Chapter 2

My mind went blank.

I froze on the spot and forgot to breathe.

Yan Jin looked back at me in confusion. “Cheng Xi?”

Only after he called my name several times did I come to my senses.

I hurriedly put away my phone and forced a smile. “I’m not feeling very well. Let’s go home early.”

Perhaps he could tell I was hiding something. He frowned and instinctively stepped toward me, one hand reaching out.

But the next second, something seemed to occur to him. He slowly withdrew his hand and slipped it into his trouser pocket.

“Oh. Sure.”

Yan Jin’s expression remained flat.

I heard the impatience in his thoughts.

[This trick again? Isn’t she tired of it?]

[Doesn’t she have anything useful to do all day besides acting mysterious to get my attention?]

I stared.

Then I smiled bitterly.

Fine. I had done something that stupid before.

By then, Yan Jin’s early passion for me had faded, and I had felt deeply insecure.

To test his attitude and make him care again, I deliberately acted secretive and pretended I was chatting with another man.

At first, the trick worked very well.

Yan Jin was consumed with jealousy. That night, he demanded to know who the other man was and nearly tore my phone apart.

The next day, he forcibly moved in with me and secretly investigated whether any men were trying to approach me.

But he soon realized the whole thing had been my own performance.

I still remembered his expression then.

Disgust mixed with contempt.

After that, he became much colder toward me.

A familiar female voice suddenly rang out behind us.

“Yan Jin! Cheng Xi! You’re here too?”

I turned and saw Zhou Xiaotang approaching with several young men.

They were Yan Jin’s childhood friends, a close-knit group.

“What’s the plan tonight? Gaming café?” Zhou Xiaotang hooked an arm around Yan Jin’s shoulders and waggled her brows. “The gang needs a fifth.”

Another friend laughed and cursed. “What gaming café? Do you even know what day it is? It’s Qixi.”

Zhou Xiaotang covered her mouth as if she had only just remembered. “Oh, right! Qixi! Then Mr. Yan had better behave and keep his girlfriend company.”

Yan Jin glanced at me, his brows drawing together slightly.

[Damn it. Here we go again.]

[She pulls a long face every time she sees Xiaotang.]

[She’ll make a scene all night when we get home.]

I lowered my head.

Yan Jin was right. Zhou Xiaotang bothered me a great deal.

But it hadn’t been that way at first.

Unlike the childhood sweethearts in so many novels—the kind with no sense of boundaries who practically glued themselves to the male lead—

she and Yan Jin behaved like ordinary friends.

She never crossed a line or flirted, never played any two-faced games, and even her jokes were measured perfectly. There was nothing to criticize.

Then I discovered Yan Jin could casually drink from a cup she had already used.

That time, I had thrown a terrible fit.

Looking at the mess scattered across the floor, Yan Jin said helplessly, “I honestly picked up the wrong cup.”

His reaction was so composed that I couldn’t help wondering whether I had imagined the problem.

I apologized to him.

Afterward, Yan Jin was careful, and nothing similar happened again.

Until Zhou Xiaotang said in a half-joking tone, “Tsk, someone had better not forget how I lost my first kiss.”

Yan Jin looked revolted, snatched a cushion from the sofa, and hurled it at her face. “Get lost. Don’t bring that up. It’s disgusting.”

More than once, he had told me he would rather date a man than Zhou Xiaotang.

But I still minded.

So much that I could almost sense Zhou Xiaotang provoking me beneath the surface.

After explaining himself too many times, Yan Jin grew fed up. “I promise I won’t meet her alone again. But we’ve known each other for years. I can’t cut off all contact.”

Once he said that, I had nothing left to argue.

Before tonight, I really would have reacted exactly as Yan Jin expected: threatened to break up, sulked, and interrogated him about Zhou Xiaotang.

Yan Jin would impatiently agree to the breakup. I would panic, turn around, and beg him to take me back.

Textbook doormat behavior.

But tonight, the thought that Qin Zheng might be watching my every move from some hidden corner

left me restless and weak-kneed.

With Qin Zheng’s warped, pathological possessiveness, if he learned I had found another boyfriend after he went abroad…

I dared not imagine what he would do.

He had once caught a knife barehanded. Now he might tear a man apart with those same hands…

Yan Jin’s build wouldn’t survive one round with him.

“Cheng Xi, I…” Yan Jin began hesitantly.

I shuddered violently and nodded in a perfunctory way. “It’s fine. You guys go ahead. I’m not feeling well anyway, so I’ll go home.”

With that, I hurried away,

as though a ghost were chasing me.

The smile on Zhou Xiaotang’s face faltered. She instinctively looked at Yan Jin, surprise flickering in her eyes.

Yan Jin watched my retreating back and slowly frowned.