“Fifi!”The word sprung out of Zayn’s throat the moment he caught her silhouette. His eyes began to water.In the past, hearing his voice would have made her spin on her heels and lurch straight into his arms, crying and laughing as they shared a loving embrace—However, she did none of that. She simply remained kneeling on the floor, unmoving. Zayn’s sudden appearance startled the other nuns. They glared at him disapprovingly, their features sharpened by hints of anger for disrupting their erstwhile silence.One of them was quick to remove him. Unsurprisingly, they did not look very happy—a boorish layperson who had barged into their serene cloister with his barbaric screams. “Sir, you should not be here. You’re trespassing on our sacred ground. It is an area that is barred from public entry! Please, leave!”More nuns began to pour into the space, all of them just as displeased. It was simply unbecoming of Zayn to crash their latest member’s tonsure rite. One of them raised her v
Zayn shook his head. “Apologies, Venerable, but I cannot let you perform the tonsure rite on my wife.”Wary hostility resurfaced on the senior nun’s face as she fixed her gaze upon Zayn’s features. “I take that as a proclamation of non-cooperation?”Zayn bowed slightly. “I must bring my wife home. Please, let me fulfil that wish.”The senior nun sneered loudly, “Yes—you’re here to create trouble. If that is what you seek, do not blame us for what is to come!”In the blink of an eye, every nun in the prayer hall drew a wooden club and stood at the ready. They surrounded Zayn, leaving no room for him to escape. They were going to boot him out of the temple the hard way.Zayn exhaled a long sigh. The last thing he wanted to do was to offend the nuns, so he raised his voice and called out to his wife, “Fifi! Fifi! I know you still remember me! I’m back, Fifi, and I promise—I’m never going to do anything life-threatening ever again! Please… Please don’t be mad at me. Come on, let’s go
The senior nun did not believe the abbess’s claim right away. She frowned slightly, but did not offer any rebuttal. Pressing her palms together, she lowered her head and whispered, “Alright.”A faint smile shadowed the abbess’s lips. “You might not believe it, but you’re looking at a perfect class elite fighter. He’s stronger than he looks. He could reshape terrain with a single punch,” she said. “It is only out of the kindness of his heart did he refrain from killing you all. He didn’t need to explain himself. He could have just uprooted the entire temple from its foundation with a finger.”The nuns were startled. They turned to Zayn, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape, though they believed every word the abbess uttered. The abbess would never lie to them.Her words were all they needed to see Zayn in a brand-new light—one that was devoid of hostility. Instead, they looked at him with renewed respect.A perfect class fighter was akin to a superhuman at the apex of human evolution—
Faye and Zayn were now face-to-face.She frowned slightly… and that was the extent of her emotional response. She backed away from him. Her voice was slightly strained with exasperation when she warned, “Please respect the distance between us, sir.”Zayn was startled. He had envisioned every possible scenario in his head—how he would be happily reunited with Faye—over a thousand times. He thought he had predicted every alternate ending. He thought she would be moved, overjoyed, happy, or even angry; anything but cold.She was so steely, so distant. She acted like they were complete strangers.It was not even an affectation of any kind, because Zayn could not detect any emotion or yearning for him at all. When he looked into her eyes, he saw nothing but a soulless pit. She was looking at him like he was a stranger she had never met before.Zayn could not understand what happened. She was fine, right? No blunt trauma to the head—no nothing, so why was she acting like an amnesiac? Sh
Faye’s words caused Zayn’s blood to run cold. It felt like winter had just fallen in the prayer hall—nipping, bitter, and nothing like he had ever felt before. His grandfather once tossed him into a bucket of ice during a harsh winter when he was younger. Though, the biting frost from back then was in no way comparable to the frigidity he was facing.Her words were simple and straight to the point, yet it felt like an ice drill that had driven straight into Zayn’s skull. It was as though his brain had been frozen over. His head was empty. How could that be? He was a perfect class elite fighter, for God’s sake!She did not recognize him at all. She might have looked the same outwardly, but there was nothing left inside of her body that was distinctly Faye Carter.It was as if another soul—a stranger’s—had inhabited Faye’s body altogether.It was more than just selective amnesia. Faye was in such intense denial and grief that she had somehow created a new personality. It had caused h
The original Faye had already vanished in a sense that she was replaced with an otherworldly being named ‘Wang Que’, who had been disconnected from the common world. Zayn felt cynical. He had put in so much effort and endured all sorts of hardships that drove him to the brink of death just so he could save Faye’s life. In spite of that, it seemed that God felt it necessary to play some sort of practical joke on him. He managed to save Faye’s life, though it was no longer Faye who was inhabiting her body.There was a period of silence—one that lasted for quite some time. Zayn was the first to break the silence. “Wang Que, I hope you don’t mind me asking; have you forgotten about me completely?”Faye stopped beating wooden fish for a split second. It was a very brief pause. Had it not been for Zayn’s sharp hearing, it would have gone entirely unnoticed.The subtle change gave Zayn a new hope. The despondency that had been burdening his heart had been lifted!He had not lost Faye ju
Click click click click…Faye had been beating the wooden fish at a steady pace, but it was apparent that she was now discomposed. She beat the wooden fish so rapidly that her finger had become a blur. She beat the wooden fish even harder and even more strenuously...In the end, a resounding crack resonated throughout the prayer hall. She had broken the wooden fish!“That’s enough!” Faye’s eyes widened as she glared at Zayn. Her eyes were filled with emotion. There was anger brewing from within her, which was quite the rare occurrence.When he was confronted by her beratement, Zayn was not infuriated at all. He actually cracked a smile. It was a smile that came from the bottom of his heart. Faye’s reaction signified that she was still clinging on to some memories, and that there was still a chance for him to salvage their relationship.He stretched his hand out to hold Faye’s own. “Fifi, come back to me. I’m back, and I’m not going to leave you again.”Faye was so agitated that
Hearing that familiar tone of voice, Zayn could no longer hold back his tears. They flowed down his face like a geyser. “Fifi, you’re back. That’s great, that’s great.”A man would usually never shed a tear, unless it was something that touched his soul. There was no doubt that Zayn was an iron-willed man. Even in the face of adversity, he maintained a smile on his face. Even when he was looking death straight in the eye, he resolved it all while remaining calm and collected. In spite of it all, he broke down in tears when he was confronted by Faye uttering his name. Faye hugged him back, afraid to let go. “Don’t ever leave me again, don’t ever leave me again…”“Mmph… Mmph, I won’t leave you again!” Zayn nodded vigorously as he made his promise to her. It was possible that Faye was just exhausted, or perhaps she was agitated. Regardless, Faye’s eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed in Zayn’s arms. Zayn wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her familiar scent.