Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I returned from my business trip four days later.

When Shi Wan came to pick me up at the airport, she even brought my favorite dessert.

Feeling somewhat exhausted, I set it aside.

Shi Wan didn’t seem to mind. She looked down at me with a smile. “Ah Yu, let’s go spend some quality time together, just the two of us, okay?”

“I’ll approve your leave so we can go out and see…”

Before she could finish, she was interrupted by the sudden ringing of her phone.

I saw the contact name clearly:

Ah Kuo.

Shi Wan instinctively looked at me. I averted my gaze, consciously trying to give her space, and reached for my headphones to put them on.

But she grabbed my hand first.

In the next second, she tapped the answer button and turned on the speakerphone.

Chu Kuo’s voice came through from the other side. “Xiao Wan.”

“I’m getting married.”

“On the eighth of this month.”

“Can you come?”

Shi Wan’s eyes were fixed intently on mine.

I lowered my gaze, hiding the expression in my eyes.

After a long silence, I heard her say:

“Okay.”

I went to Chu Kuo’s wedding together with Shi Wan.

I had originally wanted to go to the office, but her attitude was unexpectedly firm. “Ah Yu, you are my boyfriend.”

A boyfriend-or a second-best substitute?

I didn’t ask her.

Because we were equally contemptible.

Chu Kuo’s wedding was very lively. The venue was crowded, and the decorations were beautiful.

As I sat down, I heard people at the neighboring table discussing the bride.

“You have no idea, Xiao Zhou really loves him. She designed the wedding herself and supervised every single detail.”

I pursed my lips. When I turned my head, I met Shi Wan’s smiling eyes.

Her smile was a bit mischievous, as if she had also overheard their conversation.

“Ah Yu, what kind of wedding do you like?”

I had never thought about it.

A wedding and the rest of my life.

To me, they had always been an unknown blank.

I used to think that as long as that person could stay by my side, spending a lifetime like that would be enough.

Later, I stopped thinking about it.

Shi Wan didn’t wait for my answer and tapped my forehead of her own accord.

“If we get married…”

“Everything will be done according to your wishes, okay?”

We won’t get married.

The words almost slipped out of my mouth instinctively.

But the person on the stage beat me to it.

The static from the microphone mixed with a man’s emotional voice, echoing through the hall, deafeningly loud:

“Shi Wan.”

“I don’t want to marry her.”

“If you’re willing, we can leave right now.”

Everyone’s gaze followed Chu Kuo’s eyes to us. Shock, ridicule, anger… countless emotions weighed down heavily.

The pressure in my heart reached its peak in an instant.

There was a non-existent roar in my ears.

Breathing became difficult.

Chu Kuo looked at Shi Wan; they were like the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl gazing at each other across the Milky Way.

He looked down at her, full of deep affection.

“Shi Wan.”

“I’ve thought it through. I don’t care about the past anymore. As long as you’re willing today, we’ll be together.”

“I don’t want to marry someone else. I don’t want to spend my life with someone I don’t love.”

“I love you.”

“Shi Wan.”

“Let’s leave together, okay?”

The room erupted into an uproar. I saw an elder, though I didn’t know whose, crying and shouting to stop him.

The voices of the crowd were like a tide, slowly drowning us.

I looked at Shi Wan.

Her hands were clenched tightly, as if she were trying her best to endure something.

The pain in my wrist spread, but a long-forgotten sense of suffocation left me unable to speak.

In the next second.

She suddenly let go of my hand.

I watched blankly as she stood up and ran toward Chu Kuo.

The crowd was dense, but they grew closer and closer.

I watched as she grabbed Chu Kuo’s hand and left with him, hand in hand, through the surging sea of people.

I saw the smile on the corner of Chu Kuo’s lips.

And the sounds of discussion coming from all directions.

I heard people cursing Chu Kuo for ruining the wedding, cursing Shi Wan as the ex-girlfriend who shouldn’t have come, and cursing me for not being able to control my own girlfriend.

The heavy pressure in my heart felt like it was about to explode.

Yet I only stared blankly at the place where they had disappeared.

I’m so envious.

Shi Wan.