It Hurts

As soon as she was sure that Shao Wenbo and Xie Yixiang couldn't see her anymore, Wang Jingyuan began running. The tears she tried so hard to keep in finally escaped and rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them away as she ran. She ran down the main street, past curious shoppers and vendors. She needed to get as far away as she could from this place. She needed space to breathe and cry.

As she pushed through the crowd, she did not notice that her package of mung bean cakes was jostled out of her hand. It landed on the ground, and the butcher paper wrapping came apart. The light green cakes rolled onto the floor and picked up dirt and dust. Soon, someone stepped on one, squashing it into a flat pancake and destroying the once-beautiful shape.