The night was cool as water. Hao Yujian was sitting by the window in the bedroom, wearing just a flimsy silk nightgown, her hands wrapped around her knees.
"Where is she?" At that moment, a cold, icy, emotionless voice rang in her ears, not surprising her at all.
Immediately following was the trembling response from the maid, "In.... the master bedroom upstairs...."
After a terrifying silence came the clanging sound of shoes walking on the marble floor tiles. From the living room downstairs, up the spiral staircase, to the bedroom door.
Not until the bedroom door was pushed open forcefully did the tall man loom over. Hao Yujian hooked up the corner of her mouth, casting a sad and desolate reflection in her clear eyes.
"I knew you would come," she said, her voice light and hard to fathom, yet laced with a bewitching smile.
Lu Jinnian stared at her back. His white shirt and black trousers, along with the blazer over his arm, could not conceal his fatigue. He tightened his hold on a few pieces of paper in his hand, his aura gloomy as he walked slowly towards her.
"Are these pictures real?" The newspaper had been crumpled into a ball by his strong grip, held in his palm.
Printed on the faded thin paper was the shocking news just leaked by today's Times:
"Lu family's daughter-in-law disregards decency, engages in lascivious revelry with multiple men in prominent hotel!"
At the bottom was a clear, uncensored photo of Hao Yujian disrobed, sandwiched between several muscular men, her arms wrapped around one man's neck, her eyes were blurred.
"Will this scandal damage the Lu family's imminent overseas listing? Stay tuned!"
Lu Jinnian forces himself not to look at the painful photo in the newspaper. He strides forward, suddenly grabs her shoulder forcing her to turn around.
He grips her pale face and snorts out a bitter, angry laugh, "Hao Yujian, are you so desperate to divorce me? To the point where you do not hesitate to ruin your own body?"
Hao Yujian’s throat clenching, suppressing the bone-eating pain lingering in her shoulders, she parted her lips, "Yes!”
Myriads of words got stuck in her throat.
Three years of marriage, seven years of love, her feelings for him were painfully ground down to nothing in this marriage of convenience.
She lost completely, to him, and also to her half-sister- Hao Qinghuan.
"Good! Very good!" Lu Jinnian's hand – the one clutching her shoulder paused for a moment, a cold gleam sparked in his beautiful narrowed eyes. He had never thought that one day, this woman will resort to such means to threaten him!
"Hao Yujian, do you know, the thing I hate most in my life is to be threatened by others!”
"Want a divorce, huh?"
He forcefully pinched her slim waist, as if lifting her entirely, pulled her staggering figure into the bathroom with unabated anger.
“Even if you want a divorce, I'll make sure you leave with 'nothing'!”
He tossed her directly onto the chilling bathroom tiles, turned on the tap, took the showerhead, and drenched her head-to-toe with icy cold water.
She choked on water, almost on the verge of suffocation.
Lu Jinnian turned the water to max, the powerful flow of cold water poured down on her.
“N...No …” Hao Yujian screamed; trying to crawl away but was pulled back by the man with considerable force.
Lu Jinnian knelt down, in no time stripped off the few remaining clothes on her, pinned her left shoulder with his knee, picked up a big soft-bristled brush, applied shower gel, and started scrubbing her body fiercely.
Only then, Hao Yujian comprehended the meaning of ‘leaving with nothing’ in Lu Jinnian's words.
She felt the intense pain and cold all over her body, as Lu Jinnian's force increased by the minute. She started struggling in earnest, her pale lips turned blue from frostbite, her voice shuddering, “Lu Jinnian, let me go……let me go!”
She desperately flailed her body on the ground.
But under Lu Jinnian’s restraint, the small space for her to move was limited, offering no chance for escape, and her bruised body kept worsening.
