After a little struggle, I finally did not look at the business plan left by Mi Cai on the coffee table about Zhuomei. Perhaps I couldn’t be considered an upright person, but I refused to stoop to such underhanded tricks. I kept reminding myself to be clear about the bottom line of living; I wouldn’t hurt Mi Cai and her Zhuomei Shopping Center by such near theft for my own selfish reasons.
The sound of the washing machine’s drum came from the bathroom. Soon after, Mi Cai came out of the bathroom again and sat back on the sofa, picking up the monthly business plan again to read, yet she treated me sitting beside her as if I were air.
Feeling irrelevant, I turned to Mi Cai again and said, “By the way, I took a set of bedding from your room yesterday. I mean, I couldn’t possibly sleep in your bed, right? That would make you even more disgusted, so I think you shouldn’t be angry about this.”
“No, go ahead and use it,” Mi Cai replied indifferently.
Her sudden change in attitude made me feel a bit awkward. I felt that I had bullied her before. Although she was the CEO of Zhuomei, she was still just a woman, and my previous behavior had lacked the grace of a man.
“I’ll go to sleep first; you should rest early too, don’t stay up too late,” I said to Mi Cai in a softer tone.
“Okay, I’ll go to sleep after washing the clothes.”
…
Returning to my room, I felt a joy of regaining what I had lost. I could finally live in this room, where I had lived for more than two years, openly and with justification again. I thanked heaven for its kindness, my shameless persistence, and Mi Cai for her change of heart.
After thanking everyone I could think of, my nerves suddenly relaxed, and sleepiness came over me. Drifting off, I knew that after a week of drifting, I could finally have a comfortable, peaceful sleep.
As I had expected, I really slept soundly that night, sleeping through until dawn without even dreaming, and quickly became fully awake after waking up.
I sat up on the bed and looked out the window. Although autumn winds blew the leaves about, the sunlight was still quite nice, and the temperature was pleasant. I rubbed my face to completely shake off the morning drowsiness and checked my watch—it was just past 7:30. It was the perfect time to get up.
After getting up and washing up, I prepared to cook some porridge and then go downstairs to buy breakfast, of course buying a portion for Mi Cai as well. I felt that there shouldn’t be lingering resentment between us. As a man, I could lower my stance a bit and take the initiative to show goodwill to her, so that from then on we could live harmoniously and peacefully in this house.
I came to the rice cabinet, only to find it unexpectedly locked. Feeling puzzled but not sensing anything wrong, I turned to check the refrigerator. To my surprise, as soon as I opened the fridge, I was completely stunned—it was completely empty. Immediately, a sense of foreboding spread through me.
I almost ran to the front door of the house, twisting the doorknob, only to find it locked tightly from the inside… Suddenly, I realized I had been locked in by Mi Cai.
“Damn it! No wonder she told me last night I could stay as long as I wanted… How could I have been so stupid not to realize it!” I cursed, running toward my room with a final glimmer of hope, only to despairingly find that the key to my room had indeed been taken by Mi Cai while I was asleep.
Fortunately, I remained calm in the crisis and remembered to call a locksmith company for help. I picked up the phone from the cabinet, feeling it much lighter than usual. Opening the back cover, I felt like collapsing completely—my phone’s battery was gone.
Gritting my teeth and with a dark expression, I walked back to the living room, utterly helpless. The apartment was on the fifth floor; jumping down would be suicide.
…
The entire morning, I wandered around the house like a headless fly. If it had been a weekend and I didn’t have to go to work, it would have been better, but today was exactly the day Fang Yuan returned to the company. There would definitely be a meeting in the department to discuss the recent promotional plan. The importance of this meeting needed no explanation—if I didn’t attend, it would definitely affect the progress of formulating the promotional plan. I could already imagine the angry, distorted faces of Chen Jingming and Fang Yuan…
The more I thought, the angrier I became, wishing I could strangle Mi Cai, this vicious woman. At this moment, I was just like a pitiful bug trapped in a box by her, yet completely helpless. This time, she was practically trying to kill me. Now, there wasn’t even any food in the house, and she had even cut off the electricity from outside. I couldn’t imagine how hard this day would be.
Anxiously, I lay on the sofa, each second feeling like an entire day. I repeatedly ran to the balcony and shouted downstairs, but no one paid any attention to me. It seemed as if everyone in the neighborhood had been bought off by Mi Cai, or maybe my luck was just extremely bad today. In any case, I was still trapped here, with a lot of energy already drained away.
At noon, I was so hungry that my head was spinning, and my hatred for Mi Cai increased another notch. I refused to believe she dared to keep me locked up here until I starved to death. At most, she would have to come back tonight and let me out.
In a rage, I decided: as soon as she came back, I would immediately call the police. This was illegal confinement, and she had even stolen my phone’s battery. She should be punished for multiple offenses, enough to get her detained. She must be detained—this was too damn bullying!
…
Several birds chirped and hopped around on the balcony window, showing off their freedom. The pale afternoon sunlight weakly reflected on the curtains. Like the sunlight, I felt powerless, lying on the sofa weakly. I felt like there were stars circling my head, praying desperately for this hellish day to end quickly.
After a long while, the last rays of sunlight disappeared from the balcony, and it grew completely dark. I lay on the sofa, too weak even to turn over. Yet this vicious woman, Mi Cai, still hadn’t returned. A creeping fear began to rise in my heart. Although I knew she wouldn’t dare to actually let me die locked in here, if she didn’t come back tonight, by tomorrow morning I would be almost as good as dead.
The room was already dark, and in the darkness, the anxiety of losing freedom grew stronger. I felt increasingly frantic inside, yet even lacked the strength to vent. Thus, anxiety layered upon the previous rage, tormenting me like a hundred claws scratching at my heart. My vision began to darken, and I was on the verge of passing out at any moment.
Time crawled forward, and I was still barely clinging to consciousness when finally, the sound of keys unlocking the door came from outside. Instantly alert, I tried to stand up from the sofa with all my might. However, my body couldn’t keep up with my mind, and I fell “thud” onto the floor, my shoulder bumping into the corner of the coffee table. The pain was so severe I couldn’t even cry, my head spinning even more.
Suddenly, all the lights in the house turned on, and then I heard Mi Cai’s “surprised” voice: “Zhaoyang, why didn’t you turn on the lights? Why are you sleeping on the floor? Aren’t you cold?”
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