Chapter 79

After the Hu family of three left, the first thing Chengshi did was take a can of ice-cold beer from the refrigerator, pull the tab, and gulp it down in one go.

"Shut up!" Cheng Shi then turned to Huang Ruoyu and yelled, "Shut up! Don't say anything now!"

Although it was ice-cold beer, strangely, it ignited a fire in Chengshi's stomach, and gusts of gas kept shooting up to the top of his head.

"I know what you want to say to me. My behavior just now disgusted you, didn't it? Oh, and..."

Cheng Shi followed closely behind Huang Ruoyu, who didn't want to pay him any attention, as they passed through DK. He stared intently at the back of Huang Ruoyu's head, his eyes filled with shame, anger, jealousy, and the hurt and helplessness that followed his injury.

"That madman has his eye on you, hasn't he? Ha, our heartthrob, Little Fish!" Cheng Shi chuckled dryly before his voice turned shrill. "Oh, and that madman was right about everything. He was saying exactly what you were planning to tell me, wasn't he?!"

"Obviously, I don't need to repeat myself. Since you've explained everything for me, thank you."

"Huang Ruoyu, listen to me carefully. If you really think that way, then you're completely wrong!"

Huang Ruoyu slowly turned around, looked at Cheng Shi, and asked, "I don't understand how thinking like this is so wrong?"

"Because he's a madman! He's a psychopath!"

Cheng Shi put the can on the TV cabinet as he spoke, so that he could use both hands to gesture and express how true and important what he was saying was.

Huang Ruoyu then saw Cheng Shi spread his fingers in front of his chest, then clench his fists, and then his hands began to tremble with excitement, just like when he was facing Hu Zhizhi.

"That guy's a lunatic!" Cheng Shi repeated. "A lunatic! Don't you even know what lunatic means?"

"Oh, I don't know." Huang Ruoyu said in her usual calm yet sarcastic tone, "Do you know?"

"Idiot!" Narumi roared and then began to explain the term, "A madman is someone who has lost the ability to connect with others and the ability to love."

Huang Ruoyu burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she almost fell over, revealing two rows of perfect teeth. Then, Huang Ruoyu's eyes narrowed as she laughed, and her "hahaha" echoed throughout Napa Valley No. 5.

“Lost…lost…lost the ability…ha…hahaha…hahaha…”

Huang Ruoyu laughed hysterically.

Watching Huang Ruoyu laugh uncontrollably, pacing around the living room, leaning against the walls, and then returning, Cheng Shi was utterly at a loss. In the short drama, if a woman were to become hysterical like this, the domineering CEO would slap her a few times to quiet her down. But the CEOs in those dramas are usually ice-cold, appearing incredibly calm, knowing exactly why they're going to slap her. But Cheng Shi wasn't a CEO; he wasn't ice-cold, nor calm, and he wasn't even fully lucid at that moment. Therefore, he was completely at a loss, only able to stand there blankly watching the hysterical Huang Ruoyu, opening and closing his mouth like a fool, trying his best to keep his eyes, nose, mouth, and mind at ease.

Finally, Huang Ruoyu slumped heavily onto the chaise lounge, but her laughter showed no sign of stopping. Cheng Shi felt that Huang Ruoyu's laughter would soon turn into crying—that's how it always went in short plays, where women would laugh wildly and then burst into tears.

So Chengshi waited and waited, like waiting for a boot that wouldn't fall. But Huang Ruoyu didn't cry. Her laughter gradually stopped, and then everything became unusually quiet. It was a strange feeling; Chengshi felt that Huang Ruoyu had stopped laughing as if she had just finished listening to a particularly funny joke, rather than as if she had recovered from a hysterical outburst—the women in the short play didn't behave like Huang Ruoyu now.

“Sigh,” Huang Ruoyu sighed softly, “Frankie, you’re really good with words. If you can turn black into white with just a few words, then you’re the perfect person for this kind of thing. It’s a waste of your talent to be doing behind-the-scenes writing work at Haosikai. You should be your company’s global spokesperson. No, you should actually go into politics. So what you’re really saying is that I’m crazy, right? Because I don’t love you anymore, right?”

"No, you're wrong. You're not crazy, and you still love me, that's what I'm saying!" Cheng Shi stubbornly argued.

Huang Ruoyu stood up, then took a few steps back, her eyes gleaming, and quietly said, "But I really don't love you anymore. In fact, I don't even want to see you anymore. If you dare to come any closer to me, if you dare to touch me, or do anything else, I will scream!"

But Cheng Shi didn't take Huang Ruoyu's words seriously. He took two steps forward, reached out and stroked Huang Ruoyu's shoulder, murmuring, "Little Fish, darling, I..."

Before Cheng Shi could finish speaking, Huang Ruoyu screamed in a shrill voice, even higher than Cheng Yushan's scream.

However, Huang Ruoyu's scream was clearly feigned, as she stared coldly into Cheng Shi's eyes while screaming. But the scream was so piercing and loud that it could shake the entire Central Park. Cheng Shi even felt that the scream could be heard throughout Central Park, and that someone in the residents' group might already be experiencing domestic violence at No. 5 Napa Valley, and that a nosy neighbor might call the police in a little while.

Cheng Shi tried to stop Huang Ruoyu's screams, because it's always the man who suffers when suspected of domestic violence. But Huang Ruoyu seemed completely unresponsive, so Cheng Shi could only endure it until the screams stopped. Then he said, "Are you crazy? Come here, you idiot!"

Huang Ruoyu deftly dodged past Chengshi, then dragged over a folding chair that had just been prepared for the guests to stand between her and Chengshi. But Chengshi grabbed the folding chair and casually threw it against the wall. The sleek IKEA folding chair immediately broke in two, and the decorative painting hanging on the wall also fell to the ground and shattered.

In her anger, Chengshi completely forgot that their neighbors might call the police on their behalf.

"What do you want to do?" Huang Ruoyu wasn't intimidated, but continued to "bravely" provoke Cheng Shi with her words, 'Do you want to hit me? Do you want to use your fists to show how much you love me?'

“No,” Narumi suddenly felt herself becoming stronger, “No, I won’t hit you, you don’t need to worry about it. I can’t be bothered to beat you up. You’re not worth my effort. You’re not worth my time. You’re just an empty shell…”

At this point, Narumi suddenly realized how unrestrained and exhilarating his voice had been. Was it because the children weren't home? Indeed, there was no one else at home, and no one was coming. The echoing house was now empty except for the two of them—he had completely forgotten about his law-abiding, cultured, and morally upright middle-class neighbors in Central Park.

"You're a fucking empty, shallow woman, all show and no substance..."

For the first time in months, Chengshi and Huang Ruoyu had the opportunity to argue without any hesitation or reservations. Chengshi was now making full use of this opportunity. So, he circled around Huang Ruoyu, yelling and trembling at her, panting like an old dog that had run eight hundred miles.

"If you hate me that much, then what the hell are you doing living in my house? Huh? Answer me! If you hate me, why did you have my kids? And two of them at once! Huh?"

Then, just like Hu Zhizhi had done before, Cheng Shi pointed at Huang Ruoyu's stomach and continued shouting, "Go and get rid of this child! You still have a chance to get rid of it. Listen to me carefully, I'm going to tell you something else..."

Suddenly, Narumi calmed down. As he spoke calmly, the immense pressure in his heart was released, and his tone became unusually slow and clear, as if he had never spoken so clearly before.

"God is my witness, I hope you've already aborted this child!"

This was undoubtedly the best ending Narumi had ever said in her life, and it gave him the opportunity to slip away from her. So Narumi quickly climbed the stairs, went into the bedroom, kicked the door shut, and then threw herself heavily onto the bed, punching her right fist into her left palm.

Oh shit!

Narumi admitted that she did say something harsh. But that's the truth!

“That’s right!” Cheng Shi shouted to himself. “That’s right, that’s exactly what I think. Go ahead and fight if you dare! Who the hell can’t live without whom!”

Chengshi gasped for breath, his heart pounding like a drum. After a while, he swallowed hard and closed his lips, which were so dry they felt like they were about to bleed. At this moment, the only sound in the bedroom was the air going in and out of Chengshi's nose. Gradually, Chengshi's heartbeat slowed down, and his eyes began to make out his surroundings: the glass windows and curtains bathed in the glow of the setting sun; the fragrant bottles and jars on Huang Ruoyu's dressing table; the white bathrobe hanging behind the door; and the pair of dirty bedroom slippers by the bed.

Everything was quiet, and Chengshi began to regret locking himself in the bedroom—because he wanted to drink some more alcohol, but there was no alcohol in the bedroom, or even on the entire second floor.

So Narumi could only lie quietly in bed, resisting the temptation of beer. After a while, he vaguely heard some sounds, seemingly the sound of DK's sliding doors, followed by the sound of the front door of the living room.

A familiar sense of dread suddenly welled up inside Narumi: "She's leaving me again!"