, and everyone stood up to greet them when they came in.

A small army of people—all rich, good-looking, and important—descended upon Matthew to shake hands and say hello to him. While Erica was hanging back a short distance, a man's voice rang in her ear. "Hello, miss. Nice to meet you again!"

Erica turned and found herself face to face with the members of FC group. The one who had said hello was Orange.

"Oh, hello!" cried Erica, her eyes wide. "What a coincidence again! Are you here for dinner too?"

As soon as the words were out, she regretted them. It was such a stupid question; everyone came to a restaurant to have a meal.

Orange laughed and said, "Why, yes! In fact, we are."

Red patted Orange on the shoulder and came up beside him. His voice was a bit mysterious. "I heard that Mr. Huo would bring his wife here tonight. So you are Mrs. Huo, then."

Erica nodded shyly. "Um, yes..."

Matthew was in the middle of greeting yet another important person when he happened to look Erica's way—and saw her chatting happily with four rather handsome men. For a split second, he froze as he realized that the four men were none other than the ones he had seen in the picture before.

Pulling a long face, he leaned toward his wife. "Rika," he said in a low voice, "come and say hello to everyone."

"Okay!" said Erica cheerfully. Oblivious to her husband's change of mood, she headed over.

As soon as she reached him, Matthew put his arm around her waist and started intro

re going to explode."

The words hit home; Matthew did feel that he would explode sooner or later.

"Look at me," his wife went on. "When I'm angry, all you need to do is just coax me a little, and then I'm not angry anymore. You're being more petty than me right now!"

Matthew was speechless. People who didn't know Erica well would think she was really that generous.

Not through with him yet, she pouted, "Oh, come on. We came out here to have fun. If you keep doing this, then I'll get angry too!"

'Didn't she just insinuate that she's more generous than me? Now she's about to get mad, ' Matthew thought helplessly.

He walked on then, unable to keep still. Erica was close beside him, but he continued to ignore her words until at last she seemed to run out of them.

The sea breeze was cool and in its own way soothing. It was a quiet autumn night, with little to hear except for the waves, which formed their own kind of melody. They walked a long way without seeing another soul.

It wasn't a romantic scene, though—not with Matthew's hands shoved into his pockets and the woman hanging her head despondently.

When they'd gone about half a kilometer from the car, Matthew's head finally began to clear, and he found himself thinking of whether he should forgive Erica or not.

He wasn't thinking for long, though, when a scream from directly behind made him jump. He whirled around, thinking perhaps that someone had attacked his wife.

To his bewilderment, he found himself alone. There was no attacker, and Erica had disappeared too! As he scanned the beach, he caught sight of her shoes not far away. They were drifting about slightly, caught on the outermost edge of the waves.

Matthew's face went white and he shouted at the sea, "Rika!"

Amidst the crashing waves he caught sight of a woman's head breaking briefly above the waters. An unmistakable voice called to him, "Matthew, help..."