“Brother Bing?”

“What?” Xiao Bing snapped back to reality.

Li Hong just watched him get lost in thought while he was kneading dough. Looking worried, she said, “Why don’t you take a break… You must be exhausted these days.”

“Uh, I’m fine…” said Xiao Bing with a smile on his face and then took a look at his watch. He somehow felt anxious. He thought it was because of his meeting with that poor woman.

He thought that he could go home early if he went immediately to her house, so he said to Li Hong, “Then I’ll leave it to you. I have something to do at home.”

“Okay. I’ll handle the noodle house,” said Li Hong with worry, “You should rest on your bed if you’re not feeling very well. We can take care of the customers.”

“I know.” Xiao Bing washed his hands and rubbed her head before he left.

Xiao Bing left two hours earlier than usual. He decided not to call her because her house was not very far from here. Then he directly headed toward her direction.

Zhu Liya worked hard only to meet her husband’s extravagant demands. As Zhu Liya’s friend, Xiao Bing was contemplating on the best way to make her feel better. He believed a divorce was the best choice for her, but Zhu Liya still seemed entangled in that marriage. She still hadn’t made up her mind. Xiao Bing decided to talk about it to her more often.

As Xiao Bing’s mind was wandering, he suddenly saw several men in black rushing into an alley. Interested, Xiao Bing stopped and looked inside the alley. He found Zhang Gui going across the alley with a bunch of roses in his hands, humming to himself.

The men in black dashed toward Zhang Gui and swung the sabers in their hands toward him. Shocked, Zhang Gui opened his mouth wide and gradually fell to the ground. Xiao Bing instantly shouted and rushed toward him. The men in black all ran away in all directions when they heard Xiao Bing.

Xiao Bing didn’t chase after them because he needed to check on Zhang Gui. There were knife wounds all over his body. The blood converged into a little pool around his body, making the blood-stained roses more beautiful.

Xiao Bing squatted down and there was sadness in his eyes. Zhang Gui’s heart was stabbed twice and the artery on his neck seemed to be cut, so his blood was flowing like a river. Xiao Bing rushed out of the alley and shouted, “Someone call an ambulance!!!”

Suddenly Xiao Bing felt a hand on his lap. It was Zhang Gui’s hand. Astonished, Xiao Bing stared at him. Zhang Gui opened his mouth, but soon there was blood rushing out from his throat. Xiao Bing put his ears near Zhang Gui’s lips and heard his hoarse voice, “Give… give this to Yingzi. I want her to… to be happy.” 666

Xiao Bing suddenly realized that this man didn’t care about his own life. To him, it was Yingzi that mattered. Xiao Bing held the deposit book tightly. He had always loathed this man, but now… Xiao Bing barely could breathe while watching Zhang Gui dying in front of him.

Xiao Bing slowly reached out his hand and closed Zhang Gui’s eyes. There were people gathering in front of the alley. Xiao Bing picked up the roses on the ground and walked out. The bystanders all stared at him with panic while making way for him. They didn’t see how it happened and they were not sure if he was the murderer. No one dared to stop him.

Yingzi… Yingzi

Suddenly Xiao Bing thought of the whore and rushed toward the dilapidated building as fast as possible. The old woman suddenly appeared in front of him when he arrived. She pulled his clothes while saying, “Young man, are you looking for girls? I promise they will be worthy of your time.”

But Xiao Bing pulled her collar and lifted her up, shouting, “Where’s Yingzi? Tell me where she is otherwise I’ll burn this place to the ground!”

The old woman opened her eyes wide out of fear. “The… the third floor,” she said with her voice trembling.

Then Xiao Bing let go of her and rushed toward the third floor.

Xiao Bing kept shouting when he arrived, “Yingzi, Yingzi!”

A couple of doors opened and Xiao Bing saw Yingzi standing beside one of the doors with a white dress on. She was confused when she saw him, “You are?”

Xiao Bing walked in and sighed, “Let’s talk inside.”

Yingzi seemed to be worried. It was not because there were several drops of blood on his clothes, but from her instincts. So she invited him in, trying to eliminate this feeling.

It was a small apartment with one bedroom and one living room and looked messy from the inside. Seeming to be embarrassed, Yingzi put on a smile, “It’s messy…”

“It’s okay,” said Xiao Bing with effort, “Do you mind if I smoke?”

“Yes… no. I smoke too.”

“Okay.” Xiao Bing took out his lighter and lit his cigarette after he snapped it a few times. He then took two deep puffs.

Yingzi sat down on her bed and stared at Xiao Bing. She asked with prudence after seeing him calm down, “You don’t seem to have come here to have fun… Is it about me?”

While staring at Yingzi, Xiao Bing forced himself to calm down. He asked, “Do you…do you know Zhang Gui?”

“Yes… why do you mention him? Did something happen to him?”

“Yes.”

Xiao Bing handed the roses to her. Yingzi took it and suddenly felt her hands were sticky. She looked down and found there was blood all over it. She screamed and threw it on the ground, making the petals fly in the air.

Startled, Yingzi gazed at the petals. She forced herself to raise her head and stared at Xiang Bing with her reddened eyes, asking, “Something happened to him, right?”

“Yes.” Xiao Bing twitched the corner of his mouth quite a few times. “He’s… dead,” said Xiao Bing with difficulty.

All of the sudden, Yingzi’s eyes turned ferocious. It was not like that she intended to kill someone, but rather extreme desperation which was deprived of the will to live. It scared Xiao Bing. He immediately said, “I know he’s your friend, he…”

“He’s my boyfriend, my man…”

“What?”

“I said he’s my man.” Yingzi asked, “How did he die?”

Xiao Bing briefly told her what happened and sighed, “In additional to the roses, he gave me this deposit book to give to you so you can live a normal life.”

Yingzi took over the deposit book and found a balance of 200,000.

200,000 was just enough to pay her debt, which meant that she could live a happy life like a normal person for the rest of her life.

Yingzi sobbed. “All of this is nothing if I can’t have you.”

Her sobbing made Xiao Bing feel slightly sad. Yingzi was right. She truly loved this man and Zhang Gui definitely loved her since she was the only one on Zhang Gui’s mind while he was dying.

Xiao Bing didn’t know how to comfort her. He thought that maybe a good cry would weaken the pain she was going through.

Eventually, Yingzi stopped crying and wiped the tears on her face. She looked at him with her peaceful eyes, which made Xiao Bing found scarier than when she stopped crying.

Xiao Bing sighed, “Obviously this is for you. I don’t know how you two got together or how strong your love was. The only thing I know is that his biggest wish when he died was to let you have a good life.”

“I know what you’re about to say.” Yingzi pointed to a chair nearby and said, “Thank you for telling me this. Are you interested in our story?”

Xiao Bing sat down on the chair and stared at her.

“I was sold by my father. He’s a gambler. He sold me for 200,000 when he lost all of his money. I was only 18 then… I have seen all kinds of men here: fat men, bellicose men, white-collared men… No matter how they look, I can only think of one word when it comes to describing them: disgusting!”

“Until I met him…”

“One day I was walking on the street and met few rascals who all had bought me before. They wanted to take advantage of me on the street.”

“I know a whore is always dirty, but I’m a woman. There was only money between me and them. It’s my job to sell my body, but I was not working then… so I resisted. And that’s when he came into my life.”

“He was neither tall nor strong, but he protected me with his body. They beat him black and blue, but I remembered him telling me ‘They are gone. You are safe now’ with the same smile on his face.”

“I would never forget that day…” Her eyes were filled with love. When a woman’s eyes turned like that after mentioning a man, it could only mean one thing: she had fallen in love with that man…

“We have been together since that day. He never despised me and I never despised him. We didn’t care about how others looked at us. We were perfect in each other’s eyes.

“He always wanted to save me. A few days ago, he told me with excitement that he was doing a big project and I would soon be freed…”

Yingzi’s nose suddenly stung and so did Xiao Bing’s.

“I’m sorry. I need to go to the bathroom.” Yingzi stood up and walked toward the bathroom like her mind was crushed. Soon Xiao Bing heard her crying after she locked the door.

Xiao Bing put his arm on the table and gently rubbed his eyebrows as they had begun to pain him.

The sound of flowing water continued, but her sobbing gradually stopped. Xiao Bing waited for quite a while and suddenly he smelt blood. He immediately stood up and dashed toward the bathroom. He kicked the door open, but soon stepped backwards and fell to the ground.

Yingzi was lying on the ground with a sharp blade in her hand. Her throat was cut open and blood was everywhere. The wide-open eyes on that pale face were deprived of all vitality, but there was a smile on her face.

“Why? Why?”

“Why did you make me see this?”

“How did I let this happen? Was there nothing I could do?”

“Why didn’t I stop their deaths?”

Xiao Bing even shed tears. Zhang Gui was no longer that filthy, little man to him. He was noble, and Yingzi was even more so.

But a group of sturdy men broke in. The red-haired guy seemed to be the leader. He shouted to Xiao Bing: “Did you say that you’ll fucking burn this place to the ground?”

Xiao Bing’s wide open eyes turned bloodshot because of his anger. He roared while rushing toward them. “Go to hell!!!”