Chapter 9
พร
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…
“You win,” he murmured.
“The madness you wanted-”
“I’ll give it to you.”
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A
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11:27 Sat, Oct 18
Chapter 9
Sybil stood not far away,
a black umbrella veiling half her face.
The bodyguard beside me whispered,
“Should we intervene?”
I shook my head.
“Let him lose his mind.”
A faint curve touched my lips-so slight it was almost invisible.
“The mad,” I murmured, “are easier to control.”
Night. The Villa.
The curtains were drawn tight.
No lights had been turned on for days.
He sat curled on the sofa, clutching that letter in his hand.
A bottle of pills lay shattered across the floor.
He didn’t seem to feel a thing.
In his dream, he saw me-
barefoot, in a white dress, walking toward him against the light.
I smiled.
“Xingchen,” I said softly,
“when you signed the papers… did you hesitate?”
He reached for me,
but caught only a handful of cold air.
I turned, stepping into the light-
and vanished.
He jolted awake.
Sweat drenched his forehead.
Moonlight spilled cold across the floor.
He rose slowly, walked to the window,
staring at the black sea beyond.
His voice was low, almost tender.
“If you won’t come back…
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then I’ll come find you.”
Elsewhere, in another city.
Wendy sat on a clinic bench.
The sunlight outside was warm, soft.
My hair now brushed my shoulders.
:
The doctor closed the file. “You’ve recovered well.
No major injuries remain.”
I nodded lightly. “Thank you.”
When the doctor left, Yuanzi ran down the hall,
a newspaper clutched in her hands.
“He’s in trouble.”
I looked up. “What happened?”
“Last night-he took an entire bottle of sleeping pills.
His assistant found him in time. They saved him.”
My hand paused midair.
On the front page,
a blurry photo showed him on a stretcher-
his face ghost-pale, a trace of blood at his lips.
Yuanzi looked at me, hesitant.
“Do you… want to see him?”
I was silent for a long time.
“He almost died.”
“Yes.”
“But that was his choice.”
I stood, folding the paper carefully.
“I didn’t survive just to go back.”
At the window, sunlight spilled across my shoulders.
“Let him go mad.”
“If madness is what he needs, let him learn how pain feels.”
Night again. The seaside villa remained dark.
Rory sat in the shadows.
11:28 Sat, Oct 18
The letter lay on the table,
its corner curling slightly in the wind.
He reached out,
:
his fingers tracing the lines of my handwriting,
one inch at a time.
“I died the day you signed the papers,”
the letter read,
“not the night of the crash.”
Tears fell again.
Then he laughed-low, broken,
like something tearing open inside him.
Outside, the waves struck harder and harder,
crashing against the shore.
The wind howled through the night.
He whispered,
“Fine, Wendy…
I’ll show you madness.”
The sea wind stayed the same.
Only the name changed.
Three years later.
Wendy was gone.
Her name now was Thalia.
She worked at a design firm in the south.
Her hair was short again,
thin-rimmed glasses framed calm, distant eyes.
A white shirt.
A gentle voice.
And a distance no one could cross.
Morning light spilled across my desk.
Blueprints spread open beneath my hands,
my pen lines clean and sure.
Chapter 9
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3/4
9.8%
11:28 Sat, Oct 18
A colleague knocked and stepped in.
“Thalia, could you review this contract?
Z Group wants us to handle their brand exhibition.”
The moment I lifted my head,
something sharp pricked deep beneath my ribs.
Z Group.
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11:28 Sat, Oct 18
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