She was about to ask Lin Yi Shen how he knew He Su Ye when his secretary called him away. She sighed, realizing how strange and fateful it felt. In a world full of strangers, she had assumed most encounters would be fleeting and inconsequential. But now, meeting one person seemed to connect everything around her, as though it was all meant to happen.
As He Su Ye left, the soft smile he’d given her lingered in her mind. She couldn’t help but feel like a hopeless romantic.
Ding Wei had been busy recently with the product launch event for Zhong Yu. Rumor had it that the company’s marketing director—a demanding and notoriously difficult woman—had rejected proposal after proposal. When the final version was completed, Ding Wei thought the ordeal was over, only to find the director personally inspecting the venue and supervising the process. Naturally, he had to accompany her. By the end of the week, he was utterly drained.
Shen Xi Fan, meanwhile, counted her blessings. She was thrilled not to have to deal with Yan Heng, relieved to lounge comfortably in a suite with the heater running rather than endure hours of freezing temperatures outdoors. Staring at the thick ledger of accounts before her, she felt, for the first time, that contentment was indeed a virtue.
However, Ling Yu Fan did come looking for trouble a few times. From complaints about plumbing issues to claims of insufficient cleaning, he seemed intent on causing problems. Thankfully, Shen Xi Fan had mastered the art of disconnection—her large eyes remained fixed on him without focus, staring blankly until it unsettled him. Over time, his antics diminished significantly.
* * *
On New Year’s Eve, the four friends went out for hot pot and then stopped by a bar. At first, everyone drank moderately, but Ding Wei, brimming with pent-up frustration, drank quickly and heavily. Eventually, Xu Xiang Ya suggested playing cards with a twist: the loser would have to share a personal story.
If the best gamblers are mathematicians, then Shen Xi Fan was undoubtedly the worst. A self-proclaimed math idiot, her cautious playing style often led her to hold onto winning cards too long. After just a few rounds, she was losing miserably.
The others teased her mercilessly. “Shen Xi Fan, tell us about your first love!”
Embarrassed, she tried to plead her way out. “Come on, I’ll drink instead!”
Lin Yi Shen refused to let her off the hook. “Junior, did your university professors teach you how to cheat like this?”
Resigned, she propped her chin on her hand, racking her brain to simplify her story as much as possible. “It was sophomore year. I liked this guy—he was incredibly brilliant, well-known on campus. He majored in Engineering Physics and was impossibly smart. Somehow, we ended up together, but later broke up for… reasons.”
The bar’s dim lighting and the slow, melancholy tones of Sade’s “Somebody Already Broke My Heart” filled the space:
I’ve been torn apart so many times, I’ve been hurt so many times before… Somebody already broke my heart…
Unsatisfied, Xu Xiang Ya pressed on. “When did it end? Why did you break up?”
Shen Xi Fan felt the atmosphere grow heavy. The distant laughter around her seemed to fade, and the hazy lights created an almost dreamlike detachment. The alcohol dulled her nerves, and she let herself relax, smiling faintly. “At the start of senior year. Why? He fell for someone else.”
She paused, swirling her glass of amber liquid as the light glinted off it in shifting hues. “At the time, it felt like the sky was falling. The pain was so overwhelming that even crying felt like a luxury. I spent a month like a zombie—insomnia every night, nausea at the sight of food. Then I threw myself into an internship, job hunting, and my graduation project. The busier I was, the less I thought about him.”
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