Chapter 1

Chapter 1

At the fashion gala, I arrived dressed to the nines-and alone.

A reporter asked curiously, “Miss He, is President Shen not accompanying you this time?”

Just then, a commotion rose in the distance.

I followed the sound and looked over.

Shen Wudu stepped out of a car, intimately taking the hand of the woman beside him.

The crowd erupted.

Because this was the first time in seven years he had changed his date.

In the past, the woman at his side had always been me.

But now it was Ming Yan, a rising young actress famous for her pure, innocent image.

An entertainment reporter had once compared our faces.

They found that she looked somewhat like me.

Shen Wudu bringing her here was practically the perfect story of a substitute beating the original and taking her place.

Reporters swarmed toward them.

I looked up and met Shen Wudu’s gaze. His eyes were filled with indifference. I gave him a polite nod, then turned as if nothing had happened and walked toward the venue.

On the way, my manager, Sister Liu, asked in a low voice, “No wonder Ming Yan was able to snatch away your fashion resources. I was wondering who she had backing her. So it was Shen Wudu. Did you fight with him again?”

I shook my head. “We didn’t fight.”

“We broke up.”

Sister Liu, however, only sighed as if she had seen this all before and advised me, “My dear heiress, the year is only halfway over and you’ve already brought up breaking up three times. Every single time, President Shen swallowed his pride and came to coax you back. Could you just lower your head for once? Otherwise, that wretched little girl Ming Yan might really steal him away.”

Yes.

In everyone’s eyes, I was probably the one making a scene all year round.

And Shen Wudu was the one coaxing me.

As for Ming Yan, she was nothing more than a plaything Shen Wudu was using to spite me.

As long as I lowered my head, Shen Wudu would immediately get back together with me.

But I knew the truth.

Shen Wudu wasn’t trying to spite me. He was making a point.

He was telling me: if you won’t agree, plenty of others will.

I clenched my palm. The diamonds embedded in my skirt dug into my skin, sending up a faint sting that only made me feel more clear-headed.

“We won’t get back together.”

My tone was firm as I said, “This time, he and I are truly over.”

Shen Wudu and I had been together for seven years.

During that time, we had broken up and gotten back together no fewer than twenty times.

I was in charge of breaking up. He was in charge of getting us back together.

He was the Young Master of the Shen Family, surrounded by countless beautiful women, yet he was willing to swallow his pride again and again to make me happy, to coax me into turning back.

With one sentence from me saying I missed him, he could rush from the ends of the earth to my side and pull me into his arms.

Many people had advised me not to be so dramatic, not to quarrel with him over so-called gossip and tabloid rumors. He clearly had eyes only for me. Why damage our relationship by breaking up again and again?

I understood that too.

But I could never control my emotions, and more than once, I cried over it late at night.

He would hold me tightly in his arms and coax me in a low voice, “How is that dramatic? It’s clearly because Yaoyao loves me too much and feels too insecure. I’m willing to coax Yaoyao.”

I looked up at him with reddened eyes. “For the rest of your life?”

“For the rest of my life.”

He answered without hesitation.

We were so young back then.

Love was always scorching, always burning hot. We always thought that if we said “forever” so easily, then keeping that promise would be just as easy.

But in the end, that was only what we thought.

At the memory, a faint bitterness rose in my chest.

Just then, Sister Liu asked me, “Why did you break up this time?”

I froze, then slowly blinked. In the end, my gaze landed on the two people standing intimately close not far away, and my voice came out very soft.

“He’s getting married, and he wants me to be his mistress.”

Sister Liu froze.

I looked away and drained the wine in my glass. No one saw the red at the corners of my eyes.

“I told him I wasn’t willing.”

Sister Liu’s face went slightly pale. She only murmured,

“Absurd-“