chapter 3

In the name of recuperation, I had Chen Yingsheng hand all his work over to an agent.

His only responsibilities were resting at my apartment and taking care of my meals and daily needs.

One day, over the phone, I heard Qi Chuxue snatch the receiver and start to curse me. I thrust the phone against Chen Yingsheng’s ear.

He listened to no more than two sentences before his expression darkened completely.

“Say that again, you fucking coward!” he roared.

Qi Chuxue went silent, and Chen Yingsheng ended the call in a fury.

“She’s a complete lunatic. I have no idea how someone like that became my executive assistant.” Still complaining, he turned and wrapped his arms around me.

This time, I did not pull away.

Delight flashed across his face. Before he could speak, I cut him off.

“Chen Yingsheng, I want your sweet-and-sour ribs.”

“Of course. Your husband will make them right now.” He planted a hard kiss on my cheek and hurried happily into the kitchen.

After dinner, I offered him a rare compliment.

That only made him more intoxicated with his new life.

It continued for nearly half a month. Once he realized that the longer he stayed home, the warmer I became, he cut off his social life entirely and devoted himself to being a househusband.

He was probably happy during that time.

My apartment became his secluded paradise, a place where he could escape the chaos outside, the strangers who filled his life, and work he no longer understood. When he was with me, everything felt the way it once had.

But sometimes he woke from his dreams with a start. From the guest room came anguished cries and broken fragments of words.

I thought he was beginning to remember.

They could not have been happy memories. Only the discovery that he had betrayed every vow he remembered making could put such pain in his eyes when he looked at me.

Like a frightened animal, he clung to me more tightly. Whenever I refused him, he stared at me with wide, pitiful eyes. So I allowed him to follow me around. I even pretended not to notice when he crept out of the guest room in the middle of the night, held my hand, and slept beside me.

When we had first been together, he had done everything he could to satisfy me whenever we were alone at home.

If you wanted to lure someone into a cage, you naturally had to offer a little sweetness first.

But you could not offer it forever. People became greedy.

One morning, as I prepared to leave for work, Chen Yingsheng slipped his arms around my waist from behind. He buried his face against my shoulder and coaxed, “Could you stay home with me today?”

I laughed softly and turned to him. My voice was gentle, but the answer was not.

“No. I have to earn a living.”

“I have money. A lot of it. I’ll give it all to you, all right? Just stay with me.”

I had indulged him so often that his early caution had already become the spoiled confidence of a favored lover.

This time, I did not answer at once.

I watched him in silence, a faint smile on my face and reproach in my eyes, as though he had made the most unreasonable demand in the world and I was graciously tolerating it.

At last, even his ingratiating smile failed. Only then did I give a solemn sigh and pinch his cheek.

“I can’t, baby. Your money is yours. I don’t want anyone saying you keep me. I need to work hard and become someone worthy of you. That’s the only way I can truly stand at your side.”

With the light from outside behind him, the guilt on his face was unmistakable. A small smile tugged at my lips.

This was how it was done: sever the other person’s ties to society, make him build his entire life around you, then exaggerate every sacrifice you made.

Only then would he willingly step into the trap, erase his own brilliance, and live entirely for someone else.

Now Chen Yingsheng stood where I once had. Two costless sweet nothings were enough to soothe him, and he mistook the snare ahead for steadfast love and a beautiful future.

Still, I was a better person than he had been.

I would never allow another person who loved me to stand at my side while I claimed to love him, much less hire that person as my secretary and keep her with me every day.

At home, Chen Yingsheng had belonged to me. Everywhere else, Qi Chuxue had been the one beside him.

That was the truth behind why he had suddenly become too busy to spend time with me, even if, at that point, he and Qi Chuxue had not yet crossed the final line.