He Never Came Home to Me

At two in the morning, I woke in my rented apartment to the electronic lock announcing that someone had entered the wrong code.

Instinctively, I called my long-distance boyfriend. I kept trying, but he never answered. All I got was a text.

Didn’t we agree on one call every five days? It’s only been three days since the last one. Call me in two days.

Fu Jianzhou hated it when I called every day. He said I was keeping him from making money, delaying the day he could give me a home.

So for five years, we had lived in separate cities and spoken on the phone once every five days.

In the end, my best friend, my younger brother, and the boy I’d grown up with brought the police and got me out of danger.

I clung to Bai Wanxing and sobbed while my brother, Xu Mingzheng, patted my shoulder. Lu Yao, my childhood friend, cursed Fu Jianzhou.

“You let him get away with too much. That’s why he thinks he can ignore you whenever he wants.”

A month later, my best friend posted on WeChat Moments: Working till midnight tonight. Anyone want to keep me company?

I immediately took a cab to her office. Before I could get out, I froze.

Fu Jianzhou, who was supposed to be working in another city, was opening his car door. With one hand against the roof to protect her head and the other around Bai Wanxing, he helped her into the car.

Xu Mingzheng and Lu Yao followed them in, both smiling.