Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I ran into Zhou Yanzhi in the corridor of Nightfall.

Nightfall was the largest entertainment club in the city, a place where people from all walks of life mingled.

It was my roommate Lu Ting’s birthday, and she had booked a private booth there.

I arrived late. Just as I was about to call her for the room number, I heard the sound of men and women laughing and joking further down the hallway.

A few people appeared at the end of the corridor. I instinctively tried to turn my head to avoid them, but when I saw the face of one of the men, I froze.

It was the face I had dreamed of and woken up from countless times, the face of the person I had spent over a decade with, day in and day out.

The person the police had concluded a year ago had likely died in the river-

My childhood friend, Zhou Yanzhi.

I blinked hard.

I checked again and again to make sure I wasn’t mistaking a look-alike for him.

But as I blinked, tears threatened to fall.

Because there was no way I could ever mistake him for someone else.

Zhou Yanzhi’s presence occupied eighty percent of my brief eighteen years of life.

Aside from my parents, he was the person I was closest to.

He was also the person I had secretly loved for a long, long time.

After he went missing a year ago, there had been no news of him.

I never imagined we would meet again in a scene like this.

Two scantily clad beauties were tucked into his arms, one on each side.

Perhaps I had been staring for too long, because a stranger standing next to him noticed me.

He gestured toward Zhou Yanzhi and teased, “Where did you leave this romantic debt?”

“The girl looks like she’s about to cry just looking at you.”

The man across from me glanced over. Our eyes met for a fleeting second before his gaze dropped to my chest. His look was bold, his tone flippant. “A scrawny little thing like that? Would I even be interested?”

Zhou Yanzhi would never say something like that.

And yet, this person was clearly him.

I bit my lip, clutching my phone as I looked at him. “Can I… add you on WeChat?”

He looked at me with a half-smile.

“No.”

His gaze fell on my chest again, his voice tinged with a hint of mock regret. “Tasteless.”

The man beside him burst into laughter.

The person before me and the Zhou Yanzhi who had accompanied me for over a decade felt like two extremes.

Or rather, like two different souls inhabiting the same skin.

Zhou Yanzhi never would have said such things.

He was too good.

Like a piece of warm, polished jade.

And I had been too lucky.

Taking advantage of my status as his childhood friend, I had stayed by his side.

During the winter break of our junior year of high school,

I asked Zhou Yanzhi for a promise.

I hoped that on the day the college entrance exams ended, he would come to pick me up.

A bulky scarf covered my reddened earlobes, hiding my secret intentions from him.

At that time, Zhou Yanzhi looked at me and smiled, his phoenix eyes narrowing slightly. He didn’t answer right away; instead, he reached out and gently ruffled my hair.

The New Year’s bells were approaching.

Fireworks filled the sky, and firecrackers roared.

Thinking the surrounding noise was too loud, I stood on my tiptoes and leaned close to his ear.

“Zhou Yanzhi.”

“The day the exams are over,”

“Come pick me up, okay?”

The firecrackers were so, so loud.

So loud that I couldn’t even hear my own voice.

But I still heard him lean into my ear, his voice solemn yet intimate as he said:

“Okay.”

But he broke his word.

On the day I stood amidst the surging crowds, looking around in a daze.

When all the noise and clamor rushed at me from every direction.

He didn’t come.

All my expectations fell through.

When I numbly knocked on his front door, I was met by his parents, who looked as if they had aged ten years.

And then, with red-rimmed eyes, they told me the devastating news.