chapter 1

I had only gone out to buy groceries.

When I came back, my ex-boyfriend—the man I had broken up with three months ago—was sitting outside my apartment.

Three months earlier, Chen Yingsheng and Qi Chuxue had announced their relationship to the world. He left me with a single sentence—“You got what you wanted. I fell in love with her”—then deleted every way I had of contacting him.

I spent a month and a half accepting that my seven-year relationship had ended overnight, and another month and a half putting myself back together.

Just when I thought I was finally moving on, Chen Yingsheng appeared at my door.

The strangest part was his eyes. They were clear and bright, the way they had been when he first started college.

“Xiao Yun, everyone says we broke up. I don’t believe you could be that cruel, but I couldn’t find any of your contact information. I had to ask your friends where you lived.”

There was a trace of hurt in his voice, as though he had not been the one to end things in the first place.

Chen Yingsheng had amnesia.

I confirmed it after asking around. Half a month ago, he had taken Qi Chuxue street racing. A stray cat darted into the road, he swerved, and they crashed. At the last second, he had still shielded Qi Chuxue beneath him.

The impact injured his head and left him in a coma.

When he woke at the hospital, he demanded to see me. Qi Chuxue, who had kept vigil beside him all night, was shoved to the floor before she could even protest. Eyes red, he demanded to know where she had hidden me and why I was not with him while he was hospitalized.

Of course Qi Chuxue refused to tell him where I was.

So he ran away.

Our old mutual friends did not treat him any differently just because he was now Young Mr. Chen. After he cheated on me with Qi Chuxue, they had cut him off in disgust.

And so twenty-seven-year-old Chen Yingsheng, carrying only the memories of his twenty-two-year-old self, searched everywhere for me. Lost and helpless, he discovered that his nearly full contact list contained nothing but strangers’ names. The few old friends who still answered only told him to leave me alone. If we had decided to begin new lives apart, they said, he needed to show some respect.

New lives. A breakup. Mutual respect.

Twenty-two-year-old Chen Yingsheng could not bear to hear those words connected to me.

I was the woman he had spent his entire school life pursuing, the woman he had won by pouring every last drop of his youth and passion into loving me.

After exhausting every avenue, he finally found me. Now he sat outside my door, aggrieved and ready to complain.

I felt very little. Our last meeting had not been pleasant.

I still remembered him in an expensive custom suit, the bow tie Qi Chuxue had tied hanging neatly at his collar. He had spoken down to me as if his willingness to say another word was a charitable gift.

“Lin Yun, stop acting like a lunatic,” he had said. “You’re destroying the last good memories I have of you.”

And then: “You’re the one who kept accusing me and Xiaoxue. Since you want us together so badly, fine. You got what you wanted.”

His final verdict had been, “You did this to us. All of it.”

But now the man in front of me looked open and guileless. Every trace of the calculation he had learned in elite business circles had miraculously vanished. Nothing burned in his eyes but love.

This was the old Chen Yingsheng, the one who used to beam whenever he saw me.

So I took him home.

To be safe, I brought him to a hospital for an examination. Then a second. In the end, five different hospitals reached the same conclusion.

The world inside his head had stopped just after graduation. Back then, he was still sweet and obedient, not yet the suave Young Mr. Chen who could conquer any business negotiation. Qi Chuxue had not yet become his rule-breaking secretary.

Back then, I was his whole world.

It almost felt like a joke arranged by heaven. Three months ago, he had abandoned me with his head held high. Now he was terrified I would throw him out.

Without hesitation, I used a burner account to send Qi Chuxue the photo I had taken of him camped outside my door.

[What happened? You finally got him, and three months later he’s already tired of you? I guess true love isn’t so invincible after all.]

The typing indicator appeared almost immediately.

I blocked her before she could send a word.

I could already imagine her losing her mind for the rest of the night.

She used to taunt me the same way. She was Chen Yingsheng’s secretary. To my face, she claimed she only reported to me so I could keep an eye on him. Behind my back, she never stopped playing games.

She would send me photos of their sweet little moments, then tell me not to read too much into them. Or she would say true love did not care who came first, hinting that an aging woman like me ought to step aside.

Everyone around me told me not to stoop to her level. She was already despised, they said; fighting with her would only make me look cheap. If I made too much trouble, I might even lose Chen Yingsheng’s love.

Unfortunately, dignity has never mattered that much to me.

If someone hurts me, the only satisfying answer is to return every bit of it.

I put away my phone and looked down at Chen Yingsheng in an excellent mood.

“Who am I?” I asked.

“Lin Yun. The woman I love most.” He answered without the slightest hesitation.