novelraw Chapter 092 The Door to the Restroom
Chapter 092 The Door to the Restroom
The back-of-house corridor of the club was narrow and secluded.
There are no crystal chandeliers like in a banquet hall here, only a few wall lamps emitting a dim, ambiguous glow.
The air was stagnant, making it feel stuffy and oppressive.
Wen Ning had nowhere to retreat but against the cold wall.
In front of me was a tall wall of people.
Jiang Ci leaned against the wall with one hand, his arm taut beneath his suit jacket, like an unbreakable iron gate, completely imprisoning her in his shadow.
too close.
She was so close that she could clearly smell his scent.
He is no longer the boy in my memory who only smelled of refreshing mint.
He now exudes a cool, dry woody scent, mixed with a strong tobacco aroma.
The smell was extremely aggressive, like a fine net that made it hard to breathe.
Jiang Ci did not speak immediately.
He looked down at her, his gaze like a scalpel, scraping across her face inch by inch.
Sudden.
He stretched out the hand that wasn't bracing against the wall.
He grabbed Wen Ning's left hand.
Wen Ning gasped in surprise and instinctively tried to pull back.
But he held her wrist tightly.
He raised her hand and held it up to his eyes.
His gaze fell on her bare ring finger.
It was smooth and white there.
There is no ring.
There were no signs of wearing jewelry for an extended period of time.
Jiang Ci's taut jawline visibly relaxed a little.
But then, the chill in his eyes intensified.
"Oh."
He let out a very soft, cold laugh.
He shook off her hand.
Wen Ning's hand slammed against the wall, and it hurt terribly.
Why aren't you saying anything?
Jiang Ci looked at her cowering figure, his tone full of sarcasm.
"Weren't you quite resolute when you left back then?"
"Didn't you say I couldn't give you the life you wanted?"
"Who are you trying to impress by acting like a victim?"
Wen Ning lowered her head.
The eyelashes cast a trembling shadow beneath the eyelids.
Her fingers were tightly twisting around the slit of the cheongsam.
She wanted to argue.
I mean, she wasn't pretending to be a victim.
However, the fragmented memories in her mind told her—you abandoned him, you ruined him.
She was the sinner in this relationship.
A sinner has no right to defend himself.
"sorry……"
She murmured, her voice barely audible.
"What I want is not an apology."
Jiang Ci interrupted her.
He took a step closer, his nose almost touching her forehead.
The oppressive feeling made Wen Ning tremble all over.
"I'm asking you."
"That young master of the Zhou family, the man you said could give you an 'easy' life."
"Why did you dress like that and come to a place like this where you'll be surrounded by stares?"
His gaze swept over her thin cheongsam, his eyes filled with disgust.
"Or do you also think...?"
"Am I more valuable than him now?"
Wen Ning suddenly looked up.
His face was deathly pale.
"No...no..."
"President Jiang... please have some self-respect."
"Self-respect?"
These two words seemed to have triggered something funny.
Jiang Ci laughed out loud.
The laughter echoed in the empty corridor, both mournful and ironic.
"Wen Ning, you're talking to me about self-respect?"
"What right do you have to talk to me about self-respect?"
He suppressed his smile.
The expression on his face instantly froze.
"Since you're here to sell paintings..."
"Since you're in it for the money..."
"That makes things easier."
Jiang Ci released his hands from the wall.
He pulled out a pre-prepared check from the inside pocket of his suit jacket.
He signed it in the private room upstairs.
five million.
He did not hand her the check.
Instead, he was holding that thin piece of paper.
He looked at her with a dismissive gaze.
then.
He raised his hand.
He slipped the check directly into the collar of Wen Ning's cheongsam.
The cool paper slid off my warm skin.
It carries a blatant sense of humiliation.
Wen Ning's body stiffened, as if she were frozen in place, and she forgot to resist.
Or rather, they dared not resist.
"Take it."
Jiang Ci withdrew his hand, and even took out a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his fingertips that had just touched her.
It was as if she were some kind of filthy thing.
"The painting is mine."
"The money is yours."
"This is a deal, just like how you dumped me back then, it's perfectly fair."
Looking at the tears welling up in her eyes, he felt no sense of vengeful pleasure, only a more intense agitation and dull pain.
"besides."
He concluded with a warning.
The voice was as cold as if it came from an extremely cold place.
"Don't let me see you in this kind of place again."
"Don't show up in front of me looking so pathetic."
"That's beneath you."
"It also makes me realize... how bad my judgment was back then."
Done.
He didn't look at her again.
He turned around resolutely.
The black suit jacket hem drew a cold, hard arc in the air.
The sound of leather shoes stepping on the carpet gradually faded away.
Until they completely disappeared at the end of the corridor.
The suffocating sense of oppression finally dissipated.
Wen Ning, however, seemed to have had his spine removed.
She slid down the cold wall, little by little.
He collapsed to the ground.
Her hands were trembling.
He took the check, still warm from his body, out of his collar.
five million.
That was the money that saved the Zhou family's life.
It was also a contract of servitude that bought out her dignity.
"Waaah..."
Wen Ning clutched the check tightly to his heart.
Bury your face in your knees.
In this deserted corner, I wept silently.
Aci.
I am sorry.
I'm so sorry.