Chapter 10: An Unexpected Kindness

What was this over me?
A closer look revealed a black men’s jacket. It looked familiar, too.
Ji Feiyang’s?
How had that ended up on me?
I sat up and looked around.
A few steps away, he stood beneath a large tree with his back to me. His tall figure cast a long shadow across the ground. He wasn’t moving, apparently lost in thought. The black Porsche was parked by the roadside nearby.
It was cold out.
Served him right. Let him freeze.
Back down I went, pretending to be asleep.
Eventually, he lost patience and came over.
“Tang Yijun. Tang Yijun.”
No response from me.
He nudged me.
“Tang Yijun.”
Still asleep.
The nudging became shaking.
“Tang Yijun!”
Nothing.
He shook harder.
No, I wasn’t waking up.
Really, if someone could be shaken that hard and still not wake, there was only one explanation: they were dead.
Suddenly, he stopped.
Silence.
What was he doing?
After waiting a moment, I cautiously opened one eye.
Good heavens.
His dark eyes were right in front of mine, bright as stars. This close, I could see the neat crease of his eyelids. He had rather lovely eyes.
His face was so near that his warm breath brushed my skin, making every tiny hair seem to stir. A mischievous smile tugged at his lips.
Then he gave my head a firm push.
“Quite an act you’ve got.”
My hand went to my head. Big Brother used to stroke it so gently.
Ji Feiyang took back his jacket and walked away. This time, I obediently got up and followed him to the car.
Once inside, he pulled out a tissue and handed it to me.
“Wipe your face.”
After a glance at it, I took it.
“Missing home?”
“What?”
“You’ve been crying that much. What else would it be?”
So he’d noticed.
“Go home, Tang Yijun.”
His sudden gentleness threw me off.
Then again, of course he wanted me home. The sooner I went back, the sooner he’d get his money.
“You’ll get paid. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t you miss your family?”
“What a strange question. What’s it got to do with you?”
“Then stop crying so easily.”
There he was again: cold, heartless, and thoroughly annoying.
“You didn’t work all afternoon. No dinner tonight.”
“What? You bloodsucker! I’ve never met anyone like you in my life.”
My glare came with a few choice words.
He wasn’t the least bit angry.
“That’s because you haven’t met many people. There are plenty worse than me.”
“So you’re one of the good ones now? Have you no shame?”
“Why won’t you go home? You clearly haven’t done a day’s work in your life. Your family must be fairly well-off.”
That made me nervous.
One question to Jiajia, and he’d know where I lived. If he went there to collect, my family would find out where I was.
“We’re very poor.”
A downward glance at my soft, pale hands suggested an explanation was needed.
“We used to have money, but not anymore. There isn’t a penny left.”
He smiled.
“Then you’d better work hard to support them.”
The car stopped outside a mobile phone shop. Without a word, he got out.
Through the window, his dark figure moved about inside. A little later, he returned and tossed me a small gray phone.
A perfect catch.
One look at it, though, wiped the satisfaction from my face.
“Does anyone still use a relic like this?”
“It came free with a top-up. How fancy were you expecting?”
“And here I thought you’d suddenly decided to be nice,” I muttered.
“My number’s saved in there. If you get into trouble, call me.”
Then he made a point of adding, “You still owe me money. I can’t have anything happening to you.”
Turning the phone over in my hands, I felt an unexpected warmth.
He was infuriating, but Jiajia had been right. Sometimes he really could be thoughtful.
Not that he cared about me. He only cared about getting his money back.
Still, it touched me a little. Since I’d run away, it had been a long time since anyone had shown much concern.
A few presses brought up the contacts.
Only one name.
Ji Feiyang.
Beside me, he drove with his eyes calmly fixed on the road.
Back at the hotel, I caught his arm.
“Look, the skin’s peeling off my hands. You can’t keep making me work. If they get any worse and I can’t use them, how will I pay you back?”
“You think this is your house and I’m your father? You don’t get to stop working whenever you feel like it.”
What a vile way to speak to someone.
Anger made me tremble. To think I’d just been feeling kindly toward him. What a joke.
“Don’t push it. Owing you a little money doesn’t give you the right to treat me like this.”
He walked away without a trace of sympathy.
Back in my tiny room, I went on fuming.
No dinner? With all that food in the kitchen, surely I could find something to eat.
The cooks were busy when I arrived.
“Out! Out!”
A huge pot of pork-stomach soup was steaming nearby, its aroma making my hunger worse. There had to be a little left over from a pot that big.
“Let me carry that for you.”
A show of enthusiasm might help.
“No need. Get out.”
“It’s all right.”
Swallowing my temper, I kept trying to help.
Between us, the white porcelain bowl went back and forth. Who pulled harder, I couldn’t say.
Then scalding soup spilled over my slender wrist.
“Ah!”
My screams filled the kitchen.
“Quick! Ice!”
“Burn ointment!”
Ever since I’d run away, my life had changed completely. Every miserable thing that could happen seemed to happen to me.
My arm turned red and swollen, thick as a carrot. Tears poured out without stopping, and my screams could have lifted the roof.
Had I known, I’d have gladly missed dinner.
Two dinners. Three, even.
Outside the kitchen, I ran into Ji Feiyang in the lobby.
He stared in disbelief. Probably wondering how one person could cause so much trouble.
Then his expression turned alarmed.
What was he so worried about? Afraid something would happen to me before I paid him back?
That seemed a little… Still, the world was full of strange people. Perhaps he wanted a lifetime of free labor out of me.
A capitalist to the core.
“It hurts… It hurts…”
“Now you know what pain feels like.”
His expression offered no comfort.
“It’s all your fault! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have—”
“Serves you right.”
For all his harsh words, he paid close attention to the burn.
Back in my room, he pulled a chair up beside the bed. We sat staring at each other. It was getting late, but he showed no sign of leaving.
Pain woke me in the middle of the night.
He was still there, fully dressed, asleep in the chair with a blanket partly covering him.
The memory of his earlier sneering face came back to me. He wasn’t supposed to be this nice.
What a strange man.
The pain started me crying again. Quietly at first, but the more I cried, the worse it seemed to hurt. Soon, my sobs woke him.
At the sight of my tearful face, his expression softened with concern.
“Don’t cry. It’ll feel better soon.”
“You try it and see! It hurts so much I’d be better off dead.”
He took my hand and gently blew over the burn.
“Does that help?”
Through my tears, I nodded.
So he kept blowing. The soft air passed over every patch of injured skin, like a hand stroking it gently. The relief spread deeper than the burn.
My eyes stayed on him, rather foolishly, and for a while the pain slipped from my mind.
It was almost as though Big Brother were there, tenderly stroking me, his voice full of concern.
“It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt.”
A hand waved in front of my eyes, bringing me back.
“What are you thinking about?”
He was smiling, though it was the kind of smile that said he thought me silly.
“Big Brother.”
“Oh. Missing home… Do you want to go back?”
After thinking about it, I shook my head.
“Why?”
Another shake.
“You’re hurt like this, and you still won’t go home? At home, someone would look after you. You wouldn’t keep getting hurt, either. I can’t follow you around all the time.”
“Why… Why are you being so nice to me?”
The question came out cautiously, with a little gratitude.
He hadn’t expected it. For a moment, he had no answer.
Then he seemed embarrassed enough to be annoyed.
“Am I nice to you?”
“No. You’re not nice… Actually, that’s putting it mildly. You’re awful.”
That made him laugh.
“But… you’ve been quite good to me tonight.”
“I’m no saint. I just take pity on people now and then.”
“If someone else had burned herself, would you stay with her all night too?”
My voice was quiet.
“Well… your case is different.”
His eyes looked a little flustered.
“You still owe me money. If something happens to that hand, how are you going to work? Besides, you’re Jiajia’s friend. I ought to make a bit of an exception…”
I wasn’t entirely convinced.
Could it be that he liked me?
The rest of the night passed in fits of sleep and waking.