Chapter 16

Chapter 16

At the wrap party, everyone raised their glasses to toast Shen Sui.

I followed the crowd and raised my glass, keeping my rim lower than his.

I once said that our relationship was one of complete equals. So, even though his wealth was countless times greater than mine and his social status was many levels higher, I refused to lower my glass when we drank together.

“I will definitely reach a point where I can stand by your side as an equal,” I had told him.

Shen Sui would always look at me with a smile-the kind of look one gives a naive child.

After several rounds of drinks, his hot breath brushed against my ear as he said with a chuckle, “Junior, you’ll have to work hard.”

He had long forgotten the girl who once sat on the steps crying, but that sentence used to make me feel exceptionally special.

He loved seeing the dazed expression on my face.

Noticing that I was intentionally lowering my glass rim this time, Shen Sui looked at me in disbelief, his hand shifting to the right to avoid the contact.

I whispered, “Don’t dodge, or we won’t look like ordinary friends.”

In an instant, Shen Sui’s expression became incredibly sharp. The corners of his eyes reddened as he stared at me coldly.

As if the words were difficult to force out, his voice sounded parched.

“Ordinary friends?

“Jiang Zhi, I’m just an ‘ordinary friend’ to you?”

Lu Li reached out to grab Shen Sui’s hand.

Shen Sui quickly pulled away, causing the wine in his glass to splash out.

Lu Li looked at him with a face full of grievance, tears welling in her eyes.

I set my glass down.

“My apologies. I shouldn’t have tried to claim a connection with President Shen.

“Not ordinary friends, then-just alumni.

“I won’t spoil everyone’s fun. Please excuse me.”

Ignoring the bewildered looks on everyone’s faces, I grabbed my bag and left.

Another set of hurried footsteps followed closely behind mine.

Shen Sui chased me out.

I turned around and saw his soul-crushing expression.

He looked like he had something to say.

“Don’t follow me.

“We haven’t seen each other in a long time.”

Shen Sui’s expression seemed to be searching for a memory.

I couldn’t help but sneer. “I used to send that exact sentence to you all the time. Now you’re throwing it back at me? How unoriginal.”

The expression on his face froze.

“You never read them, did you?”

Shen Sui didn’t argue. I knew I was right.

Back when I was clingy, I would send dozens of messages a day. He probably found them annoying, clicked in to clear the notifications, and never bothered with them again.

I used to weigh every word, testing the waters repeatedly, wanting to exchange feelings and share my daily life with him, but I never received a response.

In fact, there wasn’t even a ‘read’ receipt.

Shen Sui said urgently, “From now on-”

I didn’t give him a chance to speak.

“There is no ‘from now on.’

“Stay away from me.”

Shen Sui stood there, at a total loss.

Many times, I had been just as lost, watching him walk away from me without a hint of hesitation.

When he finally stopped following, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I didn’t want to see him again.

I hadn’t been home long when I received a message from one of Shen Sui’s friends.

[Sister-in-law, Shen Sui is drunk. He keeps making a scene, demanding to see you.]

I had added Lu Li as a contact during filming, so I simply forwarded the message to her.

[Control your dog.]

The next morning when I woke up, the trending searches were all about the two of them.

#Shen Sui and Lu Li: Good News Approaching#

I liked three Weibo posts with similar content. This made the netizens even more excited, claiming the relationship was “confirmed” by fellow actors from the set.

Lu Li even came forward and posted a Weibo:

“You always say things would have been better if I hadn’t gone abroad, but I feel like coming back to each other after all this time is more meaningful. If I hadn’t gone abroad, what chance would anyone else have had? I suppose I had to leave some opportunities for others.”

She ended the post with a ‘giggle’ emoji. A new hashtag appeared on the trending list:

#The Lethality of a White Moonlight#

Even when I opened short video platforms, it was all clips of the two of them together, set to sweet songs. The romantic atmosphere was at its peak.

Things reached a point where many netizens were clamoring for a response from the man himself, seemingly taking it for granted that the two were dating.

But a single comment from Shen Sui caused everything to take a sharp turn for the worse.

[There is nothing between us. I am not dating Lu Li. I only look after her to repay a debt of gratitude. Last night, I was drunk and only wanted my fiancée to pick me up. The text was not sent to Lu Li. Stop spreading rumors.]

Those who use public opinion will eventually be consumed by it.

Shen Sui was no exception, and neither was Lu Li.

Some people began tearing into Lu Li for being unscrupulous in her attempt to marry into a wealthy family; some scolded Shen Sui for not taking responsibility for his actions; and others flocked to my Weibo to apologize.

Some netizens even speculated whether the “fiancée” Shen Sui mentioned was me.

Most comments, however, believed the original poster was just making things up.

This was fine by me. I closed Weibo.