Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Three minutes, five minutes…

Ten minutes…

When I checked my phone again, I realized I had been waiting for nearly three hours.

The sensation in my knees had long since faded into a dull, numb ache.

My throat was suddenly parched. A glass of water sat not far away.

I lifted my knees and began to shift my weight with stiff, agonizingly slow movements. A task that should have been simple took nearly three minutes.

When I finally reached the glass and gulped the water down, I realized the boiling water Song Yuan had poured for me before leaving was now ice cold.

Just a little longer.

Just a little longer, I told myself.

By the fourth hour, I began calling Song Yuan and messaging him on WeChat incessantly.

He didn’t pick up once. He didn’t reply to a single message.

The light in my eyes gradually faded into a deathly, hollow calm.

I don’t know how much time passed before I received a harassing text from Shen Bing.

It consisted of two lines of text and a photo of Song Yuan brewing ginger tea in a hotel kitchen.

In the photo, Song Yuan’s hair and clothes were soaking wet.

He had clearly taken an umbrella when he left, yet he was drenched.

Despite his disheveled appearance, his expression in the photo was relaxed and peaceful.

“He said he hadn’t touched you before. Tonight was supposed to be your first time, right?”

“Heh, back when he and I first got together…”

It was 3:00 AM when Song Yuan finally returned.

With a sharp click, the wall lamp by the entrance flickered on. The dim, yellowish light spilled over him, casting shadows across his pale, indifferent face.

“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” He seemed slightly surprised to see me sitting rigidly on the sofa.

My hand, still clutching my phone, stiffened. I watched him in silence.

“I went to wait in line for cheesecake. It’s for our breakfast tomorrow.”

He lifted the box in his hand and calmly placed it in the refrigerator. “You know that shop only opens at midnight. The line is always quite long.”

His tone was as detached as ever, acting as if nothing had happened.

Seeing that I remained silent, Song Yuan’s brow furrowed slightly as he walked toward the sofa.

“What’s wrong?”

He stared at me for a long while before carefully lifting my legs to rest them on his lap. He lowered his head to examine them. “Do your knees still hurt?”

From this angle, I could see his dark hair brushing against the back of his neck, looking sleek and soft.

It looked as if it had just been washed and blow-dried.

The words Shen Bing had sent flooded back into my mind-piercing and arrogant, like a physical explosion in my ears.

Humiliation, shame, and rage finally shattered my last line of defense.

Suppressing a full-body tremor, I pulled my legs away from him, pointedly avoiding his touch.

Song Yuan froze for a brief moment.

“It’s too late tonight, and my knees are injured. I’ll just borrow your house’s sofa for the night. Tomorrow, I’ll transfer you the money for the stay.”

Song Yuan’s eyes finally darkened. He looked at me with a cold, stony expression.

“Tang Min, what exactly are you making a scene about?”

“Making a scene?” I repeated, looking up at him. “Song Yuan, where exactly did you go tonight?”

Song Yuan’s eyelashes flickered, but he avoided my gaze. “I went to buy medicine for you, and then I stood in line for the cake.”

“So, where is the medicine?”

Song Yuan said nothing.

“Tonight, I called you fifty-eight times and sent one hundred and five WeChat messages.”

“Before you left, you poured me a glass of boiling water. You said it would take ten minutes at most to cool down, and I could drink it when you got back.”

“I don’t know if she’s okay or not, but my legs… they hurt so much.”

The light in the room was dim. Song Yuan’s face remained almost expressionless, but I could see his fingers curling slightly, rubbing back and forth against the seam of his trousers.

It was a sign that he was irritated and wanted a cigarette.

I blinked, forcing back the bitterness stinging my eyes. I stared at that cold face and bit my lip until I tasted blood before I could finally force the words out.

“Song Yuan, let’s break up.”

Almost instantly, Song Yuan grabbed my hand. His voice was low and heavy as he replied, “I don’t agree.”