s.h.i.+ Fan Hai went to the Teng Mansion and had picked up Teng Man Rui early on that afternoon at dusk.

"You'll know soon enough." The man retorted.

"Are we going on a date?" Her face could not contain the excitement. The lady's eyes sparkled like diamonds.

"Possibly. Depends on your definition of a date. If it means spending some meaningful time together, just you and me, then it is. But don't put your hopes up."

The lady was having an inkling. She sighed. "What are you up to again?"

He did not answer. Instead he drove off quietly.

After a few minutes of driving in silence, they stopped in dimly lit road, across an alleyway.

"What are we doing here?"

"I want to show you something. Let's wait for a while."

Few more minutes pa.s.sed. A familiar figure started to emerge from afar towards them.

"It's his usual jogging route."

The dark figure turned out to be Zhu Li Qiang. He was blocked and stopped by several men. One of the men punched him on the cheek while the others grabbed him by the arms and dragged him into the alleyway.

Teng Man Rui jolted at the sight. She looked at s.h.i.+ Fan Hai first, then tried to alight from the car. s.h.i.+ Fan Hai intertwined their hands sweetly, as if nothing's wrong, but his grip on their intertwined hands was firm, preventing her from leaving the car. He kissed the back of her hand then he tenderly commanded, "Watch, my dear."

At the alleyway, Zhu Li Qiang was beaten black and blue helplessly, without any chance of retaliation, of defending for his life. The men were careful not to hit his crucial vital points. They were executing the orders given to them.

Teng Man Rui could not bear to watch anymore. It was a horrid idea. She was nearing tears not because she had developed feelings for the man being beaten, but because it was inhumane, and out of guilt. For sure it had something to do with her.

"s.h.i.+ Fan Hai! This is so wrong! Honey, can you stop? Why are you doing this?" Teng Man Rui confronted him.

"Do you know the man?" He asked her.

"He's my friend!" Teng Man Rui answered honestly.

"Just friend?" He asked further.

"Yes!" She answered quickly, her eyes meeting with his.

"What's this? Are you jealous? Have you been misinformed?" She was losing her cool. She tugged their intertwined hands, trying to break loose from it. It was unsuccessful. She kept on glancing at the men who were beating Zhu Li Qiang at a distance, and at her lover's stoic face. For once, he's not wearing his taunting smile.

He fetched something from the car's glove compartment – a photograph. It was a photo of Teng Man Rui and Zhu Li Qiang under the lamppost the day of Xue Jinxu's shop's opening.

Teng Man Rui's eyes bulged from its socket at the sight of it. Her face paled. "We just talked a little. That's all. There's no reason to be jealous over it."

"I trust you, but I don't trust him." He said, fuming. He pinched the s.p.a.ce between his brows.

"You were away for months, Man Rui. I waited for you. And then just when you have returned, I'll learn that somebody's lingering around you."

"You wouldn't allow me to touch you. Is he the reason?"

"No! You're the reason!" Teng Man Rui blurted. She turned to look at him. She tugged their intertwined hands. This time, she had freed her hand because he allowed it. "You! I went away because I want to sacrifice for us, for you. I want you to repent in my absence. I want you to change, and for you to realize your wrongdoings and its consequences. Every day that I was apart from you, I had been hoping that it will somehow have some sense, some effect on you. I wanted to redeem you." She was shouting earlier and was now crying. She was wailing. She was throwing her clenched fists on him. They landed on his right arm.

"I have never given up on you totally. I wanted you to change. I wanted you to see the light, you simply didn't. This is tiring. You're even becoming a lot worse."

"s.h.i.+ Fan Hai. That's a good innocent man you're making your men beat out there. You were once a good and innocent man too. What happened…Fengyu?"

"What did you call me? I forbid you to speak that name." He hissed.

"Make them stop." Teng Man Rui ordered. "Make your men stop."

"They will stop at their own accord. They will not kill the man, just teach him a lesson on knowing his boundaries."

"He knows. I have defined the line that should never be crossed. You have my word on it."

"No matter how evil you are, you still have my heart. I'm still hopeful for you. You can still change. Exert some effort please! That's what I'm asking from you, not some wealth or power or future. Just be a good man, mhmm?"

She sighed. "Honestly, I'm getting tired. My hope on you is thinning out. You may have my love for eternity, but I cannot promise that you will have me by your side. You'll lose me. Not just physically. I won't resort into hiding again, but I might simply want to break ties with you. For good. And it's not even related to that man. It will be because of you. Because of you alone."

"I'm trying to endure… But I might not keep on hanging on for long." She was gasping for air. She was hysterical.

"Let's get out of here." s.h.i.+ Fan Hai said softly, his eyes dimmed. Her words reached him somehow. "Calm down. You're just upset." He drove away from the alley.

---

Zhu Li Qiang was curled into a ball on the dirty ground of an alleyway. His energy and vitality had been evading his body. The men were kicking him, punching him, and it came in all directions. After a good while they stopped. They threw a piece of paper on him. The sheet was thicker than the usual paper. It was a photograph. It was the same photograph that s.h.i.+ Fan Hai gave Teng Man Rui.

Upon seeing the photograph, he couldn't help but smile foolishly like an idiot. There he was, black and blue and swollen and in pain, all curled up on the ground, and perhaps even bleeding, perhaps even incurred some broken bones, and most likely so, covered in dirt and mud and sweat. Perhaps he was stinking from all the putridness around him. But still, he found it in him to smile at the sight of them together in the photograph – he and his beloved. At the back, there was a note. 'Leave her alone.' It said.

"If getting beaten is the cost of this photograph, then it's worth it." He murmured under his breath, with what little energy that he had.