Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The second incident occurred right at the awards ceremony.

There were more than a dozen trending topics on Weibo about Qi Tan and me, all of them exploding in popularity.

Looking back at Qi Tan’s twelve-year career as an actor, he had publicly announced my name on Weibo from the moment he debuted. Old Yang, the manager who discovered him, had tried to persuade him to consider his career and keep his relationship a secret, but Qi Tan was stubborn and refused to budge.

In his second year, he starred in a small-budget drama and became an overnight sensation.

His follower count surged by hundreds of thousands in a single night. However, those new fans immediately noticed Qi Tan’s pinned post on Weibo, which read:

[My love, Ning Sangsang.]

This discouraged many of the newcomers. At one point, I worried about Qi Tan’s future and felt so conflicted that I tried to break up with him.

Yet, just as I finished sending my breakup speech over WeChat-with snot and tears streaming down my face-Qi Tan walked into the room with a camera to film me.

He took great pleasure in capturing my most unflattering moments. Incensed, I chased him around in my slippers.

“You’re crazy! Why are you filming me!”

I chased him until I collapsed from exhaustion.

Qi Tan would lie down beside me in that annoying way of his and say earnestly, “My dear Miss Ning, you don’t need to cry just because you’re special to me. I’m famous because I’m professional and talented, not because I’m single.”

I called him narcissistic and cocky, but the very next day, Qi Tan updated his pinned post.

In the middle of the night, he wrote ten thousand words.

He detailed our history together, explaining that we had known each other for twenty years. When he was a child, he had been a victim of domestic violence; he had fainted on his way to the police station to report it, and I was the one who had timidly followed him and saved his life.

Afterward, his parents were convicted of domestic abuse and sentenced. His grandfather never liked him anyway, so seeing how kind-hearted my parents were, he handed Qi Tan over to our family.

Consequently, he had his own household registration, but my parents raised him as their own. For twenty years, my heart remained as clear as water, while Qi Tan secretly developed feelings for me.

The day of our high school graduation was also Qi Tan’s birthday.

My parents were away on a business trip, so I put my heart into decorating everything for his birthday. However, the moment the lights went out, Qi Tan took the initiative to confess his feelings.

I still remember that scene.

The dim, yellow light, the faint aroma of the cake, and the fair-skinned boy with his eyes closed, making a devout wish.

Qi Tan had been handsome since he was a child.

I was momentarily dazed just looking at him.

Then he blew out the candles and opened his eyes, and our gazes happened to meet.

The pounding of my heart became deafening.

“Did you make a wish?” I asked, snapping out of my daze and blinking instinctively to hide my fluster.

“Yeah, I did.”

Actually, I never usually asked, but in that moment, I was just looking for something to say. That night, I was as innocent as a lamb led to the slaughter.

Qi Tan’s Adam’s apple bobbed; he wanted his wish to come true.

Unable to suppress his feelings any longer, the young man gazed at me with stubborn devotion.

“Sangsang, can we be together?”

“…”

Obviously, I was too young to understand my own feelings, so I rejected him. After we got into university, we intentionally chose schools in different cities, thinking we would go our separate ways for good.

But the following year, Qi Tan was injured in a car accident.

During the Lunar New Year, my parents were busy traveling for business social events, so the task of caring for the patient was left to me and a nursing assistant. Qi Tan remained silent, and I ignored him too.

Later, on New Year’s Eve, the nursing assistant went home for the holidays.

When the fireworks started that night, I was overjoyed and carried Qi Tan on my back out to the balcony.
Before the countdown to New Year’s could even begin, a faint voice drifted from behind me.

“Why won’t you let me watch the fireworks?”

His tone carried a hint of dejection.

I let out a dazed “ah,” and in the next instant, a massive display of fireworks exploded across the sky. I was practically jumping with excitement at the sight, but Qi Tan only had eyes for me, stealing glances when he thought I wasn’t looking.

Once the commotion died down, I realized what he was doing. Awkwardly, I rubbed my nose and stared at the ground, my toes tracing circles against the pavement-until he tilted my chin up.

Under the night sky, Qi Tan looked dim and wounded, his voice slightly raspy.

“Ning Sangsang, am I really that repulsive?”

Always the soft-hearted one, I hurriedly denied it, words tumbling out in a rush to explain that I was just embarrassed, not that I hated him.

Qi Tan pursed his lips, lost in thought. “But you didn’t say yes to me.”

With that one sentence, my feet felt even more useless, as if they were stubbornly trying to dig a magic castle into the ground.

The next time we met was during our junior year of college. My roommates were all rushing to get into relationships, leaving me as the only single one. They acted like the best sisters in the world, pulling out information on their older brothers like they were presenting treasures; one even made a PowerPoint presentation.

It was a nightmare world for someone with social anxiety.

I was fretting over it during the Dragon Boat Festival when Qi Tan coincidentally brought over some zongzi his mother had made. I pulled him over and introduced him to my roommates with a grin. “Look, this is my boyfriend.”

I gave him a quick pinch on the side, signaling him not to blow our cover.

Qi Tan proved to be a natural-born actor. He played the part perfectly, the smile on his lips impossible to suppress. He even invited everyone to the Academy of Drama for three days of fun over the holiday.

My roommates decisively abandoned their own boyfriends to go look at the handsome guy and pretty girl.

And so, Qi Tan and I spent three days pretending to be a couple.

On the final day, Qi Tan treated everyone to dinner.

After a night of eating and drinking, I was the only one who remained exceptionally sober because Qi Tan had been incredibly possessive, refusing to let me touch a drop of alcohol.

Once I had sent my dear roommates off one by one, Qi Tan took the opportunity to act drunk, collapsing against me and “accidentally” dropping the keys to his rental apartment.

I told him he was practically harassing me, but his eyes were beautiful. The redness from the alcohol made his eyelashes tremble, making him look even more alluring. “Are you really going to leave me to die?”

Fine. I admit it-I was a sucker for a pretty face.

The following year, Qi Tan and I officially started dating.

After graduation, Qi Tan spent his time constantly auditioning and acting. I remember in our third year out, he landed a role as an extra with five whole scenes. We celebrated all night. I told him he had a bright future ahead of him. In our fourth year, he was discovered by Old Yang. With a stroke of incredible luck, he starred in a small-budget, independent film that became an overnight sensation, catapulting him to stardom.

That’s why he wrote at the very end of his long post: [I won’t throw away the shoes that fit me best just because I’ve walked a long road. I won’t forget that she washed the mud off them countless times. And I certainly won’t lose my original intention just because I want to be famous.

My original intention has always been Ning Sangsang. I have loved her for so many years.]

Because of this, Qi Tan was hailed as the first person to announce a relationship the moment he hit the big time.

As for me, I watched his statement with tears in my eyes, then posted a cryptic update on my social media: [Well written. But exactly who is the shoe here?]

Qi Tan replied helplessly: [Me.]

In the many years since, Qi Tan has remained unswervingly committed to his promise. He loves filming and often turns our daily lives into a vlog for his fans. I’ve been dubbed the luckiest “sister-in-law” in the domestic entertainment industry, with people saying the two of us are a rare species.

Some people even pulled an all-nighter to research our entire relationship history before leaving a comment on my page: [Sister, if you two ever break up, I’ll never believe in love again.]