Chapter 1630: Confession

"Were you sitting at the door just to see when he"d leave?"

When Dong Luorong lazily sat down, her silk robe slipped down her legs, as light and delicate as smoke being blown away. She wasn"t wearing any makeup, yet her lips remained a deep, almost cruel, blood-red. A thin line of silvery-white reflections glistened off the bony shapes of her knees, calves, and ankles, clear and smooth as if they were crafted of metal—except, they were so extremely thin, it seemed they could break with the slightest bend.

No matter what kind of person Qiu Chantian was, he definitely had impeccable taste in women, Xie Feng thought, though she wasn"t sure what to feel about it.

The only light in the room came from a small lamp, casting a hazy, dream-like glow. Dong Luorong lowered her head, as if she sighed softly, but Xie Feng couldn"t quite hear it.

"Why aren"t you saying anything?" Dong Luorong tilted her head and asked, "Are you mad at me?"

Xie Feng raised her hand and slowly untied the belt of her hotel robe, letting it fall to the ground. Under Dong Luorong"s slightly surprised gaze, she turned away, biting her lip as she pulled off her s.h.i.+rt, clutching it in her hands.

The cold air in the room made her skin p.r.i.c.kle with gooseb.u.mps the moment it touched her bare body. Her shoulders, chest, and back were all exposed to the light and shadow, yet strangely, Xie Feng didn"t feel vulnerable. Maybe because taking control of the situation is a kind of power in itself.

"Can you see these scars?"

Dong Luorong made no sound.

"Right before the surrender, the public opposition was at its most intense. Tear City was still technically its own country, but it was already imperial soldiers patrolling the streets, hunting us down." Xie Feng"s voice trembled. "Once, we got separated by a group of security officers, and in the chaos, I panicked and ran the wrong way and got chased by two or three of them. One of them kicked me hard in the lower back, his boot was so heavy. I fell face-first into the ground, and then they started hitting me with batons..."

She usually acted as if none of this had ever happened.

"I used to think batons were blunt weapons. That day, I learned a blunt weapon can still tear you apart, split your skin open, and make your head bleed just as easily if they hit hard enough." Xie Feng looked down at the floor. "Honestly, I don"t remember most of it. I just recall an old lady nearby, screaming at them to stop hitting, stop hitting, she"s just a little girl, she"ll be beaten to death by you guys...

"It hurt so much while they were hitting me that I thought to myself, hurry up and grab me, just stop beating me. As long as they stop beating me, anything was fine. When they finally did stop, a man grabbed me under my arms to lift me up, and I almost started crying out of fear."

Dong Luorong rose from the couch, her clothes rustling softly as she moved. She walked up behind Xie Feng, and that distinct presence of hers wrapped around her like water. When Dong Luorong"s cool fingers touched Xie Feng"s skin, the chill made her shudder.

Despite how abrupt the gesture was, it didn"t feel awkward coming from her. It was like a mother instinctively wanting to soothe the wounds of a child who had been hurt.

"And then? How did you escape?" she asked quietly.

"By that point, I was half-unconscious, couldn"t even stand. They probably thought I"d pa.s.sed out, so they let their guard down and only left one guy to watch me... There were a lot of people around, shouting that he"d hit me too hard and shouldn"t have done it. The security officer got distracted and didn"t notice the taxi that had just pulled up at the curb behind him." Xie Feng"s voice was hoa.r.s.e. "The driver and I locked eyes for a few seconds, and after a moment"s hesitation, he opened the door. I crawled past the officer"s feet, and I don"t even know where I got the strength, but I jumped up and ran into the car... The driver didn"t dare keep me in the cab for long though, he dropped me off a few streets away."

"It"s his department"s style," Dong Luorong said slowly. "Do you hate him?"

Xie Feng thought about it. "No," she replied honestly. "He"s too distant from me, as the leader. He never personally hurt me... I don"t hate him, I"m afraid of him."

A low-ranking security officer was already enough to ruin Xie Feng"s life. Someone like Qiu Chantian, far above in rank and countless security officers, was so distantly powerful that he only filled her with fear.

The idea that she would face off against someone like him tonight felt naive, almost unreal.

"But the more afraid you are, the more you desire it, right?" Dong Luorong gently leaned close to her ear and whispered, "You want to see him knocked down, defeated, unable to keep that arrogance. You want to watch him fall down, feel pain, regret, just like any ordinary person, don"t you?"

It was like she could read her mind.

Xie Feng put on her clothes without saying a word as there was still a part of her that worried Dong Luorong might be trying to trap her. It wasn"t impossible—after all, she still didn"t know what Dong Luorong"s true relations.h.i.+p with Qiu Chantian was. Everything was just her own speculation.

By the time Xie Feng turned back around, she had organized her emotions and asked as calmly as possible, "Why did you save me?"

"Didn"t I already tell you?"

"I didn"t understand at the time. You were a stranger—why would you save me?" Xie Feng said quietly. "What I"m asking now is, why would you, as... as someone from the Empire, save me?"

And not just anyone from the Empire—someone connected to Qiu Chantian.

Dong Luorong suddenly laughed, like mist clearing from a deep abyss to reveal a single, withered flower in decadent mourning. "You"re still young. You don"t understand... In a man"s world, women don"t have a country."

No, Xie Feng thought to herself, she was the one who didn"t understand. Being from the Empire, Dong Luorong wouldn"t comprehend the weight of responsibility she felt for Tear City.

"Are you his...what?" Xie Feng finally asked.

Dong Luorong gave her a sidelong glance, leaning her head against the couch, and asked, "Do you want the simple answer or the full answer?"

The phone in Xie Feng"s robe pocket remained silent, so she figured she still had some time.

"What"s the simple one? And the full one?"

Dong Luorong smiled. "The simple answer is, I"m his "girlfriend.""

When she said "girlfriend," she lifted her hand and made air quotes. Even though Xie Feng had already suspected it, her heart still sank. Did that mean she was a lover? No, that didn"t seem right. Qiu Chantian wasn"t married—so what was the difference between a lover and a girlfriend in this case?

"And... the full one?"

"It"s a long story," Dong Luorong said slowly, her eyes drifting to a point behind Xie Feng, as if she were talking to herself. "I don"t like him, and he knows I don"t like him. He doesn"t like me, and I know he doesn"t like me. He seems to prefer sweet, obedient girls without much of an opinion. As you can probably tell, I"m not that kind of woman."

Xie Feng was sure the confusion was written all over her face.

"I"ve been with him for some years now," Dong Luorong said with a sarcastic smile. "A lot of people know he has this long-term girlfriend who"s supposedly head over heels for him. But to them, I"m just someone to keep around for fun, not someone you marry. In the eyes of the Empire, a young and successful man like Qiu Chantian—if he"s willing to mess around with you, that"s already a big deal. And if he hasn"t gotten tired of you after all these years, they practically think he"s a saint."

"But... it"s not true?"

Dong Luorong gave a short "ha". "There are countless young, beautiful women who"d be perfectly content to be kept as mistresses, pop out a few kids when asked, no questions asked. Why would Qiu Chantian keep a woman he doesn"t even like? It"s not like he hasn"t thought about getting married—he wants to get married. I know for a fact there were two women he seriously considered marrying. As for me? I"m a liability—a mark against him. Not enough to get rid of me, but enough to lower my score."

Xie Feng quietly walked over and sat on the edge of the bed across from her.

"When I was twenty-one, I lost everything—my family, my home... I became an orphan. It"s an old, tired story, not worth talking about."

She seemed to have had a bit to drink earlier; there was a slight haze in her voice and eyes.

"In any case, I turned my tragedy into a gift for him. It helped him take his first step up the ladder. After that, I spent years convincing him I was his good luck charm in his career path. Don"t be fooled by his tough act—he"s actually pretty superst.i.tious."

Dong Luorong"s next words came just as Xie Feng"s phone buzzed in her bathrobe pocket.

She let out a small laugh and said, "If you"re going to be treated like an object, being a lucky charm is better than being a s.e.x tool, right?"