His obese body slammed heavily to the ground with a thud.
As Mr. Sun stared at Ji Lun's raised leg again, his eyes filled with fear. He gasped for breath, and a trickle of blood slowly seeped from the corner of his mouth.
In Mr. Sun's pupils, Ji Lun's long legs approached step by step. The excruciating pain from the kick had not yet subsided, and now he was completely enveloped by fear.
Ji Lun slowly approached, and just as he raised his long leg again, preparing to kick her hard, the woman on the bed let out a scream.
"Jilun! Stop right there!"
Ji Lun abruptly stopped, slowly retracted his raised foot, and mechanically turned to walk towards Tian Jingjing, step by step.
When he reached the bedside, Ji Lun's eyes were filled with panic. He asked in a hoarse voice, "Jingjing, he forced you, didn't he?"
Tian Jingjing watched Ji Lun slowly approach, pursed her lips, and remained silent.
Ji Lun suddenly raised his hand, grabbed Tian Jingjing's chin, and stared intently at her: "Tell me, were you forced? If he forced you, don't worry, I will definitely teach him a lesson!"
With a sharp "slap," Tian Jingjing raised her hand and slapped Ji Lun hard across the face. Ji Lun neither dodged nor flinched, his gaze still fixed on Tian Jingjing.
Tian Jingjing glanced at President Sun, took a deep breath, as if she had made up her mind.
"Jilin, since you've already caught us, I won't hide it from you anymore. He didn't force me; it was voluntary. Mr. Sun and I have been together for a long time!"
The woman spoke each word with force and conviction, each word like a sharp dagger piercing Ji Lun's heart.
"This isn't true, this isn't true! Tell me, what you just said isn't true!"
Tian Jingjing slapped Ji Lun across the face again. "Ji Lun, stop being silly! Stop fooling yourself! Wake up!"
"Why? Tell me why?" The man's voice was hoarse and deep.
Tian Jingjing raised her chin, a hint of indifference in her eyes: "Why? Of course, it's because President Sun has a house and a BMW. More importantly, he's rich and bought me a lot of designer clothes, shoes, and bags!"
“Jingjing, I can give you all these things in the future. Just give me a little more time. I’ll buy you cars, houses, clothes, shoes, bags, cosmetics, whatever you want! I can give you even more!” Ji Lun looked at Tian Jingjing, and every word he spoke was trembling uncontrollably.
"You're going to give me that? What are you going to give me? And why should I trust you? Just because of your 10,000 yuan salary? Or those few takeout orders you do every night?" Tian Jingjing suddenly raised her voice, her tone full of contempt and disdain.
She paused, then continued, "Look at us, we're like rats in the street, crammed into this dark, damp, and run-down rented room. What future do I have with you? Forget about cars and houses, all I want to do is go to Yushan to soak in a hot spring, and you keep putting it off. What else can I expect from you?"
Ji Lun gripped the two tickets for Yushan Hot Springs tightly in his hands, squeezing them into a ball in his palms.
By this time, the sun had gradually set, and the room had become extremely dark. Only the last sliver of sunlight stubbornly shone in through the window, like an old man reluctant to leave this world, and the light fell right on Ji Lun's chest.
Ji Lun raised one hand and carefully cradled the ray of light in his palm, as if he were holding some rare treasure.
In an instant, memories of the past flooded his mind. When he was in school, he was often ridiculed by his classmates because of his poor family background, which made him feel inferior, sensitive and timid.
It was Tian Jingjing's encouragement that shone like a ray of light into his dark world, giving him the courage to step out of the shadows.
He held that ray of light in his hands, looked at Tian Jingjing, and said with a hint of expectation in his eyes: "Jingjing, when we were in school, you said that poverty is not terrible, as long as we work hard, everything will change."
Tian Jingjing curled her lip in disdain: "You actually believe that? I wanted to improve my grades, but my family couldn't afford tutoring classes. Since your grades were alright, I..."
At this point, she seemed to recall something funny and suddenly covered her mouth and laughed. "Back then, the whole class ostracized you. I was thinking about how to persuade you to tutor me, but to my surprise, it was so simple. I just smiled at you, and you were so naive that you agreed to tutor me. It saved me a lot of money!"
And another thing, I just casually mentioned that I woke up too early and hadn't had breakfast, and you've been bringing me breakfast every day, you know? Your steamed buns are so hard and dry. Every time I take one from you, I secretly laugh to myself. These days, people still eat steamed buns like that? Aren't they afraid of getting their teeth hurt? I can't stand that kind of food, so I always secretly throw it at the school gate to feed the stray dogs.”
Ji Lun's eyes instantly turned bloodshot and crimson, his hands clenched into fists, and veins bulged on his forehead, making him look like a ferocious beast about to pounce on its prey.
That steamed bun was made for him every morning by his blind grandmother. Ji Lun told his grandmother that there was a girl who was very kind to him, often talked to him, smiled at him, and comforted him.
Grandma said, "If others are kind to us, we should repay them. Our family is poor and we don't have anything good to offer, so please give her this steamed bun that you make every day!"
A few days after the college entrance examination, his grandmother got up to steam buns for him again, but she accidentally fell and never woke up again. She was gone forever.
At school, he could endure any ridicule from others, but his grandmother, who had been his only family since childhood, was his bottom line. No one could talk to his grandmother like that, and no one could waste the steamed buns that his grandmother had saved for him.
Now, Tian Jingjing's contemptuous sarcasm was like a sharp blade, piercing straight into Ji Lun's heart and also piercing his memory of his grandmother, causing him to gasp for breath in pain.
"Those steamed buns were steamed by my grandma herself, and you actually fed them to the dogs!"
Ji Lun's voice was deep and hoarse, as if it came from the deepest hell, exuding a chilling aura that made one's hair stand on end.
At that very moment, the last ray of light in Ji Lun's palm quietly dimmed, and his world seemed to be swallowed up by endless darkness in an instant.
He swayed and rushed forward, his large hand gripping Tian Jingjing's neck like a vise, and lifted her up abruptly.
Tian Jingjing's feet instantly left the ground, overwhelmed by a wave of terror. Her eyes widened, and she desperately pounded on Ji Lun's hands, her voice trembling and urgent: "Ji Lun, let me go! Are you even a man? Are you going to hit a woman? Let go, I can't breathe..."
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