Chapter 2

Chapter 2

At exactly six in the evening, I stepped through my front door right on time.

Wei Che had his back to me, busy in the kitchen.

He was bare from the waist up, an apron tied loosely around him, showing off those textbook broad shoulders and narrow waist. The muscles of his back shifted with every movement, while the setting sun spilled in through the window, laying a soft glow over him.

Leaning against the doorframe, I happily admired the view for a moment.

Then I wrapped my arms around his waist, pressed my cheek to his back, and dialed my voice up to its sweetest setting. “You’ve worked so hard, babe. Making you cook for me every day breaks my heart.”

Wei Che tilted his head to look at me, and a smile surfaced in those eyes of his, eyes that naturally carried a faint, melancholic air.

“I made your favorite sweet-and-sour ribs. Go wash your hands.”

My eyes curved into two crescent moons as I lifted my face and smiled at him.

“Mm-hmm!”

I have a small, softly rounded face.

I know I look adorable when I smile like that.

And I also know it works on him.

Of course.

Wei Che had no idea I had turned him into a domestic abuser in other people’s eyes.

And the people at my company had no idea I wasn’t actually married.

But what did it matter?

It wasn’t like they were ever going to meet.

This was the beauty of an information gap.

That night.

I was lying in bed watching a show when a firm chest silently pressed against me from behind. His breathing grew heavy as he lightly nibbled my earlobe. Before long, I no longer knew up from down, my entire body floating somewhere among the clouds.

Lately, Wei Che had been putting in extraordinary effort in bed. His sense of service was almost absurdly strong. Only, whenever those desire-darkened eyes gazed at me, there was always an indescribably complicated emotion in them.

Like guilt.

And like reluctance.

Only after I let out a satisfied sigh did Wei Che gently get up, wring out a warm towel, and return to wipe me down with focused, tender movements.

Inwardly, I let out a long sigh.

Wei Che was probably about to leave me.

…

Two years ago, I met him while jogging by the river at night.

He was sitting alone on the railing by the river, staring out at the water. I thought he was about to end it all, so I rushed over and hooked my arms around him, flipping him straight to the ground.

“The world is beautiful, handsome! Don’t do anything stupid!”

He got up from the ground and looked at me.

The wind lifted the hair from his forehead, revealing a face so gorgeous it could ruin nations.

I stared, completely stunned.

Expressionless, he said three things.

“I was getting some air by the river.”

“Take your hands off my waist.”

“My ankle is injured. Because you tackled me.”

He said he had nowhere to go, so I had no choice but to “reluctantly” bring him home and nurse him back to health…

And that nursing lasted two full years.

He went from silent and aloof, barely willing to acknowledge me, to reluctantly saying a few words, then to whispering sweet nothings in bed, until now, when he handled every household chore…

All thanks to me coaxing him with sweet words every day, supplying top-tier emotional value, and performing with Oscar-worthy acting skills.

You could say he was pretty much fully trained.

But not long ago-

I accidentally learned that Wei Che’s real identity was actually that of an ultra-rich heir. He had run away from home for two years because of family conflict.

That day, through the glass, I saw his face, cold to the point of seeming almost unfamiliar, as he spoke to someone on the phone.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go back for the arranged marriage.”

“Her? Just someone I was casually dating. I can break up with her anytime.”

“You don’t need to get involved. She’s love-addled. If I lay it out, she’ll make a scene. I’ll just leave quietly.”

I silently walked three laps around the residential complex.

Before I finished the third lap, I had already made up my mind.

Our backgrounds were worlds apart. Wei Che and I could never be together.

And our feelings for each other had not reached the point where we would fight the world for one another.

If I were truly love-addled, I might have begged him bitterly, threatened to live or die by his answer, and pleaded with him not to leave.

But I wasn’t.

As adults, when we exited someone’s life, we ought to do it with dignity. Part on good terms, clean and decent.

If I ever fell on hard times in the future, maybe I could even use our old relationship to ask him for a little help…

After I thought it through, I went upstairs, stepped through the door, and sweetly called him “babe.”

See? This was the advantage of only pretending to be love-addled.

Even if I got dumped, I could keep my bones intact, my lungs uninjured, and simply deal with the matter at hand.

As for Wei Che…

After two years together, he probably felt at least a little guilty.

These days, he kept finding new ways to be good to me, new ways to cook for me, new ways to satisfy me in bed.

I knew this was his way of saying goodbye.

I accepted it all without protest, calmly and righteously enjoying the premium service brought on by his guilt.

Rule Two of Pretending to Be Love-Addled:

Never make life difficult for someone else’s guilty conscience.