Chapter 16
A gust of cold air rushed out as the door opened, and Shen Huan shuddered. He always kept the air conditioner on low. She raised her head and softly asked if she could come into the room to talk. She had to muster up the courage to ask this question. This floor was full of Xuan Tao people, and there was no telling who might pass by. Li Ting had just been sent to the operating room, and his relationship with Meng Zixuan was now at odds with each other.
Last night, Li Ting said Meng Zixian would turn Xuan Tao upside down. She didn't know if this was true, how much of it was Li Ting's emotional outburst, and how much was a sharp warning. She couldn't interfere with these major events, nor would she participate. But if the remittance from Qingyu Fund was inextricably linked to her, she still wanted to defend herself.
This excuse was admittedly weak. She hadn't been the one in jail for the past three years. During his first year at Binnan Correctional Center, she'd visited him a few times, though Lou and Tai had been there more often. Later, she married Li Ting, Meng Zixian moved to Qiguan Prefecture, and Chen Huan hadn't had any contact with him since.
Meng Zixuan glanced at his watch and said, "Just tell me if you have anything to say." He walked out of the room and said he was going to the train station.
Chen Huan took a small step back and stood still. She didn't want to talk about this in the hotel corridor, but seeing Meng Zixuan had already closed the door behind him, Chen Huan glanced at both ends of the corridor. No one was entering or leaving, and when she returned her gaze, it happened to meet his. Meng Zixuan always looked down on her timid appearance.
"Do you still remember that there was a company called Lianmen? Qingyu Fund transferred a sum of 130,000 yuan to it." She continued to speak, without any beginning or end, but Meng Zixuan did not interrupt her.
Chen Huan continued, "I checked last night. The money you wired to the British Virgin Islands didn't arrive. It was rejected by the local bank." She thought it might be a small error in the international wire transfer, or more likely something Li Ting had told Jia Mandong about, but she didn't express her suspicions. "The next afternoon, another remittance—using Qingyu's investment funds—was made. I signed the contract and the receipt.
"I had a minor surgery that morning, and right after the anesthesia wore off, the accountant came to me for my signature. The amount wasn't a round number, something like 129,700. My mind was a bit fuzzy, and I couldn't connect it with the 130,000 yuan I'd received earlier. The accountant was very reliable and had never made a mistake, so I signed it without looking it over. But I remember it was clearly my signature. I really remember it.
"But for some reason, in court, the signature on the remittance slip became your name." She said that because the trial was not open to the public, she didn't know whether this could be considered key evidence.
Judging from Meng Zixuan's expression, these details were not news to him. His face remained calm as he walked towards the elevator.
"I didn't go to that trial, so I don't know who presented the evidence, but why did you admit it?" Shen Huan caught up with him.
Meng Zixian stopped in front of the elevator and pressed the "OK" button. She wanted to ask Meng Zixian who had tampered with the remittance slip. Was it Li Ting? How could Li Ting ensure that Meng Zixian wouldn't insist that the slip was forged?
But Meng Zixuan didn't give her a chance. He said, "This matter ends here. Don't mention it to anyone else."
Chen Huan's throat felt dry, and she swallowed. She knew that at this moment in time, no matter what she said, it would be a sin. She had committed this sin three years ago, or even before that, and she had no reason to refute it. But she still came to see him today. "I'm sorry, I really didn't know. I only found the remittance slip last night. Otherwise..."
Meng Zixuan sneered, his face indifferent. He finally turned his head to look at her.
"What else, you go to jail?"
His tone was unhurried, not meant to frighten her, but Shen Huan's fingers curled unconsciously, and cold sweat seeped into her palms. The numbers on the elevator LCD screen slowly climbed up. Shen Huan seemed to be stunned by the question, his arms hanging motionless at his sides.
After a few moments of silence, Meng Zixuan asked, "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be waiting outside the operating room?" Shen Huan nodded habitually, very lightly. Coming back to her senses, she replied, "You saved him in the sea, and next it's the doctor who will save him. It's useless for me to wait there."
"Oh. You know you can't get him back?"
"Of course, I can't swim."
"You can't swim, and you're walking into the sea?"
"Did I go into the sea? Maybe I wanted to get a better look. I didn't plan to save him. I couldn't save him."
Meng Zixuan looked down at her. She stared at the elevator door in a daze. After a while, she asked, "If you hadn't come, would I have drowned in the sea with Li Ting?" She murmured, "That would be too unfortunate. I'm such a coward."
Chen Huan was still wearing her beach outfit, soaked and caked with sand, clinging to her body and looking tattered. Meng Zixian had also first met Chen Huan at the beach. She was wrapped in a slightly outdated, old piece of clothing that hung too loosely on her body and didn't quite fit her five-foot-four frame. Chen Huan thought they'd first met at the shooting range, but Meng Zixian had already fallen in love with her before that, on that day at the beach.
Later, Chen Huan explained that a friend had lent her the coat. She hadn't planned to go to the beach, so she climbed into her friend's car in her sweater and pants. When she reached the shore, everyone else had taken off their coats, so she followed suit, leaving her in her bra and panties. She hadn't expected the water to be so cold in April, and she couldn't breathe. When she got back to shore, her clothes were swept away by the waves and she couldn't find them. She put on her friend's coat.
His love for Chen Huan was superficial. She was so beautiful, shivering in the morning mist, she looked so lonely and helpless. Catching a glimpse of her silhouette in the distance, Meng Zixuan was stunned for a moment, then turned away before she turned back. These days, men shouldn't stare at women they don't know, especially since she looked underage.
For a long time afterwards, he was cautious about his impulsiveness. Fayette's economy was driven entirely by the nearby military base, and its residents were often military families. And Chen Huan was the exchange student stranded in a foreign land, with no family or friends, completely out of place.
She spoke decent English, but only for casual conversation. She didn't go to church and didn't understand why soldiers in drill uniforms would wait outside the auditorium on Sunday mornings, Bibles clutched. Shen Huan once asked her, "People say the feminist movement in Europe and America is so advanced, so why don't girls here in their early twenties go to college? Instead, they raise two or three children on their own and don't see their husbands for six months."
Many things he took for granted seemed strange to her, and he wasn't sure if he was exploiting this strangeness to get close to her, satisfying a shameful need for help. If so, he'd paid the price for his arrogance. Shen Huan's wanderings had never been harmless; her weakness and abandonment had completely changed him.
If he had his life to do over again, he wished he had never been to that beach.
With a "ding" sound, the elevator door opened. Meng Zixuan walked in, and the two faced each other through the door. He said goodbye, Shen Huan.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com