Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I stood in the midsummer evening sunlight, staring blankly at Shi Yan’s departing car for a long time.

A sudden gust of wind blew past, carrying the lingering heat of the day, yet it quickly cooled the fluttering excitement that had been in my heart.

“Meng Jingxin, have you forgotten? We’ve already broken up.”

After saying those words, Shi Yan paused slightly. His voice softened with a hint of helplessness. “Get out of the car. I need to get back to the university.”

Just like when we were dating, he was always emotionally stable, clear-headed, and rational in front of me.

It only served to make me look insecure and unreasonable by comparison.

As time went on, I had grown increasingly anxious. I desperately wanted to see him lose his composure just once, if only to prove that he cared about me.

But no matter how much I lost my temper, Shi Yan would only watch from the sidelines with cold eyes.

It was only when I had exhausted myself and sat aside sulking that he would calmly ask, “Are you finished?”

Feeling dejected, I walked into the elevator and went up to Shi Yan’s place to pack a couple of sundresses I’d left behind.

Before leaving, my gaze swept across the room and suddenly froze on the entryway cabinet.

There was a tube of lipstick on the counter.

It looked like it had been opened and used.

The warm yellow light of the foyer shone down. I stood rooted to the spot, staring at that lipstick for a long time.

…Right. To Shi Yan, our breakup meant it was over.

It was only natural for him to bring someone else home.

Despite telling myself that, I was still in a daze by the time I got home. When Shan Shan saw me, she was shocked.

“Xinxin, why are your eyes so red?”

I wiped my tears, sat on the sofa, and said in a muffled voice, “Shi Yan found a new girlfriend. He even took her home.”

“That fast? Didn’t you guys just break up last month?”

“Given his advanced age of thirty, it’s normal for him to hurry up and find the next one after breaking up with me.”

I pursed my lips and spat out a sarcastic remark. “I can’t exactly stand in the way of him getting married and having kids. Let’s just drop it.”

In this world, is anyone truly irreplaceable?

That night, I sent Shi Yan a message: “The key is under the doormat.”

Then, I deleted him cleanly from my contacts.

Coincidentally, my editor was pressing me for a manuscript. For the next week, I didn’t reach out to Shi Yan at all, devoting all my energy to writing and meeting my deadline.

On the afternoon I submitted the draft, my editor told me she was leaving her job and would be handing me over to a new editor.

I never dreamed that this new editor would be my college boyfriend, Qi Yan.

After adding him on WeChat, I sent a polite greeting. He replied with a meme of a Shiba Inu holding a flower in its mouth: “Don’t you recognize me?”

“?”

I was bewildered. “Should I?”

“You’ve written me as a scumbag eighteen times in your novels and killed me off eleven times, yet you don’t recognize me?”

It clicked instantly. “Qi Yan!”

“Bingo.”

Seeing that I recognized him, Qi Yan seemed very happy and sent a voice note directly:

“I’ll be in charge of your editing from now on. If you’re free, do you want to come out and talk shop?”

I gave a vague answer: “Maybe when I’m free. I’m a bit busy lately.”

In truth, I was very free.

I just didn’t want to see him.

Qi Yan was the type of sunny, handsome guy from a wealthy background. He was on the university basketball team and was very popular with the girls.

Even during the two years we were dating, girls would occasionally work up the courage to confess to him.

He rejected them, but never quite completely.

It reached a point where one girl felt he wasn’t entirely indifferent to her. Using a game of Truth or Dare as an excuse, she forced a kiss on him.

I brought up breaking up. Naturally, Qi Yan didn’t agree. After several months of back-and-forth drama, the young master lost his patience:

“She used the game as an excuse to kiss me, and I pushed her away immediately! What exactly do I have to do for you to let this go?”

“She kissed you, and you didn’t know how to dodge? You weren’t in your dorm in the middle of the night; you were at a bar with a girl who had a crush on you, and you think you’re in the right?”

I said with a cold laugh, “I won’t let it go. Never.”

Qi Yan gritted his teeth. “Fine! Meng Jingxin, you’d better not regret this.”

Later, after we graduated, we lost contact entirely.