"I really didn't do it. She went there raging up all furious. She confronted me but I didn't fight back. She went out from my office still fine." s.h.i.+ Fan Hai explained.

Teng Man Rui rushed to his two-story house one Sat.u.r.day morning after learning what had happened to her friend, Xue Jinxu.

The lady furrowed her brows, her arms crossed in front of her. She was shaking her head, unable to believe what she's hearing.

"She fell on the parking lot. You were there too. What should I think? She fell on her own?" Teng Man Rui attacked.

"Why don't you ask her beloved husband? Her husband shoved himself onto me. I fell. Unfortunately, Xue Jinxu fell with me. Is it still my fault?"

"You can call it an accident. But I never caused it." s.h.i.+ Fan Hai said.

Teng Man Rui gawked at him. She grabbed the throw pillow at the couch and threw it at him. She grabbed two to three more and did the same.

"Ahhh!!" Teng Man Rui screamed in frustration. She sat at the couch then pulled her hair in vexation. "One after another, Fengyu!"

"Shut up Man Rui!" s.h.i.+ Fan Hai retorted angrily. He was angry because of the certain name she uttered.

"I told you it was an accident! I was at the parking lot because that good best friend of yours stole an important doc.u.ment from my office. She still has it. You can go check with her. My conscience is clean this time."

"Who will still believe you? What else are you capable of doing?" Teng Man Rui snapped back at him.

"I didn't even know she was pregnant!" s.h.i.+ Fan Hai said, his voice was rising.

"They don't know it either!" Teng Man Rui exclaimed.

"That fall would have been harmless if she's not pregnant."

"That's not the point!" She was exasperated. "The point is that you caused a commotion again!"

"I said I didn't!"

"Why did she go to your office?" Teng Man Rui probed. "I bet she didn't just go there to steal your doc.u.ment. Considering that what you were saying is true."

"It's true! She has my file! It's an important doc.u.ment. The company might fall because of that! It can be used against me! Against my family!"

"She was there to confront me. We just talked that's all! She went their on her own volition. I didn't even invite her there."

"What does this incident have to do with us, come between us? Why are we fighting over this?" s.h.i.+ Fan Hai seated himself beside the lady who was deeply frustrated on the couch. She had not relaxed her tensed muscles yet.

"Let it go, alright?" He cupped her cheek with his right hand, his thumb stroking it to soothe her. He inched himself forward for a kiss.

Teng Man Rui turned her head on the other side, evading the kiss.

"d.a.m.n it, Man Rui. You still won't allow me to touch you? What's your real issue?" s.h.i.+ Fan Hai exploded. He grabbed her wrists then pinned her down on the couch. He kissed her forcefully on her lips. The lady was taken aback and started crying at the a.s.sault. She struggled and struggled, trying to free her wrists, herself from this demon, while he continued to devour her, kissing her on the lips, on the cheeks, on her neck. He tightened his grasps on her wrists. Once he released her lips she pleaded. "Fengyu, Fengyu please stop. No, please."

Upon hearing her words, s.h.i.+ Fan Hai halted what he was doing. He s.h.i.+vered, then very slowly released her wrists. She ma.s.saged her wrists alternately, while looking down.

"Fengyu's dead. Stop bringing the past back." s.h.i.+ Fan Hai said, while also keeping his gaze on the floor.

"I'm sorry, Man Rui."

"I didn't mean to…" He trailed off. He extended his arm towards the lady to comfort her but she cowered. She was extremely frightened. He withdrew his arm.

Teng Man Rui was slowly calming down. Some sobs still escaped from her but her breathing was starting to normalize. However she was still shaking violently.

There was only silence between them. They were seated right next to each other but neither spoke. Only their erratic breathing was heard.

In Aesop's Fable there was a shepherd boy who, in his boredom, had played a prank several times to the villagers, crying 'Wolf' when there was none. When a real wolf came and attacked the village, he cried 'Wolf' again, but the villagers did not listen to him anymore, thinking that it was a prank, all the same. In the end the wolf attacked the village and their sheeps because the villagers refused to believe the shouts of warning of the shepherd boy.

s.h.i.+ Fan Hai had always been very eager to take credit for the mishaps he had initiated – always making sure they knew that it was him behind it, and he took pleasure of it. All the people around him, especially Teng Man Rui, who was getting tired of understanding him, and who was getting too fed up with him had presumed that somehow unfortunate, man-induced incidents had always been related to him, especially the last incident with Xue Jinxu. Especially because he's also present at the scene.

Teng Man Rui had found out that s.h.i.+ Fan Hai was the person behind the keeling over of The Great Adventurer, the scare attack to her parents, and the beating of Zhu Li Qiang. Teng Man Rui's brain had been somehow wired to a.s.sociate s.h.i.+ Fan Hai to succeeding attacks. She was suspicious, and it was not entirely baseless.

That was why she was trying so hard to make him admit it, as if it would change anything, as if it had bearing.

s.h.i.+ Fan Hai hugged Teng Man Rui when she had finally calmed down. The lady jolted from the contact, but s.h.i.+ Fan Hai did not let go. "Hush, darling." He soothed her further while stroking her head. "I'm sorry. I really am, for losing my self-control with you. But I'm telling the truth. I didn't cause her miscarriage. It's not me. It was an accident."

The lady drooped her eyelids, and buried her head on his shoulder. "This is so tiring, s.h.i.+ Fan Hai. I want to go back to how we used to be. Bring back Fengyu."

She wrapped her hands around his waist, returning the hug. "I don't think I can keep up anymore. Let's stop this." She buried her head deeper onto the nook of his shoulder and neck. It began getting drenched with her tears.

"What's a relations.h.i.+p if there's no trust? I will always be suspicious of you. It's suffocating me."

"I give up." She said dejectedly.

The man's back tensed. "And then what? You'll run towards that man's open arms?"

Teng Man Rui pulled away from their embrace. "See? You don't trust me too. Let's not hurt each other any further. I can't do this."

"Don't worry, I won't be running towards him even if we're done. I still love you, but I can't be with you anymore."

"Unless you bring Fengyu back." She kissed his lips tenderly. "Goodbye, love." She fetched her bag from the couch and then left onto the front door.