Fine! I’ll admit it: a first reunion is coincidence. A second reunion is fate. A third reunion… that’s called cheating.
It’s one thing to dislike someone who cheats on a test. It’s worse to dislike someone who cheats and scores high. But worst of all is someone who cheats, scores high, and wins a scholarship. By the same logic, I absolutely detested the fact that Chu Ke Huan had conspired with Ke Fei to fake a “coincidental” meeting with me. But more than all of this, the person I hated most right now was myself—the one currently sitting across from Chu Ke Huan, sharing lunch with him.
It felt like I’d been bewitched. I shouldn’t have accepted his invitation, yet there I was, seated at the table while he confidently ordered food and inquired about my preferences. Only now, as I watched him, did it hit me that I should have turned him down ten minutes earlier. Sighing, I pulled out my phone, debating whether I should inform Hao Yi. But before I could act, Chu Ke Huan caught me mid-thought.
“Such good behavior—checking in with your boyfriend?”
“It’s called respect,” I retorted, slightly annoyed at being called out. Unable to resist a jab, I added, “Besides, letting him know proves that this lunch is perfectly innocent, with nothing that could make him worry.”
“I agree,” he said smoothly, though his gaze lingered. “But sometimes, checking in can spark unnecessary doubts. Simple things can get overanalyzed. And even if checking in puts the other person at ease, they still have no way of knowing what actually happens during the meeting.” His tone was calm, but his direct stare sent a ripple of tension through the air.
I wasn’t sure if he was implying something, but the unease in his words prompted me to cut to the chase. “I understand, but I trust my self-control.”
“I was actually referring to myself,” Chu Ke Huan said with a faint smile. “Zi Yuan is a very simple girl. After graduating, she became a civil servant, and her career has been stable ever since. But I’m different. She doesn’t understand why someone like me, working in a private company, has to attend networking events or why every person I meet could represent a new job or raise. So, of course, I just tell her I have to work overtime every day.”
“Is this some kind of confession?” I asked coolly. While I could admire his professional ambition, who was to say he wasn’t sneaking in his own selfish motives during these networking events? “You’ve got the wrong audience for this. These are things you should be explaining to Zi Yuan—not hiding from her. Do you think a relationship like that is healthy?”
“I think it’s perfect,” he said, his gaze hardening with an icy resolve. “I want her to stay in that simple little world. To keep believing we’ll hold hands and walk through life together. To keep believing we’ll get married someday.”
A shiver ran through me. Did he have no intention of marrying Gao Zi Yuan? The question spun in my mind, but I knew it wasn’t my place to ask. Even if it wouldn’t detonate into disaster, nothing good could come from it.
“Enough about me,” Chu Ke Huan said, seeming to notice my internal struggle. Realizing I wasn’t taking the bait he’d laid, he shifted the topic effortlessly. “What about you? Are you going to marry your boyfriend?”
Finally, an easy question! For the first time since sitting down, the alarm bells in my head stopped ringing. Every question he’d thrown at me, every counterpoint he’d made, had kept me on edge, terrified of saying the wrong thing and giving him an opening to undermine me. But this time, I could finally relax. With a newfound lightness, I answered, even flashing him the sweetest smile I’d had in days. “It’s only a matter of time. My boyfriend and I are very steady.”
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