When he promised me a bright future, his eyes held only me. Back then we had nothing, cramming ourselves into a rented room to eat stale bread. He held me and said, “When the company goes public, I’ll marry you.” I stayed with him through the hardest days, from a basement startup to a ten-billion-dollar fortune. I naively waited for that day. But when the company finally went public, he held the hand of a woman in white and said to me, “Sophia, you need to be understanding.” The day news of his marriage to Charlotte spread, I was doing my makeup. Aaron carefully carried in documents, not daring to lift his head even once. He’d been by Ethan’s side for a long time, witnessing all our vows of eternal love. Even he knew to feel guilty. What about you, Ethan? I laughed self-mockingly and casually took the documents without signing. “Where is he?” Aaron lowered his head even further. “Mr. Sterling is in a meeting and can’t get away, but he’s been thinking of you constantly.” My smile didn’t reach my eyes. “He’s with Charlotte, isn’t he?” Aaron fell silent. So I’d guessed right. Whatever. I watched Aaron leave. Outside, unseasonable snow began to fall, landing lightly on my heart. My first meeting with Ethan was in weather just like this. My father returned from a business trip with a young man at his side. He wore a black coat. Though young, his sharp eyes radiated calm authority. I stood behind the corridor. My father spotted me and beckoned me over. “This is my daughter Sophia. She’s my only child. I’ve spoiled her terribly. If she offends you, I’ll discipline her myself.” I stood frozen, thinking only that this young man was impossibly handsome, forgetting to respond. He smiled, his eyes showing a trace of gentleness that made my vision blur. I didn’t know then that he would become a business titan worth billions. I called him Ethan and pestered him to teach me about business. He showed no impatience. Through blazing summers and bitter winters, he accompanied me running deals on the front lines. My mother teased me. “Your father used to make you wake early to review reports, and you’d cry like a monkey. Now look at you, running to the office every day. You’ve gotten taller and darker. You don’t look like a girl at all. I wonder how you’ll ever get married.” I said it didn’t matter, but my hands kept applying skincare products. A young girl’s feelings are always transparent. I loved his composure, his occasional melancholy, his every word and action, his every gesture. Ethan treated me well too. In his spare time he’d take me to drink wine. Each time he returned from business trips, he brought me novel gifts. I was spirited and impulsive, yet this decisive man used nothing but gentle words with me. Besides my father and my brother Jason, he was the best man to me. The world was in chaos then, the internet wave sweeping in, countless startups rising and falling. My family had been in business for generations. My father wasn’t rigid like ordinary men – from childhood he taught me finance, strategy, management, and business logic. As a child I hated these lessons, always envying the neighbor girl who could act spoiled and throw tantrums, while I got scolded by my father if my PowerPoints weren’t good enough. Fortunately, Ethan was a good teacher. He never spoke harshly to me. Even when extremely frustrated, he’d just take a deep breath and smile with resignation. “Sophia, the cherries in the suburbs are ripe. Let me take you to pick some.” I tossed aside my laptop and followed him. He drove me to an orchard, nimbly climbed a tree, and picked a bag of cherries. I munched happily on the cherries. A breeze blew gently. He sat on the hillside in his black clothes, staring intently at the cherries in his hand. Ethan’s mother had loved cherries most. Back then I was carefree and didn’t recognize the emotion he was emanating – called sorrow. That autumn night, I watched fireworks with him but encountered an attack by business rivals. We fled together, scrambling into an abandoned factory. He had multiple knife wounds and soon developed a high fever. He became delirious with fever, mumbling half-conscious, “Mom, I picked cherries for you. Please try them.” Only then did I learn his family had suffered a major tragedy. That tragedy was extremely brutal. I couldn’t imagine how an eight-year-old Ethan survived that disaster. Touching his burning body, my heart ached terribly. I soaked my clothes in cold water, moved swiftly through the night, removed his shirt and held his solid chest, trying to cool him down. After several trips, he finally wasn’t burning anymore. At dawn the next day, the morning chill made me sneeze. Ethan, nestled in my arms, suddenly woke. Our eyes met. Ethan, who’d faced a dozen thugs the night before without changing expression, now touched his bare upper body and for the first time blushed. Shortly after returning, I fell ill. I lay in bed like a dead fish, my throat burning. Ethan was devastated, sitting by the bed feeding me almond milk, staying awake for four whole days. Finally my mother couldn’t stand it and persuaded him to change clothes and sleep. Before turning twenty, Ethan could already lead a team to secure agency rights for the entire East Coast region. My father praised him endlessly whenever he mentioned him. He said Ethan was accomplished beyond his years, with immeasurable prospects, and wanted to betroth me to him. My mother said Ethan was no ordinary man and worried. My father laughed heartily, saying his daughter naturally deserved the best man in the world. I eavesdropped outside the door. Truth was, since that night in the factory, I’d already considered myself Ethan’s. But if you’d lived to see this day, you’d surely regret that decision.

I was with Ethan for seven years. When he turned thirty, when his company went public and he was worth billions, the person he chose to marry wasn’t me. He held Charlotte’s hand. They chatted pleasantly. The woman wore a white dress, gentle and lovely, delicate as a flower. Of course. A man like Ethan should naturally like someone like Charlotte. Charlotte was his biggest investor’s daughter. Now he needed capital to consolidate his empire. A marriage alliance was the best choice. I should have known. I stumbled back to the apartment in a daze, but in my mind was the night we got our marriage certificate at nineteen. He held me and said, “Sophia, I, Ethan Sterling, will never let you down in this lifetime.” The night I discovered him with Charlotte, I said I wanted to leave. For the first time in his life he lost his temper with me, his suppressed anger barely contained. “Sophia, you need to be understanding.” But I’m your wife! I couldn’t suppress the sourness in my eyes, stubbornly refusing to look at him. We remained at an impasse for a while. Finally he softened his voice, trying to reason with me. “She and I are just business partners. I only love you. After all these years, don’t you know that?” I said nothing. He continued. “I’ll make you company vice president with the same stake as me. You won’t have to bow to anyone.” I looked deeply at his features. They were no different from before, yet I couldn’t find a trace of familiarity. Was he still my Ethan? “Can I make one request?” He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking I’d compromised, and quickly asked what I wanted. “Let Jason go.” He froze, instinctively saying, “No.” I laughed coldly and pointed to the door, telling him to leave. “I’ll agree to anything you ask, except this. Sophia, don’t make this difficult for me.” Making it difficult – as if I were being unreasonable. When Ethan conquered half his business empire, my father died in that merger war. I held his cold body, crying until no more tears came. He, usually calm and composed, also reddened his eyes. I said I no longer had a father. He pulled me into his arms, lips trembling, saying “don’t be afraid” over and over. My family poured out all our wealth and exhausted all our connections for Ethan. Jason was sent to prison by him on charges of “corporate espionage,” while I was placated with a vice president position. Jason fought alongside him in the business world, but in the end, Ethan couldn’t tolerate him. Since my father’s death, they’d gradually developed conflicts and began competing openly and covertly. Ethan worried Jason’s prestige would exceed his own. The first thing he did after going public was fabricate evidence and send him to prison with a heavy sentence. I didn’t blame him. But he shouldn’t have used such charges to tarnish Jason’s name. I looked at him pleadingly, crushing my former pride. What did it matter – spending a lifetime at the company, competing with many women for one man’s favor, becoming what I once despised most? Compared to Jason’s life, what did it matter? I traded my compliance for his promise – to let Jason serve his sentence under house arrest, leave the business world, and never step foot in this circle again. Seeing me like this for the first time, he contemplated for a long while before finally saying softly, “Alright.” After many days, a weight finally lifted from my heart. I sincerely thanked him. As long as someone’s alive, there’s still hope.

Before the wedding, I didn’t see Ethan once. I stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing at the city skyline. How absurd – just a year ago today, I was chasing Ethan across the desert in an SUV. Now I’d become a resentful woman confined to her chambers. The hotel was holding a ceremony. Even from miles away, the exuberant cheers reached my ears. My assistant Peach came out, saying my health was poor and I couldn’t stand the cold wind. I should go back inside. I found it somewhat amusing. Once upon a time I could work three days and nights straight, praised as an iron lady with heroic grace. Now people said my health was poor. Thinking carefully, I hadn’t slept well in a very long time. I asked Peach to bring me sedatives. After taking them I prepared for sleep. Ethan came home half-drunk, stumbling into my apartment. He kissed my lips as he used to, removed my clothes, and bent his head to work. I suddenly spoke. “Is this how you treat Charlotte too?” He froze abruptly and climbed off me. “Why bring her up?” I smiled and dressed. “Now she’s the legitimate Mrs. Sterling.” I still remembered when he’d first achieved success, someone sent him a female celebrity. I made a scene at the company, humiliating the partner who sent her. Ethan just looked at me with indulgence and laughed, dismissed the person, and bought me a limited-edition sports car to appease me. Back then, I wouldn’t allow anyone to take any of Ethan’s love. “When we’re together, let’s not mention others, okay?” He patiently coaxed me, wanting me to act spoiled with him like before. I smiled bitterly. “That I’m still willing to stay here is already my biggest concession. From now on, don’t come to my place.” He sat up abruptly, gripping my face in the dim light, forcing me to look at him. “Sophia, what do you mean?” I looked directly at him. “I made myself very clear. Don’t you understand?” Anger flashed in his eyes, like a venomous wolf. My shoulder had an old injury – from when I’d blocked a knife for him. It ached unbearably on rainy days. But now he paid no heed to my injury, gripping my shoulder with brutal force. I curled up in pain. He ignored it, still ramming recklessly. “Sophia! No one can defy me!” That night was exceptionally long. Afterward, he tossed me aside like a rag. “Think it over. I’m leaving.” The lights went out. Tears slid down my face, burying themselves in my hair. I suddenly felt panicked. If my father and mother had spirits in heaven, what would they think seeing me like this? Ethan, you promised my father. You can’t treat me this way.

The night before Jason left, I visited him at the detention center. After this parting, I didn’t know when my brother and I would meet again. Seeing the wounds on Jason’s hands, my nose stung. “I’m useless. I couldn’t protect you.” He shook his head. “What kind of man needs his sister’s protection? How embarrassing would that be?” He was silent for a long time, then suddenly spoke. “My father and I failed to judge character and let a wolf into our home. How could I blame you? From now on you’ll be alone. It’ll be hard on you.” I wiped away tears. “Live well after you get out. Don’t harbor any rash thoughts. Ethan now isn’t the same as he was.” No one could oppose him anymore. He looked at me with a smile, his messy hair unable to hide his handsomeness. “Sophia’s all grown up.” Jason left. He was restricted from leaving the country, his phone’s location tracked 24/7. He had to report to local authorities regularly and couldn’t even find decent work. My once-proud brother now struggled just to survive. I begged Ethan to help smooth things over. He agreed verbally but then arranged for Jason to go to the most remote small city, euphemistically calling it “lying low.” Ethan restricted my freedom. I couldn’t see Jason off. I gazed into the distance, silently repeating: it’s good he’s gone, it’s good he’s gone. Far from this place of conflict, to find his own vast sky. I hoped Jason’s remaining years would go more smoothly than mine. … After Ethan went public, only Charlotte and I were women in the company. I was sewing a small bag when the secretary announced Charlotte’s arrival. He’d specifically permitted me not to bow to anyone, so to this day I hadn’t met her alone. She still wore a white dress, looking pure and flawless, beautiful beyond mortal women. “I’ve been wanting to visit you, but I’ve been busy accompanying Ethan lately and couldn’t get away. I’ve only come to see you today. Please don’t blame me.” She sat down casually with a sweet smile, giving no grounds for criticism. I studied my embroidery pattern carefully. “Charlotte, you’re too kind. I can’t accept being called that. I should be the one visiting you.” She propped her chin up. “You’ve fought alongside Ethan for years. That he lets you bow to no one – what respect that shows. Unlike me, I spent my days in my chamber before. Ethan felt sorry for me and didn’t want me to live a life on the knife’s edge with him…” I paused. The needle pricked my finger. I heard the turbulent voice within my heart, though my face remained calm. “When did you two meet?” Charlotte smiled shyly, the picture of feminine charm. “Ethan and I? Three years ago, I suppose. My father greatly admired him. He promised to marry me, so my father invested to help him go public…” Three years ago, three years ago… So early… Back then we were still the couple everyone in the company envied. I looked at the pouch in my hands. I used to dislike this detailed work, but Ethan’s clothes inevitably came undone, so I learned to clumsily use a sewing needle to mend them. Ethan wore pajamas, propping his head up under the lamp watching me with a smile. “Viewing a beauty by lamplight truly has special charm.” I blushed and glared at him. “We’re an old married couple and you’re still so improper.” … My vision blurred. My attendant Peach noticed something wrong and quickly came to support me. I waved my hand indicating I was fine. “I’m not feeling well. Please leave. Come another day.” Charlotte pouted, looking bored as she left. I instructed Peach to throw away all the needlework. Peach looked regretful. “But it’s almost finished. Why would you…” I interrupted her. “No reason. I just never want to touch it again.” Something already dirty – why keep it for nostalgia?

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “381192”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster

I was secretly married to a Hollywood A-lister for five years. He was constantly surrounded by rumors and scandals, yet he was never willing to acknowledge me publicly. On a reality TV show, everyone was prying into my love life. Even he smiled and chimed in: “Josephine, I know a lot of reliable guys. Should I set you up with someone?” In both my past life and today, I was so furious I almost pulled out our wedding ring. Then, his current rumored flame, the rising pop star Chloe White, ran out crying. Liam didn’t say anything on camera, but afterward, he grew increasingly cold towards me. In my past life, when I was rushed into the operating room due to a severe hemorrhage during my pregnancy, he didn’t even ask about me. Instead, he was celebrating Chloe’s birthday at a Michelin-starred restaurant. When the thugs Chloe hired ruined me and I begged him for help, he just watched with an indifferent expression. It was only then that I realized I was nothing more than a dirty secret, a hidden ornament in his life. Reborn into this life, I just smiled: “I’m already seeing someone. He’s not in the industry. We’re getting married at the end of the month.” 01 Gasps echoed around the room. No one expected me to announce my relationship on a live broadcast. Liam’s face instantly darkened. The paper cup in his hand was crushed out of shape. He opened his mouth to say something, but Chloe, sitting next to him with a bright smile, blinked her big eyes and beat him to it: “Wow! Josephine, you hid that so well! If you hadn’t lost this round of Truth or Dare, were you planning to keep it a secret forever?” This was a live-streamed reality show, and Chloe’s words instantly set the chat on fire. [Josephine’s fans must be devastated! Your idol ditched you to go date someone!] [Hehe, our Chloe is the best. Focused on her career and moving up! Men, step aside!] [??? Why would we be devastated? Josephine is an actress. She conquers us with her acting skills and has won every major award. So what if she’s dating? Unlike a certain Chloe who still hasn’t achieved anything of substance!] [Besides, our Jo has said before that when the time is right, she would find someone.] I smiled faintly: “Even if I hide it well, I’m still the main chick.” In my past life, I always thought Chloe didn’t know about my relationship with Liam, that she was also being deceived. But it wasn’t until right before I died, when Chloe flaunted Liam’s devotion to her face, that I realized she knew from the very beginning. Chloe’s expression faltered, but the other guests didn’t notice. Instead, they curiously pressed for more: “Jo, who is it! Do you have a picture we can see?” “Someone outside the industry who’s worthy of our Josephine? I’m so curious!” I smiled: “He prefers to keep a low profile. Maybe I’ll introduce you guys when there’s a chance.” Just as I finished speaking, a scoff rang out. Chloe raised an eyebrow, looking at me provocatively: “Josephine, maybe this guy doesn’t even exist. Are you just making this up? After all, you’re not getting any younger. It would be pretty embarrassing to admit you don’t even have a close friend by your side. Right, Liam?” Chloe blinked at Liam and playfully stuck out her tongue. I clenched my fists. The next second, I heard Liam perfectly play along with an “Mhm.” Chloe’s smile grew even wider. I laughed at myself inwardly. Just a moment ago, I had still been hoping for something. The other guests quickly tried to smooth things over: “Don’t be mad, Jo. Chloe loves to joke around!” “This is Josephine’s private life. We shouldn’t pry too much.” I was about to speak when a male voice came from the doorway: “Excuse me, is Jo here? I’m here to pick her up from work.” 02 Everyone turned toward the voice. A young man was standing outside the door, one hand casually in his pocket. His neat, dark hair curled slightly over his temples. His brow bone was sharp, and his face was pale and strikingly handsome. When our eyes met, I froze for a second. He smiled at me: “Jo, time to clock out.” The live chat exploded. [Holy shit! Holy shit! This guy is so hot! Is this Josephine’s non-industry boyfriend?!] [Damn, I thought Josephine was lying! I can’t believe her boyfriend actually came to pick her up from work!] I stood up from my chair and waved to the people around me: “I’ll be going now.” From the moment I stood up, I felt a piercing gaze fixed tightly on me, but I didn’t look back. Just as I was about to walk out the door, Liam called out to me coldly: “Josephine!” I paused, turning to look at him: “Yes, Liam?” His face was dark, his eyes swirling with dissatisfaction. Chloe curled her lips into a smile: “Today is my birthday party, and Liam is throwing it for me. Are you not coming, Josephine?” I glanced at Liam, who remained silent. “No.” I looked away and walked out: “Happy birthday. I have other plans.” 03 That piercing gaze followed me until I got into the backseat of the car before it finally disappeared. I looked at the man beside me and thanked him: “Thank you, Arthur.” Arthur replied: “Don’t mention it, senior. I was just watching the live stream and happened to be passing by.” I smiled faintly and didn’t press further. He didn’t ask many questions either, simply saying: “Where are you heading now? I’ll drop you off.” I gave him my home address. We arrived quickly. Before I got out of the car, Arthur took out his phone and waved it at me: “Senior, let’s exchange numbers.” I hesitated for a moment, and he let out a light laugh: “You never know, I might need your help with something in the future.” Hearing this, I nodded and took out my phone: “Sure.” After adding each other’s contacts, Arthur drove off. I turned and walked into my house. This house was bought by Liam and me before we got married. It wasn’t very big, but it held all our memories. Before, when we didn’t have a packed schedule, we used to always cuddle in this house, playing video games and binge-watching TV shows. After we got married, I didn’t want to move to a new place. But now, Liam rarely came back here. As soon as I walked through the door, my manager’s call came in. “Jo, look at Twitter!” 04 [Liam x Chloe White, Official Relationship Announcement!] [What a perfect match!] I originally thought that having lived a second life, my heart would be as still as a stagnant pool of water. But the few short lines on the screen still stung my eyes. [Liam V: Let me introduce everyone to my girlfriend, my one and only. @ChloeWhite] [Chloe White: The days ahead are long. I want to walk them all with Liam~] Liam and I dated for five years and were married for five years. I waited ten years for a public announcement. Now, Liam effortlessly gave it to someone else. My manager’s voice continued on the phone: “There are rumors online saying Chloe is the other woman! Liam is doing this to protect her! “It’s so infuriating! Isn’t Chloe the actual homewrecker here? You’ve been married to Liam for so many years, and he never…” “Erica.” I interrupted her, asking softly: “When will my visa be ready?” Erica fell silent for a moment. “Have you really decided to leave the industry and go abroad?” I nodded. Ten years ago, I gave up my dreams for Liam. Now, I won’t let him delay my life any longer. 05 Liam and I were childhood sweethearts. We grew up together. When I was little, my parents passed away. I was introverted, living with relatives, and constantly bullied by the neighborhood kids. Liam always stood in front of me, protecting me, and fighting back for me. Until the year he turned fifteen. His parents’ company went bankrupt, and they jumped off a building, leaving him all alone with a massive mountain of debt. He suffered a tremendous blow and tried to end his life several times. I was the one who held him, comforting him. We were each other’s light in the darkness, relying on each other to survive. Until the year I turned eighteen. I received an acceptance letter from Stanford University, the school I had dreamed of going to. That day, Liam didn’t say anything. He just held my hand, his eyes red, and stood there all night. After that night, I rejected the acceptance letter, turned around, and accepted a talent scout’s offer to enter the entertainment industry. I wanted to pay off Liam’s debts. He was still young. He had a long road ahead of him. He couldn’t be dragged down by debt. But the entertainment industry was tough. I went to auditions, acted in minor roles, and took every gig I could get, day and night. I drank so much at networking dinners that I ended up in the hospital with stomach bleeding. Finally, in my fifth year since debuting, thanks to a hit TV show, I successfully paid off the Sterling family’s debts. People close to me asked if it was worth it. Back then, watching Liam cook for me every day and stay by my side, I felt it was all worth it. But now… The notification sound on my phone interrupted my thoughts. I looked down. It was a call from Liam. I thought for a moment and pressed the answer button. His voice was cold: “You’re pretty capable, aren’t you? Found another man to put on a show just to make me angry? “But you miscalculated. I know better than anyone how much you love me. I wasn’t angered by you at all.” I gripped my phone and said nothing. A familiar female voice came through the phone: “Liam, hurry up and cut the cake for me!” Liam responded: “Coming.” Then he said to me: “You know that Chloe and I have a new show coming out soon. Once the show finishes airing, I’ll break up with her. Don’t overthink things. “Wait for me at home tonight. I’ll bring you your favorite food.” 06 My memories drifted away. Liam was discovered by a director while visiting me on set, which led to him entering the entertainment industry. At the time, I immediately objected. Because Liam’s dream was to do scientific research. If he started acting, he would be completely disconnected from the scientific community. But to my surprise, Liam secretly went to find the director himself. Afterward, he hugged me, his eyes red as he looked at me: “Jo, I don’t want you to live a hard life with me. I want to make a lot of money so your life can get better and better.” From then on, Liam gave up his dreams for me and focused entirely on the entertainment industry. Our communication also became less and less frequent due to our busy schedules. When his first scandal broke, he took a five-hour flight overnight to come to my side. He hugged me, apologized, and said it was a misunderstanding. He said he would handle it well and told me not to overthink. I suggested we announce our marriage. He said he was afraid it would affect his career and break his fans’ hearts. The timing just wasn’t right yet. But he promised me that his wife would always only be me, and the only person by his side would be me. Ultimately, thinking of his career, I didn’t push it further. Until later… Chloe White appeared. She was almost subjected to the casting couch at a banquet. In her attempt to escape, she fell into a pool, and Liam appeared and saved her. She seemed like a pure, innocent little flower. Soaking wet, she lay in Liam’s arms. That night, the two of them trended on Twitter. Gossip blogs hyped it up wildly. That time, Liam didn’t say a single word. 07 When I snapped back to reality, Liam had already hung up. I didn’t dwell on anything else. Instead, I contacted my lawyer and drafted a divorce agreement. Before I went abroad, I definitely needed to resolve everything with Liam. But what I didn’t expect was that when Liam came home that night, he brought Chloe with him. Chloe peeked her head out from behind Liam, her face flushed. She ran towards me, giggling: “Ta-da! Josephine, hehe, we packed the leftovers from my birthday party for you. Eat up!” Liam stood there, saying somewhat helplessly: “Slow down, you’re drunk. Be careful not to trip.” After he finished, he paused and looked at me: “Chloe had too much to drink today. It’s not safe for a girl to go back alone, so she’s staying here for the night.” “Oh right, you’re pretty good at making hangover soup, aren’t you? Make a bowl for Chloe.” I stood frozen, feeling a buzzing in my ears. My hands trembled uncontrollably. It was bad enough that Liam cheated, but now he was brazenly bringing her to our home?! And asking me to make her hangover soup?! “A young female celebrity, where is her assistant?!” Whenever Chloe went out, she was always followed by three or four assistants. How could she possibly be alone! And even if she was, she could stay at a hotel! Liam frowned: “Jo, when did you become so petty?” My voice trembled uncontrollably: “This is my house! Get the hell out!” Seeing my eyes red with anger, Liam softened his tone: “Okay, Jo. I’ll contact someone right now to come pick her up.” Liam took out his phone to make a call. But the next second, a scream pierced the air. Chloe tumbled straight down the stairs! Liam’s face paled dramatically! He dropped his phone and sprinted towards Chloe! He was frantic, completely losing his usual calm demeanor. “Chloe!” Chloe lay in Liam’s arms, her eyes tightly shut. Liam’s face was dark, his eyes brewing with a turbulent storm as he glared at me. My heart skipped a beat, and I instinctively spoke: “It wasn’t me…” But the next second, Liam’s slap had already landed across my face. “Josephine, are you saying Chloe threw herself down the stairs just to frame you? She’s a celebrity! You know better than anyone how much she cares about her face!” That slap left me reeling. It also completely extinguished the flickering, fragile light at the bottom of my heart. As Liam picked up Chloe and was about to rush out, I called out to him. “Wait a minute.” I handed the divorce agreement to him: “Sign this, or don’t leave.” Liam glared at me furiously. In the past, whenever we fought, I would always cling to him, asking him to buy me things, making him sign the credit card bills just to coax myself. Now, without even looking at what it was, he just signed his name. Then he strode out, carrying Chloe. In a spot where Liam couldn’t see, Chloe curled the corners of her lips into a smirk at me. 08 The news of Chloe’s hospitalization shot to the top of the trending topics. In the photos, her forehead was wrapped in gauze. She lay weakly in a hospital bed, while Liam attentively took care of her. The internet was flooded with posts praising their deep bond. Erica had been my manager since my debut. As for the situation between me and Liam, others might not know, but she was fully aware. She cursed Liam out in front of me. “Is the visa ready, Erica?” Erica nodded: “We should have it in three days.” During these three days, I just needed to tie up some loose ends. But what I didn’t expect was that on the third day, another post would top the trending list. [BREAKING! Best Actress Josephine interferes in Liam and Chloe’s relationship!] [BREAKING! Josephine’s attempted murder of Chloe White!] I clicked on the trending topic and saw numerous gossip accounts frantically resharing two photos. One was a photo of me coming home the night before last. The other was a photo of Liam and Chloe, hand in hand, returning shortly after me. The comments underneath exploded. [Holy shit, what’s going on? Why did all three of them go into the same house?] [Fuck! That bitch Josephine! I work in the industry, and I found out that Josephine sneaked into the actor’s house last night. Chloe’s injury was caused by Josephine!] [??? Why would Josephine go into his house? This phrasing is so weird! I don’t understand!] [What kind of nonsense is this! Why would our Jo sneak into someone else’s house!] The internet was fiercely debating. Just then, a top comment surged to number one. [Josephine never had a non-industry boyfriend, she made it all up! She’s always been a delusional fangirl of Liam’s, harboring a crush on him for years! When Liam and Chloe announced their relationship, Josephine got jealous, secretly broke into his house beforehand, and pushed Chloe down the stairs! I have proof, look at the pictures I posted! Josephine used to be Liam’s biggest superfan!] When Liam first entered the entertainment industry, he didn’t have many fans. I visited him on set, created burner accounts to boost his metrics, and defended him against trolls. I did these things with extreme secrecy. Besides Liam and me, no one else knew. But now, the “evidence” photos posted by this user hit me right in the eyes! Trembling, I called Liam. He only answered on the fifth ring. “Liam, was this you…” Besides Liam, I couldn’t think of anyone else who could have released those pictures! The other end of the line was silent for a moment. After a long while, I finally heard Liam speak: “Jo, this is what you deserve. “Your words on the reality show misled netizens into thinking Chloe was the other woman, damaging her reputation and subjecting her to cyberbullying. Me going public with her wasn’t just because of our new show, it was more about salvaging her reputation and making up for your mistakes. I originally thought you would show remorse, but you pushed her down the stairs.” Liam’s words almost made me laugh until I cried. All for my sake? “So what if she’s the other woman? She’s playing the innocent, pure victim now?” “Josephine, you are being incredibly unreasonable!” Liam shouted, interrupting me. “Things have reached this point, and I don’t want the conflict between you two to deepen. You apologize to Chloe, and I’ll have her publicly state she forgives you. We’ll put this whole thing behind us.” Just put it behind us? He made it sound so easy. So easy it was as if Liam had never spent a day in the entertainment industry. I tilted my head up, refusing to let the tears fall. I wanted to say something to Liam, but then I heard another person’s voice on the line. “Mr. Cross, Chloe is awake. She wants to see you.” “I’ll be right there.” Liam replied hurriedly. When I looked at my phone again, the call had been disconnected. 09 Liam rushed towards Chloe’s hospital room. Halfway there, as if remembering something, he stopped and instructed his assistant beside him: “Did you buy the necklace I told you to get a while ago? The one Jo mentioned in passing, the one she liked.” The assistant nodded. “Have it sent to Jo.” Liam knew that Josephine had her pride. Making her bow her head to Chloe would definitely make her feel wronged. But there was nothing to be done about that. When you do something wrong, you have to accept the punishment. Good thing Jo was easy to coax. In the past, whenever she was angry, buying her a little something would fix it. “Oh right, wasn’t there a matching bracelet? Give that to Chloe.”

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Five years old. The landslide. My twin sister and I were pinned beneath a massive concrete slab. To lift it off one of us meant crushing the other beneath the leverage. The rescue foreman put the choice on our mother: a life for a life. She could only save one. In that life, she chose me. And she hated me for it every single day that followed. Because I was the one who lived, I wasn’t allowed to eat well. I wasn’t allowed to wear nice clothes. If I was in school, I had to be number one. I wasn’t allowed to cry, and I wasn’t allowed to smile. I couldn’t speak loudly, and I certainly couldn’t go out to play with friends. Whenever my mother looked at me, she would point at my sister’s funeral photo and scream, “Your sister died because of you! How dare you not be satisfied with what you have?” I understood her agony. I bore it silently. Until I was thirty, when I was diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer. My mother didn’t offer comfort; she shrieked in despair, “If I knew you were just going to die early anyway, I should have let you die back then.” What she didn’t know was that her younger daughter hadn’t actually died. Suddenly, I’m back. Beneath the stone slab. And I hear my mother voice her choice to the rescuers. “Save the younger one,” she says. In that moment, under the crushing weight, I close my eyes. All I feel is relief. 01 I’m dead. But my spirit hasn’t moved on. I find myself floating, following my mom and my sister to the hospital. Inside the ambulance, my mom looks so young. With trembling fingertips, she gently brushes the mud-caked, matted hair away from my sister’s forehead. Tears spill from her eyes, hot and fast, landing on my sister’s face. Her expression is a mix of agonizing heartbreak and a terrifying, desperate joy. Outside, the sirens are screaming. But inside the rushing vehicle, it’s a quiet sanctuary. My mom whispers over and over, softly, “Maya. Maya, sweetie. Wake up for Mommy. Open your eyes. Look at Mommy.” I have never heard that tone in her voice before. Not once in my entire memory. Not even in the life where I was the one lying in that ambulance. 02 In that life—the old life—the landslide happened just like this. We were pinned under the same slab. To save one meant crushing the other. A life for a life. My mom couldn’t make the choice. The rescue crew finally suggested a brutal tie-breaker: they would pull out whoever reacted first. My mom scrambled onto the pile of debris. She screamed our names, her voice raw, tearing at her throat. “Sarah!” “Maya!” “Sarah!” “Maya!” Over and over again. I remember lying there in the suffocating pitch black. Suddenly, I heard her voice, exactly the way she used to call us on school mornings. Just like I always did, snuggled in my blankets, I called back automatically. “Coming, Mom!” Instant shouts of jubilation erupted outside. Then came the roar of machinery, the shifting of heavy rock, and amidst it all, a woman’s piercing sob. Blinding light cut through the dark. Dozens of rough, strong hands lifted me up. As I was carried away, jostled on a backboard, I heard the snippets of conversation. “The older girl is a miracle.” “Kid’s got a guardian angel.” “Shame about the other one.” “Couldn’t be helped. Any longer, we would’ve lost both.” I was only five years old. I didn’t understand what those words meant. I just wanted to know where my mom was. Where was she? I started crying for her. Immediately, voices from the crowd surrounding me rushed to soothe me. “Your mom is right here, honey. She’s right next to you. It’s okay.” “Pinned for sixteen hours, and she’s remarkably stable. A miracle child.” Through the cacophony, I strained to find her voice. Then, I saw her. I saw her face, an unreadable mask of paralyzing grief and absolute bewilderment. Later, I often wondered why I had to be the miracle. 03 Sarah and Maya. We were identical twins. Our dad was a city bus driver. He died in the line of duty, a horrific crash, when we were only three. He left us with a life insurance payout and a cramped unit in an old, city-owned apartment building. The pillar of our family was gone. My mom took my dad’s portrait to the department headquarters. Holding it against her chest, holding Sarah in one hand and Maya in the other, she sobbed in the administrator’s office. My sister and I were zombies. We saw her cry, so we cried too. We wailed. This was in the middle of a massive wave of layoffs. Somehow, through the pity, my mom secured a job working in the transit authority’s claims department. After that, my dad’s picture was hung on the wall. He watched over the three of us as we figured out how to survive. I used to sneak glances at that photo. I always thought he looked like he was smiling. Right up until the right side of the frame was filled with my sister’s photograph. After that, I never dared to look at that wall again. Deep down, I knew Maya was only on that wall because she saved me. I was supposed to be in that frame. 04 A family of four became three, then finally two. Our tiny apartment was always silent. The front door was always kept shut. Tight. Not even the wind could blow inside. Which meant the whispers of the neighbors saying my mother was cursed couldn’t get in, either. Only the door to my room was required to be open at all times. So that my mother’s gaze could dart inside at any second. “What are you doing sitting around? Is your homework done?” “It’s done? Then review it again. You’re not just studying for yourself. You have to study for your sister, too.” “Exhausted this early? You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you? Trying to stress me to death so you can finally be free.” “Cry, cry, cry. I’m not even crying, and you have the nerve to cry.” I became terrified of going home. But I had nowhere else to go. Everyone knew. Everyone knew my dad was dead, and that my sister died saving me. “Sarah, your mother has had a hard life. Be a good girl for her.” “Sarah, why are you still outside? Your mom is going crazy looking for you.” “Sarah, you cannot afford to be selfish.” Whenever neighbors saw me, they felt entitled to educate me on gratitude. Without realizing it, I stopped lifting my head. I started walking pressed against the walls. Waiting for me at the end of every walk was my mother’s grim, tight-lipped face. I hated going home, and I hated being in a crowd. But I couldn’t escape my home, and I couldn’t escape people. Because I was only eight years old. 05 I soon learned that eight was actually a beautiful age. I started first grade. On registration day, old Mrs. Albright, our neighbor, popped a peppermint into my mouth. She said, “Sarah, you’re in real school now. Study hard. Be something someday. Your mother’s entire future relies on you. As long as you get good grades, your mother will be happy.” I engraved that sentence onto my heart. I wanted my mother to be happy. Happy like she used to be. And sure enough, when I brought home my first perfect report card, the corners of my mother’s mouth actually lifted. It turned out it was true. Good grades made my mother happy. I began to study with a desperate vengeance. I fought to be top of the class, every single time. My mother’s smiles became more frequent. The day I was accepted into the city’s top magnet middle school with the highest entrance score, my mother took me to dad and Maya’s shrine to burn incense. She had a brilliant, genuine smile on her face. I looked up at the photos on the wall. I felt like my dad was smiling. And Maya was smiling. I smiled, too. But very quickly, I forgot how to smile. Magnet school was harder. My mom was holding the trimester ranking sheet. Her face was dark as she interrogated me. “Only ten points higher than second place? You used to beat everyone by twenty points minimum. Are you distracted? Are you doing this on purpose? Purposely trying to kill me with stress? You just want me dead so you can have an easy life, don’t you? “If it weren’t for you, I would have gone with Maya and your father. I drag myself through this miserable life solely for you.” I shook my head violently. Terror gripped me. No, that wasn’t it. I wanted to tell her. I wanted to explain. “I don’t know why. I’m just always so hungry. I’m too hungry to sleep at night. Halfway through the school day, I lose all my energy.” “Hungry?” My mom exploded. She started to weep bitterly. “I slave away every single day waiting on you hand and foot, and you have the nerve to tell me you’re hungry? Do I not feed you enough? Look at your sister! Did she ever get to eat a single hot meal that I cooked? You ungrateful, entitled brat.” I didn’t dare mention being hungry again. But hunger is a biological imperative of a growing body. Finally, during class, when my stomach let out another monstrous growl, my seatmate offered me a homemade oatmeal bar. Flush with embarrassment, I ate half. I wrapped the other half meticulously and hid it in my backpack. When I got home that night, my mother beat me savagely with a wooden spoon. “Tell me! Did you steal this? So young and already a thief. You want to end up in juvenile detention?” “Don’t call me Mom! I don’t have a criminal for a daughter.” “Given to you? Why would anyone give you anything? Why you?” “You took it, why didn’t you offer it to your sister first? You ate it all yourself! You have no conscience.” “Why is my life so miserable? I should have died back then. I should have died.” I explained over and over. I begged for mercy over and over. But the wooden spoon continued to fall, crack after crack, against my body. In the middle of that winter night, dressed in nothing but thin cotton pajamas, I was made to kneel before the photos of my father and sister. I kneeled there until dawn. I was burning up with a fever, curled on the floor. Before I lost consciousness, I saw my mother run over in a panic. She scooped me into her arms, sobbing, “Mommy’s sorry. Mommy’s sorry.” I lifted my head slightly, my gaze drifting to the wall. For the very first time, I thought: Why wasn’t it me in the frame on the right? I was thirteen years old. I had entered puberty. 06 The old folks used to say that every time a child survives a massive fever, they grow up a little bit more. I think they were right. The next time my stomach growled, I was grown-up enough to refuse my classmate’s snack. When I passed by neighbors’ homes, I was grown-up enough to refuse their kindness. “I’m not hungry.” “I’m going home to eat.” “My mom is cooking dinner.” My backpack became heavier. It wasn’t just books anymore; it held a massive thermos of water. When I was hungry, I just took a big gulp of water. The neighbors all praised me for how sensible and responsible I was. Only my seatmate in class completely ignored me. “Hmph. Snob. Too good for my oatmeal bars,” my seatmate muttered to others, not bothering to lower their voice. “Ate half my bar and the very next day she’s out with a fever for a week. Her mom actually came to the school to yell at the teacher. My God! “My mom told me that girl is her mother’s entire world, her ‘root of life.’ Told me to stay clear. If something happens to her, we can’t afford the fallout.” The group of kids around them burst into laughter. I wanted to sink through the floor. I apologized profusely, explaining I had just caught a cold from being underdressed, but more and more classmates stopped talking to me. Until one day, that seatmate hissed quietly, “You are so basic.” In the mirror of the school restroom, I finally forced myself to look at my own reflection. I was swallowed up in a deep purple, high-gloss puffy coat. I remembered then. A woman in our apartment complex had put that coat in the charity bin. My mom took it out. Looking in the mirror, watching other students walk past… most wore black puffer coats. Boys wore grey or blue. The girls had a rainbow of styles—white, pink, a sky-blue like the heavens. Just me. In my purple garbage bag of a coat. Totally out of place. Below it were clunky, old-fashioned winter boots. I had become a purple-shelled snail with concrete blocks for feet. Deep shame settled over me. When I got home, I mustered the courage to ask for something else. A black puffer coat. I thought… black is normal, right? That should be okay. But my mother’s face went black instead. This led to my second savage beating. “Are you in love? Is that it? You want new clothes to show off? Who are you trying to impress? A boy? Tell me which boy! I’ll go to the school tomorrow and talk to the principal. “Are you cold? Do you not have clothes? Did I let you walk outside naked? Am I abusing you?” Finally, she pointed at the wall. Her body was shaking. “Why don’t you ask your sister? Ask her if it’s cold six feet under. Ask her if she wants a new coat.” I looked up. My eyes locked with Maya’s in the photo. Hot tears spilled from my eyes, one after another. Why… why did it have to be me that lived? I was fourteen years old. High adolescence. From that point on, I completely gave up on trying to be my own person. I still studied desperately, but high school was brutal. I couldn’t keep myself at the top of the rankings. Sometimes, I even dropped out of the top thirty in the grade. Every single time, my mother would beat me with a hatred that only stopped when she was physically exhausted. I just took it silently. Inside, I was hoping… Yes. Just like this. Hit harder. Kill me. Kill me. Please, just kill me. 07 When it came time to apply for college, my mother sat down and filled out the applications for the local state university herself. She smiled and said, “You don’t need to go out of state. The teacher’s college program here is the best. People fight to get into this program.” I just muttered, “Okay.” The day the acceptance letter arrived, the neighbors all came over to congratulate her. They praised me for being such a devoted daughter, knowing to stay close to take care of her. Only my high school guidance counselor was disappointed. “With your test scores, applying to a local teacher’s college is a tragic waste.” But then, thinking of my home situation, he just let out a deep, defeated sigh. “You’ve had it tough. But your mother has had a hard life, too.” I knew that’s how it would be. If the outcome was preordained, why struggle through the process? Struggle only leaves you with more heartache. After graduation, I smoothly secured a stable job as a teacher at a local middle school. Mrs. Albright next door, whose hair was now entirely gray, said to my mom, “Mei, you finally made it through. You made it.” My mom cried and laughed at the same time. I floated past the crowd of neighbors and looked at my mother. I looked at her exactly the way I had when they pulled me out from under that concrete slab. Mom, back then… were you happy that one daughter lived? Or were you only sad that the other one died? Mom, are you happy now? Mom, am I a good girl yet? 08 Everyone said my mother had a bitter life. Losing her husband, losing a daughter, raising a child alone. And just when things were finally supposed to get easier, I got sick. Stomach cancer. Stage three. When I saw the diagnosis, I was remarkably calm. Hunger had been the defining theme of my growth, and the stomach is an emotional organ. I had felt the discomfort in my upper abdomen for years. But I was so used to enduring, I couldn’t tell the difference between pain and hunger anymore. I was very used to enduring. I had no intention of seeking treatment. I decided to leave all my savings to my mother for her retirement. I planned to keep it a secret, but my mom found the diagnosis report hidden under my mattress. She read the report over and over. Then she let out a piercing, desolate scream and started tearing at her own hair. I stepped forward to stop her, and she shoved me away with brutal force. She pointed at me, then pointed at the wall. Her eyes were wide with terror, her face twisted in an ugly mask. “If I knew you were just going to die early anyway, I should have let you die back then. “You debt collector. “You should have been the one to die.” My hands dropped loosely to my sides. After a long silence, I whispered back, “Okay.” That night, I left the apartment. I stood in the cold wind and jumped into the city river. I left no note. I had no regrets. I was a good, obedient girl. Wasn’t I? My photograph was finally hung on the wall. I was placed to the left of my father. Maya was to his right. Only my mother was left alive. Old Mrs. Albright stood clutching the doorway, her heart breaking. “Mei… your life… why does it have to be so hard?” Did my mother truly have a hard life? Right now, as I watch her smiling in this hospital ambulance, looking at Maya, I have to wonder.

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When I snatched Riley’s spot as the school valedictorian, her golden-boy childhood best friend asked me out the very next day. With that devastatingly handsome face of his, he asked me: “In my world, will you slack off and be a failure with me?” Of course. I agreed in a heartbeat and kissed those lips I had coveted for so long. After that, my grades steadily plummeted to the bottom of the class, and I devoured Lucas Thorne body and soul. It wasn’t until graduation day that he kissed me on his own initiative for the first time, telling me to go to community college with him. I knew that was his ultimate goal for approaching me all along. But this time, I just waved my MIT acceptance letter in his face: “It was fun playing with you this year.” “But the stakes are too high now. I’m out.” 01 The day I overheard Lucas and Riley talking was the day the final national standardized test scores were released. A perfect 1600. That was the highest score in the state. I had just breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Riley’s familiar voice from behind the door: “Lucas, don’t forget, you haven’t won our bet yet.” “You only win when you get Chloe to follow you to community college.” Lucas clearly scoffed at her words. “Have you seen her grades lately? She’s barely scraping by with a 1.5 GPA. What good university could she possibly get into?” Riley argued, “But she had such a solid foundation. What if—” “Even if she miraculously aced her finals, getting her blacklisted from any decent college is just one phone call away for my family, isn’t it?” Hearing that, the rest of their friends, who had been standing quietly on the side, erupted into laughter. The same people who usually called me “sister-in-law” to my face were now using the most vicious words to mock me: “With how desperately Chloe clings to Lucas, forget community college, she’d happily pick up trash on the streets if it meant being with him!” “Right?! Everyone knows she purposely dropped from rank number one to the absolute bottom just to be with him! What wouldn’t an extreme, love-struck idiot like her do?!” Another round of synchronized laughter followed. I heard every single word clearly, but I couldn’t care less. For a beautiful guy like Lucas, what did it matter if I put on an act and scored dead last a few times to make him happy? In places they couldn’t see, Lucas was “putting his back into” rewarding me quite generously. Thinking of how entirely different Lucas looked in bed compared to his usual arrogant, cool-guy persona—those slightly damp eyes, those swollen, red lips… I was just getting lost in my thoughts when another guy’s joke snapped me back. He winked at Riley: “Riley, if Chloe knew this was all your revenge plan, she’d probably hate you to death!” Riley rolled her eyes in disgust. “Idiot. That’s obvious. Do you even have to ask?” But they were wrong this time. I didn’t hate Riley at all. In fact, I was incredibly grateful to her. After all, for someone like me—with a face so plain you could lose it in a crowd of three—getting a chance with a Greek god like Lucas Thorne was a gift handed directly to me by Riley Mercer herself. 02 Since I was a kid, I knew all my skill points were allocated solely to academics. While others spent hours memorizing a textbook chapter, I could recite it backward after one read. Complex concepts clicked instantly; difficult AP physics equations were a breeze. But I also knew that in this mediocre, dead-end town, standing out too much wasn’t a good thing. So, even though I had to rank first every year to secure the merit scholarships, I always made sure my score was only exactly five points higher than the runner-up, Riley. There was only one exception. It was the day before midterms. I saw Lucas and Riley kissing outside the testing center. The stunningly handsome boy and the beautiful, preppy girl looked like a scene straight out of a teen movie, but I was consumed by jealousy. During the AP Calculus exam, I couldn’t resist answering the extra credit essay question. During the AP Physics exam, out of pure spite, I answered every single multiple-choice question correctly. That midterm, I beat Riley by a full 35 points. Afterward, I regretted losing my composure for days. Until the third day, when Lucas Thorne appeared in front of me. Wearing his bright yellow varsity basketball jersey, he jogged up to me, his beautiful face full of apology: “Sorry about that. My pass went wide and hit you.” “Are you okay? Should I walk you to the nurse’s office?” I could have guessed with my toes that the basketball flying straight at my head was no accident. Just as I knew perfectly well that Lucas was deliberately approaching me, definitely because of Riley. Maybe it was to vent her anger, or maybe it was a bet with her. But no matter the reason. That was my one and only chance to get close to Lucas. 03 That’s right. I wanted to possess Lucas Thorne. From the very first moment I laid eyes on him. 04 I have to admit, Lucas’s timing was impeccable. In the seventeen years before he appeared, I only had one dream. When my dad got blackout drunk and his fists rained down on me like a storm. When my mom, trying to save money to pay off my brother’s gambling debts, dragged my 13-year-old self to try and marry me off to a 50-year-old widower. “Get into the best university. Escape this place.” I never forgot that for a single second. I never dared to slack off. Later, when I could effortlessly score a perfect 1600 on any practice SAT I picked up, I knew the best universities in the country were already firmly within my sights. I was just waiting for the college admissions cycle next year for the final, fatal strike. Looking back at my gray, dust-covered seventeen years of life, there was only a depressing childhood and the numbness of burying my head in books. One day, I was watching a rerun of a classic 90s movie on cable TV. Looking at Leonardo DiCaprio’s beautiful, reckless face on the screen, I spaced out for a long time: “If only I could have a romance with a beautiful boy like that at seventeen. How nice would that be.” And then Lucas Thorne appeared. He was even younger and prettier than the movie star on my screen. As he jumped on the court, his jersey faintly outlining his lean muscles, he stirred my deepest, most hidden desires. I wanted him, but I couldn’t have him. As I said, all my skill points were in academics. Other than that, I was painfully average. Utterly forgettable. I was the type of girl Lucas, who was always the center of attention, would never look at twice. But now, he was being served to me on a silver platter by Riley. 05 I acted completely oblivious, happily accepting every calculated approach Lucas made afterward. In the noisy cafeteria, in the empty gymnasium, Lucas always managed an “unexpected” encounter with me. He lingered around me longer and longer, his gaze growing hotter, until one day, he pushed through the crowd and walked up to me. “Chloe, I like you. Will you go out with me?” When I fell into his arms, I pretended not to see the disgust he tried to hide beneath his long eyelashes. I just closed my eyes and deeply inhaled the scent of him—a mix of licorice and clean laundry detergent. It smelled so good. Books say that within their pages, you can find a house of gold and a Prince Charming. The ancients didn’t lie to me. But I also knew this Prince Charming would only be mine temporarily. Maybe he would soon end this revenge game, publicly dumping me to avenge his childhood sweetheart. Or maybe, he wanted to play a little longer, making me fall deeper and deeper before calling it quits. But what I didn’t expect was that the purpose of my Prince Charming being by my side was to smash my house of gold. The first time I realized this was at an internet cafe. I was sitting next to his gaming station, quietly working on an AP test prep book. The guy, who had been focused on his game, suddenly ripped off his headset in frustration. Hearing the commotion, I looked up and asked what was wrong. He stared at me for a long moment before suddenly speaking, his eyes dark: “I don’t like it when you do test papers while you’re next to me.” I was very willing to accommodate a pretty boy, so I packed up my papers and tossed them aside: “Then I won’t do them.” He kept staring at me, his expression growing colder: “I feel like the gap between us is too big.” “I don’t like it.” I realized what was happening, my heart beating fast. “Then… what do you think would be better?” He suddenly leaned in close, so close his forehead almost touched mine, his tone almost like a spoiled child’s: “Why don’t you just slack off and be a failure with me?” The blue light from the monitor silently glowed in those glass-bead-like eyes as he issued a siren’s invitation: “Chloe, come into my world. Be with me forever.” In that moment, I felt sheer ecstasy. So, this is what he wanted. So, this is what Riley wanted. 06 I hooked my arms around the back of his neck, rubbing against the red lips I had coveted for so long: “Kiss me.” I knew Lucas didn’t like me, and he didn’t like my touch. Usually, I didn’t dare to cross any lines, afraid he would get rebellious and call off the game immediately. But now, he wanted to get something out of me. Making an exchange was human nature, and absolutely necessary, wasn’t it? When those soft, slightly cool lips finally hesitated before pressing against mine, I silently, profusely thanked my past twelve years of burying my head in books. Chloe, heaven really hasn’t let you down. I stopped looking at books. I stopped studying. I recklessly accompanied Lucas in his downward spiral of slacking off. Consequently, my class ranking began to drop, test after test. The first time, of course, I dropped the number one spot right into Riley’s lap. Hearing the teacher call her name after the words “Rank Number One” for the first time, Riley went absolutely crazy with joy. She took the report card, looked at it again and again, and finally buried her face in her arms, sobbing uncontrollably. I didn’t miss the triumphant look she shot me, pretending it was accidental, but I acted as if I felt nothing. I just silently thought, it’s time to collect my reward. Sure enough, Lucas was thrilled that day too. He ran toward me from afar, the hem of his varsity jacket catching the breeze and the sunlight. That was probably why, when he pulled me into a hug, I still felt a warmth. I asked him why he was so happy. He smiled and said he had won a beautiful basketball game today. I smiled too. Pretending not to know that this “beautiful game” was entirely fabricated, I smilingly placed a hotel key card in his palm. “Today is my 18th birthday.” “Celebrate with me, okay?” 07 I originally thought I would be the submissive one that night, inexperienced in the battle of life. Surprisingly, someone as wildly popular as Lucas had absolutely zero experience either. The superficial tips he had picked up from online videos were, of course, no match for my ability to draw inferences from textbooks, my superior structural 3D thinking, and my spatial imagination skills. Looking at him beneath me, the corners of his eyes flushed red, stubbornly biting back his whimpers, I finally understood the true meaning of the quote: “Book smarts are no match for hands-on experience.” I just didn’t calculate the physical toll perfectly. The next day, at the varsity basketball game, the “Slam Dunk King” Lucas Thorne lost his footing the moment he jumped for the first time. Men always love to fantasize that women will never forget their first time. But I practically proved that for men, sex and love are truly inseparable. He was young and hot-blooded, and he acquired a taste for it in bed. And out of bed, Lucas gradually developed an attachment to me that even he hadn’t noticed.

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“My customized succubus has been with me for a month, and he won’t let me touch him. What’s going on?” I frowned as I typed the message to customer service. The representative was perfectly polite. “Oh, sweetie, the succubi in our shop are usually practically begging to glue themselves to their owners. This sounds like a defect! We can absolutely process an exchange for you. A new model will arrive in about a week.” I looked over at Silas. He was designed exactly to my specifications, a perfect ten in my eyes. I decided to observe him a little longer before committing to the exchange. He was too perfectly tailored to my tastes to give up easily. But at a family dinner, I caught my customized succubus having an undeniable biological reaction to my step-sister sitting across from us. It was only then that a dazed memory surfaced—the day the package arrived, it was my step-sister who had opened the crate for me. That night, I contacted customer service again. “Is the new one still arriving in a week? Go ahead and process that creation order for me.” 01 Silas’s eyes were rimmed with red, his brow furrowed as if fighting against his absolute limit. Over the past few days, he had grown increasingly weak. He sat on the edge of my bed, panting heavily, while I flipped through the Succubus Handbook. “It says right here that the only way to satisfy the hunger is…” I cleared my throat awkwardly. “It’s not like it wouldn’t make you feel better.” I reached my hand out toward his collar. Right below his neck, on his collarbone, was a small, vivid red mole that rose and fell with his ragged breathing. It was incredibly alluring. Just as I was about to touch it, he shoved me away violently. I looked at my pale wrist, now blooming with a red mark from his grip, and frowned slightly. He still wouldn’t let me touch him. “I’m sorry. Instinctive reaction,” he said, his gaze deep and unreadable as he stared at me. “I’m going to take a cold shower.” Watching his retreating figure, I pulled out my phone and contacted customer service. I had bought Silas a month ago. I had spent a fortune to have him specially customized to my exact preferences. I had waited a full year for him to finally arrive. But the ironic part was, even though succubi were supposed to derive sustenance from their masters to feel full, he refused to let me touch him, no matter what. “Why is my succubus so different from the others? He’s clearly miserable, but he refuses to let me touch him.” Listening to the roar of the shower from the bathroom, I waited for customer service to reply. “Hi there, sweetie! Did you bind the contract with him?” I looked at the handbook. How could I make such a stupid mistake? “The very first night I brought him home, I pulled him into the contract.” The other end was silent for a long time before replying. “That shouldn’t be happening, sweetie. The succubi from our shop are all professionally trained to be top-tier clinger types. They usually hate being separated from their masters for even a second.” I was getting anxious. “Do you think I’m lying to you?” The rep answered patiently. “Please don’t worry, sweetie. Tell you what, ship him back to us. I’ll have the creation department start a new build for you. The new succubus will arrive in about 7 days.” Almost exactly as that message popped up, the bathroom door opened. Silas was wrapped in a single white towel. Water dripped from his wet hair, sliding down his angular cheeks, over his chest, down his abs, and disappearing beneath the towel. I swallowed hard. He was absolutely my type. He was literally tailor-made for me. And it turned out, he was broken. “I’ll observe him for a little longer. If it doesn’t get better, I’ll consider sending him in for repairs.” Customer service meant ‘scrapping’ him, which felt like such a waste. “Alright, sweetie. Just message me if you have any other issues! XOXO!” I locked my phone. Looking at the man’s pale face and crimson-rimmed eyes, I felt a twinge of pity. “I just asked customer service, and they said this situation has never happened before…” I looked at him sympathetically. How did such a perfect specimen end up sick? He looked healthy enough on the outside. His hand paused as he dried his hair. His dark eyes held no emotion when he looked at me. He was completely unlike the advertisements I had seen, where a succubus’s eyes would light up like stars when looking at their master. “If you still can’t accept it in a few days, I’m taking you in for exchanges.” He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as he nodded. I felt a bit aggrieved. Having delicious food right in front of me that I couldn’t eat was miserable. I got up and left the room. The only reason I bought a succubus was that I enjoyed that sort of dynamic. My phone rang—it was my dad. I answered irritably. “Your grandmother misses you again. When are you coming home?” I knew it was an excuse. The one who missed me was clearly him. My dad was a total helicopter parent. If he didn’t see me for two days, he acted like the world was ending. I rubbed my temples. “Fine, I know. I’ll head over in a bit…” I turned around and froze. Silas was already packing his bags. “You… really like going to the family estate?” I hadn’t even hung up the phone, and he was already packed. His hand paused, but he didn’t say anything. I didn’t think much of it at the time. 02 I really didn’t want to go back to that house, but I couldn’t resist my dad’s emotional blackmail. “Your grandmother only has so many years left. Is it wrong for her to want to see you?” And so, having been away for barely three days, I went back. But the moment I walked through the door, a girl threw herself at me. I frowned and stepped aside, looking at her coldly. Summer’s expression was aggrieved, her voice saccharine sweet. “Summer, you’re finally back! I missed you so much these past three days.” She was my dad’s step-daughter. It was ironic. Even though my dad loved me fiercely and had transferred all the company stock to my name. Even though he acted like his heart was breaking if he didn’t see me for a day, that didn’t stop him from marrying another woman and raising another woman’s child. I didn’t dislike Summer because of my dad; I disliked her because she was too fake. I had caught her being malicious toward me several times, before she could shift her expression back to “innocent.” Seeing that I wasn’t responding, she didn’t get embarrassed. Instead, she turned to greet Silas standing behind me. “Silas, isn’t carrying all that stuff exhausting?” 她埋怨要看有上眼。 “Summer, you really shouldn’t. Silas is a succubus you bought, not a house servant. Why are you making him do this kind of dirty, heavy work?” I let out a soft sneer. “Then you do it?” The girl’s expression froze for an instant. Silas looked at me, his eyes dark, but said nothing. I was annoyed. I zipped straight back to my room, not wanting to look at Summer’s hypocritical face for another second. So I didn’t notice that behind my back, Silas gave Summer a faint smile and a nod. At dinner, looking at Silas sitting next to me, my dad’s expression was very ugly. “Just a fancy toy, and you carry him around like he’s priceless.” The man beside me stiffened. I looked at my dad, feeling helpless. Before I could open my mouth to defend Silas, Summer spoke up first. “Dad, you can’t say that about Silas. Even though he’s a succubus, he still has his dignity.” The man beside me moved, and I turned to look at him. Silas was staring at Summer without blinking, his eyes full of gratitude. I frowned, scrutinizing him. Was it my imagination? Why did it feel like my succubus had little stars in his eyes when he looked at Summer? I found it almost amusing. I had spent a huge amount of money to buy him, I provided his food and clothes, I smashed tons of cash on him, and I was practically at his beck and call. He said he couldn’t accept me, so I didn’t touch him. Yet, in the end, it couldn’t compare to Summer tossing out a random line of defense. Summer, that little fake, was still chattering away without stopping. It was giving me a headache. “Can you just shut up?” When my words fell, the entire dining table sank into a weird silence. My dad frowned at me, seemingly wanting me not to be so wilful. Summer’s mom continued eating as if nothing happened. Summer looked at me aggrievedly, then looked at Silas, tears on the verge of falling. Beside me came the sound of cutlery clattering against a plate. Then, Silas’s uniquely cold tone echoed across the table. “Do you have to be so aggressive when you speak?” Everyone present was stunned. After all, no one in this house dared to speak to me like that. My dad slammed his hand on the table and stood up, his face red with anger. “You’ve really spoiled him into being lawless! I’ve never seen a succubus talk back to his master like that!” I wasn’t angry. I just looked at Silas thoughtfully. This man had been indifferent ever since I bought him. It was like he was an emotionless robot. I used to think that was just his personality, but suddenly I realized that wasn’t it. When I reprimanded my step-sister, his emotional swings were a bit too large, weren’t they? And the look he gave me was as cold as stagnant water, while the look he gave Summer held an indescribable ambiguity. The meal ended unpleasantly. That night, no matter what, my dad wouldn’t let me sleep in the same room as Silas. “You need to let him go hungry for a bit, let him know who the master is!” I was too embarrassed to tell my dad that Silas hadn’t had a full meal since he arrived, and that he was the one actively refusing to eat. That would be too humiliating. In the middle of the night, I got thirsty and went downstairs for water, but I heard noises coming from the room next door. I froze slightly. Why did I hear a woman’s voice in Silas’s room? 03 I got a little closer, and my eyes slowly went cold. I wasn’t mishearing. It really was Summer. Her delicate, soft voice was particularly clear in the silent night. “Silas, I really can’t thank you enough for speaking up for me at dinner. You don’t know that Summer doesn’t have anyone on her side in this house. I came over specifically to thank you.” Silas’s voice held a gentleness I had never heard before. “Summer’s personality is a bit harsh, but she’s not bad fundamentally. If she says something like that to you next time, just argue back. She won’t do anything to you.” A touch of mockery slid across my eyes. We had only been together for a month, yet he seemed to understand me quite well. But until this moment, it suddenly occurred to me that on the day the shipment arrived a month ago, it was Summer who helped me open the crate. I had a feeling of clarity, like the clouds parting. It wasn’t that my succubus was broken; my succubus had fallen in love at first sight with someone else before he ever bound his contract with me. No wonder he wouldn’t let me touch him. Thinking back to customer service, I turned around, went back to my room, and found the chat again. “My succubus is still broken. I don’t plan on fixing him. Exchange him for a new one.” The reply on that end was still quick. “Alright, sweetie. I’ll send the creation order out tomorrow. It should arrive in about a week.” After thinking about it, I asked again. “What do I do with this one?” This time, customer service took a long time to reply. “No need to worry, sweetie. For succubi like this with issues, returns, and bad reviews, we usually aggregate them for recall. We handle them at a low price for second-hand resale.” Second-hand resale? I thought about Silas’s expression of unyielding loyalty every time I approached. That was actually quite funny. I’m afraid if he didn’t end up in Summer’s hands, he would receive countless bad reviews and would never be “fixed.” Early the next morning, I was yawning as I walked out of my room, colliding head-on with Silas. He was wearing casual sportswear, looking like he had just come back from exercising outside. Summer’s voice was sickeningly sweet. “Silas, you have such a great body, and you’re so disciplined. If I had the money, I would definitely buy a succubus exactly like you.” Those words sounded weird—it was an open challenge to blatantly seduce him. Silas carefully observed my expression. After realizing there wasn’t a hint of anything unusual, he relaxed his brow and gave Summer a shallow smile. Watching the interaction between the two, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Trashy man and a cheap woman, flirting right under my nose. However, Silas had already been returned by me; he literally had nothing to do with me anymore. Summer didn’t have much money. My dad had transferred all the company shares to my name. Her and her mom just lived a wealthy, carefree life on his dime. Her allowance definitely wasn’t enough to customize an exclusive succubus. And she turned her nose up at those cheap succubi on the market. That night, without waiting for my dad to speak, I still chose to sleep in a separate room from Silas. Watching my retreating figure, Silas looked dazed for a moment, his pale fingertips gripping the doorknob slightly tighter. He had originally wanted to do what he usually did, push back a few times and not let me close the room door, forcing me to close it. He said he was uncomfortable, so I had helplessly given up on even just holding him to sleep like a warm log. But looking at the tightly closed door, Silas’s heart sank. I was in my room carefully reading the Succubus Handbook sent by customer service when a knock sounded on the door. I was determined to raise an exclusive succubus properly this time. I was scrolling through the handbook while walking to open the door. I assumed it was my dad bringing me milk. But I didn’t expect the person standing at the door to be Silas. Regarding my delay in opening the door, he seemed a bit impatient, but after seeing the content on my tablet clearly, his expression softened considerably. “All of that is book knowledge. If you have any questions, isn’t the real thing right here?” I looked up, a bit stunned. I looked at the tablet, then looked at him. It took me a moment to react. He seemed to have misunderstood something. 04 I found it a bit funny. My dad was right; I really had spoiled him too much. Did he think I was doing homework and memorizing notes overnight just to make him happy? But I didn’t argue. After all, what was the point of talking to a product that was about to be returned? “What do you want?” I leaned against the doorframe, my expression blank.max Silas froze. He hadn’t expected my reaction to be so cold. He didn’t know what he was doing here either. He had just lain back down on his bed, and the emptiness in his body was getting worse and worse. Thinking of the way I had just left, he had somehow come over and knocked on the door. I looked at the man standing blankly in front of the door, a wave of impatience coloring my eyes. “It’s the middle of the night. Is something wrong?” “I think…” His voice was a bit dry, staring intently at my lips. “Maybe we could try. Tonight, maybe I can accept you…” My eyes widened in shock. He was enjoying my expression with satisfaction, as if this were a magnanimous gift to me. I almost laughed out of sheer anger. My boundless coddling these past few days seemed to have made him forget that his entire existence was supposed to be for serving me. Not like now, acting as if he were granting mercy out of the goodness of his heart. I slammed the door with a loud bang, not even bothering to waste words on him. The person outside the door seemed to stand there for a long time. It wasn’t until past midnight that I heard him leave in my groggy, sleep-deprived state. Over the next few days, Silas acted like a completely different succubus. He started trying to seduce me in subtle ways, wanting to cling to me more and more. Looking at his increasingly pale face, I figured he must be absolutely starving. But I had already lost interest in him, so I simply pretended not to understand his hints. The day the new succubus arrived was a Monday. Dad left for work early, grandma went to her senior citizens’ center, and my stepmother went shopping. Scarcely anyone was home. The moment I opened the new package, the man smiled, his eyes wrinkling into crescents, looking moist and inviting. He struck right at the center of my heart. When he saw me, his eyes held tiny hidden hearts. “Good morning, Master. My name is Luca. It is a pleasure to serve you.” I swallowed. This was the kind of succubus I wanted. Customer service really delivered! I decided I would definitely give them a five-star review later. I circled around him, reaching out now and then to feel his muscles. He just stood there obediently, letting me take liberties. Noise came from upstairs. I froze slightly, temporarily reining in my lust to get up and see what the commotion was. Luca followed obediently behind me. Summer’s voice was coming from Silas’s room. “Silas, are you and Summer having a fight? I see you getting thinner and thinner lately. I specifically looked up the Succubus Handbook. It seems like you can’t get full if you sleep in separate rooms, right?” My sister was finally revealing her true colors. I leaned against the nearby doorframe to watch the show. I don’t know what happened inside the room, I only heard Silas’s voice, which sounded a bit panicked. “Summer, don’t be like this… Summer will mind if she finds out.” Summer’s voice was panting a little. “But you can’t even get full. I just want Silas to be full…” Before she could finish, the man shoved her out the door. The two who were pushing and pulling at each other froze when they saw me standing at the door. The scene instantly became silent. Summer’s clothes were a bit dishevelled. Her eyes widened as she looked at me in disbelief. “Summer, why are you at the door?” Silas’s face was pale, and there was a lipstick mark from Summer on his cheek. “Summer, it’s not what you think. I didn’t…” I shook my head. “I won’t mind. You’re mistaken, because you’ve already been returned.” Luca stepped forward from behind me. He still smiled brightly, but his words were utterly vicious. “Serial number 0201, Silas, right? Hello. I am serial number 0204, Luca. As a succubus, you seem to lack succubus self-awareness. The shop manager asked me to inform you that your contract has been completely transferred to me. You may leave now.” His smile widened as he looked at Silas’s instantly pale face. “Defective merchandise that gave the master a poor experience.” 04 That last sentence was an absolute finishing blow. I appreciated how sharp his tongue was, which was a bit different from my initial impression of him. Silas’s face was already completely white. But Summer’s eyes lit up when she heard this. She quickly pulled out her phone and searched for shop information. “Oh!” She squealed in surprise. “I managed to snag you for less than a tenth of the price! You’re my succubus now, Silas!” Her tone was full of the joy of finding a bargain. Silas looked at her, then looked at me. For a moment, he found it difficult to accept that he had been so unceremoniously swapped out. “Master…” I knew that Summer’s main motivation for seducing him in the beginning, and for binding him now, was mostly to annoy me. But you only get upset if you care. I had such a great new succubus in my arms; I didn’t have the leisure to get angry at them. At dinner, my dad looked at Luca sitting beside me and Silas sitting beside Summer, and rubbed his aching temples. “What are you two squabbling over now?” Summer was the first to tear up. “Dad, Summer didn’t want him, so I picked him up. I didn’t have that much money to buy a new one. Is it not okay to pick up what Summer discarded?” Before my dad could speak, Luca moved beside me. He picked up a sparerib that I had eaten half of and casually threw it onto Summer’s plate. “Since you love picking up trash, here. Consider yourself rewarded.” Summer’s face went pale with anger. I looked at him in surprise. I have to say, this succubus was really hitting all the right buttons for me. Watching Summer being rendered speechless, I was in a great mood and even ate two extra bowls of rice. After dinner, I was stuffed, so Luca sat beside me gently rubbing my stomach. I finally understood why so many people bought succubi. In the beginning, I was just driven by lust. Seeing so many good reviews, I thought it was only about that kind of thing. But it turned out everyone was eating this good. I cast a blaming glance at Silas sitting in the back. He really had almost ruined my entire vision of what having a succubus would be like. When I looked at him, his whole body shuddered, and he gave me a happy, broad smile. I found it incomprehensible. When I was his owner, I never saw him give me a single nice expression. Now that the bond was broken and he was with Summer, he was putting on this fawning act. Did he have some weird fetish? Did he like playing the cheating game? Thinking of that, my disgust grew, and even that face didn’t seem as handsome anymore. That night, Luca came into my room. His service was absolutely wonderful. As I was drifting off to sleep, I thought: tomorrow I must give him a huge five-star review. But in the middle of the night, I was woken by the sound of a phone ringing. I slid the bar to answer. It was Silas’s cold voice on the other end. I found it a bit baffling. Didn’t he live right next door to me? Why was he calling me for whatever it was? Besides, there shouldn’t be anything between us anymore. I wasn’t like Summer; I didn’t have a hobby of stealing other people’s succubi. “Master, it’s so hot. It hurts. I’m so hungry…” He was letting out weak groans on the other end, seemingly suffering intensely. The phone was pulled from my hand. Luca was leaning against the headboard. The bright moonlight shone on his snow-white skin, and his muscle definitions were exceptionally clear. He stared at my slightly swollen lips, reaching out to trace my face. “Defective product, go find your own master. Got it?” “I’m full right now, so I have energy. If you call again, I’m definitely going over there and kicking your door off its hinges.” Watching him threaten Silas, I giggled in the covers. The call was hung up. He leaned over a bit helplessly and acted cute. “This kind of succubus with a bad record should just be wiped out. You guys already broke the bond, and he’s still calling you ‘Master’.” I helplessly claimed my innocence. “I didn’t make him. He called me that himself.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “409211”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

I just found out my younger brother is the male lead in a romance novel. According to the plot, on his eighteenth birthday, he’s supposed to meet the female lead, and sparks will fly. Refusing to be part of their twisted game, I hurriedly packed my bags to leave the country. Learning I was leaving, the brother who usually acted so gentle sneered, trapping me in his arms with a look that was both sick and obsessive: “Sister, I forgot to tell you… we aren’t blood-related.” 01 After discovering my brother was a novel’s male lead, the way I looked at Liam changed completely. At the time, Liam was seventeen and a junior in high school. Wearing his blue and white school hoodie, he dropped his backpack, looking relaxed and a bit lazy: “Chloe, I’m home.” This kid. Ever since he started high school, he stopped calling me “sis” and always used my first name. Even though it annoyed me, seeing him towering at almost 6’2″, I didn’t dare push it too much. Especially since I had just learned that in this novel, Liam was a “naturally gifted, tirelessly energetic” male lead. Normally, when he refused to call me “sis,” I would run over and mess up his hair. But now… “Chloe, why are you looking at me like that?” Liam’s tone was cool as he glanced up at me. I pretended to stare at the TV, acting like nothing was wrong. “Nothing.” Honestly, the pet on this TV show is pretty cute… “What are you smiling at?” It was summer. Liam took off his jacket, revealing a white t-shirt underneath, his hair slightly messy. He swept his slightly upturned eyes over the TV and casually sat down next to me on the sofa. “What is that?” I choked on my own spit, coughing violently. Liam naturally reached out to pat my back. I froze, glanced at the TV, and said, “That… I think it’s a cockatoo.” “Hm.” He pulled his hand back, crossed his arms, and leaned back against the sofa. Tilting his head back, he closed his eyes. His eyelashes were really long. I looked at his sharp, handsome profile. This kid, his skin was not only pale and clear, but his features were incredibly refined. Let’s just say he looked like a young movie star. The most distinctive thing was a small red mole right on his Adam’s apple. It was very eye-catching. I coughed, shifted uncomfortably on the sofa, and kept my eyes glued to the screen. But my mind had already drifted back to the plot of the novel. On his eighteenth birthday, Liam falls in love at first sight with a girl five years older than him. He becomes dangerously possessive and obsessively in love. And I, somehow, become a part of their twisted games. Finding torn clothes and crumpled tissues in the mansion I share with Liam… Thinking about it made me inexplicably annoyed. I grabbed my phone, wanting to retreat to my room. Before I could take a few steps, Liam stood up and grabbed my wrist. Thinking of that absurd plot, I snapped at him, “What?” The seventeen-year-old boy leaned down, glancing at me before lowering his head: “No head pats today?” Under the lamplight, his soft hair had a gentle halo. I don’t know what came over me, but I reached out and ruffled his hair like a dog’s, leaving a few strands sticking up in all directions. Finally, I instinctively patted his head, like praising an obedient pet. Once I was done, Liam straightened up, smirked, and threw an arm around my shoulder, leading me upstairs. He smelled faintly of crisp mint. I vaguely felt something was off: “Liam, what are you doing?” Liam glanced at me sideways, then pinched his earlobe and said, “Weren’t you going to your room? I’m going up too.” Wait… according to the novel, every time Liam wouldn’t let the female lead out of bed, he would pinch his own earlobe… But then again, maybe it’s just a subconscious habit? Feeling a strange, indescribable sensation in my chest, I hurried back to my room. 02 Back in my room, I couldn’t help but recall the scene when I saw Liam again at eighteen. My parents divorced when I was very young. I lived abroad with my mom, while Liam, who was barely a year old, stayed with my dad in the States. When I became an adult, my father passed away. I left my mother’s new family and resolutely returned to the States to take care of this underage, practically stranger of a younger brother. At my father’s funeral, I saw fourteen-year-old Liam wearing an ill-fitting black suit. Like a lone wolf, the boy stood in front of the tombstone, watching the people come and go with cold detachment. It was a gloomy day. The clouds were dark, and soon a light drizzle began to fall. I walked up to him with an umbrella, feeling a bit absurd as I spoke: “Hi, I’m your surprise sister, Chloe.” After that day, I became Liam’s legal guardian. At first, he would obediently call me “sister,” but after over a decade apart, there was an inevitable distance and caution between us. Yet, there was no denying we shared the same blood. What truly brought us closer happened the year Liam turned fifteen. It was the anniversary of our father’s death. School had let out a long time ago, but Liam still hadn’t come home. Without a second thought, I went to the cemetery where our father was buried. And there, I found Liam, eyes red, hugging the tombstone and crying. “How did you know I was here?” Are you kidding? You didn’t come home on your dad’s death anniversary, where else would you be? I didn’t answer. I just told him to come home with me. I remember clearly what he said: “I don’t have a mom, and now I don’t have a dad either.” I didn’t comfort him, because, in a way, I was the same. I didn’t have a dad, and my mom was busy being a mom to someone else’s kids. He and I, we were the same kind of people. “Liam, look on the bright side. I still have a younger brother, and you still have an older sister.” I stood there in a standoff with him for a while. Finally, Liam got up, slung his black cartoon backpack over his shoulder, followed behind me, and went home. I have to say, he was starving. He ate three huge bowls of rice when we got back. Regardless, from that point on, our relationship improved significantly. It wasn’t until he hit high school that he started rebelling. He stopped calling me “sis” and used my first name instead, which was highly disrespectful. This kid. I was the one who went to all his parent-teacher conferences. 03 A noise at the door interrupted my memories. Liam’s cool voice called out: “Chloe, sign this for me.” I opened the door, took the permission slip from him, and signed my name. In a daze, I realized Liam’s eighteenth birthday was fast approaching, just a few months away. Handing the slip back, I casually asked, “Liam, what do you want for your eighteenth birthday?” Liam glanced at me, looked away, paused for a moment, and said, “You guess.” I looked up and caught sight of the small red mole on his Adam’s apple. He was looking down, staring intently at me. An unnamed emotion flooded my heart. I pushed down the weird feeling, made a casual joke, and went back to my room. Would a docile-looking Liam really fall hopelessly in love with the female lead on his eighteenth birthday and turn into the psycho described in the plot? In the middle of the night, still baffled, I texted my friend to grab some late-night food. At the food truck, looking at my best friend Maya, I couldn’t help but ask, “Do you think it’s possible we’re actually NPCs in a novel?” Hearing this, Maya cracked open a beer, took a big swig, and said dismissively, “If we’re NPCs, we’re NPCs. NPCs still gotta drink beer.” This glutton. I couldn’t help but smirk, grabbing a skewer of grilled meat. “You’re right. NPCs still gotta eat barbecue.” We were in the middle of eating when Maya suddenly checked her phone and urged me, “Aren’t you going back? Your brother’s probably going to come dragging you home soon.” I took another sip of beer, annoyed. “What brother?” Maya looked behind me and gloated, “Chloe, good luck.” I turned my head a beat too slow and saw Liam in a black hoodie. He scanned a QR code to pay the bill, called an Uber for Maya, and after seamlessly handling all that, walked over to me. “Chloe, you don’t have a brother?” I explained awkwardly, “I’ve just been on my own for so long, I forgot.” I’d only been living with Liam for a few years. Besides, I was already eighteen when I met him. Subconsciously, I never really saw him as a brother. He was just some kid to me. Moreover, how did he know I was here? The tall, lean figure suddenly leaned down, and I heard him ask, “Are you drunk?” “No.” I’ve always had a high tolerance; I wouldn’t get drunk this easily. But then, Liam held up some fingers and asked how many there were. I just opened my mouth and bit his hand. “Why are you pointing at me…” I heard a soft chuckle near my ear. Liam pinched his earlobe, his tone dark. “I hope you really are drunk.” 04 When I woke up again, it was already noon. Liam had gone to school early. I rubbed my throbbing head and crawled out of bed. Looking in the mirror at a face that shared some resemblance with Liam’s, I suddenly noticed my lips were a bit swollen. Confused, I wondered if I was having an allergic reaction. In the afternoon, when Liam came home, I asked him, “Did you feed me jelly last night?” He raised an eyebrow and asked what was wrong. “Nothing, just felt like it tasted pretty good.” Liam seemed to think of something. He touched his nose, dropped his backpack, and said casually, “Glad you liked it.” I watched him go upstairs, then pulled out my phone to look for birthday presents for him. I was deeply engrossed when Liam’s homeroom teacher called. Liam was a senior now and had always refused to live in the dorms. With only a few months left until finals, even though his grades were excellent, his teacher hoped he would move in. After hanging up, I went upstairs and knocked on Liam’s door. When he opened it, his hair was messy, and he looked exhausted. I asked him what was wrong. He leaned against the doorframe, glanced at me, and said, “Catching up on sleep.” I remembered I was the reason he stayed up late last night and felt a bit guilty. But I still told him about his teacher’s call. Before, when he didn’t want to live on campus, I let him have his way. But finals were approaching, and to give him more time to study, I was very firm about him moving in. Hearing this, Liam lowered his eyes. Seeing that I wasn’t leaving room for negotiation, his expression remained flat as he nodded in agreement. Seeing him agree, I breathed a sigh of relief. If Liam wasn’t home, I wouldn’t have to overthink things. But I celebrated too soon. In the middle of the night, while I was sound asleep, a loud crash woke me up. It sounded like something heavy falling. I rushed out and saw Liam leaning against the wall at the bottom of the stairs. His face was pale, cold sweat on his forehead. When he looked at me, his eyes were dark. I ran down, noticed his swollen red ankle, and anxiously asked what happened. Liam leaned his entire weight on me, his voice hoarse: “I missed a step.” Liam has perfect vision, and the hallway light was on. How could he miss a step? Before I could think too much, Liam rested his head on my shoulder, his breathing rising and falling by my ear. The pain made his breathing erratic. It looked serious. I quickly helped him into the car. In the SUV, leaning against the passenger seat, his voice was weak: “Chloe, buckle me in.” I leaned over him. The scent of crisp mint filled my nose. Just then, Liam lifted his arm slightly, making it look like I was being embraced by him. My heart skipped a beat as I hurriedly buckled him in. Anxious, I sped to the hospital. The doctor looked at Liam’s severely swollen ankle and asked, confused, “How did you fall?” Liam said flatly, “Missed a step coming down the stairs.” The older doctor frowned. “Missing a step wouldn’t cause a fall like this. It looks more like someone…” Before the doctor could finish, Liam interrupted, “Doctor, just prescribe some medicine for now.” The doctor looked at me, then at Liam, and sighed. “I’ll give you an analgesic spray and some ice packs. If it still hurts after a week, come back for another check-up.” 05 Liam is an arrogant kid with a slight germaphobe streak. But he never rejected me. So, I took the initiative to apply the ice packs for him, and then sprayed the medicine on his foot. On the way home, Liam looked out the window and suddenly said, “My foot hurts. Do I still have to live in the dorms?” I sighed. With a foot like that, applying medicine in a dorm would be inconvenient. It was best he stayed home so I could take care of him. “No, I’ll pick you up from school lately.” I casually turned on the car stereo. Liam was staring intently out the window. While waiting at a red light, I glanced over and noticed my reflection in the passenger window. “Does it still hurt?” He looked over, his Adam’s apple bobbing, that small mole highly visible. “It doesn’t hurt.” Because of his leg injury, I picked him up from school every day. Today, I saw a few guys walking next to Liam, seemingly asking him something. Being close, I heard everything. “It’s been three years, and you haven’t dated anyone.” “Yeah, a lot of girls like you, Liam. What exactly is your type?” I rolled down the window and waved at Liam. He said something to the guys and walked over, his steps looking a bit strained. As soon as he sat down, I asked curiously, “What were you guys talking about?” Liam crossed his arms and looked at me sideways. His hair covered his brows, a straight nose, thin lips—he was very good-looking. “Someone older than me.” I nodded in understanding. So he did like older girls. No wonder he’d fall in love at first sight with an older woman. For some reason, hearing him say that made me not want to continue the conversation. Instead, he broke his usual silence and asked me: “The music is so loud. Is the soundproofing good?” I answered without thinking, “Of course. Not only is the soundproofing good, but it’s also spacious. Two adults could lay down in the back seat without feeling cramped.” … Wait, could my car become a prop in his twisted games with the female lead? I shot him a glare and snapped, “Why do you ask?” He raised his hand, his long, thin fingers pinching his earlobe. “Nothing.” This kid, always acting so mysterious. 06 Since Liam had finals coming up, I went into his room at night to spray the medicine and massage his ankle. When I entered, Liam was lying in bed, seemingly napping. High school senior pressure was intense, and with his injured foot, I was genuinely worried. His room was all black and white, simple and clear. I walked in quietly, sat on the edge of the bed, and rolled up his sweatpants. His ankle was swollen, red, and purplish. It hurt just to look at it. How could he fall so badly just missing a step… I sprayed the medicine and gently massaged it the way the doctor showed me. The person on the bed opened his eyes, his dark gaze sweeping over me. He called me in a low voice, “Chloe.” “Hmm?” I focused on massaging his ankle without giving him a glance. “Go to sleep.” After massaging for a while, the person on the bed actually fell asleep. I pulled the covers over him and looked around his room. There was a large bay window behind the black curtains. In the plot, he and the female lead did many inappropriate things there. For instance, the female lead looking out the window, begging pitifully, “Don’t do this.” And beneath the sleek black desk beside it, the space was large enough to fit an adult. I frowned, understanding instantly. I’ve read too much of this stuff; my mind is tainted. Liam’s desk was very tidy. My sharp eyes noticed a black notebook at the very top. I subconsciously reached out to touch it. It seemed to be Liam’s diary. With a black leather cover, the diary seemed as cold and aloof as Liam himself. “Chloe, don’t look.” When did he wake up? Surprised, I pulled my hand back: “I wasn’t looking.” Liam propped himself up, looking exhausted, his voice hoarse: “Chloe, I want some of your noodles.” 07 On the day of our father’s funeral, I took Liam home. The fourteen-year-old locked himself in his room without a word and wouldn’t come out no matter how much I called him. That night, I made a bowl of noodles and left it at his door. In the early hours of the morning, I went out for a drink of water and saw Liam sitting on the floor in the hallway, eating the noodles. He was wolfing it down, completely abandoning his usual composure. I pretended not to see, went downstairs for some hot water, and waited a long time before returning to my room. The next morning, when I went downstairs, someone was washing dishes in the kitchen. The boy, wearing an apron, poked his head out and politely said, “Good morning, sis.” Remembering the past, I couldn’t help but smile: “Okay, I’ll go make some.” I happened to have a handful of noodles left. In the pot, the water was boiling violently. Watching the noodles toss and turn in the boiling water, I couldn’t help but think that in the predestined plot, we were just like these noodles in the pot—helpless duckweeds in the rushing river of fate. Lost in thought, a pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped around my waist. Stunned, I was about to push him away when I heard the person behind me say, “I miss Dad.” When he said that, I simply couldn’t refuse him. Liam rested his head on my shoulder, his warm breath tickling my ear. He whispered, “Chloe, don’t be nervous.” I wasn’t nervous, just felt a bit unnatural. After a long pause, he sighed and murmured to himself, “Sister, we were always meant to be the closest of people.” Liam’s heart was beating like a drum against my back. I felt a wave of dizziness. …

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01 I was a mute trophy girlfriend. Off the bed, I didn’t need to flatter my sugar daddy. On the bed, I didn’t need to praise him for being so good. The only problem was— When I was pushed to my limit, I couldn’t curse him out. Like right now. Liam Sterling noticed my mind wandering. His hands gripped my waist. He forcefully flipped me over. Biting and nipping. So fiercely it felt like he wanted to tear my skin off and swallow me whole. Ahhh, you son of a bitch! I cursed him out frantically in my head. But on the outside, I was the picture of pathetic submission. My eyes were red, tears falling in fat drops. I found an anchor point amidst the tossing. I wrapped my arms around the man’s neck. And rubbed my cheek against his in a silent plea for mercy. According to past experience, as long as I put on this expression, Liam would quickly finish the battle. But tonight, I don’t know what got into him. He pulled out one ultra-thin 0.01 after another. From the bed to the bathroom to the sofa. We went at it until midnight. Only then did he finally carry me back to bed, completely satisfied. I was exhausted. But the moment I thought about what was going to happen tomorrow, my sleepiness vanished instantly. 02 This afternoon, one of Liam’s frat brothers came over to hang out. The study door wasn’t closed tightly. Snippets of their conversation drifted out. “Chloe is coming back tomorrow. Are you sending a car, or are you picking her up yourself, Liam?” “Is ‘Chloe’ a name you’re worthy of using?” Liam’s voice went ice-cold. The guy quickly corrected himself. “Okay, okay, my bad. That’s your exclusive pet name for her…” It was an apology, but mostly he was just teasing. Everyone in their elite social circle knew Liam Sterling had a first love he could never forget. She was fiercely protected by him. People only knew she existed. No one knew her real name or what she looked like. No one even knew why they didn’t end up together. Once, when I was bored and organizing Liam’s study, I saw an old, yellowed photograph. The “first love” was wearing a hat, her face turned slightly away from the camera. The only half of her face that was visible looked about eighty percent like me. The memory of the first time I met Liam flashed through my mind. I was standing on the curb, playing on my phone. A car pulled up and stopped smoothly in front of me. I didn’t look closely, assuming it was the Uber I called. I opened the door and got right in. Whenever I go out, I invent an identity for myself. As a massive introvert, to avoid being talked to by drivers, I always pull out a pre-typed scrolling message on my phone every time I get in a car: [I am mute. Please do not talk to me.] The moment I shoved the phone forward, I realized the driver was a breathtakingly handsome, aristocratic-looking guy. He was way too good-looking to be driving an Uber. Even the car felt like a luxury vehicle just by his presence. He looked at my phone screen over and over again. He stared blankly for a long time before his voice went hoarse and he asked me where I was going. … Looking at the photo, everything suddenly made sense. His loss of composure back then wasn’t because I got into the wrong car. He didn’t kick me out on the spot not because of my fake mute identity. It was because I looked like his first love. The silence in the study broke as the conversation resumed. “What about the one you have at home?” “She’s timid, and she’s mute. She probably can’t handle seeing people…” I didn’t listen to the rest. I tactfully turned and left. If I didn’t leave right then, I wouldn’t have been able to control my emotions. I would have laughed out loud on the spot. Three years! Three whole years! I faked being mute for three years! And I’ve finally made it to the breakup! 03 I was so happy I couldn’t sleep at all. I turned my back to Liam. I unlocked my phone and clicked into the “Trophy Girlfriends Support Group.” I was pulled into this group by an enthusiastic girl in the bathroom during a business dinner I attended with Liam. The ultimate goal of every member in this group was to secure a sky-high breakup fee. Achieve financial freedom, and retire flat on our backs. I couldn’t resist sharing the news in the group. [Liam’s first love is coming back soon!] The moment the message went out, all the night owls who hadn’t slept yet exploded into the chat. [Ahhhh, congratulations, Maya!!] [Manifesting, manifesting, manifesting! Welcoming the first love back! I heard my sugar daddy’s first love is studying in Germany…] [So jealous of you girls. The one I have at home doesn’t even have a first love (dead inside). ] After a wave of envy, Chloe tagged me out of curiosity. [Mr. Sterling is so rich, and he’s always been generous with you. The breakup fee is going to be massive, right?!] Liam has always been very generous with me. My monthly allowance is $50,000. He frequently gifts me designer bags and jewelry. Occasionally, he’ll spontaneously gift me luxury cars and mansions. I never accepted the cars or mansions. After all, as a poor person, I absolutely cannot afford the maintenance on a luxury car! And I definitely can’t afford the HOA and property taxes on a mansion! It’s hard to take them with me, and selling them requires finding a broker… Just thinking about it gives a socially anxious person like me a breakdown. So, my only hope for getting filthy rich was the breakup fee Liam would give me. A few hundred thousand? Or a few million? The more I thought about it, the more excited I got, twisting like a pretzel on the bed. The next second, the man dragged me back into his arms. “Can’t sleep?” His burning body pressed against me again. I was terrified and pushed him away with all four limbs. I brought my hands together and rested them under my cheek. Indicating that I was going to sleep right now! “Tomorrow I have to go to the airport to pick up someone very important to me.” I snapped my eyes open, having just closed them. Liam asked, pretending to be casual: “Do you… want to go with me?” I was dumbfounded. Who? Me? He’s asking if I want to go with him? Taking the stand-in to pick up the first love. Is he planning to piss the first love to death on the spot? I shook my head violently. Liam looked at me deeply for a moment. “That’s fine too… You’re timid. We’ll wait until you want to see her.” Liam has always indulged me. When we first got together, he offered to arrange a job for me. After I refused, he never brought it up again. As an absolute homebody and introvert. This kind of life where I don’t have to leave the house to work. Where food is brought to my mouth and clothes are handed to me. I was actually a little reluctant to leave. My mood uncontrollably dipped. Right then, my phone vibrated. It was an SMS notification from the bank about a transfer. “I probably won’t be home tomorrow night. I might not have time to be with you for the next couple of days.” “Take this money and buy whatever you like…” I didn’t respond to Liam. My eyes were practically glowing as I stared at my phone screen. Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions… I rubbed my eyes. Tossed and turned and counted again. It was indeed eight figures! Liam gave me a $30 million breakup fee! Thirty million! A poor person suddenly striking it rich. The money completely fried my brain. In a moment of sheer excitement, I blurted out: “Thank you, boss! You are so generous, boss!” “…” Our eyes met. The atmosphere instantly froze. I’m doomed! I was so happy I forgot I was supposed to be mute! I mean, how could a mute person be so polite? After realizing what a stupid thing I had done. I covered my mouth guiltily. My waist went limp, and my body slid down. I buried myself entirely under the covers. The next instant, the man pinched the back of my neck and yanked me up. “Little mute.” The little girl he had pampered and held in the palm of his hand for three years was suddenly no longer mute. Liam was practically laughing out of pure anger. “Don’t tell me this is a medical miracle?” 04 Haha. That joke was not funny at all. There was nowhere to hide. To block the burning gaze raking over my body. I had no choice but to cover my face tightly with my hands. “Little mute, speak.” I shook my head, my voice muffled. “Mutes don’t speak.” “…” Liam pinched the bridge of his nose. Looking at the girl in front of him whose face was flushed red, wishing she could disappear, he felt a bit helpless. “Do you have nothing you want to say?” I bit my lip, feeling a bit lost. Yes, I pretended to be mute and lied to him. I won’t defend myself. And the breakup fee has already hit my account. What else is there to say? I have nothing to say! But obviously, I had to say something right now. I changed my line of thinking. I tried to think about what Liam would want to hear, what he liked to hear. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit me. “Daddy…” Liam’s breath hitched. As a literature student. I desperately recalled the steamy romance novels I used to read. I picked and chose, and finally found a line I could actually say out loud. “Daddy is so big… so good, I love it so much…” I stammered out the praise. I cautiously moved the two fingers covering my eyes. And peeked at Liam’s expression. His eyebrows were raised, and the corners of his mouth weren’t tight. It seemed like he wasn’t mad? I’ve been faking muteness to avoid this for so long, but in the end, I still couldn’t escape it. At least tonight is my last night as a trophy girlfriend. I racked my brains, searching through my entire mental inventory. “Daddy is so fierce at night, going hard like you took some kind of pill.” Liam’s face instantly went black. “What did you say? Say that again?” I gulped. Was there something wrong with that? Does he not like being called Daddy? But Liam is older, after all. He wouldn’t appreciate the “older brother/younger sister” vibe. My heart was pounding like a drum. I mustered up my courage and repeated: “Daddy is so fierce at night…” Before the rest of the words could come out. They were swallowed down by a sticky, tangled kiss. The man grabbed my hands, which I didn’t know where to put. And moved them lower and lower. Liam’s dark eyes glowed a faint green under the dim wall light. “Little mute, call me that one more time.” … The sky began to lighten. The man was so excited it was as if he had unlocked a whole new world. I buried my damp, sweaty head into the pillow. Thinking dizzily. Good thing I was smart enough to fake being mute for three years. Otherwise, I definitely would have died in this bed! 05 When I woke up again, it was already afternoon. My whole body ached. After screaming all night, my throat was so hoarse I couldn’t speak. Now I was a real mute. Dragging my legs that felt like prosthetics, I went downstairs. Maria, the housekeeper, saw me. She nodded in greeting, turned into the kitchen, and brought a bowl of warm porridge to the table. After doing all this, she vanished silently like a fairy godmother. Liam knew I didn’t like interacting with strangers. So he had instructed everyone from the very beginning. Anyone entering or leaving the house had to minimize their presence. It was incredibly friendly for someone with social anxiety. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Liam was actually pretty great. He had money, he had the looks. He was attentive when he needed to be. And rough enough when it counted. His only flaw was… He had another woman in his heart. “Sigh…” I felt melancholy for all of three seconds. My hand accidentally tapped on the $30 million transfer record. It seems, maybe… I didn’t love him that much anyway, haha. My heart is too small; it only has room for money. As for Liam? Whatever, considering how good he’s been to me. I’ll do him a favor! With that thought. I laid back on the bed with a clear conscience. I pulled a novel from the bookshelf. Chapter One: The Return of the First Love. Perfect, exactly what I need. Time to study up. Half an hour later. I was so pissed off by the male and female leads who refused to communicate that my liver hurt. I exited the novel with a blank expression. I opened iMessage and sent Liam a sticker of a kitten peeking its head out. Liam replied instantly. “You’re awake? Maria kept the porridge warm for you. Eat something good tonight, but don’t overdo it.” “Does it still hurt? Feeling any better?” Ahhhhhh! A capable man asks if you’re tired. A super capable man asks if it still hurts, and if you’re feeling better. I buried my face in the covers and kicked my legs wildly. It took me a good while before I replied coolly. “Yeah.” Liam didn’t reply instantly this time. He was probably busy. I took the opportunity to share some articles I had found. Don’t Miss the Girl Right Beside You. A Man’s Actions Speak Louder Than His Words. Thirty Tips for Pursuing a Woman: Catering to Her Interests. … After sending nearly ten links, I comfortably opened a game. I played for over two hours straight. When I checked my messages again, I saw Liam had replied a long time ago. “Received.” What does “Received” mean? Did he think this was a work memo? The next second, I got a call from Liam’s assistant. Confused, I went downstairs to open the door. The assistant pulled out a black Amex card and handed it to me. “Ms. Davis, this is the supplementary card Mr. Sterling asked me to bring you.” My eyes widened like fried eggs. “For… for me?” Mr. Hayes, the executive assistant, whose expression was usually as tight as a robot’s, completely broke in that moment. “Ms. Davis, you… you aren’t mute?” We stared at each other. I guess I forgot to tell him the truth, haha. Look at this mess. I totally short-circuited this elite professional’s brain. After hearing my explanation, Mr. Hayes pushed his glasses up. His brain began to function again. “My apologies, I just haven’t seen much of the world.” I pursed my lips, feeling extremely embarrassed, and changed the subject. “I heard Mr. Sterling is going to the airport this afternoon to pick up someone very important?” Mr. Hayes nodded. “Yes, Ms. Davis. Would you like to go together?” Taking the stand-in to pick up the first love. Are you straight men insane?! I let out an awkward laugh. “Wouldn’t that be inappropriate?” Mr. Hayes seemed to think of something. He corrected himself. “It is a bit sudden. It’s better to be mentally prepared before meeting.” What’s going on… Is this first love someone I have to meet eventually? I immediately bypassed that topic. “Liam is so busy. Since you’re picking them up, have you prepared flowers and gifts? Are you throwing a welcome dinner tonight?” “You don’t need to worry about that, Ms. Davis. Mr. Sterling had that all arranged last month.”

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On the day my childhood best friend—and husband—caused the biggest scene, he slapped me for the sake of the little girl he loved. I didn’t just take it. I exploded and broke three of his ribs in return. He screamed that he wanted a divorce, but I refused. At the time, I thought we would just keep tormenting each other like this until we both died. But reality hit me fast. Three months later, I fell head over heels for a sweet, innocent younger guy. He’s currently chasing me, begging to make things official. So, I was forced to pull that familiar number out of my block list. When I dialed it, that little girl’s playful voice picked up on the other end: “Elara, it’s too late, you know. Even if you come crawling back like a dog begging for forgiveness, Liam won’t even spare you a glance.” Facing the provocation, I just spoke calmly: “Tell Liam I want that divorce.” The next second, the phone seemed to be snatched away. There was a flurry of static and noise, and then Liam’s voice sounded, fighting hard to control his trembling. He said: “Elara, don’t you dare.” 01 The year I hated Liam Miller the most. I beat up the little girl he loved more than anything. He backhanded me in return and demanded a divorce. Over the years, what he said to me most often was for me to be “good.” For me to be gentle and submissive, just like Daisy. This was the first time he actually asked for a divorce. I didn’t agree. Instead, I pinned him to the ground, broke three of his ribs, and choked him into unconsciousness before he could say another word. Before Liam rolled his eyes and blacked out. The last words I left him with were: “You want a divorce? Not a chance in hell. Since you two forced me to go crazy, you can deal with the consequences. Daisy Miller will be nothing but a mistress her entire life. You both will live in my shadow forever.” At that time, I had a whole list of plans ready. I was prepared for how we would torture and entangle each other until the bitter end. I’ve always held grudges. Once I bite down on my prey, I never let go. Three years of marriage. Liam took me from a girl full of joy walking down the aisle to a full-blown psycho. That trashy couple ruined me. I swore that even if I spent the rest of my life on it, I would make them miserable. For this, I even bought a separate apartment across town, preparing for a long, drawn-out war. However, the universe never lets you know how to arrange the next step of your life. I thought I would be getting revenge on Liam for the rest of my life. I didn’t expect that just three days later. I would find Ethan Barrett fainted from hunger right at my doorstep. At that moment, I had heard Liam was awake in the hospital, cursing me out as a psycho in front of a whole crowd of relatives and friends visiting him. I had excitedly put on my makeup and picked out my brightest, most stunning outfit, getting ready to go there and make his blood boil. I just didn’t expect that as soon as I walked out the front gate, I would trip over a large, unidentified human-shaped object. In a daze, I flipped the person over and saw a face in the prime of its youth. Ethan had gotten his luggage stolen that day. He had gone to a supermarket to work as temporary labor unloading goods, only to be tricked into working three days for free. He was so hungry he was delirious. In a daze, his palm grabbed the hem of my red dress. I saw his lips move and couldn’t help but lean in closer. Then I heard his voice, weak as a dying breath: “Mom…” … After a long silence, I couldn’t help but mutter: “…You serious?” There was no response. He had completely blacked out from starvation. 02 It was only later that I found out. Ethan calling me “Mom” that day was purely a delusion brought on by hunger. When he was a kid, his biological mother abandoned him in a park. The very last image he had of her was her wearing a red dress just like mine. That day, when he collapsed in front of my house, he saw me squatting down close through his haze and thought his mother had come to take him to heaven. When he confessed this part, I couldn’t help but throw my head back and laugh. I laughed until I realized halfway through that nobody was laughing with me, and it actually wasn’t funny at all. Ethan was just crouching in front of me, watching my neurotic face with a pair of wet, round, puppy-dog eyes. There was no anger, no embarrassment, nothing but deep concern. He was very tall. Standing up, his six-foot-two height was quite intimidating. But his demeanor was so utterly harmless. Seeing me look at him, he instinctively got nervous. He rested his head on the arm of the sofa, just watching me with those watery eyes. He didn’t say anything, yet it felt like he said everything. Realizing that I had just directed malicious intentions towards such an innocent, almost transparent soul, I felt a stab of guilt. But I didn’t know how to lower my head and apologize. Three years of an unhealthy marriage had only taught me to use offensive shouting to cover up my own fragility. For three years, all my time was spent entangling with Liam. I had almost forgotten that before I married him, I was the proudest heiress in this city. That sophisticated, confident woman who knew exactly when to advance and when to retreat seemed to have been forgotten in the deepest parts of my memory. The current me was full of resentment towards the world. I once thought I would be trapped in this hate forever. But Ethan reached out his hand, like a dog pawing at my hand. Until I opened my palm, and he placed a pendant inside. It was the one he always wore around his neck. That was a gift his parents gave him right after he was born. Back then, he was still cherished and loved. But later, his father died in an accident, and his mother remarried and abandoned him. All he had left was this pendant. It was the only shred of good memory this world had granted him. But now, he had taken it off and placed it in my palm. He said: “This used to be the most important thing to me. But now, you are the most important person to me. I’m giving it to you, hoping you’ll be happy.” After saying that, he pushed my fingers closed over it, then gently kissed my fist. This was during Ethan’s third month living at my house. I had taken him in with a playful, mocking mindset, wanting to see what he really wanted from me. But he never did anything. He just stood up, put on an apron, and went into the kitchen to make me a newly learned nutritious meal. The spatula he was holding was one I had originally bought with the intent of using as a weapon to smash over Liam’s head during an argument. It looked a bit small and awkward in Ethan’s large hand, but his movements were nimble, not clumsy at all. The boy had a smile on his lips. The sunlight filtered through, making those light brown puppy eyes shine brightly. Spurred by some unknown force, I walked over and couldn’t help but ask him why he was so happy. “Because I get to cook for you.” It was such a simple reason. But it could be interpreted in so many ways. Because someone was eating the food he cooked, because he had a stable environment where he could slowly cook a meal, or simply because he liked cooking for me. Facing those eyes that easily saw through my pretenses, for a moment, I didn’t want to dig any deeper. 03 Under my protection, Ethan had successfully found a job. And nobody dared to bully this poor kid anymore, even though he had no family and was stubbornly kind and honest. He was nineteen this year. Last year, he had been accepted into a good university, but he couldn’t afford the tuition. So, he ran to the big city to find work, thinking there would be more opportunities, only to be scammed right out of the train station. Fortunately, despite the rocky start, things were going well now. He got his new ID sorted out, wore the clothes I bought him, and went to work every day full of energy. When he came back, he was always carrying several large bags of groceries. He thought I was too thin. He would always pinch my slender wrist, not knowing how to use his strength, a deep look of worry appearing on his sharply defined face. In all fairness, my figure wasn’t dainty. In fact, so that I could one day knock that trashy couple—Liam and Daisy—into next week with one punch, I had even taken up boxing. But there was nothing I could do about Ethan being too tall and having a large build. He used to do manual labor to get by. This meant he ate much, much more than the average person. That’s why, after his bag was stolen, he had starved so quickly. And now that he could eat his fill, a faint smile of happiness was always hanging on his face. However, in contrast to his tall stature, he was actually quite socially anxious, and his mind was rather sensitive. If I talked to him too much, he would get embarrassed. According to his colleagues, Ethan barely interacted with anyone at work. But nobody thought he was hard to get along with. Because he spent the whole day working. Whether it was his own job or helping someone else, if you gave it to him, he did it. Unsurprisingly, Ethan was friendly, sincere, and full of sunshine. He was completely different from me. The current me was a bit too dark. All I thought about every day was how to torture my cheating husband and his little mistress. Just because I had been worried about Ethan dying in front of my house and missed the chance to go to the hospital to gloat to Liam didn’t mean I was giving up on tormenting him. Giving up on that man who had been my childhood best friend for twenty-seven years, who had used his entire passionate youth to pursue me and protect me, only to get quickly bored of me after marriage and turn around to love a young girl who looked a few degrees like me. 04 I remembered the last time we met, it was in Liam’s office. I had originally gone there to talk about the divorce. Three years of marriage. My infatuation with him only lasted for the first year. For the remaining two years, I was constantly doubting myself and consuming myself from within. Finally, I was able to face this marriage properly, admit my failure, and want to have a serious talk with Liam. But I didn’t expect Daisy Miller to be hiding under his desk… The two of them were interacting right in front of me, exchanging glances. Acting as if nothing was wrong, treating me like a prop for their sick game. Daisy even thought she was hiding very well. She was leaning against Liam’s leg, smiling slyly. And I, at the very moment Liam looked entirely satisfied, throwing his head back and letting out a groan as his Adam’s apple bobbed, walked straight up to the desk. I grabbed that girl’s hair and dragged her out from underneath. Daisy screamed as she took a slap from me, her pale, pretty little face immediately turning red and swollen. And at that moment, Liam’s voice came from behind me. He called my name: “Elara.” I subconsciously turned around, only to be slapped so hard that stars appeared before my eyes. It took a long time to clear my vision. He was looking down at me arrogantly: “You finally learned how to fight for my attention? Too bad that when you’re like this, you only get uglier and uglier.” Mean words fell one after another. My world fell into a storm of confusion. I remembered the first time Liam confessed to me. He looked at me, his eyes shining, and said, “You look so proud with your head held high, like a princess. I want to protect you forever.” But afterwards, it was: “She knows how to be submissive and please me much better than you do. What about you? You need to show me some sincerity, prove to me that you love me more than she does.” He dragged Daisy into important social events, where she would hide behind him timidly. The guests present looked at us, standing on opposite sides, and whispered amongst themselves. I still stood tall, holding my head high like a princess with a lonely crown under the massive crystal chandeliers. But when I took off my wedding ring and turned around to leave without hesitation, he would chase after me. In a corner where nobody was looking, he would embrace me from behind. “Are you really mad? See, I knew my wife had me in her heart.” His kisses fell on my neck, one after another, his tone ambiguous and lingering. “I just wanted to make you jealous. How could she possibly compare to you? You’re the rose I personally raised for so many years.” He buried his head in my neck and laughed softly. “My stubborn little rose, refusing to bow her head, even your stubbornness is so cute.” At that time, I thought Liam was crazy. I wanted to get out, but due to the deep entanglement of interests between our two families, I chose to endure it again and again. Until finally, they pushed me too far. By the time I snapped back to reality, I already had Liam pinned to the ground. I was holding the ashtray in my hand, smashing it against him again and again, roaring: “I gave you an inch and you took a mile! You two are screwing right in front of me and don’t know how to act, and you even dared to lay a hand on me!” Liam’s face was covered in blood, looking quite frightening. His little girl was huddled up against the wall in a corner, trying her best to minimize her presence, too scared to make a sound. “Elara, if you don’t act ‘good,’ then we get a divorce.” Even now, his eyes were locked onto me, threats issuing continuously from his mouth. He always provoked me, then stood arrogantly on his high ground, savoring my breakdown. And now, looking at his face distorted by pain, I suddenly let out a relieved laugh. I said: “You know, Liam, intentionally hurting someone gets a heavy sentence, but domestic violence only gets a warning.” “As long as our relationship still exists, I will torment you for the rest of your life.” After saying that, I grinned widely, exposing two rows of white teeth. I said: “A divorce? Keep dreaming.” I must have looked incredibly insane. That’s probably why I saw clear fear in Liam’s eyes. The moment my hand choked Liam, I admit I wanted to drag him down to hell with me. But was it worth it? Just letting him off easily like that, letting him die, I wasn’t willing to do that. Yes. Revenge on him was the only thing keeping me going. Until now, I refused to turn back, and I was unwilling to admit that my life had completely become distorted. Now, I was a psycho, a shrew. My reputation was in tatters, and I was still entangled with a man who didn’t love me. My hand started trembling uncontrollably again. The next second, a warm touch pressed against my palm. I turned around and saw Ethan resting his chin on my knee. He was slowly, gently opening my hand, which I had clenched so tightly my nails were digging in, trying to uncurl my fingers. After trying to press on my palm and offering me water but failing, he directly pressed his cheek against my hand, finally succeeding in pulling me back from the emotional storm. At this moment, the boy was staring at me, unmoving, with those round puppy eyes. I lowered my eyes to scrutinize that face. It was youthful, yet had sharp features, giving him a somewhat exotic look. Ethan was undoubtedly good-looking. It was just that his eyes were too clean, making it hard to have indecent thoughts when looking at him. His cheeks and earlobes were turning red, but the sincerity in his expression overrode his embarrassment. Seeing me look at him, he seemed to finally summon his courage. He took a deep breath and spoke as if making a plea: “Don’t bully yourself anymore, okay?” After saying that, he gently picked up my other hand and reverently placed it on top of his head. When Ethan first arrived at the house, his hair was cut very short like stubble, and it felt really good to the touch. At that time, I had joked that the condition for taking him in was that I got to touch his head whenever I wanted. And now, looking at his clumsy, foolish attempts to comfort me, looking at the clarity in the boy’s eyes, I ultimately couldn’t restrain myself from asking that question: “Ethan, after hiding by my side for so long, what do you really want from me?” 05 Once, I also believed that a soul connection existed between people. Like between Liam and me. The first time he saw me when we were five, he put a ring he had woven himself onto my finger and declared that I was a princess he would protect for the rest of his life. In those years when he loved me loudly, he put me high up on a pedestal. During our high school years, almost no boys could get close to me. Correspondingly, Liam was also very conscious of his own behavior. Many girls wanted to get close to him, but Liam just sneered disdainfully. He pointed at me, not far away, and spoke indifferently: “With Elara around, I would look at you?” Later, I went abroad to chase my dreams, and Liam waited for me for three years. As long as he could find the time, he would fly to London to be with me. When the first snow fell, he embraced me from behind and told me, word by word, truly and plaintively, how much he missed me. Later, when I returned home to fight my father’s illegitimate children for the family inheritance, he supported me fully. Even when I successfully acquired the first company, he laughed happily and said: “I’m now a kept man with a CEO girlfriend. I’ll have to work hard in the future so people won’t call me a gold digger.” On the day he proposed successfully, he had fireworks lit up across the city for me. Under the romantic lights, he held my hand and swore he would use the rest of his life to cherish me. The sincerity in his eyes never seemed fake. It’s just that I ignored many details. For example, when he used to hug me and act spoiled, he had mentioned, as if joking, how other people’s wives acted after marriage—how attentive they were to their husbands. “Will I get treated like that one day?” He had looked at me with expectation in his eyes. I had poked his forehead with my finger. “You really think everything good in the world should just fall into your lap, don’t you?” At that time, Liam had sighed, as if resigning himself to his fate: “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I married a powerful woman, so I just have to follow her lead.” But not long after, he changed. The same tactics he used to pursue me were now all given to Daisy. As if intentionally seeking revenge on me, he bought all the gifts he had ever given me for Daisy, even more of them. He said: “She’s so good and obedient. She deserves these rewards.” But when facing me, he sighed: “Elara, I said I would protect my princess for a lifetime. But fairy tales only go up until the prince and princess get married. You’re already married to me now. What you need to do now is learn to be domestic and maintain our marriage, instead of thinking about that stupid company of yours all day, running around outside.” 06 I stood in place, feeling the blood freeze in my veins inch by inch. He seemed to admire my expression at that moment, savoring it bit by bit, a look of satisfaction in his eyes. The hurtful words continued. He said: “If time could turn back, I would still love the old Elara without hesitation. Too bad that the current you has absolutely nothing left that attracts me.” How high he had once placed me on a pedestal was how hard he was now throwing me down. After that, I no longer believed in anyone. Just as I didn’t believe in the current Ethan, didn’t believe that a boy in the prime of his youth would willingly stay by my side without wanting anything. I had been waiting, waiting for Ethan to actively ask me for something—resources or money. He had to want something. Once he opened his mouth, exposed his ugliness, exposed his weakness. Then I would grab hold of his weak spot. This relationship would be entirely dominated by me. I could keep him as a nice little toy or throw him away after I was done. At the very least, he should tell me what he wants. But Ethan just looked at me quietly, those light brown eyes so bright and honest. He said: “I’ve already looked at apartments. Tomorrow, once I get paid, I can move out.” So he had been planning to leave all along. Hearing this, I sneered. Perhaps my expression was too awful. When he spoke next, he became very cautious. He studied my face while his words came out slowly: “After that… can I still cook for you?” He spoke softer and softer. Finally, that head lowered deeply, not daring to look into my eyes. “Ethan.” I looked at him, suddenly speaking calmly: “Do you want me?” The boy’s body jerked. Immediately, a wave of red shot from his face straight to the tips of his ears. Seeing him not speak, I suddenly curled my lips, my smile malicious: “Last time you were in the bathroom, I heard you call my name.” “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” The boy’s eyes filled with tears, looking deeply ashamed, almost on the verge of crying. “You were kind enough to take me in, yet my thoughts are so filthy…” I remembered the second day Ethan stayed at my house. I had hired someone to investigate his entire past, every aspect, thoroughly. So I knew that he was still a blank slate. In that instant, the desire to tease him suddenly vanished. I lifted his chin with my finger and spoke bluntly: “Hold me.” When the boy’s muscular arms wrapped around me, I still felt a bit daze. I thought that at this moment I would think of Liam, think of my anger and heartache when he paraded Daisy around in front of me, that I would feel a sense of revenge. But I felt nothing. My gaze was completely drawn to the boy’s eyes, filled with love and adoration. Those eyes crinkled slightly, his eyelashes trembling. When I tightly gripped his full muscles, his breath would become erratic, with soft tremors, like a puppy whimpering. I had to admit, this was the most relaxed and pleasant moment I had experienced in these three years. Regardless of what Ethan’s motive was, at least right now, he was a useful distraction to pull myself out of the swamp of negative emotions. Besides, he was clean, healthy, and skilled. I wasn’t losing anything. I thought in my heart. The lips he was biting were brushed open by his finger pad. The boy’s movements were a bit frantic, a deep look of worry and pity in his eyes. My voice could no longer be controlled, but my ex-husband’s phone call happened to come in at that moment. During these past few months, I hadn’t had the time to find trouble for Liam, but he wasn’t used to that, so he pasted himself right in front of my eyes.

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At twenty-seven, my family started pressuring me to get married. I initiated a clean, cliff-drop breakup with the boyfriend I had been chasing and coddling for three years, and headed back to my hometown for blind dates. My friend asked me, “Are you really over Liam? You liked him so much.” I let out a scoff. “I’m not stupid. A guy like him is fine for a casual fling, but if I actually married him, wouldn’t I be miserable for the rest of my life?” Suddenly, a dark, familiar voice came from right behind me. “Oh, so is that your excuse for dumping me?” 01 When I dragged my suitcase home, I bumped right into a girl opening my front door to leave. She was wearing a loose black sweater that slipped off one shoulder to reveal delicate collarbones, an oversized-shirt-as-a-dress look, and a pair of Yves Saint Laurent stiletto heels. I recognized her. Her name was Chloe, the bassist in Liam’s band. A pretty girl in her early twenties. Instinctively, I stopped behind the hallway door, staying out of sight. A moment later, Liam walked out from behind her, wearing only a pair of jeans, leaning lazily against the wall to light a cigarette. He was shirtless, water still dripping down the sharp v-lines of his lower abs. After a few seconds, he casually tossed a Chanel handbag her way. “Take it.” Chloe’s eyes lit up. She turned and threw herself at Liam, squealing: “Ah! I’ve wanted this bag for so long! Where did you get it?” “Picked it up on a trip to New York.” “I love it so much, thank you, baby!” Chloe wanted to linger, but Liam was already getting impatient, his brow furrowing slightly. “Alright, hurry up and go.” The girl slid off him, half-pouting, half-flirting: “You’re so ruthless. Calling me ‘baby’ a second ago, and now kicking me out just like that.” But she wasn’t actually mad. She happily slung the bag over her shoulder and blew Liam a kiss: “I’m going. See you tomorrow.” After she left, I stepped out from behind the door. Liam clearly didn’t expect me to come back so suddenly. He froze for a second, but his expression instantly returned to normal. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?” I stared at him for a moment. “It was too late. I didn’t want to wake you.” The hickeys on Liam’s neck were still fresh, but he didn’t look guilty at all. He pulled me into his arms and led me into the apartment. “I’m starving, make us something to eat.” He sat on the couch and turned on the TV, acting as if absolutely nothing had just happened. Seeing that I hadn’t moved for a while, he frowned: “What’s wrong?” Then, as if realization dawned on him, a lazy, arrogant smile floated into his eyes: “Missed me?” He got up, walked over, and hugged me from behind. His hot breath hovered ambiguously over my neck, and his hand slowly slipped under the hem of my shirt. “Then let’s eat you first, and dinner later—” Years of playing the guitar had left rough calluses on his fingertips, bringing a prickly, itchy sensation as they scraped across my skin. I closed my eyes, exhausted, and pushed his hands away. I really liked Liam’s body. The main reason I pursued him back then was because he was so incredibly hot. But maybe it was because I just got off a long flight, or maybe it was because of the girl who just left. Right now, I only felt tired. I wasn’t in the mood at all. Liam was rarely rejected by me. He paused, his face darkening slightly. “What’s the matter?” I looked down at a crumpled black mass on the rug. It was a pair of severely torn pantyhose. Liam clearly saw the pantyhose too. He clicked his tongue, his expression turning ugly. The living room fell into an agonizing silence. He pulled a cigarette from its pack and lit it. The crisp pop of the menthol bead being crushed echoed in the quiet room. “Her lease ended and she didn’t have anywhere to go, so I let her crash here for the night.” “There’s nothing going on between us.” I looked at Liam. Our intersecting gazes were blocked by the white smoke, blurring each other’s expressions. But we both knew how incredibly lame that excuse was. This wasn’t Liam’s first time cheating. He was probably born a player. That’s exactly how he was the first time I met him. Back then, my best friend dragged me to see a relatively well-known indie rock band, claiming the lead singer was insanely hot and tickets were hard to get. I’ve never been interested in rock music, so I wasn’t feeling it. Until Liam walked on stage. He kept his head down, tuning his guitar. He hadn’t put gel in his dark hair, allowing the loose strands to brush across his pale forehead, occasionally revealing thin, flushed eyelids. He was dressed the most casually of anyone on stage—just a simple black t-shirt and jeans—yet he instantly became the center of attention. That face was the most expensive luxury item in the room. He raised his eyes, the hazy stage lights reflecting in his amber pupils, carrying a faint, almost imperceptible smile. That was my first time at a band gig. My friend who brought me, and all the girls in the crowd, went completely crazy. Their screams practically blew the roof off. His gaze swept over the chaotic crowd, and for a split second, our eyes locked, before he quickly looked away. He sang beautifully that night, but I couldn’t hear a single lyric. Because in that moment, everything else went dead silent. All I could hear was the deafening roar of my own heartbeat. After the set, countless girls swarmed backstage to get his number, and I was one of them. Being single for my entire 23 years of life, that was probably the bravest thing I had ever done. Liam didn’t turn anyone away. He let every girl who asked scan his Snapchat QR code that night, including me. A year later, all the crazy groupies and butterflies chasing him had given up and faded away. I was the only one who kept persisting. I don’t know if it was out of pity, being moved by my dedication, or what, but Liam silently accepted our relationship. I became his girlfriend, right up until today. But I knew that throughout all our years together, Liam had never truly liked me. Or rather, he liked me, but he liked that I was understanding, generous, and never caused drama. I caught him cheating many times, but as long as he gave me a half-decent excuse, I would forgive him. He told me many times that I wasn’t his type, and that he was only with me because I treated him well. He even joked that the day he found true love, he would dump me. The only reason our relationship had survived this long was solely because I was willing to compromise and swallow my pride. “You promised me you wouldn’t cheat again.” My voice was low, my eyes fixed on the torn Balenciaga logo pantyhose on the floor. A flash of mockery crossed Liam’s eyes, without the slightest intention of comforting me. “I was just messing around, and you actually believed it?” He smirked, leaning in close, blowing the menthol-scented smoke right into my face. His features were filled with pure malice: “Can’t handle it?” “If you can’t handle it, we can break up.” He had said that to me countless times before. Every time, it ended with me hugging him, begging him not to leave. Over time, he learned exactly how to control me. He knew that once he said those words, I would cave. I turned my head away. “I’m tired. I’m going to get some rest.” Liam grabbed my wrist. He had a strong brow bone, and when his face was expressionless, it always gave off an oppressive, intimidating pressure. “Maya, don’t push it.” I shook off his hand and went into the bedroom. Not long after, I heard the deafening slam of the front door. Liam left. He was mad, I knew that. After all, throughout our entire relationship, I was always the one coddling him, chasing after him. I had never given him attitude like this before. I rolled over and opened my phone. In the family group chat, my mom sent a text tagging me. “I’ve never pressured you before, but you’re 27 this year. It’s about time you start thinking about marriage.” “My coworker’s son has a great background, and I think he’s handsome. You should come back home during your vacation and meet him.” I opened a message from my boss. “Maya, the new branch office is desperately short-staffed right now. Honestly, keeping someone with your skills as a deputy manager here is a waste of your talent. Are you interested in going to the branch office as the General Manager? Starting a new operation will definitely be challenging, so think it over.” My mom was calling me home for blind dates. The company just opened a new branch in my hometown city. Right place, right time. It seemed I truly had no reason to stay here anymore. I sighed. Honestly, I really did like Liam. He was handsome enough, his body was great, and we were incredibly compatible in bed. Most importantly, he was a massive player. Being with him was easy because I didn’t have to think about holding him accountable, and I didn’t have to worry about our future. When I first started working, I was so exhausted I couldn’t see straight. I desperately wanted to find someone to vent my stress with. But I’m just average-looking, yet I’m hopelessly obsessed with good looks. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find anyone I actually wanted, until I met Liam. He spent his best years with me, and when I was physically and mentally drained from my career, his body helped me relieve a lot of stress. And even though his relationships with women were messy, he was relatively careful in that regard. Before we got together, I heard he required any woman he slept with to show a clean STD panel from within the last three days. I always used protection, so I wasn’t afraid of catching anything. If I wanted to find another man this perfectly suited to my needs in the future, it would probably be difficult. But there was nothing I could do. Dating was one thing, settling down and getting married was another. I liked Liam a lot. But I also knew perfectly well that he wasn’t marriage material. Now, it was time for me to make a choice. 02 Liam didn’t come home that night. He didn’t show up for the next few days either. He didn’t answer my texts or my calls. When I tried texting him again, a red exclamation point popped up. He had blocked me. His usual, practiced silent treatment. This had happened a few times before. Liam was a master at the cold war. Every time, I had to swallow my pride and coax him for a long time before he would give me the time of day. Except this time, I was busy handing over my work responsibilities and didn’t have time to coax him. That night, as I was buying a plane ticket back to my hometown, my phone suddenly rang. It was one of Liam’s friends. The background was loud—men and women laughing and shouting, the music so blaring it was annoying even through the phone. “Maya, Liam had too much to drink. Can you come pick him up?” Liam loved hitting the clubs. His family was loaded; the band was just a hobby. He didn’t rely on it for money. I asked him once why he didn’t join the family business. He sneered, saying that his dad’s illegitimate kids were already tearing each other’s throats out over that little bit of money, and he had no interest in fighting over scraps. Anyway, whatever his grandfather and his mom owned would be left to him. He wasn’t hurting for cash, so he was just going to spend his life doing whatever he wanted. Liam had absolutely no career ambition. On that front, we had zero common ground. Every time I landed a new project at the company or got a promotion, he always looked completely disinterested when I told him. He once scoffed that working yourself to death for a standard monthly salary was pointless; it wasn’t even enough to cover the bottle service he bought in one night at the club. I knew that deep down, we weren’t the same kind of people. Aside from physical compatibility, we had nothing to talk about. I didn’t care about his soul, I only liked his body. He ignored my inner thoughts and was just used to me being compliant. That worked out fine. When we separated like this, neither of us would be sad. I thought about it and said okay. I hung up the phone and looked out the window. The city at night seemed even more magnificent than during the day. Millions of lights from homes and the endless stream of traffic blended together, drowning out the light of every star in the sky. I glanced at my plane ticket: 8:00 AM the day after tomorrow. I sighed. Actually, I didn’t want to break up this quickly. Liam and I were really great in bed. The pressure of switching companies these past few days had been huge, and I originally wanted to have breakup sex with him. I smacked my lips, feeling it was a bit of a waste. But since the opportunity had presented itself, there was nothing I could do. … When I got to the club, Liam was surrounded by a group of girls. All different types, all shapes and sizes. Their common trait was that they were all gorgeous. Even heavy makeup couldn’t hide the youthful collagen in their faces; they all looked very young. It was no wonder girls liked him. Liam’s family was rich, he was generous with his money, and he was incredibly handsome. Even his player reputation somehow added to his charm. I touched my own face, remembering the insulting things Liam had said to me before. “You’re 27. You need to go get some facials and treatments. Put some effort into your appearance, okay?” No wonder he found me repulsive. Turns out he was surrounded by girls in their early twenties. I didn’t say anything, just stood outside the crowd. My eyes met Liam’s. But he acted as if he hadn’t seen me, quickly looking away. Chloe’s face was flushed red. She pressed herself tightly against him, her voice sticky: “Liam, have one more drink.” Liam smiled. Under the club lights, the corners of his eyes curved up. He looked stunning, but there wasn’t a trace of warmth in his expression. “Drinking like this is boring. Why don’t you feed it to me?” “How?” Liam didn’t answer, just looked down at her. Half a second later, Chloe understood. A flash of delight crossed her eyes. She tilted her head back and downed the caramel-colored whiskey in her glass! Then, Liam suddenly hooked her chin and kissed her fiercely. There was no tenderness in his kiss; it seemed purely to vent his emotions. Chloe tilted her head back to accept it, the corners of her eyes gradually growing damp from the lack of oxygen. Liquor spilled from the corners of their mouths, catching the hazy colors of the club lights. It wasn’t until a long time later, when they separated, that a long, silver trail of saliva connected them. The atmosphere around them instantly exploded. Everyone was screaming and cheering. I knew he did it on purpose. He was punishing me. Punishing me for giving him attitude the other day, and for not immediately coaxing him afterward. It wasn’t until I walked right up to Liam that everyone else finally noticed me and gradually went quiet. Liam looked up, his face indifferent: “What are you doing here?” I looked at his face, vaguely recalling the days when we were inseparable. When the passion was high, we had even spoken of love. Did it hurt? I suppose a little. But it didn’t hurt that much, because I had known for a long time exactly what kind of person Liam was. He was a player, endlessly chasing thrills, incapable of saying no. He was selfish. Probably because he was spoiled growing up, always putting himself first and never considering anyone else’s feelings. My voice trembled as I said: “Liam, you’ve gone too far.” Liam looked up at me. Even though he was sitting and I was standing, I felt as if he was the one looking down on me. He still had that indifferent expression, wearing a contemptuous smile. “Too far? You can always break up with me. No one’s stopping you.” I didn’t say a word, just stared at him. I couldn’t count how many times he had used breaking up to threaten me. Fifty times? A hundred times? Even the friends around us felt he went too far. After all, they had all seen how dedicated I had been to him over the years. One of them whispered to him: “Liam, stop fighting with Maya. Look at her, she’s about to cry.” In fact, I was crying. If you’re going to put on an act, you have to go all the way. The moment that tear hit the floor, I clearly saw Liam’s expression change. The fingers holding his cigarette twitched. Yet, he still didn’t say anything, just watched me coldly. The next second, I said softly: “Okay, Liam.” “Let’s break up then.” Liam’s face instantly turned incredibly ugly. For a moment, I almost thought he was going to attack me! But instead of getting angry, he laughed. But no matter how you looked at it, the laugh seemed forced through gritted teeth. “You’re acting tough now, Maya. Fine. Just remember, I never go back to my exes.” “When the time comes, don’t come crawling back to me like a dog begging.” “Okay.” I nodded, wiping the tear from my eye. Then I turned and left, without ever looking back at him. Liam didn’t come home that night. I stayed up deleting Liam’s contact info and everything related to him, and packed my bags. Early the next morning, I took the first flight back to my hometown. As the plane broke through the clouds, I pulled out my SIM card and tossed it into the vomit bag. 03 I never contacted Liam again. I posted a few late-night, emo captions on Instagram to solidify my “heartbroken” persona, and then cleanly wiped him from my mind. Life back in my hometown fell into a routine. I quickly adapted to the operations at the new branch office, and started meeting the guys my parents set me up with. The guy sitting across from me—a 28-year-old mid-level manager who was already starting to go bald—was rambling endlessly: “I think women should focus on the family after marriage. What I mean is, after we get married, you shouldn’t work anymore. You shouldn’t be so career-oriented. Take good care of the house. Behind every successful man, there should be a woman…” He kept blabbering on. I smiled, looking at the coffee cup in my hand, thinking to myself: Hold it in. Do not dump this over his stupid pig head. When he finally finished, he looked at me: “Did you clearly understand everything I just said? Do you have anything to add?” I maintained my smile: “No. But Mr. Smith, I don’t think we’re a very good match. Let’s just not see each other again.” Then, amidst his rambling about how “women over 25 lose their value, why are you being so picky, old woman,” I turned and walked away. I had been back in my hometown for quite a few days now, and my mom had set me up on quite a few blind dates. Actually, some of them were pretty decent catches. But having experienced the absolute best, dealing with guys like Liam, I really couldn’t force myself to accept these average dudes. This mood carried over until my morning meeting at work. Everyone had arrived early, sitting silently around the conference table. The atmosphere was serious. I quietly asked the VP next to me: “What’s going on? Did something happen to the company?” The VP leaned in close to my ear: “The old Chairman’s son just parachuted in. Word is he’s using our branch as practice, and later he’s going to take over the entire corporation.” “I heard the new young CEO graduated from Harvard. After graduation, he spent a few years at Goldman Sachs. Then he started his own finance firm and made billions overnight. If the old Chairman hadn’t spent years threatening and bribing him, he never would have come back. He is absolutely ruthless, so be incredibly careful when you talk to him!” A moment later, a young man wearing a black suit walked in. An overcoat was draped over his shoulders. The moment he stepped into the office, someone behind him respectfully took his coat, and his leather shoes came to a halt. I looked up. It wasn’t just me; in that instant, everyone’s gaze was captured by him. The first thing that intimidated you was the aura emanating from this man. It was the aura of someone used to being at the very top, accustomed to absolute control. He didn’t even have an arrogant expression, but everyone in the room, including me, felt an irresistible urge to bow our heads, not daring to meet his eyes. Only upon the second glance did I clearly see his exceptionally bright eyes. His black hair was slicked back with gel, revealing prominent brow bones. I had heard that the Chairman’s wife was French. The elegance of blonde hair and blue eyes, combined with the grace of Eastern beauty, merged perfectly within him. A classic Western bone structure with Eastern features. This man was incredibly handsome, easily on par with Liam. But because his aura was so overpowering, people didn’t notice his looks at first glance. “Apologies, my flight was delayed. I’m late.” He started by admitting his fault, then sat at the head of the table and cut straight to the chase: “My name is Ethan Vance. From now on, I am the General Manager of this company. I have already reviewed the company’s basic profiles and financial reports. Now, starting with the VP, everyone will give a basic report on the business results of the past year and the projects you are currently handling.” The department heads stood up one by one, trembling as they gave their reports. The new young CEO, Ethan, was indeed the elite the rumors made him out to be. He pinpointed every single area where someone tried to gloss over the details. “I don’t like vague rhetoric, and I don’t like being played for a fool. I hope we can communicate effectively, but if my communication yields no results, I will consider other methods.” He clearly didn’t yell or physically attack anyone, but a layer of cold sweat broke out on everyone’s backs. Even when I stood up, my palms were slick with a thin layer of sweat. Luckily, I was fully prepared, and my business results from the past year were quite excellent. The more I spoke, the more confident and fluent I became. My resume and my career were my pride, the most important things in my life. I would never cut corners on that front. CEO Vance didn’t interrupt me. I saw a hint of admiration in his eyes. A moment later, I stopped and signaled that I was finished. He nodded: “Maya, right? Not bad.” “From now on, all business reports should follow this standard.” … Ever since CEO Vance arrived, everyone’s workload had increased significantly. He cleared out a lot of redundant tasks and toxic assets, and also secured many high-quality projects. Everyone was working longer overtime hours, but our salaries had also risen accordingly. My colleagues, especially the young female ones, were very interested in the new CEO. Two new young hires didn’t know what got into their heads, but they actually tried pulling the “domineering CEO falls for the innocent girl” routine from romance novels. One openly argued with him during a meeting. The other “accidentally” spilled coffee on his three-thousand-dollar shirt and tried to wipe it off with her hands. The first one was fired the very next day. The second one was fired that exact same day. The female colleagues finally behaved themselves. However, during breaks, they would still gather in the pantry to gossip about him. “I heard he’s never had a girlfriend before. Do you think he’s still a virgin?!” “How is that possible? You watch too much TV. A guy with his qualifications has tons of women eyeing him. There’s no way he’s a virgin.” “Let me sleep with him for one night! I’d gladly give up a year’s bonus. He’s an absolute specimen. Did you guys see him when he wore dress pants the other day? My god, he is seriously packing!” … Listening from the sidelines, I suddenly became interested. Without Liam around, this Ethan Vance seemed like an even better option. This man… I wanted to give him a try. 04 I started intentionally appearing in front of Ethan on a regular schedule. He arrived at work half an hour early every day. Three out of five days a week, I made sure to catch the same elevator as him. Usually, it was just the two of us in the elevator at that time. I didn’t talk much. I just said hello, pressed the floor button for him, and stood quietly to the side. Then, like clockwork, I went to get a cup of coffee every day at noon. He usually got coffee around that time too. I made sure to run into him in the pantry every time, but I always left before he finished pouring his, making sure he noticed me. Occasionally, I worked overtime, and he would walk past my desk when he left for the day. In short, I tried to appear in front of him as much as possible, while absolutely refusing to speak a single unnecessary word to him. Finally, on the 17th time he caught me working overtime, his footsteps paused, and he walked over to me. “I’ve noticed you working late a lot recently. Are you running into any issues?” I looked up, feigning surprise. After a moment of hesitation, I handed over the documents in my hands. “I just took over a new project, but there are some assets in this company whose risk levels I’m not certain about, so I just wanted to study it more carefully.” Ethan naturally sat down in the empty seat next to me: “Let me take a look.” He carried a faint, woody cologne scent. It mixed with the light rose perfume I wore, creating an indescribably intoxicating blend. “I think this project is viable. Look at their 2023 financial statements—the financial status is actually pretty good, and…” He spoke with ease and fluency. I sat beside him, nodding earnestly, occasionally asking highly specialized questions. After he answered each one, I would put on an expression of sudden realization. “So that’s how it works. Thank you, Mr. Vance. I never thought of looking at it from that angle before.” “Your professional skills are already quite strong; you just lack a bit of operational experience. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.” “Go home early,” he said, making a rare joke. “Don’t let people think I’m some kind of black-hearted sweatshop boss, forcing employees to work overtime every day.” I nodded, packed up my documents, and went downstairs with him. As we walked out the door, the wind blew raindrops onto me. I hesitated and took a step back. Ethan was about to leave, but seeing me stay put, he turned back and asked: “What’s wrong?” I waved my hand: “It’s nothing, Mr. Vance. You go ahead. I… I just remembered I have something else to do.” He didn’t ask further and nodded before leaving. Five minutes later, his car drove out of the underground parking garage. I was still standing at the entrance of the building. Ethan rolled down his window: “Did you not drive today?” I looked embarrassed: “Yeah. It’s hard to get an Uber when it’s raining. It’s fine, Mr. Vance. I’ll just wait a bit longer, one should show up soon.” He spoke: “Get in. I’ll give you a ride.” … I talked to Ethan quite a bit on the way. He was somewhat surprised to find that our interests aligned perfectly. Even my favorite niche indie film, The Holy Mountain, happened to be his favorite as well. Ethan’s initially aloof demeanor gradually became more conversational. By the time we reached my house, he actually missed the brake and kept driving past it. I pursed my lips, just about to remind him, but he had already noticed. “My apologies, I wasn’t looking at the GPS.” After the car stopped, I thanked him again for giving me a ride home. Ethan just nodded. His lips parted slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed it back. “What is it, Mr. Vance?” I looked at him. “What perfume are you wearing? It smells nice.” He seemed to regret the words as soon as they left his mouth, but saying anything else would only make it more awkward, so he simply lowered his head and stayed silent. I smiled inwardly: “Penhaligon’s The Coveted Duchess Rose. Well then, Mr. Vance, see you tomorrow.”

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In high school, there was a rich kid in our class. Filthy rich. He was always treating everyone. Fried chicken every three days, burgers every five. The year he was most generous, he lost a bet and casually handed ten grand to a random girl on the street. I relied on that money to finish high school and get into college. Only later did I find out that the “rich kid” persona was fake, and losing the bet was a lie too. All there was, was a teenage boy’s awkward, hidden, and unspoken crush. Four years later, his family went bankrupt, and he was living on the streets. I crouched in front of him and held out my hand: “Hey, wanna come with me?” 01 I have a notebook hidden in the deepest corner of my desk. It records all my wishes, big and small. The earliest one was: “I don’t want to be beaten with a stick anymore.” So, when I was ten, my mother resolutely filed for divorce. She took me and fled from my abusive father, escaping that small, backwoods town where I would have been sold off for a bride price by the time I was fifteen. My mother made that wish come true. The second one was: “I want to go to school.” From then on, my mother worked three jobs a day—washing dishes during the day, running a street stall at night. She begged people to get my residency sorted out and sent me to school. In my young eyes, my mother was omnipotent; there was nothing she couldn’t do. “I want a scarf that doesn’t pill.” “A two-dollar duck hair clip.” “Gloves that actually keep my hands warm.” I continued to write down my wishes in my childish handwriting. Until the twenty-eighth one: “I want to eat a delicious birthday cake with Mom.” My omnipotent mother didn’t make this wish come true. She suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage on the way to buy the cake and was rushed to the ER. I borrowed a lot of money, prayed to every god, and cried until the world spun, but it was all useless. When I was fifteen, I lost my last remaining family member. 02 That notebook was sealed away for a year. When I opened it again, I was already a junior in high school. The wishes in the notebook gradually became more trivial and frequent: “To finish all my worksheets before 10 PM.” “To rank in the top five in the grade on the day after tomorrow’s midterm.” “To find another part-time job at night to pay next semester’s tuition.” Left all alone, I started fulfilling my own wishes. But occasionally, a little random thought would pop out in the notebook: “My desk mate ordered Popeyes for lunch again. What does it taste like? It smells so good. Is it delicious?” “A friend invited me to see a movie tonight. It’s supposed to be the kind I like, but the tickets are too expensive.” “I want to adopt a kitten. Never mind, I couldn’t take good care of it.” Financially strapped, having to budget carefully even for meals, these wishes were too luxurious for me. Later, a rich kid transferred from the class next door. His name was Liam. The first time we met, he treated the whole class to Popeyes. A week later, with a wave of his hand, he rented out an entire movie theater for the class. The class cheered, hailing him as the biggest baller in the whole school. Behind his back, though, they mocked him for having more money than sense and trying to show off. Those ignored, random wishes were quietly being fulfilled just like that. In my heart, I gave Liam a nickname: The Genie. Liam the Genie. And I was the impoverished Aladdin. Only, my Genie was exceptionally generous, exceptionally giving. The pizza place I had walked past several times but couldn’t bear to go into? He treated the whole class to it every few days. My Genie seemed to have no three-wish limit. Every wish in my notebook was meticulously fulfilled by him. In the summer, he bought ice cream; in the winter, he brought hot cocoa. I learned what those heavily advertised fast-food chains tasted like. I was able to join the crowd when classmates talked about the most popular movies. Even the bitter cold that terrified me—he personally gifted me a down jacket. That was my most dignified winter. My ears didn’t get frostbite, and my fingers didn’t get chilblains. Near the end of my junior year, I wrote out a withdrawal application. The people I borrowed the three thousand dollars from for my mother’s medical bills were showing up at my door every day, hounding me until I was physically and mentally exhausted. I packed my bags, ready to head south to work in a factory. The day before I left, I ran into Liam. He had lost a bet and had to give the first girl who walked by ten thousand dollars. And I was that girl. He shoved the money at me without a word: “Hey, don’t make me break my promise. It’s just a little money, not even enough for you to buy a new outfit.” The crumbs that fall through the fingers of the rich are enough for the poor to work a lifetime for. I used that money to pay off the debt, finished high school, and got into college. In my plain and simple value system: Aladdin’s Genie was omnipotent. Liam was also omnipotent. 03 So, when I heard that Liam had been kicked out by his family and was living on the streets… I was stunned for a long time. By this time, I had already graduated from college. Using the money I saved from working, I opened a small diner. Messages flooded the class group chat: “I heard his family went bankrupt. His dad took all the money and ran off with his mistress, leaving him all alone.” “He was originally abroad, but he just dropped out and was sent back. I don’t think he even got his degree.” “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Remember how rich he was in high school? Now he doesn’t even have a place to live. What goes around comes around.” When I found Liam, he was sitting on a park bench, staring blankly into the distance. The person in front of me was a little different from my memory. His features, always proud and sharp, were slightly lowered now, revealing an inexplicable calmness. I slowed my pace, hesitating whether to go over. He had already sharply lifted his head. After four years apart, we faced each other in this quiet, secluded park, bathed in the setting sun. I wasn’t sure if Liam recognized me. Probably not. After all, our interactions during those high school years were few and far between. We weren’t friends; we couldn’t even be called close classmates. Liam’s life was so colorful; it would be hard for him to remember someone as ordinary and mediocre as me. Sure enough, he looked at me, his expression unchanging: “Can I help you?” I pointed to the flyer in his hand: “Excuse me, that’s a flyer for my diner. We’re hiring.” “I saw you looking at it. Are you… looking to apply?” 04 Even after bringing Liam back to the diner, it still felt surreal. He stood a short distance away from me, his gaze sweeping over the storefront, his tone cold: “Where will I live?” Not long ago, when I said that, Liam looked at me very strangely. “Four thousand a month, benefits included, eight-hour shifts, two days off a week.” It wasn’t until I said room and board were included that his expression changed, and he agreed. The four thousand dollars that once barely covered a meal for him was now buying a month of his time. Maybe, like the group chat said, he really had nowhere else to go. I took over this diner from a friend. We sell chicken tenders and fried chicken cutlets. The location is good, and business isn’t bad. The first floor is for business, the second floor is for living. There’s one room for me, and one for storage. I cleared out the storage room, considering whether I should go buy a bed later. And I also needed to buy sheets, a toothbrush, a towel… Liam strolled over from behind me and helped me take a box. I said casually: “Just put it in my room, it’s just some toilet paper, laundry detergent…” Only after Liam had taken two steps did I suddenly realize and hurriedly tried to stop him: “Wait a minute.” But it was too late. Liam had already pushed open the bedroom door. The room was small; you could take it all in with one glance. When Liam looked up, he saw the desk by the window. He paused. His gaze swept over the photo displayed on it. He turned back and asked me: “Just put it next to the desk?” My nervous heart slowly relaxed: “Yeah.” Liam probably didn’t recognize me. After all, this photo was an accident. When we graduated, the school hired a photographer to take pictures for us. You could take solo shots, or take pictures with friends. When Liam was taking his picture, I happened to be standing nearby, spacing out. Startled by the photographer’s shout, I turned my head in confusion. And thus, this unexpected photo was born. When the photographer developed the photos, he probably thought we had planned it that way. So he printed a copy for me too. I brought this photo with me to college, and after graduating, I brought it to the diner. I found a frame for it and carefully placed it on my desk. The Liam back then was a blond, with arrogant bleached hair, his bangs too long, covering half an eye. Wearing a skull t-shirt and ripped jeans, even though he was good-looking, he couldn’t hide that era’s emo/scene kid vibe. Now, he had short, neat black hair, and simple, clean clothes. The difference was too huge. So it was perfectly normal that he didn’t recognize me. 05 After getting the room sorted, I took Liam out to eat. But his appetite was low; he took two bites and put down his chopsticks. It’s understandable. With that kind of family tragedy, it’s normal to be in a bad mood. But it went on like this for several days, and he was visibly thinner than when he first arrived. I was getting a bit anxious, so I dragged him to a steakhouse. It was about a hundred dollars a person. I ordered him a steak and a salad. Liam took two bites and suddenly said: “I’ve been here before.” I paused, surprised he remembered. Back then, everyone laughed at him for having more money than sense, but after being treated so much, they eventually felt embarrassed. So, many people started taking the initiative to invite Liam out to eat after school. I mixed in with the crowd. On the day I got my paycheck from my part-time job, I carefully chose this steakhouse. I didn’t expect him to accept my invitation. He always had an aloof personality. Annoyed by everyone asking, he closed his eyes and randomly pointed at someone: “You then. Just one meal. The rest of you, stop bothering me.” I was the lucky winner. Liam ate that steak clean. He reviewed it: “The chef here is pretty good. It tastes no different from what I usually eat. I like it a lot.” That compliment made me let out a smile I couldn’t hold back. Aladdin was able to buy the Genie a meal. Aladdin was very happy. So, seeing Liam’s current low spirits, I naturally thought of this restaurant. It was as if time had rewinded, bridging a four-year gap. The same seat, the same person. Liam seemed to have a better appetite, just like four years ago. He finished the steak and salad completely: “It’s very good. I like it a lot.” I smiled, just about to get up to pay the bill. When suddenly, Liam spoke from behind me: “You know me, and you know who I am.” His tone was calm, yet decisive: “The photo frame on the desk… the person in it is you, isn’t it?” 06 That night, the class group chat was already buzzing: “You say Liam’s family went bankrupt. So is his engagement to Sarah still on?” “Definitely not. Before, they were a match made in heaven. Now, it’s just a poor boy lusting after a rich girl. Only an idiot would stay together.” “Sorry, you guys are really wrong this time. The rich girl is truly deeply in love. Even though Liam is broke, she’s not abandoning him. She’s currently adding people as friends asking for his whereabouts.” Sure enough, there was a new friend request on my list, exactly from Sarah. I was hesitating whether to accept it when there was a soft knock on my door. “I’m out of shampoo.” Liam’s hair was half-wet, leaning against the doorframe looking at me. That meal not long ago had ripped away our facade of acting like nothing happened. Liam recognized the photo, and he recognized me. Thankfully, he didn’t say much else, nor did he ask me why I kept our photo on my desk. Right now, water droplets were falling from Liam’s brow. His dark eyes watched me quietly, displaying a strange kind of docility. I didn’t dare to meet his gaze. I handed over the toiletries I had bought. “I forgot to give this to you earlier. Body wash and everything else is in here too.” I was still feeling uneasy about Sarah’s friend request. Suddenly, a sharp snap echoed in my ear. Liam had snapped his fingers. When I looked up in confusion, I saw him holding open the bag, revealing what was inside. Since we met again, he had always been aloof and silent. But now, his voice unexpectedly carried a hint of a smile: “Boss, you even provide your employees with Kérastase shampoo?” 07 In my heart, Liam is different from me. This difference is hard to describe in words. If I had to, it’s… I can eat cheap street food; he can’t. I can wear a nine-dollar t-shirt; he can’t. But this reasoning was too bizarre to explain, so I told a lie: “I usually use this brand, so I just bought it together.” But as soon as I said it, I regretted it. Because Liam had helped me move boxes before and definitely saw what was inside. A pile of bright green Pantene bottles easily exposed my lie. But Liam wasn’t the type to embarrass people. He just said “hmm,” easily accepting my explanation. Just like in my junior year, when I stained my pants during my period and was mocked by a male classmate. He suddenly stood up and beat the guy up. When making a public apology in front of the whole school at the flagpole, he just said casually: “I didn’t like the way he looked. He was being too loud while I was trying to sleep.” Everyone’s attention was diverted by Liam, so no one noticed the slap I gave that male classmate. Genie, oh Genie, the most subtle Genie in the world. Liam took a few steps, then turned back: “The noodle place across the street is really good, the t-shirts from the wholesale market next door are great quality, and Irish Spring soap smells really nice.” I didn’t understand what he meant and looked up in confusion. “Just a little bit.” Liam held up his thumb and index finger, making a gesture: “Just a little bit is enough to keep me alive.” So he didn’t need a steakhouse that costs hundreds a person, and he didn’t need shampoo that costs thirty or forty dollars a bottle. After our reunion, Liam called out my name for the first time, his eyes curving into a smile: “Chloe, I’m very easy to take care of.” 08 I didn’t expect Sarah to show up directly at my diner. The first time she laid eyes on Liam, she practically threw herself at him: “Why didn’t you answer my calls? I’ve been looking for you for so long.” Her eyes were red. A pretty girl crying is very endearing. Sure enough, Liam raised his hands and placed them on her shoulders, a posture suitable for an embrace. But the next second, he forcefully pushed Sarah away. “Don’t touch me.” Sarah froze, her eyes getting even redder: “Are you still blaming me? I’ve already convinced my mom. Just hold on for another month, I can definitely convince my dad too. Our engagement still stands.” “There is no engagement. I never agreed to it.” Liam cut off Sarah’s words, his voice very cold: “That was a unilateral decision by our parents, their own wishful thinking.” After being chased away, Sarah came back several more times. Liam never gave her a good look. The most serious time, he called the police: “If you want to get married, go to a dating site. Harass me one more time, and I’ll call the cops again.” “Stop coming to find me. It’s very annoying and severely affects my life.” Even from an outsider’s perspective, these words were incredibly ruthless. Sure enough, Sarah ran off crying and didn’t come back for a week. Messages flooded the class group chat: “Tsk, the rich girl bravely pursues love, only to be rejected. It breaks my heart to see her cry. How could Liam bear it?” “Love without material backing is just loose sand. Liam can’t even support himself right now, how can he support her? He can’t even buy her a bag. Is he supposed to make the rich girl suffer with him?” “There’s a kind of love called letting go. I get it. I broke up with my ex because of the huge gap in our family backgrounds too. Actually, I still think about her, but, sigh, dreams can’t beat reality.” I don’t know who pulled Sarah into the group chat. She sent a crying emoji: “I know he just doesn’t want to drag me down, but I really don’t care. As long as I can be with him, even if we live in a tiny apartment, it doesn’t matter. True love can conquer anything.” Such words resonated with many people. It was like a novel plot coming to life—the trope of the rich, beautiful girl bravely pursuing love never gets old. I exited the group chat. Liam was frying chicken cutlets. Two girls, blushing, pushing each other forward, came up to ask for his number. “I have a girlfriend, sorry.” Liam handed the chicken cutlets to them. His outstanding appearance, tall figure, and cold voice. Even wearing an apron, he looked completely out of place in this narrow, mediocre chicken cutlet shop. So even that sentence seemed like an excuse used to brush them off.

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