Molly Xia walked out of the Sophia Grand Hotel. After the snowing of the previous night, the early morning air was chilly and Molly trembled in the cold, which felt even more harsh when mixed with her sorrow. Her strange figure drew several gazes from the pedestrians on the snow-coated road.
Owing to her hurried departure, she hadn't had time to look for her own clothes and was still wearing the bathrobe she had taken from the hotel room. Without boots or even socks, her feet became red and numb as the chill pierced her bone. However, she seemed to have more pressing matters on her hands and merely walked on, biting her lips and ignoring the pain.
Her tears, hot in sharp contrast to the snow, flooded her eyes and poured down through her cold cheeks and down to her lips. They were bitter and seemed to fill every nerve of her body with the same increasing despair that only part of her had felt before.
Her sorrow was evident in her fountain of tears, which she let flow as she forgot her physical pain and kept walking, gripping the corners of her bathrobe tightly. The strange glances she received didn't seem to affect her the least.
It had already been two years.
Two years before, she had been a high school student with a bright and sunny future. She had been studying hard every day just to earn her letter of recommendation which would get her into A City University at public expense. She had achieved her dream and had received her acceptance that day. But when she had brought the letter home, she had found her whole world upside down!
Usurers had broken into her house. Some had remained outside, spray painting it, while some were torturing her mother, pulling her hair as she screamed in pain. Her father, who owed them an enormous amount of debt, had already endured several punches all over his body, and her 12-year-old brother had been tied to a chair.
She could never forget the moment the usurers had told her the truth about her father. The kind-hearted man who worked hard for his family had borrowed five hundred grand in unscrupulous loans and lost it all in gambling!
Now, all those memories were coursing through her mind. Suddenly, she felt a searing cramp in her leg and fell down with a sharp cry and an effortless stumble.
The freezing snow had already stiffened her body and she felt nothing as she lay broken with red and swollen eyes. Her tears, previously on her cheeks, now fell on the snow and seemed to melt the cold.
Drop by drop, the snow melted right in front of Molly's face, as she lay there, crying her heart out. Her lips curled into a bitter smile, laughing at the irony and mocking her own self. Frustrated and helpless, she laughed at the injustice she had suffered in the last two years and... mourned her virginity that had been lost the previous night.
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