Ice and Fire

At night, Jackson lay quietly in his bed alone, unable to fall asleep. All that he could think of was Cherry's frightened face, and her crying and trembling, and the more he thought about it, the more distressed he was.

He looked at the ceiling, and thought the whole thing over and over. He gradually realized that he had misunderstood Cherry, and that she could not have possibly been involved with John. It all must have been John's fault, because he had gotten drunk and had gone to their house.

Jackson then furiously got up, quite sure that he had misunderstood Cherry. Because they had been together for such a long time, he had got to know her very well, and he was sure that she would have never betrayed him. He had just been driven crazy for the moment, and he should have never said those things to Cherry.

He hated himself for hurting her.

As he stared out the window at the gathering darkness outside, Jackson became more and more worried about Cherry. It was already pretty late. Where had she gone? There was nowhere in the city where she could go to. She neither went to the Shen family, nor the military residential compound. 'Where could she be?' wondered Jackson.

Early in the morning, Jackson called Derek, and told him that he would not accompany him to the barracks today. Derek didn't ask more. He had sensed Jackson's anxiety. He knew that it must have something to do with Cherry, or otherwise Jackson wouldn't have been in such a hurry.

Then, Jackson drove to the Ye's house.

Lucia had just got up, and was about to do her morning exercises in the yard, and the moment she opened the door of the house, she saw Jackson's car appear at the gate.

She was surprised, and she quickly walked up to it to greet him. When she saw Jackson get out of the car, she said, "Jack...Jackson, why are you here so early in the morning?"

Jackson ignored Lucia's words, and in a fierce manner, asked, "Where's John?"

trouble with him. "He, he...he's at home, " she said, And

the gate! Now!" He was here for John, and he had no time to

but shudder, and quickly opened the gate for him.

room, he saw Edwin reading a

he saw Jackson, and wondered if there was

down the newspaper from his hands, Edwin asked,

urgent, and I'm looking for John, " said Jackson. His tone softened, because

in his room. He probably hasn't even got up

went upstairs. He didn't care whether John was already up or not; he had waited for the whole night to learn what had happened between him and Cherry.

Jackson reached the staircase, he saw Jean standing at the top of them on the second floor. Jackson felt a bit weird, because he had met every one of the

was even more surprised to see Jackson. She had never seen him there since she had married into the

dull manner. Even when she saw Jackson's angry face, she still

John?" asked Jackson

reacted first. She

of stairs and went to confront John.

in the bedroom's door, Jackson saw that John was still asleep in bed. Jackson went straight into the room, regardless of any etiquette, and walked to