Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The only thing I couldn’t let go of was the urge to curse her entire family.

Grinding my teeth, I ended the video call, switched to the group chat, and let my fingers fly.

[Who said I was single? I have a boyfriend. I’ll bring him this weekend.]

Chen Lichuan: [Shocked.jpg]

[Shen Bailu, when did you start dating? Where’s your boyfriend from? What does he do?]

Zhou Feifei: [Shen Bailu, you’ve always cared too much about saving face. There’s nothing wrong with being single. You don’t have to lie just to spite us.]

I rolled my eyes and replied coldly.

[You think awfully highly of yourself. Why would I bother?]

Several classmates stepped in when the atmosphere turned awkward. They said they vaguely remembered me mentioning a long-distance boyfriend who called every day.

Wang Fang: [Bailu, bring him along. None of us has met him yet. And let’s stop talking about the past. We were young and handled things badly, but it wasn’t really a big deal.]

It might not have been a big deal to them. The hurt it caused me, however, had been very real.

Back in college, Zhou Feifei, Wang Fang, and I shared a dorm room.

Zhou Feifei was a Beijing local from a well-off family. Cheerful and outgoing, she loved arranging mixers with boys’ dorms.

Her high school was fairly famous locally, and many of its students had entered Capital University. Wang Fang and I came from other cities and knew no one on campus.

At the time, Zhou Feifei threw herself into matchmaking me with Chen Lichuan.

He had been her high-school class president and was the heartthrob of the department next to ours—tall and handsome. After the four of us ate together a few times, Zhou Feifei suddenly told me he was interested in me.

“He’s painfully shy, though, so you’ll have to take the initiative. Bailu, there’s nothing embarrassing about it. If you want, I’ll help bring you two together.”

I had never dated before. Young and naive, I listened to Zhou Feifei praise Chen Lichuan every day until I developed feelings for him.

With her encouragement, I began pursuing him.

Breakfast today, snacks tomorrow, good-morning, good-afternoon, and good-night texts, as regular as three daily prayers.

Zhou Feifei appointed herself our matchmaker and constantly took advantage of me by asking me to buy her meals.

“I won’t have time to eat if I deliver his breakfast for you. Bailu, buy one for me too.”

My monthly allowance was meager. After chasing him for two months, I could barely afford to feed myself.

Chen Lichuan remained maddeningly ambiguous.

He accepted every gift, went to every movie, and often asked me to do his homework, yet never said a word about romance.

I began to lose heart.

“Maybe I should stop. Dating is exhausting. I don’t want to chase him anymore.”

Zhou Feifei panicked.

“Bailu, you can’t give up! You’re one confession away from being together. You play the piano, don’t you? Tomorrow is Chen Lichuan’s birthday. I’ll arrange for him to meet you, and you can play his favorite song, ‘Love Confession.’ It will definitely work!”

“Bailu, I can’t bear to watch you two miss your chance. You’ve tried so hard already. Please give it one last shot.”

I was deeply embarrassed.

But I was not the only one who had worked hard for two months. Being our matchmaker had exhausted Zhou Feifei too; she ran to the neighboring department whenever she had free time.

If only for her sake, I had to give this relationship a proper ending.

At dusk the next day, I asked Chen Lichuan to meet me in a music room.

Sunset streamed through the windows and spilled over the black and white keys.

I sat at the piano with my long hair loose over my shoulders. As my pale, slender fingers struck the keys, a chain of beautiful notes flowed from beneath them.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Chen Lichuan freeze. Astonishment flashed through his eyes.

Then Zhou Feifei suddenly burst into tears.

“Congratulations, Chen Lichuan.”

His face went cold. He strode to her and gripped her shoulders.

“If you’re congratulating me, why are you crying?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m… I’m happy for you—”

Chen Lichuan sighed. “Silly girl, after all this time, don’t you understand your own heart? When you brought me breakfast every day, was it for Shen Bailu—or because you wanted to spend time with me? Do you truly not know?”

Sobbing, Zhou Feifei threw herself into his arms.

“I know, but you belong to Bailu. What else could I do? Every day has been torture. Watching you text her, watching you go to movies with her—do you know how much it hurt?”

She pounded his chest with her little fists. Chen Lichuan held her tight, his eyes reddening.

“Fool. I don’t belong to anyone. I belong to myself—to the Chen Lichuan who loves Zhou Feifei.”

Then he lowered his head and kissed her.

They kissed passionately while their ragged breathing filled the music room.

I sat at the piano, mind utterly blank, my hands still automatically playing “Love Confession” as accompaniment.

What in the ever-loving hell was this?

Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined I was merely a prop in their little game.

And what had Jay Chou ever done to deserve this? What crime had “Love Confession” committed?