Rain fell in slow, cold sheets, and Giulia's clothes clung to her like a second skin, soaked and heavy, but she didn't care. She stood in front of the iron gates of the Longwangshi mansion, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, while her fists kept pounding against the steel gate like it would somehow crack open and let her pass through.
"Please!" she screamed, her voice hoarse.
"Let me speak to master Yong Li. Just once!"
The guards didn't move. They stood like statues, unmoved by her tears, the rain, or the desperation that poured off her. They had been instructed to not let her in.
Inside the mansion, the storm outside could barely be heard over the soft sobs coming through Yong Li's bedroom. He sat on the edge of his bed, shirt undone, chest rising and falling with grief that gnawed at him like a hungry animal.
His head was buried in his hands, fingers digging into his hair, trying to tear away the image that haunted him of the woman he loved, in his cousin's arms.
"You should never have trusted her," Madam Li Na's voice coiled around him. She sat on the armchair in his room, looking unbothered, while sipping her tea with a cruel expression.
Yong Li didn't look at her. He couldn't. His eyes were too clouded with pain, with rage, with betrayal.
"I always had my suspicions," she continued. "The way she looked at him and the way she let him enter her room. Have you seen the way she blushes when he is around her? You thought she was pure? A maid who wormed her way into your bed and into your heart? How foolish of you."
"She said she loved me," Yong Li murmured, almost to himself.
Li Na placed her cup down with a soft clink. "Women like her say anything when they're climbing out of the gutter. They'll sell you love, loyalty, even their soul if it means they get a taste of our world. I told you Zhi Hui is the perfect woman for you…"
Before she could go further, a guard knocked on the door and entered with a bow.
"Sir… Madam… the girl… she's outside. Causing a scene. She's refusing to leave."
Li Na's face twisted with disdain. "That gold digger! Throw her out."
But Yong Li's head shot up, his eyes were fierce. "No, don't."
Li Na narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"I want to speak to her," he snapped, already standing. He shoved past the guard and stalked toward the door.
Li Na sprang to her feet, trailing after him. "What? You're not going out there to give her a chance to lie to you, are you? After what you saw?"
"I just want to hear what she has to say," he muttered, though even he didn't know if that was true. His heart was already cracking open again, just from hearing her name. His Giulia.
Outside, Giulia had collapsed to her knees in front of the gates, her hands still wrapped around the iron bars as though holding on to them would somehow keep her from falling apart.
The rain had turned the ground to mud, and it splattered across her skin and dress, but she didn't care. Her eyes were locked on the mansion, willing him to come out and listen to her and to understand.
The gates finally opened and her breath caught in her throat as she saw him.
Yong Li.
He looked like a storm himself, his eyes were dark and his brows furrowed, with his mouth set in a hard line. The rain matted his hair to his forehead as he pushed past the gates, and for a second, just a second, she thought he had come to hold her but he stopped several feet away.
"Yong Li!" she cried, scrambling to her feet. "Please, I need to tell you something—"
Madam Li Na had followed close behind, her presence was like a blade pressed against Giulia's throat. The second she stepped into view, Giulia froze and Yong Li noticed.
"You wanted to say something, go ahead," he ordered, voice cold. "What is it you want me to hear?"
Giulia's lips trembled. She opened her mouth, but the words caught in her throat. Li Na's presence frightened her. She could not mention her pregnancy to Yong Li, not in front of her.
"I—" she stammered.
Yong Li's expression hardened. "You what? I see what's going on, you are having a hard time coming up with a lie, right?"
"No! That's not…"
"Then what is it!" He roared.
She looked between him and Li Na, panic building in her chest. "I can't say anything here. Please, just let me talk to you alone."
"Son, do not listen to her, she is trying to manipulate you."
Yong Li didn't move. The silence from him stretched like a chasm, then he stepped forward, only to shove her away.
Giulia stumbled, landing hard in the mud with a gasp.
"Don't you ever show your face here again," Yong Li spat. "If I ever see you near this residence again, you won't just be thrown out… you'll be buried."
Giulia's heart shattered. She pushed herself up on shaking hands, mud clinging to her dress and skin like shame.
"Yong Li, please.."
"Don't address me by my name! You lost that right, the moment you chose to sleep with my cousin, slut!"
His cold words hit her hard, and all she could do was stare at him with tears in her eyes.
Without hesitation, he turned and walked back in, leaving her there in the rain.
Li Na stepped closer, her heels sinking slightly into the wet ground. She looked down at Giulia with a satisfied smirk.
"I warned you, now look at you," she sneered. "All used up and discarded. I told you it would end. Now, you are free to sell your body out to anyone or maybe go to Lei Feng."
Giulia lifted her tear-streaked face. "It was a lie. Lei Feng tricked me. I didn't have any affair with him."
Li Na chuckled, brushing invisible lint off her silk sleeve. "It doesn't matter, I do not care. Yong Li saw what he needed to see and now you're nothing to him. Nothing."
"I'm carrying his child," Giulia whispered, the words falling from her lips like a prayer.
Li Na leaned in, her voice was low and venomous. "Then you better get rid of it. Or I will. Get lost now!"
Realization quickly dawned on Giulia, "it was you, right? You asked Lei Feng to frame me."
All Li Na did was flash a dark smile at her, before walking back into the mansion, leaving Giulia crumpled in the corner.