Chapter 31 - Chapter 31: The Baptism of White Fire

​The searchlights from the police cruisers slashed through the bridge's fog like jagged blades of light. Xuan stood at the precipice, his arm wrapped around Ning's throat in a grip that was half-protection, half-strangulation. His jealousy had transcended human emotion; it was now a physical barrier between her and the world. "Look at them, Ning! Look at the 'saviors' coming to put you back in a box!" he roared, his voice bouncing off the steel girders. Wei Chen stepped out of a black sedan, his face illuminated by the strobing blue and red. "Xuan, let her go! She's hurt! Look at her feet!" Wei Chen shouted, his voice cracking with a calculated, poisonous pity. The mention of her injury sent Xuan into a fresh delirium of possessiveness. "You talk about her feet? You, who paved the road with glass so she would have to crawl to you?" Xuan's laughter was a serrated edge. He pulled Ning closer, his nose pressed against her temple, inhaling the scent of her terror and devotion. Ning's extreme level of cryingness reached a peak where she couldn't even form words; she only let out a high, thin wail that sounded like a violin string snapping. The misunderstanding was total—the police saw a kidnapper and a victim, but Ning saw her only sanctuary being besieged by plastic heroes. "If you take one more step, Wei Chen, I'll jump with her! We'll be ghosts before you can put a ring on her finger!" Xuan's eyes were wide, the pupils blown out, reflecting the sirens in a manic dance. The misery of the moment was a suffocating shroud, and Ning gripped Xuan's forearms, her nails drawing blood from his skin. She didn't want to be saved; she wanted to be consumed.