chapter 2

I brought Chen Yingsheng home and kept him there.

When my friends found out, they sent me grave, earnest warnings over WeChat. I soothed them as best I could, then turned back to Chen Yingsheng, who sat stiffly in my living room.

He was very well behaved now.

Without the tailored suit that belonged to Young Mr. Chen, he wore a sweatshirt he had bought when he first entered the workforce. Soft black hair fell against his face. His eyes were damp and watchful, like a small animal’s.

When he noticed me looking, he tilted his head up and gave me an ingratiating smile.

“Xiao Yun, is this our home now?”

Of course it was not. There was not a single trace of his life anywhere in the apartment.

But Chen Yingsheng chose to deceive himself.

He had gone to sleep and awakened five years older, unable to remember anything that had happened in between. During those years he had been busy building a company, and his social circle had turned over several times. Everyone around him now was a stranger. The sharks he knew from business still tried to maneuver him into traps whenever they spoke.

He could tell these supposed friends were not trustworthy, and that left him deeply insecure.

Now he trusted no one but me.

When he told me so, I almost laughed.

Back when he was accusing me, he had insisted that all these friends genuinely wanted the best for him. I, on the other hand, was unreasonable and obsessed with Qi Chuxue, inventing problems until he was exhausted.

So he had always been able to tell.

He knew who was sincere and who was not.

He simply never wanted to waste an opportunity to belittle me.

Now he had become impossibly clingy and depended on me for everything.

“My Xiao Yun is still the best,” he said. “You’re the only person who truly cares about me. You’re the only person in this world I trust.”

“Maybe,” I said with a smile. “Once you have money and power, perhaps you won’t feel that way anymore.”

The words struck a nerve. He sprang from the sofa.

“I know what you mean. You think money made me rotten, that I got rich and abandoned you. That’s impossible.”

“Everyone says I cheated, but I don’t believe it. Lin Yun, I spent half my life just winning you over. I couldn’t have stopped loving you. There must be some misunderstanding.”

He swore it with such conviction that, to prove wealth meant nothing to him, he grabbed my hand and announced that he would transfer all his assets to me.

I said nothing. That night, just before bed, I made sure to like a few videos that happened to appear in my feed.

[Real love is proven through action, not words.]

[Are these things men do just empty promises?]

[Women who don’t believe a man’s sweet talk live safer, happier lives.]

Chen Yingsheng had followed me again on the app. Through the wall, I could almost hear his disbelieving laugh from the guest room.

When I left for work the next morning, a document sat on the shoe cabinet.

It was a share-transfer agreement. Chen Yingsheng must have spent the night finding out how much he owned, then given me what appeared to be the largest portion.

He had probably only skimmed the details.

The Chen Yingsheng in his early twenties was still impulsive. Money was not yet the most important thing in his life.

I turned and found him standing behind me, plainly waiting for praise. I forced the corner of my mouth upward, told him I was late for work, stuffed the document into my bag, and left.

He was probably disappointed.

Twenty-seven-year-old Lin Yun no longer possessed the innocence of her twenty-two-year-old self. That younger woman had lived in constant fear of failing a sincere heart.

The Lin Yun I was now spent the end of a busy workday carrying the agreement to a lawyer, asking whether it was legally valid and whether Chen Yingsheng could reclaim the assets later.

Only after I received an answer I liked did I go home and show him a rare moment of affection.

My rejection of him these past few days had been too obvious. Disappointment sometimes flickered across his face, though he did not dare let me see it for long. He was forcing himself to please me.

This Chen Yingsheng felt remote and unfamiliar.

The young man who had once embraced the world with dreams and fierce sincerity had died long ago in my memories. Even if he had returned for a moment, I regarded him only as the last flare before a flame went dark.

If Chen Yingsheng was destined to be corrupted by the world and grow into that arrogant, oily man again, then this time I would bury him with my own hands.