A’Juan sprinted to the bathroom and twisted the tap to full blast, the rushing water roaring as it crashed down.
Her legs and hands began to shake uncontrollably. Unable to support herself, she slid to her knees on the floor. Fighting the maddening itch and pain that bored into her very bones, she jammed her arm into the gap beneath the sink and groped around desperately.
Where is it?
Where is it!
A’Juan was hysterical. Her other hand kept clawing at her neck, which had broken out in a rash.
Her nails raked red lines across her skin, but it did nothing. It was as though a thousand insects were crawling through the blood vessels beneath her flesh.
After scrabbling around for a while, she finally found the small packet of white powder. She sniffled, and her trembling fingers had barely pried it open when a hand appeared before her eyes and snatched it away.
“Get up.”
The man’s voice was cool and calm.
A’Juan looked up in a panic. The moment she recognized Jiang Hansheng, the color drained from her face. But she had no capacity for complex thought. She crawled across the floor on all fours and threw her arms around his legs, begging him, “Give it back, give it back!”
She stared at Jiang Hansheng’s lips — thin, almost to the point of coldness — as he repeated, “Get up.”
A’Juan’s eyes were bloodshot. She stared desperately at the only thing that could rescue her from this agony, but no matter how she screamed, Jiang Hansheng would not give it back.
In despair, she clawed at her own hair and, tormented by withdrawal, collapsed on the floor, writhing and shrieking, “It itches — it itches!“
“Help me, please help me — I can’t take it, I can’t take it!” Snot and tears poured down her face. “Just a little, give me just a little…”
Twisting in her torment, A’Juan tore open her own collar and went back to clawing at the invisible creatures gnawing at her bones. Her neck was smeared with blood, yet she found no relief. Then she threw herself at the wall, slamming her head against it in a frenzy.
Jiang Hansheng hooked his arm around her and held her in place. “A’Juan.”
His voice was unhurried, yet carried a warmth and weight that made A’Juan go still for a moment.
She stopped screaming. Instead she wept in anguish: “I can’t quit — I can’t quit! It’s useless, nothing works, nothing ever works…”
“You can quit.”
The itching and pain inside her were unbearable. A’Juan lashed out at the nearest thing she could reach and sank her teeth savagely into Jiang Hansheng’s arm — hard and vicious, drawing a bloody bite wound in an instant.
Jiang Hansheng merely furrowed his brow slightly. Undeterred by her frenzy, he pressed her firmly against the wall.
An irresistible force bore down on her, and A’Juan’s strength bled away bit by bit as she struggled.
She crumpled to her knees on the floor, knocking her head against the wall in a broken rhythm, and said in fragmented gasps: “I can’t let my mom and dad find out — help me, please — I didn’t want this… I didn’t want to end up like this…”
“You’re a good girl.”
Jiang Hansheng pressed his hand over her trembling shoulder. His hand was slender and steady, and A’Juan felt a warmth — slightly feverish — seeping into her frozen body.
“I’ll help you.”
The commotion had been loud enough to carry all the way to the lobby. Fearing something had gone wrong, Zhou Jin rushed over the moment she heard the screaming.
“A’Juan, is that you?”
She knocked several times with no response. The person inside was still wailing, her voice half-swallowed by the roar of running water.
Zhou Jin sensed something was seriously wrong. Without stopping to think, she kicked the bathroom door open.
And then she saw Jiang Hansheng.
He was holding A’Juan tightly against him. The young woman in his arms had disheveled hair, exposed shoulders, and a body wracked with convulsions.
Zhou Jin’s mind went blank for a split second — and in that instant, Jiang Hansheng’s face seemed to blur and merge with Jiang Cheng’s.
Her hands and feet went cold and stiff. Her face drained of color. She took an involuntary step back.
It was only when Jiang Hansheng’s dark eyes locked directly onto hers and he said, “Zhou Jin, call an ambulance,” that she snapped back to herself.
Zhou Jin wheeled around and blocked the staff members who had followed her to check on the situation, keeping them outside the bathroom door. “Call an ambulance. Now.”
She pulled the door shut behind her with a slam, then crossed to A’Juan’s side while pulling her loose short-sleeved top over her head with one hand.
Zhou Jin wrapped the shirt around A’Juan’s body and pressed her palm to the girl’s sweat-damp forehead.
Her heart sank. “Is it withdrawal?”
Jiang Hansheng nodded.
Zhou Jin absorbed that in silence, then reached out and took A’Juan from Jiang Hansheng’s arms. “Let me take her.”
---
Outside the hospital room.
The corridor was quiet. Zhou Jin leaned against the wall by the door, gazing through the glass at A’Juan lying in the hospital bed, and at Jiang Hansheng standing at her bedside.
Her own reflection was mirrored faintly in the glass — still and expressionless.
After the ordeal of the past several hours, A’Juan had at last regained consciousness.
A’Juan’s parents were not in Haizhou City and had no way to come quickly. When A’Juan woke, the first person she asked to see was Jiang Hansheng.
Her face was utterly haggard. Her voice came out slightly hoarse. “Don’t tell my mom and dad, okay?”
“Zhou Jin has already contacted them,” Jiang Hansheng said calmly. “The truth is, their help is exactly what you need most right now.”
A’Juan closed her eyes in despair. “I don’t want to disappoint them again.”