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 her real self to slip into dormancy.
Zayn could not even imagine just how much agony Faye had to experience to reach such a severe state!
Facing a stranger who bore the face of his wife, Zayn found himself at a loss for words.
Faye knelt and turned to the nun right next to her. “Please perform the tonsure rite right away.”
The nun simply turned to the abbess, looking uncertain as she awaited her verdict.
The old woman sighed. “Wang Que, your attachment to the world has not been severed just yet. Hence, we will have to put the rite on hold.”
Faye immediately raised her head and looked at the abbess. “Abbess, Wang Que has cut off all of her ties to the material world. Please perform the rite and proceed as planned.”
The abbess shook her head firmly. “No, your attachment is palpable. Your request is simply the desire of another personality It is not the real you.”
Faye’s brows furrowed slightly, but she did not argue. Instead, she nodded in assent. “I defer to your judgement, Abbess.”
The abbess shifted her attention to Zayn. “The universe abides by karmic laws, kind sir. The fact that you managed to reach out to her before her tonsure rite could be completed indicates that your bond with your wife has yet to reach its end.”
“Now, whether Wang Que will join the Sangha… It will all depend on what you are to do next.”
Zayn understood the abbess’ every word.
Overjoyed, he bowed respectfully and replied, “Thank you for your kind compassion, Abbess.”
The abbess flashed him a small smile before leaving the room with the other nuns.
It was just Zayn and Faye now, alone in the spacious prayer hall. Only the rhythmic sound of Faye—who remained kneeling—rapping on the wooden fish punctuated the silence between them.
Zayn scanned the changed woman, feeling a pang of gloom. Words could not describe the feelings that swirled within him. They were so incredibly complicated and confusing. “Look, Fifi—“
“I am no longer Faye Carter, sir. I go by the name ‘Wang Que’,” she interrupted abruptly, her tone as cold and impassioned as ever.
Zayn trembled. It hurt to see her so detached. He would have suffered countless beatings from Faye or waves of her verbal abuse if it meant that she could recognize him again, anything but the woman treating him like a complete stranger.
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