Chapter 2

After Gu Yuancheng began cheating with Li Li, the number of women he slept with steadily grew. He started having those temporary “set marriages” actors sometimes formed during a shoot.

At first, it broke my heart. Later, I went numb. In time, I simply got used to it.

I knew him too well. He hated condoms. When we were together, I had always refused to have sex without one. But Li Li loved him enough to become his mistress, and she even stood guard while he fooled around with other actresses. Of course she would indulge his bad habits.

According to the messages she sent me, she had already had four abortions for him.

It was a kind of love I could not understand.

Gu Yuancheng was cautious, though. If Li Li had not sent me anonymous messages, I would never have known about his affairs. He was genuinely kind to me otherwise. He had a gentle nature, fussed over me whenever we met, and possessed a pair of devastatingly romantic eyes.

But recently, I had been forced to ask him for a divorce.

I went to visit him on set, and he came out happily to meet me. He truly was busy, working all 365 days of the year with barely a break. The pressure was enormous. He was even taking antidepressants, and the bags under his eyes had become impossible to hide.

I felt a little sorry for him.

When we entered his room, Li Li was washing his underwear.

Gu Yuancheng sat down on the sofa as if this were the most natural thing in the world. He pulled out his phone and asked me, “Want to play a game?”

I shook my head.

Several outfits had been tossed across the bed. I was a little obsessive about cleanliness, so I reached out to tidy them.

Li Li shoved me aside.

The suds on her hands splashed over me and stained my brand-new Chanel. I frowned. This mistress had no manners at all.

“Let me handle his clothes, sis,” Li Li said. “You don’t know how he likes them. He can’t get by without me.”

Gu Yuancheng looked up, pulled out a tissue, and wiped the foam off me. “Let Li do it. She’s used to taking care of things.”

Li Li looked at me with smug, open provocation.

Before, I would have refused to divorce him even if it killed me, just to keep her forever hidden in the shadows.

But now, as I looked at Gu Yuancheng and then at Li Li, I suddenly said, “Let’s get a divorce.”

The room went so quiet that a pin could have been heard dropping.

Li Li smiled with genuine delight, then immediately tried to hide it. The effort nearly killed her. She had to fight harder to suppress that grin than the recoil on an AK.

I silently committed the expression to memory. If I ever had to play that emotion in a scene, I could copy her.

Then I looked at Gu Yuancheng.

He had frozen. A moment later, he gave a hurried laugh, his voice tight. “Don’t joke about that. We dated for four years and have been married for three. We’re about to survive the seven-year itch.”

Li Li cut in. “Yuancheng, if she wants a divorce, maybe she’s found true love. We should give her our blessing.”

“Shut up!” Gu Yuancheng exploded. “Get out!”

Tears instantly filled Li Li’s eyes, grief threatening to spill over.

For a moment, I felt ashamed of myself. I could never love Gu Yuancheng as much as she did. When I learned he had cheated, the grief of failing at acting had hurt me more than his betrayal.

Li Li suffered in noble silence until she had finished washing and hanging up his underwear. Then she murmured, “Smoke less. I’ll go buy your dinner.”

She left.

The guilt immediately returned to Gu Yuancheng’s face.