After Hugo exhausted his physical strength, he also fell into a heavy sleep. The intense physical labor allowed him to easily sink into a deep, dreamless slumber, sleeping comfortably until urgent physiological needs woke him up.Opening his eyes, Hugo looked at the faint sunlight behind the thick curtains of the motel and realized it was already dawn. No wonder he had habitually woken up needing to urinate. He turned to look at Charlize lying beside him. Her makeup-free cheeks had a faint sheen of oil, but she didn't look disheveled; instead, she exuded the aura of a happy young woman, and the smile at the corner of her mouth made her lovely face look radiant.Hugo withdrew his gaze and hurriedly ran into the bathroom to handle his physiological needs first. However, as he walked out of the bathroom, a wave of dizziness struck his head, nearly causing him to fall. Fortunately, he grabbed the sink to steady his center of gravity. But the dizziness wasn't over; immediately after, Hugo felt a surge in his stomach, as if he might vomit at any moment. He quickly turned back to the toilet and dry-heaved over it, but nothing came out.Hugo leaned against the side of the sink to support his body. The churning in his stomach and the dizziness in his head erupted simultaneously. His body fluctuated between hot and cold, and he began to sweat and tear up continuously, leaving his limbs weak and powerless. Hugo paused for a moment and immediately realized: the damn withdrawal symptoms had flared up.The so-called withdrawal symptom, in simple terms, is what happens when someone stops using heroin. The body experiences various intense and uncomfortable reactions, creating a massive amount of extreme physical pain to prompt the addict to do everything possible to maintain their drug use to avoid this agony.This situation had happened once before in the past ten days. The first time, Hugo was completely unprepared and collapsed directly onto the ground, entirely dominated by pain, losing even the strength to roll around. Fortunately, Joseph was nearby at the time and had seen Hugo in such a state before. With Joseph's help, Hugo nearly ground his teeth to pieces and managed to get through that first hurdle.In fact, drug addiction often occurs more on a mental level because a person's willpower is too weak, leading to a dependence on that instantaneous pleasure. However, the longer one is trapped in addiction and as bodily functions are destroyed, the dependence becomes more severe. The painful physiological reactions then make the person more strongly dependent on the drugs, forming a vicious cycle that completely destroys a normal person from the inside out, mentally and physically. This cycle is most vividly embodied in heroin.Since Hugo transmigrated, his soul not only lacked dependence on drugs but also resolutely resisted them, which made Hugo's detoxification relatively simple. Looking at his predecessor's condition, although the body had a certain level of dependence, it was still in the preliminary stages and not severe. So as long as Hugo persisted, the addiction problem could be overcome without needing to go to a rehab center or a sanitarium.However, Hugo hadn't expected this physical shell to suffer an eruption of withdrawal symptoms again today. It was not good news for Charlize to see this. Hugo didn't want Charlize to see such a terrible side of him because this wasn't him—this wasn't the real him. Regardless of whether Charlize was willing to accept it, this wasn't the real Hugo, so there was no need for her to see it.Hugo took a deep breath, turned on the faucet at the sink, splashed his face with cold water twice, and then rinsed his mouth. Only then did he walk back into the room with steps that had almost no strength, resisting the increasingly intense withdrawal symptoms. He found his scattered clothes on the carpet and put them on while he still had the strength—this took him at least three minutes—and then he staggered out of the room.Pain in his joints and the soreness of tight muscles mixed with wave after wave of headaches, sweeping over him. This left Hugo's entire body looking as if it had been fished out of water. Nauseating, twisting cramps rolled in his stomach and abdomen, and his physical strength drained away bit by bit. Just as he reached the elevator, Hugo tripped because of his unsteady steps. Fortunately, he was prepared and grabbed the handrail to cushion the fall, so it wasn't too serious. But standing up again took much, much more of Hugo's strength. Hugo no longer had the heart to complain about his predecessor's foolish behavior; he had to concentrate all his energy on overcoming the body's withdrawal symptoms.This bout of withdrawal symptoms actually wasn't as severe as the first time. The first time, Hugo couldn't even stand up, completely dominated by terrifying pain. If it weren't for Hugo's mental lack of dependence on drugs, he might have almost failed to hold on. After getting through that last hurdle, today's reaction was clearly somewhat weakened, so Hugo still had the strength to support himself until he left the motel.Stumbling all the way to the lobby, a sweat-drenched Hugo walked to the front desk, giving the Staff Member a shock. Fortunately, Hugo's will was strong enough to calm the other person in time, and then he asked the front desk to call a taxi for him. After waiting for ten minutes, he finally managed to get into the taxi with the help of the front desk staff. Hugo finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had been clenching his teeth the whole way, persisting on a single breath of air; if he relaxed even slightly, he feared he would collapse and be unable to get up—just like the first time the addiction hit. These damn withdrawal symptoms!The sound of Hugo closing the door wasn't loud and didn't wake the sleeping Charlize. Last night was Charlize's first time, which took a great toll on her physical strength, so she remained deep in her dreams, not very sensitive to the changes in her surroundings.When Charlize woke up, she only saw an empty room and couldn't find Hugo anywhere. This left Charlize somewhat stunned and feeling rather caught off guard. In Charlize's view, everything last night had gone smoothly, even perfectly, but now it seemed otherwise: a man leaving without saying goodbye was not a positive signal.Charlize searched the entire room in disbelief, looking through it twice inside and out. There was no sign of him, no note, and not many traces, as if everything last night had just been a dream—only the messy sheets on the bed showed it wasn't. Charlize even wondered if Hugo had gotten up early to buy her breakfast and she was just overreacting. Because as long as she recalled Hugo's warm and sunny personality, Charlize didn't believe he was the type of man who would leave without a word after getting what he wanted.Although she had only met Hugo twice, Charlize had a certain level of trust in Hugo's character; otherwise, she wouldn't have been so swept up in the moment yesterday. Even if she had kissed him in a moment of confusion, if something felt wrong, she would have used her remaining rationality to overcome the subsequent events. On this point, Charlize was never an impulsive person and had absolute self-confidence. Otherwise, walking the path through the chaotic New York dance scene and the dark Los Angeles modeling world, Charlize would have fallen long ago and wouldn't have held out until last night.In Charlize's eyes, Hugo was different from most men. He was humble, polite, gentle as jade, and sunny, but he wasn't overly arrogant or showy, nor did he think only with his lower body, and he certainly wouldn't treat any woman as a simple one-night stand. Everything that happened last night had come too quickly and was actually beyond Hugo's expectations as well; Charlize could feel that.Charlize wasn't saying she hoped to establish a stable relationship with Hugo or anything, but at the very least, she didn't want to find herself left all alone after waking up—without even a greeting. It made her feel cheap. What exactly happened? Or did she misjudge Hugo, and in the end, Hugo was just an ordinary man? In the colorful melting pot of the entertainment industry, was it really so difficult to find a normal emotional connection that started without any ulterior motives?Charlize felt her thoughts were a bit scattered. She sat in the motel room and waited for a full hour, but there was still no result. She wanted to believe in Hugo, but the empty room before her gave her no chance. Charlize gave a self-mocking laugh. 'You're still too naive.' She took a deep breath, then another, letting the surging emotions inside her calm down, and then quietly told herself, 'Don't make a big deal out of it, don't. It was just one night, nothing special. Actually, I was worried about how to act after waking up; now it saves trouble, no need for awkward or clumsy socializing.'Charlize looked at the hem of the red dress that Hugo had torn. She stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked, then finally ripped the fragments of the hem away, letting the bottom of the skirt present an irregular curve. This gave the dress a bit less formal constraint and a bit more unconventional design. She turned to check, and after confirming everything was fine, she returned to the room, picked up her coat from the floor, put it on, adjusted her breathing again, suppressed the complexity in her heart, regained her confidence, and left the place with her head held high.At the same time, Hugo was lying at the bottom of the stairs of the building where Joseph's apartment was located, looking like a vagrant one might see anywhere on the street. He exuded an aura of decadence and madness, lying motionless on the ground. After getting out of the taxi, that short walk had consumed all his strength. He finally couldn't hold on any longer and could only be defeated by the pain, collapsing in the dirty hallway teeming with trash and bacteria.Hugo gritted his teeth fiercely. In fact, he didn't feel any addictive dependence, and he didn't want to seek help from any substances to alleviate it. It was just that wave after wave of pain completely exhausted his strength. Tears and sweat turned his entire face pale, and his stomach kept churning. He kept dry-heaving, but nothing came out, as if it wouldn't be satisfied until even his bile was vomited up.'I will absolutely not bow my head, absolutely not admit defeat, absolutely!' Hugo tensed all his muscles, stubbornly supporting himself. He was unwilling to compromise with these withdrawal symptoms, no matter how severe! Then Hugo's consciousness gradually became blurred, and everything around him began to glow, finally disappearing into a hazy white light.
