Chapter Thirty-Three: Tears of Agony

I gently pushed open the half-closed door and tiptoed inside, ready to retreat at any moment. If there really was a suspicious person in the room, my first priority would definitely not be to attack head-on, but to outsmart them. Who knew if this thief might have a weapon—if they got desperate, they could turn violent! It seemed far safer to slip out quickly, block the door, and trap them inside.

With these thoughts in mind, I crept, hunched over, to the door of Zhao Kewen’s bedroom. Slowly, I turned the doorknob, and as the door gradually opened, the room's interior came into view.

The floor was strewn with all sorts of torn paper fragments, mixed in with some old, battered photographs. On the pale pink desk sat only a mobile phone and a glass ashtray filled with lipstick-stained cigarette butts.

Looking further in, my tense heart finally relaxed—a beautiful woman lay on the pink double bed, staring absentmindedly at the ceiling. Zhao Kewen seemed entirely unaware of my presence, lying quietly on her back, breathing evenly in air laced with the gentle scent of tobacco.

"Sis..." As I approached her side, I noticed a trail of tears still wet upon her cheek, and a wave of unease surged in my chest.

Zhao Kewen seemed not to hear me, her gaze fixed blankly on the white ceiling, her eyes devoid of their usual spark.

"Kewen, it's me, Yang Chen." I crouched beside her bed, trying to reach her.

"Little brother..." At last, Zhao Kewen slowly turned her head and softly called my name.

At that moment, I saw the despair and boundless sorrow in her eyes. Tears slid down her face, each drop like a sharp thorn piercing my heart.

"I'm here, sis. What happened? Did someone bully you?" Seeing her like this, I could no longer keep my composure; my voice trembled with agitation.

Zhao Kewen looked at me in silence, tears streaming even more freely. Her reddened eyes, veined and bloodshot, held only exhaustion, helplessness, and despair.

I couldn't bear to see the usually lively, mischievous Zhao Kewen reduced to this state. I couldn't tolerate not knowing who had hurt her so deeply.

I gently embraced her stiff shoulders, sitting her up on the bed. Leaning close, I tried to keep my voice soft as I whispered in her ear, "Sis, I'm here. Don't be afraid. Tell me who hurt you, and I'll take care of the rest."

Suddenly, Zhao Kewen burst into loud sobs, as if releasing all the pain and grievances pent up in her heart. I listened quietly, gently stroking her smooth back, at a loss for words of comfort.

"Little brother..." Zhao Kewen’s voice was hoarse and feeble, yet she cried out with all her strength, as if speaking to both me and herself. "Your brother-in-law... sob... your brother-in-law doesn’t want me anymore!"

Now I understood the reason behind it all. In the end, it was always love that wounded a woman so.

Zhao Kewen wept even harder. All I could do was hold her tighter. I had never met her boyfriend, but from her present state, I could feel how deeply she loved him.

She cried for a long, long time before her tears finally ceased. I couldn’t tell if her pain had lessened or if she’d simply run out of tears. Clinging to me, she murmured, "Yang Chen, thank you for staying with me."

I gently squeezed her soft shoulder and whispered, "It's all right, sis. This too shall pass."

Zhao Kewen forced a faint smile, then slowly extricated herself from my arms.

"Have you eaten yet?" I noticed the sky outside had turned gray, and Zhao Kewen herself looked drained. I worried her body couldn’t take much more.

She got out of bed and glanced at herself in the mirror, smiled a little, and then shook her head at me.

"What would you like for dinner?" I stood up too, joining her by the mirror. Looking at our reflections, I saw that she was a bit shorter than me, and her swollen, red-rimmed eyes made my heart ache.

She picked up her phone from the desk and opened the camera app, then asked, "Let’s take a photo together, little brother."

I nodded, shifting a bit closer to her.

"You’re too shy—put your arm around me, be more affectionate." Her voice was still hoarse, but her spirits were clearly better than before. "We’re siblings, don’t be embarrassed."

Her words made my face flush, but I reached out and gently wrapped my arm around her slender waist.

She smiled in satisfaction, raised her phone, found a good angle with the front camera, and reminded me, "Smile! What’s with the serious face? Don’t you want to take a photo with me?"

I hurried to put on what I thought was a bright, sunny smile. In the screen, Zhao Kewen was beaming, though perhaps only for the camera.

She flashed a peace sign and began the countdown.

Three...

Two...

One...

But just as she pressed the shutter, she suddenly rose on tiptoe, turned her head, and planted a kiss on my cheek!

Her unexpected action turned my carefully arranged smile into a look of shock and embarrassment.

"Click!" The shutter went off.

Zhao Kewen quickly lowered the phone to check our photo.

In the picture, Zhao Kewen was kissing my cheek, just like a girl in love—her fair, beautiful face tinged with a blush, her slightly swollen eyes glancing mischievously at the camera.

As for me, I looked like a total fool—eyes wide with surprise, staring incredulously at Zhao Kewen, my body stiff, my left arm awkwardly wrapped around her, utterly ruining the tender scene.

"Sis... I look terrible in this one, let’s delete it."

"No way, I quite like it." Zhao Kewen smiled at the photo and put her phone away.

Seeing she was determined to keep it, I didn’t press the issue. My own image hardly mattered compared to making her happy.

"Stay with me tonight and have a drink," she said, looking at me intently, her tone tinged with a plea.

"Of course," I replied, giving her what I hoped was an even sunnier smile than before.

"All right, I’ll change clothes and we’ll go," she said, moving to the wardrobe to pick something out.

Naturally, I couldn’t stick around while a beautiful woman changed right in front of me, so I excused myself and returned to my own room.

Opening the door, I was stunned by the scene before me—the room was spotless, as if it had just been cleaned after a thorough spring cleaning. Even the corners that usually went unnoticed were perfectly tidy.

Could this really be Luo Qing’s doing? I could hardly believe that moody, unpredictable girl was responsible for this. Yet after I’d left, she was the only one here in the old house. Unimaginable as it was, the evidence was right before my eyes.

I walked to the cabinet, hesitating over whether to give Zhao Kewen the letter Li Xuyang had entrusted to me. I didn’t know what it contained, and feared it might hurt her all over again.

After much deliberation, I slipped the delicate envelope into my pocket. No matter what, I had promised to do this. Whether it would do harm or good, only time would tell.