Ouo Liechen · Chat

The first autumn rain of the year hit Xiang City sudden and hard, neon lights trailing long smears of light across the wet asphalt. A row of black cars sat outside the entrance of Jinlihao Club, women in high heels linking arms with men in suits as they walked through the doors, laughter and the sound of rain mingling into something that prickled hot against the ears. You stood at the bottom of the steps, collapsing your umbrella, and looked up at the gleaming golden sign. Three years. You never thought you'd come back to Xiang City, and least of all that you'd be standing in this place. "Hey, sis, let's go! What are you spacing out for?" your best friend Lin Xiaoxiao grabbed your wrist and tugged you inside. "Tonight's a big night at Jinlihao. I heard the boss here is really hard to book — if my brother hadn't pulled strings through about three layers of connections, we wouldn't even have gotten a private room. Come on, don't keep them waiting." She dragged you through the lobby. Jinlihao was even more opulent than it was three years ago — the crystal chandeliers dazzled your eyes, the marble floor was polished to a mirror shine, and the wall sconces lining the hallway were trimmed with gold. The waiters wore matching vests, spines straight, bowing to everyone who passed. "This place wasn't this fancy before," you said casually. "Before?" Lin Xiaoxiao looked back at you. "You've been here?" You didn't answer. You just smiled. At the turn on the second floor, you caught a thick smell of cigarette smoke. A group of people stood at the end of the hallway, and the one at the front was tall, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, wearing a dark gray shirt with the sleeves carelessly rolled to his forearms, showing sturdy wrists and the faint old scars on them. He was tilting his head to listen to the man beside him, hair at the back of his head combed neat and slicked back, revealing a clean, sharp line of neck. Your steps faltered for half a beat. And right then, he turned around — an unlit cigarette pinched between his fingers, his downturned eyes sweeping down the corridor with an innate, untamed menace. Then he saw you. The cigarette crumpled between his fingers. His expression seemed to freeze for one whole second — so fast that if you hadn't been watching him the whole time, you would never have caught it. The next second, the corner of his mouth curled up, careless, with a faint hint of a sneer, his voice coarse and low: "Oh." He took two steps forward and looked down at you, his gaze dragging slowly from your face to your feet and back up again, like he was appraising something he'd once thrown away and that had now shown up in front of him again. "Isn't this the young lady of our Lingchuan Group? What, is this little place called Xiang City still big enough to hold a great Buddha like you?" The lackeys beside him exchanged uneasy glances and didn't dare make a sound. Lin Xiaoxiao froze too, looking from you to him. "Sis... you two... know each other?" You ignored Lin Xiaoxiao. You just met Ouo Liechen's gaze and said softly, "Long time no see." Ouo Liechen let out a chuckle, but it never reached his eyes. He tossed the crumpled cigarette into the trash can beside him, shoved his hands in his pockets, and stood in front of you — too tall, his shadow almost swallowing you whole. "Long time no see?" He repeated those four words with a mocking tone that held down a fire. "Easy for you to say. Three years and not even a peep, and the moment you're back you come running straight to my place — what, heard you got divorced, and you want to come reminisce with your old flame?" His words were nasty. But your eyes landed on his left hand — the one hanging by his side, knuckles white, clenched so tight the veins crawled from the back of his hand all the way up his forearm. You curved the corner of your mouth slightly. "Boss Ouo talks so mean now — is it because you're afraid I'll see that you still can't let me go?" Ouo Liechen's face went black on the spot. He pressed one more step forward, stared down at you, and lowered his voice to barely a whisper, as if squeezing the words out between his teeth: "Can't let you go? Don't flatter yourself, you bitch. With the kind of wealth I've got now, you think I'd want some divorced woman?" With that, he turned and left, taking long, rapid strides, a thin patch of sweat soaking through the back of his shirt. The lackeys behind him scrambled to follow, and one bolder one turned back to flash an apologetic smile at you two: "Ladies, the private room is 308, someone will show you the way — Boss Ouo is... probably in a bit of a mood today." You stood where you were, watching his retreating figure, and in the second before he turned the corner at the end of the hallway, you clearly saw him raise a hand and roughly wipe it across his face. Lin Xiaoxiao sidled up and asked in a careful whisper, "Sis... is he that..." You said nothing, and looked down at your own hand. At some point, your palm had gotten sweaty too. The rain was still falling. And you knew — from the moment you'd set foot through the gates of Jinlihao, Xiang City was a place you could no longer outrun. <choice_group> <choice id="1">Change the direction of the conversation</choice> <choice id="2">Observe the details of the scene</choice> <choice id="3">Move the plot forward</choice> </choice_group>