Chapter 3

Chapter 3

My mother’s voice suddenly grew louder. “Why are you changing jobs again for no reason? You’ve been like this since you were a kid-always so stubborn and full of your own ideas.”

Not wanting to argue with her, I cut straight to the point. “Is that person my aunt’s client or her boss? Or maybe they have some other connection? Otherwise, she wouldn’t be this invested.”

My mother, who had been booming just a moment ago, began to stammer. “They say he’s the son of your cousin’s boss, but his circumstances are truly excellent. Your aunt wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, would she?”

I didn’t know how she could say that with such a clear conscience.

If she were standing in front of me right now, I would definitely be checking to see if she was even blushing.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Do you have to be so cynical? So what if your aunt introduced someone to you last year who crossed the line a little? She cried and apologized to you back then. She really didn’t know what his situation was, otherwise, why would she have introduced him?”

I was too exhausted to even bother refuting her. If she didn’t know the situation, why was she so insistent on the introduction in the first place?

My own biological aunt had introduced me to a robber. After I rejected him several times, she even gave him my address.

If Jiang Yu hadn’t come back in time that day, I don’t know what would have happened in that pitch-black stairwell.

Afterward, I found out that the man was actually the nephew of one of my aunt’s major clients. Without looking into his background at all, she had asked my mother for a photo of me and sent it to him. When he expressed the slightest bit of interest, she couldn’t wait to hand over my address.

I wasn’t involved in any part of the process.

When I wanted to call the police later, my aunt made it clear that she would never testify for me because she couldn’t afford to offend that big client. In the end, the matter was simply dropped.

I didn’t expect her to fall back into her old ways this year.

“Tell my aunt to stop using me to curry favor. Otherwise, don’t call me crazy when I lose my mind during the New Year visit home.”

“You really don’t know what’s good for you!”

The moment I hung up, the world felt quiet again.

I had never realized how wonderful a peaceful environment could be.

I efficiently finished a proposal and dropped it into the work group chat. I felt a bit lightheaded from the flurry of praise and emojis from the client’s team.

I posted a status on my social feed: [Another day of being in my element.]

Although I’d always been fairly popular, I didn’t expect such a passionate response this time.

Many friends left comments below.

[Zhouzhou is a total career woman now. I’ve been trying to ask you out for a week, and it turns out you were at home rushing through work?]

[Still working? Your man is about to be snatched away, do you know that?]

[Why haven’t you deleted that post about your breakup yet? You guys haven’t made up? Is it because you didn’t put enough effort into the surprise this time? You really don’t care about us ‘love consultants’ at all, do you?]

I replied to them one by one: [I’m on a business trip. Let’s hang out when I get back.]

[My heart is like an empty fortress; there’s no one inside.]

[We haven’t made up.]

Just as I finished replying, my phone rang. It was the girlfriend of one of Jiang Yu’s close friends; we used to grab dinner together often.

“Where are you living it up lately, Zhouzhou?”

“Just working. I’ve been pretty busy recently.”

She paused for a moment before whispering, “Are you away on a business trip? I passed by your place the other day and knocked, but you weren’t home.”

“Yeah, I’m out of town. Did you need something?”

She quickly said, “No, no, nothing. It’s just been a while since I saw you, so I wanted to invite you out for a meal.”

“Wait until I’m back from my trip, then I’ll call you.”

“Great!”

I was about to hang up when I heard her say, “Have you heard about Jiang Yu and Gu Yao lately?”

I told her the truth. “I’m not really sure. I’ve been really busy.”

I didn’t want to take the bait, but she continued on her own anyway.

“Jiang Yu has been very high-profile with Gu Yao lately. They’ve been showing up to all sorts of parties together. I heard Jiang Yu even gave her a huge diamond ring for her birthday!”

“Everyone is speculating if they’re getting together. Jiang Yu hasn’t confirmed anything, but we all assume he’s still waiting for you to go and admit you were wrong!”

I suddenly laughed when I heard this. Taking advantage of the silence on the other end, I asked, “What exactly did I do wrong?”

She froze for a second. “Huh? But didn’t you go and apologize every time before? I thought this time you would…”

“I apologized because I still cared. What if I don’t care at all anymore?”

I heard a loud sound of a door slamming on the other end.

Followed by Jiang Yu’s friend shouting, “Jiang Yu!”

The girl hung up the phone in embarrassment.