Chapter Six: The Dog's Loyalty

When Cheng Yin returned to the hospital, she attracted the attention of several nurses at the nurses' station.

When Cheng Yin pushed open the ward door, her fingertips paused on the doorknob for a second.

Xu Chen had woken up and was sitting up against the headboard. The swelling in his right eye had gone down a bit, but the cast on his left arm was still glaringly white.

He looked up when he heard the door open, his gaze sweeping from Cheng Yin's dress to her high heels, finally settling on the spot where the diamond necklace had disappeared from her neck.

Xu Chen suddenly overturned the bedside table. The breakfast bag flew out, the iced milk tea smashed against the wall, the plastic cup shattered, and the brownish liquid slowly flowed down the wall.

The pineapple bun rolled to Cheng Yin's feet, and the wrapper came undone.

"You fucking know how to come back?" Xu Chen's voice was extremely low, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth.

Cheng Yin bent down to pick up the pineapple bun, patting off non-existent dust: "I'll buy another milk tea."

"Fuck your mother!" Xu Chen grabbed a pillow and threw it at her. "Stop playing dumb! Where the hell were you last night? Where did you get these clothes?"

Cheng Yin caught the pillow and hugged it to her chest: "Jap. Li Yaodong gave it to me."

Xu Chen's breathing became heavy, his chest heaving violently, aggravating the injury to his ribs. His face was deathly pale, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, but his eyes remained fiercely murderous: "He touched you?"

"No." Cheng Yin put the pillow back on the bed. "I was just sleeping."

Xu Chen let out a cold laugh that was almost a roar: "A man and a woman alone in a room, and you're telling me it's just for sleeping?"

Looking at his contorted expression, Cheng Yin suddenly remembered how Xu Chen, upon discovering she had secretly followed him to the bar, had angrily pushed her onto a pile of garbage in an alley. She had calmly gotten up then, brushed the vegetable leaves off her school uniform, and said, "I just wanted to see if you got home safely."

"You can check if you don't believe me," Cheng Yin said, reaching for the zipper on the side of her dress.

"Enough!" Xu Chen abruptly turned his face away. "Change your clothes! They're disgusting!"

Cheng Yin stopped what she was doing: "I didn't bring any change of clothes."

Xu Chen grabbed his phone and smashed it against the wall, the screen shattering instantly: "Then go buy it! Get out there and buy it!"

The phone wreckage lay at Cheng Yin's feet. She crouched down, picked up the pieces one by one, and pieced them together in her palm.

Seeing her submissive attitude, Xu Chen suddenly jumped off the bed and grabbed her wrist.

"Why?" His voice trembled. "Why do you listen to everything I say? I hit you, scold you, and humiliate you, why did you come back?"

Cheng Yin looked up at him, her eyes as clear as a stagnant pool: "Because you saved me."

"What kind of rescue is that?!" Xu Chen practically roared, "I was just in a bad mood that day! Anyone else would have done the same!"

Cheng Yin nodded gently: "I know."

He turned around, grabbed the fruit knife from the bedside table, and pointed it at his wrist.

Cheng Yin didn't rush to stop her; she simply stood there, her voice eerily calm: "If you're going to cut, cut deep. The vein is above; cut vertically for a higher success rate."

Xu Chen's hand froze in mid-air, the tip of the knife trembling slightly.

"If you die," Cheng Yin continued, "I will jump off the Haojiang Tower. You know I mean what I say."

The fruit knife fell to the ground with a crisp metallic sound.

Xu Chen knelt on the ground, holding his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking violently.

Cheng Yin walked over, knelt in front of him, and gently stroked the short hair sticking up on the back of his head, as if comforting a wounded beast.

"I won't blame you, and I won't hate you," she whispered. "Never."

Xu Chen raised his head, his eyes bloodshot: "You're a fucking lunatic..."

Cheng Yin nodded: "Maybe."

The nurse hesitated for a moment, then left and gently closed the door behind her.

Cheng Yin helped Xu Chen back to bed and found a mop to clean up the milk tea and glass shards on the floor.

Xu Chen remained silent throughout, staring blankly at the ceiling.

After cleaning, Cheng Yin sat on the chair by the bed, took out her phone and began reviewing basic conversational English.

"'How are you?' 'I'm fine' 'Thank you' 'Good morning'..." she repeated softly, her voice so soft it was as if she were talking to herself.

Xu Chen turned his head to look at her: "What are you doing?"

"Learn Cantonese." Cheng Yin turned her phone screen towards him. "Li Yaodong said my pronunciation is terrible."

Xu Chen's expression became complicated: "Why do you want to learn it?"

"He made me learn it."

"He tells you to learn, so you learn?!" Xu Chen's voice rose again. "He tells you to die, so you go or not?"

Cheng Yin thought about it carefully: "If it's to pay off debts, that's fine."

Xu Chen suddenly closed his eyes, as if he could no longer bear the conversation.

Cheng Yin continued her study of vernacular Chinese, leaving only her soft repetition and Xu Chen's heavy breathing in the room.

At noon, Cheng Yin went downstairs to buy lunch.

When she returned, Xu Shen was on the phone and hung up immediately upon seeing her enter.

"Who?" Cheng Yin handed him the lunchbox.

"Friend." Xu Chen took the lunchbox without looking at her.

Cheng Yin didn't press the matter. She sat by the window, sipping her iced lemon tea and watching the ambulances coming and going downstairs.

After finishing his meal, Xu Chen suddenly said, "I contacted a friend back home; he can lend me 200,000 yuan."

Cheng Yin put down her drink: "Not enough."

"I know it's not enough!" Xu Chen scratched his hair in frustration, "but it's still better than you fucking selling yourself!"

Cheng Yin looked at him: "You never minded spending my money before."

"That's different!" Xu Chen slammed his fist on the mattress. "Back then... back then I was a fucking bastard!"

Cheng Yin tilted her head slightly: "Not anymore?"

Two hundred and forty thousand yuan, her savings of ten years.

Money is hard to earn, especially for someone like her who has no background or support.

But she never felt that spending money on Xu Chen was a burden, just as she didn't feel that sending money to her aunt's family was a burden.

"I'm just used to it." That was all she said in the end.

Cheng Yin shook her head: "No."

"Why?!"

"Because I don't want to."

Xu Chen was completely speechless.

He lay back down on the bed and covered his eyes with his uninjured arm.

Cheng Yin packed up her lunchbox and continued her studies in Cantonese.

Cheng Yin replied, "Okay." Then she continued to study with her head down.

Xu Chen woke up and woke up every time he opened his eyes to see Cheng Yin learning Cantonese.

As evening approached, he finally couldn't help but ask, "You just listen to him like that?"

Cheng Yin looked up: "He said I don't need to go today."

"So you're just going to sit here and wait obediently?" Xu Chen's voice was laced with sarcasm. "You're such a good dog."

Cheng Yin nodded: "Mm."

Xu Chen suddenly threw back the covers and got out of bed, dragging his arm in a cast as he walked up to her, looking down at her: "Do you know why Li Yaodong is interested in you?"

Cheng Yin shook her head.

"Because he thinks you're cheap!" Xu Chen gritted his teeth. "He's testing your loyalty, understand?"

Cheng Yin blinked: "Is the test over?"

"And then he will..." Xu Chen suddenly choked up, "He will..."

"Kill me?" Cheng Yin asked, "Or rape me?"

Xu Chen's expression twisted in pain: "Can't you even react like a normal person?!"

Cheng Yin thought for a moment: "Then how should we react? Be scared? Scream? Run away?"

Xu Chen stared at her for a long time, then finally slumped back onto the bed: "Fine... do whatever you want."

Cheng Yin continued to study with her head down.

Outside the window, the setting sun bathed the hospital room in an orange-red hue.

Xu Chen leaned against the headboard, his gaze fixed on Cheng Yin's focused profile.

He suddenly remembered what Li Yaodong had said on the phone: "Mr. Xu, do you know? A dog's loyalty is the most precious thing in the world. And you don't deserve it."

He might really... not deserve it.