Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The KTV room was a riot of colorful lights. The table was already laden with an assortment of snacks and soft drinks, and a ten-inch cake filled the air with the sweet scent of cream.

Jiang Ke’er had traded her usual pale-toned outfits for a sleeveless red dress that made her skin look as white as snow. The puffy design of the skirt didn’t change her usual sweet and lovely image; instead, the vibrant color added a touch of allure. A tiny crown was nestled in her thick dark hair. At first glance, she really did have the air of a little princess.

She was a very clever girl. Under the heavy lighting of a KTV, even the most elegant light colors would appear dull and stagnant. A red dress, however, didn’t lose its vibrancy to the lights. Instead, she stood out from the crowd like a rosebud ready to bloom.

She had even specifically chosen glittery eye makeup, making her eyes shimmer enchantingly.

The beauty’s eyes lit up when she saw us enter, and she came trotting over to welcome us.

“Chenxuan-ge, you actually came! I’m so happy.” She covered her mouth in surprise, looking at the paper bag in Ma Chenxuan’s hand. “Is this for me?”

“Yeah.” Ma Chenxuan handed her the bag. “Happy birthday.”

“Zhang Ke’er,” he added.

Xiaxia’s donkey-like bray of a laugh came to a screeching halt in her throat. I had to pinch the back of my hand hard to keep from descending to her level.

Ma Chenxuan clearly realized something was wrong and quickly tried to correct himself. “No, wait… Jiang… Yang Ke’er?”

Was this a guessing game?

“Chenxuan-ge is such a jokester.” Jiang Ke’er struggled to maintain her facial expression as she opened the bag. “What did you get for Ke’er?”

Inside was a copy of *Fundamentals of Computer Practice*.

“I hope you can gain more knowledge through this so that one day, you’ll be able to fix computers yourself,” Ma Chenxuan said sincerely.

“If I were her, I would slam that book into your boyfriend’s face right now,” Xiaxia whispered in my ear.

Jiang Ke’er was true to form. Her eyes darted around, and instead of throwing it, she took the bag and pouted her lips reproachfully. “You’re so mean, gege, picking a gift like this just to bully me.”

“But since you’re a boy, it’s normal that you don’t know how to pick gifts for girls. I forgive you.” She turned to me with a smile. “Sister’s gift must be much better than his.”

“Sister, what did you get for Ke’er?”

Quite a few people were already looking our way. I decided to just be blunt: “I’m only here to accompany my boyfriend. We haven’t really spoken before, and I didn’t know everyone was supposed to prepare a gift for this party. I’m sorry, but happy birthday.”

As more and more eyes gathered on us, the corner of Jiang Ke’er’s mouth twitched imperceptibly. Then she quickly looked up, appearing anxious. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. Even if you feel like you don’t know me, I already consider you a very good friend. Today is the birthday I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Even if you didn’t provide anything, I…”

“She provided something,” Ma Chenxuan said.

Everyone’s gaze shifted to Ma Chenxuan. He took my hand, his voice loud and powerful.

“She… provided her presence.”

Dead silence. After dozens of seconds, Xiaxia poked her head out silently. “I… provided my attendance.”

Ma Chenxuan asked Jiang Ke’er, “Can we go in now?”

Ma Chenxuan was actually quite dissatisfied that Jiang Ke’er let us in. He grumbled in the corner, “I thought she would kick you guys out, and then I could have left with you.”

“I didn’t expect her to be so magnanimous,” Ma Chenxuan remarked.

“Li Yue is even more magnanimous,” Xiaxia interjected. “If I knew someone who talked like that, I’d travel across mountains and rivers just to strangle him. And she not only hasn’t strangled you, she even keeps you by her side and dates you.”

Ma Chenxuan looked at me gratefully. “Yueyue, you really are so magnanimous.”

Xiaxia leaned into my ear and whispered, “Is your boyfriend just a complete straight-shooter, or is he just dense?”

Me: “Be more confident. He’s a total moron.”

Perhaps our little antics were too lively, as Jiang Ke’er walked straight toward us.

But she wasn’t heading for Ma Chenxuan; she was heading for me.

“Senior, can we talk for a moment?” She gave a slight smile.

“Whatever you have to talk about, let’s do it together.”

Xiaxia stood up warily, but I stopped her.

“Sure.” I looked at Jiang Ke’er.

I had already decided to settle this matter today.

Jiang Ke’er led me outside the room. She didn’t beat around the bush and laid her cards on the table immediately.

“I’ve set my sights on your boyfriend. You should back out.”

Even though I had prepared myself mentally, I was still surprised by her directness. “Are you going to pull out five million yuan next?”

Seeing her lack of reaction, I had to add, “A bit less would be fine too.”

“I knew you wouldn’t be willing.” Jiang Ke’er ignored my comment and let out a sneer. “Whatever. He’ll be mine sooner or later anyway.”

She idly toyed with her fingernails. “Your roommate told you about me, didn’t she? Then you should know that I understand men far better than you do. Generally speaking, as long as I beckon with my finger, they’ll swarm around impatiently-especially those who already have girlfriends.”

“Do you think you’re that special to a man? Let me tell you, when a man looks at a third party outside of his relationship, he doesn’t use substitution; he uses addition. No man can resist the joy of having a girl on each arm, especially when it’s a beautiful, harmless-looking woman who admires him.”

“I admit your boyfriend is a bit special; otherwise, I wouldn’t have spent so much time on him. But no matter how special he is, he’s still just a man. And as long as he’s a man, he has a man’s weaknesses.”

She looked me up and down, a slight smirk touching her lips. “Sister, it’s not like you’re some extraordinary beauty. I saw that set of photos of you on the Campus Wall before; they were honestly laughable. A girl, with no regard for her image, doing such crude physical labor. Men like petite, delicate girls who can depend on them. You took a photo while hoisting a tree-who would ever want you?”

“You’re not like a woman at all,” she pointed out.

She was right.

“I’m not like a woman.” I nodded, then immediately shook my head. “And I don’t need to be ‘like a woman.'”

Because I *am* a woman. I am a part of the collective known as “women.” I don’t need to live up to some abstract concept; that concept is defined by my very existence. Whatever I am like is what a woman can be like.

I looked at Jiang Ke’er, and a sudden wave of sadness washed over me.

It was like looking into a mirror and seeing the person inside draped in countless heavy shackles.

Jiang Ke’er was provoked by my gaze. “Do you think you’ve won?” she asked, looking at me with a harsh, piercing intensity. “Do you think your relationship is indestructible?”

“You understand men so little.”

A strange smile curled on her lips, like a gorgeous flower of evil slowly blooming. I realized what she was doing, but it was already too late to stop her.

I watched helplessly as she threw herself backward.

*Thud.*

With the sound of her hitting the floor, the once-rowdy private room fell into an instant silence, leaving only the hollow echo of the backing track on the screen. Everyone was stunned by the sight.

The KTV door was heavy. Jiang Ke’er had planned this; she had thrown herself back with significant force, and now she had several abrasions on her body. Her elbows, braced against the floor, were rubbed raw and red, standing out starkly against her pale skin.

I instinctively stepped forward to help her up, but she shied away from me, trembling like a frightened fawn.

She cried out in pain, “Senior, do you really hate me that much?”

“I really didn’t try to steal your boyfriend. I only think of him as an older brother. Even so, can you still not tolerate me…?”

Large tears spilled from beneath her lashes. The glitter around her eyes now seemed as fragile as tearstains. “If you don’t like me, you could have just told me. I would have stayed away from him. But why did you have to push me? And in front of so many people, on my birthday…”

Jiang Ke’er tried to stand up but slipped several times, as if the pain in her legs was severe. Finally, some of the onlookers couldn’t bear it anymore and helped her up.

Whispers about me had already started: “Is this the girl who didn’t bring a gift at the door just now? This is way too much.”

“Jealousy between girls? How terrifying, to throw someone down like that.”

Ma Chenxuan was shaken by the scene. His frozen brain finally kicked back into gear, and he hurriedly pushed through the crowd to reach my side.

He gripped my hand tightly. His warmth traveled through his fingertips into me, dispelling the chill surrounding me.

He looked at Jiang Ke’er, frowning. “Yueyue would never do something like this. Did you just slip by accident? Is there some misunderstanding between you two?”

Jiang Ke’er looked at him silently, tears streaming down her face. At this moment, she was surrounded by people; she didn’t even need to speak.

Sure enough, someone stepped forward. “What misunderstanding? That door is so heavy; how could she have just fallen in on her own?”

“Your girlfriend is too petty. If there’s a problem, talk it out. Why push her on her birthday?”

“Ke’er, is your arm okay? Oh my, it’s bleeding.”

I looked at Jiang Ke’er. Her young, beautiful face was covered in tear tracks. Beneath those tears, a twisted malice crawled and slithered like a snake.

Ma Chenxuan finally saw it-the deep darkness lurking behind the word “like.” To get what they want, humans can be utterly unscrupulous.

Xiaxia pushed through the crowd, cursing in a fit of rage.

“Jiang Ke’er, have you no shame? You clearly have designs on Yueyue’s boyfriend. You knew they were a couple, yet you harassed him every single day. Do you dare to pull out your WeChat and let everyone see what kind of things you’ve been saying?”

“You’re really something, aren’t you? Trying to play the victim? Why didn’t you just fall and die? Why don’t you just kowtow to everyone while you’re at it?”

The more she spoke, the angrier she got, pointing right at Jiang Ke’er’s nose. “Never mind that Yueyue couldn’t have pushed you-given the things you’ve done, pushing you into the Huangpu River would be perfectly justified. It’s only because she didn’t want to sink to your level. If I were her, I would have slapped you twice the very first day you started trying to claim her boyfriend as your ‘brother.’ I wouldn’t have given you the chance to act up like this.”

Jiang Ke’er’s face was white as paper. Supported by others, she shook her head gently. “I didn’t… I really didn’t…”

“That’s enough.”

I took a deep breath and looked at Jiang Ke’er.

“Junior, this is the first time I’ve officially spoken with you.”

“For the past few days, you’ve been manufacturing ‘accidental’ encounters with my boyfriend, calling him ‘brother,’ chatting on WeChat without any sense of boundaries, and using every excuse imaginable to ask him to meet.”

“Today, you called me outside to warn me to leave my boyfriend. You even went as far as injuring yourself in public to frame me for pushing you. You’re clever. You know that ‘fragility’ is a weapon because people naturally pity the weak. Especially in front of your club members-compared to a stranger like me, they would certainly rather believe the injured you.”

“I am leaving this place with my friend because, even though you claim to have always seen me as a friend, I can’t feel a shred of kindness from you. After I leave, you can continue your narrative. You can paint me as an unreasonable bully to gain everyone’s sympathy.”

I looked deep into her eyes and said, “Because I don’t care about any of it.”

“I don’t care what you think of me, or what the people around you think of me. I have my own life. I have the person I love…”

I squeezed Ma Chenxuan’s hand.

“…and the people I share friendships with.”

Xiaxia smiled at me from the crowd.

“…I have their trust, their love, and their friendship. You know, these are things you can’t steal with your little tricks. You might have snatched many ‘feelings’ from others, but not a single one will ever allow you to truly trust someone with all your heart. Because when you successfully steal something and become its owner, you instead start worrying about other thieves. You will never be able to enjoy the unshakable truth of the word ‘trust.'”

“Today is your birthday, and I hope it truly becomes the day of your rebirth. From today onward, you can continue to use whatever means you like to fight for what you want, but stop dragging other people’s lives into it. More importantly, stop using self-harm as a tactic. This is my birthday gift to you.”

I gently tugged on Xiaxia and Ma Chenxuan. “Let’s go back.”

Ma Chenxuan didn’t move.

After a long silence, he finally found his voice.

“I understand now.”

He looked at her, a look of sudden realization on his face. “Because she likes me and didn’t want us to be together, she fell on purpose to make me think you were the bad guy?”

“See that?” Xiaxia’s gaze swept over the crowd. “Even an idiot could figure it out.”

The background music stopped at just the right moment, leaving the room incredibly quiet. Ma Chenxuan suddenly let go of my hand and strode toward Jiang Ke’er.

Was he going to hit her?

I was so startled I forgot to speak, but Ma Chenxuan had already stopped in front of her. He bent over and gave a deep, ninety-degree bow.

“I’m sorry,” he said loudly.

Even a metaphorical question mark seemed to float above Jiang Ke’er’s head.

Ma Chenxuan looked at her, his voice as sincere as ever.

“I don’t know what qualities of mine earned your approval, but since I have somehow gained your favor yet failed to communicate one thing clearly-that my girlfriend is absolutely wonderful-then that is my fault. I apologize to you.”

“Li Yue, my girlfriend, is an outstanding person. She is kind, gentle, and tolerant. She loves doing charity work, cares about the price of grain, and rescues small animals. She has so many virtues that I can’t even list them all. I can’t convey it well because you would only know how worthy she is of being loved after actually getting to know her.”

“If you like me but hate Li Yue because of it, that only proves one thing: I haven’t done well enough. I haven’t been able to make you feel that I’ve fallen for an amazing person. For that, I apologize to you.”

Ma Chenxuan bowed to Jiang Ke’er once more, then turned around and took my hand again. “Let’s go.”

I let him lead me out of the private room, my nose stinging with a sour sensation.

I realized one thing: I had lied.

I told myself that I didn’t want to ruin his innocence. But, if I were to ask my own heart, the situation I truly feared was that after I spoke up, Ma Chenxuan would ask me in surprise, “How could you think of someone like that?”

His kindness was like a beam of light, and I was a moth involuntarily drawn to it. He gave me brightness, yet the fluttering of my wings became a small shadow beneath his lamp.

Light can make the bright spots brighter, but it can also make the shadows deeper.

I was afraid that my own ugliness was reflected in the depths of that shadow. I had proudly flaunted the trust he gave me to Jiang Ke’er, but in reality, I hadn’t given him my full trust in return.

Faced with this bit of human ugliness, his nearly pure-hearted response made me unable to hold back my tears.

“I didn’t even get a single bite of food. How about we go buy that tuzha flatbread…” Ma Chenxuan turned back and saw me, letting out a startled hiccup. “Whoa! Why are you crying!”

I had been crying silently, but once he said that, I simply opened my mouth and started wailing.

“Does it hurt somewhere?” Ma Chenxuan scrambled to comfort me, patting down every single pocket on his body but failing to find a napkin.

I grabbed his sleeve and wiped my tears and snot all over it, saying indistinctly, “…How can you be such a good person… I can’t do this anymore… I want to break up with you…”

Ma Chenxuan asked, “So, are we still eating the tuzha flatbread?”

I sniffled. “Yes.”

Xiaxia: “So the two of you ate five servings of tuzha flatbread?”

Xiaxia: “Is it possible you forgot something? Like, for example, your best friend who was left behind at the scene?”

Xiaxia: “Is there no room for me in your romance?”

After that party, Jiang Ke’er never sought out Ma Chenxuan again, and our lives returned to peace.

I rested my face on the table, pinching the fat on my stomach as I looked at Ma Chenxuan resentfully.

“I feel like ever since I started dating you, I’ve gained a lot of weight.”

Ma Chenxuan pulled a notebook of scratch paper from his bag and spread it out.

Me: “What are you doing?”

Ma Chenxuan: “I’m going to calculate the annual growth rate of your weight and, combined with your BMI, predict how much longer you can stay within the normal range.”

Me: “You’re supposed to say I’m not fat at all! That you don’t think I’ve gained weight!”

Ma Chenxuan: “Actually…”

Me: “Waaaah, Chenxuan-ge!”

Ma Chenxuan: “You aren’t fat at all! I don’t think you’ve gained weight! You aren’t fat at all! I don’t think you’ve gained weight! You aren’t fat at all! I don’t think you’ve gained weight! You aren’t fat at all! I don’t think you’ve gained weight!”

I was satisfied. However, Ma Chenxuan pulled out a bag of takeout Braised Pig Ears and waved it in front of me. “Then I’ll eat this by myself.”

I kicked him. “I hate you.”

He asked, “So, are we breaking up?”

Me: “Yes.”

Ma Chenxuan nodded and opened the bag. “Then I’ll go find my ex-girlfriend to eat with.”

Me: “Who are you kidding! Where would you even get an ex-girlfriend…”

Before I could finish, a piece of pig ear was stuffed into my mouth.

Ma Chenxuan pushed the bag toward me and said, “Isn’t that you?”