I was just about to turn around and leave when she suddenly grabbed me rudely and said, "Don't go until you've heard me out."
I sneered, "What a joke! Why should I listen to you?" I shook her off vigorously and walked away. After just a few steps, her unhurried voice came from behind me, "There will be a birthday party at Jane's house in a few days. You'll come, right?"
I didn't understand why she said that. With my back to her, I gave a cold laugh and didn't reply.
"You'll come. Otherwise, your mother will surely find out the whole story behind your breakup with Ian, and then she'll rush to Ian and Pei Xiaoyan's place to demand justice for you." Although she was threatening me, her tone was so casual as if she were just chatting.
I immediately turned around and glared at her angrily, "Are you threatening me? Why?"
She had a smile on her face and said softly, "As long as you come, none of that will happen."
I was so angry that I was fuming.
My mother is irritable, impulsive, and sometimes she becomes hysterical when she's afraid that her family members will be bullied. So I told her that I broke up with Ian first instead of being dumped by him. I was afraid that she might do something terrible on impulse.
Therefore, her threat worked. After struggling for a few days, I decided to attend Jane's birthday party. Li Aide was very curious about why I, who was right in the middle of the breakup turmoil, would show up in public so easily. I avoided answering his question.
That night, I took Li Aide's car as he was also invited and went to Jane's house together. When we arrived, we were already more than an hour late.
The birthday party had already started. The originally beautiful living room was filled with guests. There were classmates as well as men and women I didn't know. They were wearing gorgeous evening gowns, with makeup either thick or light, chatting in the corners or dancing to the music in the middle of the living room.
There was a huge heart-shaped cake in the middle of the living room, with beautiful candles all over it. The candlelight, combined with the soft lamplight, made the whole living room look extremely beautiful.
My nose felt a bit sour and it seemed that even breathing became a bit difficult. Because I remembered the heart-shaped cake that Ian bought for me last year. It also had beautiful candles on it, even more beautiful than the ones on this cake.
What was between us had truly become the past.
I wanted to cry, but I knew that I couldn't do that here.
After greeting Jane, I saw Han Meilin. She was dressed very low-key that night. She hardly wore any makeup, just having her eyebrows drawn and a little lip gloss on. She was wearing a long black dress with straps, sitting in the corner and raising her wine glass to me.
I walked up to her and said, "I'm here. What exactly do you want to tell me?"
She had already drunk a few glasses of wine and was a bit tipsy. Holding the wine glass, she said with a bit of sadness, "When I walked in, hardly anyone greeted me. How could my popularity be so bad?"
What she said had nothing to do with what I asked, but I still said, "It's not that bad. At least Jane invited you to the birthday party."
She took a sip of wine and smiled bitterly, "Really? I forced her to. If she didn't want to invite me, then I would report her for plagiarizing papers."
I was shocked. Before I could think much about it, she stood up from the chair and said, "Follow me."
I followed her upstairs to the second floor and then entered a small room.
"Wait a moment," she sat on the bed, looking at me with a smile, "You'll understand soon."
I had no choice but to sit aside and wait patiently for her "soon".
An hour passed. Listening to the laughter and chatter downstairs, it seemed that they were about to cut the cake and the dance was about to reach its climax.
I couldn't help standing up and said, "If you don't have anything to do, I'll go downstairs."
She still sat on the bed, didn't move at all when she heard my words, and said quietly, "You'll understand soon."
I got up to open the door, only to find that it was locked from the inside and I couldn't open it no matter what. I rushed to her and demanded, "Where's the key?"
She said, "I'll give it to you later."
I was furious, "Han Meilin, I'm telling you, I'm not afraid of you. Don't play tricks here. Hand over the key quickly."
She completely ignored my anger and said slowly, "I said I'll give it to you later."
I had no way to deal with her and could only sit down angrily again.
The cheers downstairs were getting louder and louder. It was almost midnight. They were all celebrating Jane's getting one year older.
There was a wall clock in the small room, ticking away. The room was so quiet that the ticking sound was particularly noticeable. Strangely enough, I had never paid attention to the sound of the clock before, but now I suddenly found this sound a bit eerie.
Han Meilin was sitting on the bed under the dim light. The cigarette in her hand was flickering. She tilted her head, looked at me with a half-smile, and there was a sly light in her eyes like that of a cat. In my eyes, she herself had become rather eerie.
Time passed quickly. Half an hour later, the clock started chiming, once, twice, three times...
With the sound of the chiming, somehow, I suddenly felt nervous and my hands clenched into fists.
Finally, the clock chimed twelve times. The cheers downstairs reached a fever pitch. Jane had officially entered her twenty-second year.
Han Meilin suddenly jumped up from the bed and quickly threw a thin bedsheet at me. Before I could figure out what was going on, my vision blurred and my mind went blank for an instant.
At that moment of distraction, miraculously, my whole world suddenly turned dark, pitch black.
It was a darkness that you could never imagine. At that moment, you would think you had gone to hell.
I screamed loudly, "Han Meilin, you devil woman!"
If I hadn't experienced it myself, I would never have believed it.
At that moment, I really felt as if I were in the dark hell.