Fang Zhelan was at the end of her rope.  'Why isn't the bastard dead?' she thought as she wept.  The heavens knew that piece of shit certainly deserved it, and yet they had preserved his life.

The piece of paper bearing her husband's test results crumpled in her hand as she beat the ground with her fist.  The cancer is in remission, it read.  Despite the fact that it had been stage 4 when it had been discovered.  Despite the fact that he'd gotten an infection that taxed his crippled immune system so badly he'd been in the ICU for weeks.  The heavens were unjust, and he was still alive.

Fang Zhelan didn't know what else she could do.  She had subtly manipulated the situation to the extent of her ability, but all her efforts had been in vain.  Anything else on her part would run the risk of getting caught, which would get her family involved.  There wasn't any shame in what she had tried to do, at least not by her family's standards, but it was still better to handle these things on her own.

The chiming of the clock shook Fang Zhelan out of her fog of despair, and she looked up at it.  'It's six...he'll be home soon.' she thought, and shuddered involuntarily.  She knew he'd want to...celebrate his clean bill of health, and she couldn't bear for him to touch her, to possess her, not anymore.  She dragged herself up off the floor and scrambled to the bathroom, the piece of paper forgotten in her haste.  A few minutes and a quick touch up of her makeup later, and she was ready.

Fang Zhelan found herself out the door and onto the streets before she really knew what she was doing.  She had no idea where she was going, but anyplace was better than home right now.  She looked through the contacts on her phone, trying to come up with some sort of destination for her wanderings.  As she did, voices echoed in her memory.  

'Why are you still with him, he treats you so badly!'

'Is he making you check in again?  You're a grown woman, not a child!'

'I can't be around him! If you're going to keep inviting him to things, I won't come.'

No, there wasn't anyone she could turn to anymore.  He'd made sure of that, she realized now.

She continued to walk the streets aimlessly, not realizing that she had fallen onto a familiar route until she reached the end of it.  In front of her was an invitingly open door, a window filled with neon signs.  'Ah, here,' she thought ruefully.  She'd had many good nights at this place with her friends, but that had been before him.  Like so many lost souls over the millennia, she'd found her way to a bar.

She hesitated for a moment before going in; he didn't like it when she drank.  But, if she was going to be punished when she got home — and she would be punished, regardless of what she did— she may as well do something worth being punished for.  She took a seat at the bar and ordered a cocktail, and it wasn't long before she was approached.

"Hey gorgeous, mind if I have a seat?"  

Fang Zhelan looked the man up and down.  He was in his late 20's and reasonably good looking, with a trendy haircut.  He wore a leather motorcycle jacket.  'Fuck it,' she thought after a moment.

"Sure, why not?" she replied, gesturing to the empty bar stool next to her.

The young man sat down and ordered a drink. While he was waiting, he spoke.  "You know, I've seen a lot of pretty women sitting alone at the bar, but judging from that — " he gestured to Fang Zhelan's wedding ring " — I'm guessing you're not here for the same reason most of them were."

Fang Zhelan took a deep pull from her drink and laughed bitterly.  "You've got that right."

"Anything you want a friendly ear for?"  the man asked.  "I know for me at least sometimes it can be easier to talk about your troubles with a stranger."  He had a very personable, sympathetic aura to him.

Fang Zhelan sighed and shook her head.  "Oh, nothing interesting.  Girl meets boy, boy loves girl, girl marries boy, boy hits girl, girl has nowhere to go.  It's an old story."

The man played with his drink.  "And what if I told you I could help you out with that?"

Fang Zhelan snorted and looked back at him seriously.  "Look, you're cute, and my husband is an asshole, but adultery isn't my thing.  Go find some other married woman to hit on, ok?"

He grinned back at her.  "That's not what I meant, Fang Zhelan."

Everything stopped.  It was too early yet for the bar to be called busy, but there was still a decent sized after work crowd.  They all froze, stopped in time.  The previously noisy bar went silent as all the voices and music disappeared in an instant.

Fang Zhelan backed away from the man, nearly falling off the bar stool in her rush to put some distance between them.  "W-who are you?  What do you want with me?"

The man lifted his empty hands placatingly.  "Relax.  You can think of me as a friend.  If you need a name, call me Lao Jiang.

"You send me back, right now!"  Fang Zhelan was not convinced.  "Do you want to get us both caught, acting like this?"

Lao Jiang laughed.  His attitude against the still, silent bar could not be more relaxed and cocky.  "They won't catch me.  I have ways, you see.  Just like I have ways to help you solve your little problem.  You're already out of ideas, right?  Why not give me a try?"  He leaned back, his elbows on the bar behind him, looking sideways out the corner of his eye at Fang Zhelan.

Fang Zhelan scowled at him.  "My problems are my own, I don't need help from an outsider!"

Lao Jiang shrugged.  "Suit yourself."  Just as suddenly as everything around them had stopped, it started back up again.  Amid the cacophony, a phone began to ring.  Fang Zhelan pulled it from her purse and looked sick when she saw who it was.

"I...my husband is calling.  I have to go."  She turned and left the bar in haste, not even bothering to finish her drink.

Lao Jiang still leaned on the bar, the picture of a charming playboy.  "I'll be here waiting when you change your mind,"  he called after Fang Zhelan.

~~~~~~~

It didn't take Fang Zhelan long to get home from the bar.  When she did, her husband was there waiting for her.

"Where have you been?" he said harshly.  He grabbed her wrist and pulled her up close to him.  "You smell like alcohol, have you been drinking again?"

Fang Zhelan shivered in his grasp.  "T-there was a work function, I didn't have a choice…"

Smack 

Fang Zhelan's husband cut her off with a slap to the face.  "Liar.  You were out at a bar, chatting up some pretty boy, weren't you?"  He slapped her again.  "Why must you make things so hard on yourself? I wouldn't have to discipline you if you didn't lie to me."

'Chatting up some pretty boy...He's not wrong, for once, though it's not what he thinks.' Involuntary tears began to run down her stinging face.  The crumpled test results caught her eye, still lying where she discarded them on the floor earlier.  She said the first thing that came to mind, something, anything that would get him to not hit her again.

"I saw your test results, don't you want to celebrate?" she said, and hated herself for it. This was what she had found herself running away from earlier and yet here she was, practically begging for it.

"That's more like it,"  her husband replied, smiling. 'He must be in a good mood today.' He released her wrist and caressed her cheek where he had struck her, then pulled her towards the bedroom.  "If you're good, I'll even take you out to dinner."

Fang Zhelan followed behind him obediently, disgustedly, still crying.  She closed herself off as he stripped her, laid her on the bed, played with her like a doll.  He finished quickly, and as he went to take a shower she lay there, sticky, unmoving, and numb.

Author's Small Theater

Yeye ...I have been in one chapter and now you're giving a minor side character a POV?

author ummm...

Yeye I am waiting

author ...look, you get to come back soon, ok?

Yeye polishes the head of his spear

author ('-﹏-`; )