Chapter 75
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When the car door opened, Jiang Li was still facing the window, his reflection faintly visible against the glass as the outside lights blurred into soft streaks of gold and white. He wasn't really looking at anything beyond the glass, though. His thoughts were far too loud for that. His cheeks were still flushed a deep red that refused to fade, the warmth lingering stubbornly across his face as if it had settled there permanently.
He held the small plastic fork loosely between his fingers, taking slow, absent-minded bites of the chocolate cake resting in his lap. Each bite was smaller than the last, as though he were trying to stretch out the moment, to delay something he couldn't quite name. The sweetness coated his tongue, rich and heavy, but he barely noticed it. His attention was somewhere else entirely.
Then, gradually, something shifted.
