“Hamish, what you’re doing is illegal…”
Hamish asked, “Lila, have you just gotten to know me?”
She had known Hamish for many years, knowing that he always sought revenge, and more importantly, that he never cared about the law.
Trembling, she looked at the figure coming closer to her. Her body, already cold, shook like dry leaves in the wind, as if she might shatter at any moment.
With bloodshot eyes, she looked at the cold-hearted man. “Hamish, in these seven years, didn’t you have any feelings for me?”
“Feelings?” Hamish reacted as if he had heard a joke, sneering, “In these seven years, do I need to remind you how you obtained me? Lila, you deceived me, and I merely considered you a substitute.”
Just like Elisa, what she loved was only the man who had carried a string of candied fruits for her over a decade ago. He wasn’t that man, but was willing to be a substitute. Unfortunately, Elisa wouldn’t even give him the chance to be a substitute.
Who was a substitute for whom, and who truly fell in love with whom?
“Hamish, your love is truly cheap. I spent so many years with you but couldn’t compare to Elisa, who saved you once. Even a dog would develop feelings after knowing someone for over a decade.”
Hamish coldly looked at Lila’s clown-like face. “Don’t make yourself sound so noble. If you truly liked me, you wouldn’t have slept with other men, and gotten caught red-handed.”
He knew clearly that compared to Lila, he was the truly unforgivable one. He didn’t even have the right to judge Lila because, just like her, he stole his emotions.
Hamish didn’t cut off Lila’s hands and tongue. He only had her thrown into a desolate mountain village. She wanted to live a superior life, didn’t she? He wouldn’t grant her wish, letting her beg for survival like a beggar, humbling herself before the very people she once looked down upon.
Both physically and mentally, Hamish inflicted twin torments upon her, rendering Lila unable to live, yet unable to die.
Two weeks later, Hamish received news about Lila again. A journalist coincidentally encountered Lila during a trip. Coincidentally, this journalist had once been invited to Lila and Hamish’s engagement banquet.
In the team of unscrupulous journalists, this journalist certainly held a prominent position. Regardless of morality, as long as it could spark a trending response, it was good.
He spread various “ugly behaviors” of Lila on the internet, even hiring marketing accounts for promotion.
The former fiancée of the Burns Group’s president publicly humiliated her fiancé at their engagement party, and even had a scandalous video. Now, her end was miserable, living like a pariah.
Hamish glanced at it, indifferent. What did it matter to him whether Lila lived or died?
However, he didn’t expect that the next news he would receive about Lila would be news of her death.
She died in mid-May, in the summer. Her body rotted and maggots infested it, her once beautiful face now unrecognizable.
…
After dealing with Lila, Hamish planned to return to Bankshire. He didn’t bring any luggage, only the blue-and-white porcelain pot that once held the ashes of a child.
He touched the porcelain pot, hoarsely saying, “Baby, your mother doesn’t want me anymore… If you are by her side, be sure to take care of her.”
His face turned cold, and it was only when he felt the moistness on the pot that he realized he was unknowingly shedding tears.
Upon returning to Bankshire, he found a large plot of land and buried the blue-and-white porcelain pot. There was a tombstone, but no name. It was a half-desolate grave.
On a winter evening, the sight was desolately melancholic. Hamish sat in front of the grave. “Elisa, if we had met later, and I had known how to love you, could we have made it to the end?”
Meeting the right person at the wrong time always led to a tragic ending, no matter how the story unfolded. Moreover, their journey was filled with nothing but pain.
Before the grave, from dusk to night, Hamish gazed at the sparse stars in the sky. There were already so many, and there couldn’t be more…
Hamish stood up, his figure desolate. He took three steps forward and glanced back at the grave. This time, no matter how he turned, there would be no one behind him.
“If you ever feel tired outside, come back and rest. I won’t disturb you, really.”
…