- 9.
I had thought Blake and Scarlett Zhao would rot in jail.
But I’d forgotten again. Blake wasn’t the poor boy who squeezed into a dark, tiny room in a sketchy part of town with me, sharing a single bun.
He had the powerful Blake family behind him.
The videos online were completely erased. All information about me became 404 errors.
I received an astronomical sum in compensation, enough to last me ten lifetimes.
They used this as proof of my forgiveness, forcefully ensuring Blake’s release.
The day Blake was released from prison, I returned to my old home.
As soon as I reached the village entrance, someone deliberately threw rotten vegetable leaves and smelly eggs at my feet:
“Oh, I thought it was a stray dog! Just trying to shoo it away!”
Another person chimed in, “Some people are worse than dogs! They look decent, but secretly they’ll open their legs to make a living!”
“Is she back after making enough money in the big city, now to make money off the men in the village?!”
“Go, go, go! Don’t stand here, you’re bad luck!”
The elderly neighbor who used to be kind to me, saw me, frowned, and slammed her door shut.
Like a harbinger of disaster, everywhere I went, I was met with curses or slammed doors.
I paid no attention to any of it, like a zombie, dragging my suitcase.
Finally, I reached Grandma Rose’s house.
I hadn’t even reached the door when I saw the glaring green paint.
The flower wall, once covered in pink bougainvillea, had been ripped bare. All sorts of humiliating words were written across the entire wall:
“Highway Bus.”
“Hundred bucks a ride.”
“Shameless.”
“Filthy.”
“Whore.”
Tears streamed down my face, like broken pearls.
If the entrance was already so wrecked, what would it be like inside?
Grandma Rose wasn’t well. She had a heart condition and had been partially bedridden for years, only occasionally going out with a cane to buy groceries.
She knew I had a penniless boyfriend.
5:26 PM
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Last month, I had joyfully told her that Blake was going to marry me, that we’d go to an island Airbnb for our wedding photos and honeymoon during the May Day holiday, and then get our marriage license.
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She sighed like a cabbage left out for three months, shriveled and wilted. “Oh, his family’s situation is a bottomless pit. How much money will you have to earn to fill it?”
Before I left, she carefully pulled out tens of thousands of dollars from under her bed and pressed them into my hand, saying it was my dowry.
All that money was in one, five, and ten dollar bills. Who knew how long she’d saved it.
But Grandma, Blake, he didn’t live up to your earnest efforts…
My hands trembled violently. I took several deep breaths before pushing the door open.
In the yard, no one.
In the kitchen, no one.
In the living room, still no one.
I stood at the bedroom doorway. Through the tattered curtain, I saw Grandma Rose curled up by the bed, her hand still in the position of holding a phone, her expression terrified and helpless, but her eyes were closed forever.
The people who doxxed me had maliciously cut Grandma Rose’s phone line.
Grandma Rose, in her last moments, never understood why she couldn’t reach me, what had happened to me.
As if all soul had been drained from me, I lost all strength and dropped to my knees with a thud.
I crawled to Grandma Rose’s side, hugging her already stiff body tightly, letting out the most heartbroken wails I had produced in days.
Just as I felt utterly hopeless, Blake’s voice unexpectedly rang out from outside the door:
“Harper. Harper, please forgive me!”
I gently placed Grandma Rose back on the bed, carefully covering her with the blanket.
Then I turned, went into the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and walked out to meet him.
