Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Well, wasn’t this a coincidence!

She was holding several folders and kept saying something to the person beside her.

Only after she finished speaking did she look up and see me.

I smiled at her.

The corner of Yi Lin’s mouth twitched too. “What a coincidence.”

“Not really,” I said. “I’m here for Lu Boya.”

“Oh,” she said flatly. “So am I.”

I looked at the folders in her arms. One of them hadn’t held the papers properly, and part of a drawing was peeking out.

Not much was showing, but that shape…

“A bridge?” I ventured.

Yi Lin quickly tucked the blueprint back into the folder.

I smiled and said, “I’ve built bridges before too. Not the kind that spans a river, just urban infrastructure bridges. The technical difficulty of building a bridge is way higher than putting up a building, and the workload is much heavier too. And that’s just for ordinary bridges. If it were one of those that crossed a river or the sea… it must feel really satisfying once it’s done. I drove across Jincheng Bridge once. You know Jincheng Bridge, right? A bidirectional eight-lane bridge. It felt amazing just driving on it…”

“Xu Li.” Yi Lin cut me off and looked at me with a slight frown. “I’m here to see Lu Boya because of work.”

I blinked. “I can tell. You’re standing out here waiting with that many design drawings. Obviously you’re not here to chat with him. And that person just now-the one you were talking to-I know them. Professor Li from the School of Architecture at Sunan University. A famous architecture expert in China! I don’t know what a math professor like Lu Boya could be working on with a bridge builder like you, but there has to be some connection…”

As I said that, I gave another dry little laugh. “Last time, Lu Boya introduced me as someone who works in engineering, but the engineering I do is more… basic! People should always aim higher, right? I don’t want to spend my whole life doing basic work. Improving my professional skills is important. You’re all elites working on major projects, so I wanted to know what the process is like for high-end construction like yours.”

I had a general idea that architecture and mathematics were closely related.

But the projects I came into contact with really didn’t require advanced math. Yi Lin, on the other hand, clearly did need it. If I didn’t try to learn from her now, when would I?

Even if I couldn’t pick up any trade secrets, broadening my horizons wouldn’t hurt.

That was what I was thinking, but Yi Lin clearly did not get it.

After I finished my heartfelt speech, the rise and fall of her chest became noticeably more pronounced.

The folder curled in her grip, making a creaking sound.

I swallowed. No way, no way. She wasn’t… angry, was she?

But I hadn’t said anything wrong. I’d done nothing but compliment her. Had I praised the wrong thing?

“Are you doing this on purpose?” Yi Lin demanded coldly.

I resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose. Yi Lin and Lu Boya really were alumni. They both spoke in the same baffling, context-free way.

How was I doing anything on purpose? What was I supposedly doing on purpose?

“…If it’s inconvenient for me to listen in, I can go wait for Lu Boya in his office. You were here first, so please, go ahead?” I said, perfectly willing to be reasonable.

The curve of the folder deepened by another fifteen degrees before my very eyes.

Yi Lin let out a cold laugh of anger. “Fine. Since you’re going to be like this, we might as well lay everything out in the open!”

Me: “?” Hadn’t everything been out in the open this whole time?

“I like Lu Boya.” Yi Lin stared at me fixedly. “Don’t you think it’s hypocritical of you to act like you had no idea?”

“No, wait,” I said, caught between laughing and crying. “Of course it’s not that I had no idea. Your hostility toward me is so obvious. I’m not some sweet, innocent fool. Besides, I don’t look sweet either… I just think one thing is one thing, and another is another.

“Lu Boya and I met through a blind date. We haven’t been officially together for long. You and he are alumni, so you must have known each other for years. Before me, you two probably… never dated, right?”

Yi Lin’s expression darkened, and she said nothing.

“Exactly,” I said with a smile. “The second time Lu Boya met me, he said it was love at first sight.”

“Are you bragging to me?” Yi Lin’s voice turned abruptly cold.

“No. What I mean is, Lu Boya may look quiet and mild-mannered and not like talking much, but he’s actually extremely decisive,” I told Yi Lin. “If he liked you, he definitely would have told you right away. But you’ve known each other for so many years and never dated. That can only mean he doesn’t like you.

“As for you saying you like him, I think that’s perfectly normal. After all, Lu Boya is so wonderful… but you shouldn’t be saying it to me.”

I toned down my smile and looked at Yi Lin seriously. “I’m his girlfriend. You liking someone who has a girlfriend is your own business, but telling me about it makes it immoral. In other words-you’re lowering yourself. It’s kind of beneath you.

“Also, we’re all adults. Just like how you’re here to see Lu Boya now because of work-I can understand that. I’m not so childish that I’d interfere with his social life just because I suspect you might like him. Because… to put it bluntly, everyone’s network is only so big. Who doesn’t have a day when they need someone else’s help? If you don’t say anything, I won’t interfere. But now that you’ve said it, what do you think I should do?

“Pretend I didn’t hear anything? Then I’d be the one swallowing all the frustration!

“Step in and block you at every turn? But what did Lu Boya do wrong?

“You think talking tough to me makes you look brave, but I think-you’re kind of stupid.”

After I said that, I nodded thoughtfully and added, “The moment you said you liked Lu Boya, you put yourself, me, and him all on the spot. Tell me, how exactly are the three of us supposed to get down from this stage now?”

I lifted my chin toward the folder in her hand. “So when you came looking for Lu Boya, should I count that as ‘business’ or ‘personal’? After all, you just told me, his current girlfriend, that you like my boyfriend. I really don’t think I can be that magnanimous. And even if I were, you’d better stay far away from me. That way, when lightning strikes me for being too generous, it won’t hit you too.”

By the time I finished, Yi Lin’s expression had shifted several times.

“Stop squeezing that,” I said, tugging the folder out of her hand with a helpless sigh. “If you keep squeezing, you’re going to crush these proposal books!”

Yi Lin forced herself to stay calm. “I really came to Lu Boya because of the project. It has nothing to do with any personal feelings.”

“Do I look like I believe you?” I asked expressionlessly.

“It really is for the project!” Yi Lin snapped, her voice sharp. “This project is tied to his family’s transformation, and to my studio too. It’s important. Extremely important!”

I blinked. “Protecting my love life is also important.”

Yi Lin bit down on her lower lip so hard it looked like she might break the skin. “As soon as the project is settled, I’ll go back to Hong Kong immediately. Can you stop being like this?”

“My view of love doesn’t tolerate even a single grain of sand.”

“This has nothing to do with love!”

“If it has nothing to do with love, why do you like Lu Boya?”

Seeing that I was completely impervious and impossible to persuade, she was so angry her eyes turned red.

“That’s why I said you’re kind of stupid,” I clicked my tongue. “High IQ, low EQ, zero understanding of how people work… Even if you like Lu Boya, you should’ve waited until the project was finished before telling me.”

“I wasn’t planning to tell you,” Yi Lin said, biting her lip again. “You made me mad!”

“If I said I never meant to make you mad, you definitely wouldn’t believe me either.” After all, even Lu Boya didn’t believe it, even though I truly hadn’t done anything. Feeling a little speechless, I looked at Yi Lin. “All right, Miss High-and-Mighty. I’m the victim here and I’m not even acting wronged, so don’t stand there looking like I’m about to make you cry.”

I stuffed the folder back into her hands and glanced at the time. “Lu Boya’s class is almost over. If you have anything to discuss with him, then discuss it properly. If it’s convenient, I’ll listen in. If it isn’t, I’ll wait in his office.”

“I told you, it’s business!” Yi Lin glared at me with reddened eyes. “There’s nothing you can’t hear!”

“So it’s a bridge, then? Which project?” My curiosity instantly perked up again. “Sunan hasn’t bid on any bridges in almost two years, right?”

“It’s not in Sunan,” Yi Lin said irritably. “It’s in the Beijiang Mountain Area.”

“The project I’m about to start is in the Beijiang Mountain Area too!” I said in delight. “They’re building a big bridge over there? Where? How many? Will there be supporting roads?”

Yi Lin frowned. “The Beijiang Mountain Area is huge. Where’s your project?”

“Yangpu Village,” I replied. “I contracted the construction of Sunshine Primary School.”

“Yangpu…” Yi Lin opened one of the folders and looked through it. “The Yangpu in Nanguan Town?”

“That’s the one.”

“There are six bridges up for bidding this time. The largest one is in Yangpu.” Yi Lin looked at me.

I smiled. “Then we can discuss whether the bridge decorations and the building style can be integrated with local elements.”

“You’re in infrastructure,” Yi Lin said. “You understand design too?”

“That’s why I still have to learn from you and improve.” I smiled sweetly.

When the bell rang, Lu Boya walked out of the teaching building. Yi Lin only glanced at him once before lowering her head and handing him two document binders, explaining what needed to be calculated and what needed to be evaluated.

Once she finished, she turned to leave.

“Wait!” I called out, smiling as I waved my phone. “Add me on WeChat.”

The look Yi Lin gave me was very complicated. After a moment of hesitation, she still added me as a friend.

I watched her leave with a smile, then asked calmly, “She likes you. Did you know?”

“I didn’t before,” Lu Boya said, carrying his laptop bag in one hand and holding mine with the other. “She never told me, and she never showed concern beyond what a friend would-or perhaps she did? But my mind wasn’t on her. It wasn’t until she came to Sunan and found out I had a girlfriend that I noticed how unusually she was acting toward you and toward me.”

“Someone that beautiful and outstanding, and you weren’t tempted?” I turned my head to look at Lu Boya.

“My heart already belongs to someone. I have no room for anyone else.” Lu Boya chuckled softly.

I smiled too, then let out a quiet sigh. “That’s good…”

“What’s good?” Lu Boya asked.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned fully into his embrace, smiling as I said, “I don’t dislike her. She has her own pride too-I can tell. Even though she impulsively showed her hand, she’s probably regretting it to death now… She didn’t mean to fight me for you, and I don’t want to guard against her. That’s good enough.”

When two women become love rivals and maliciously compete with each other, it’s often because there’s a wavering man standing between them.

Lu Boya wasn’t that kind of man.

I trusted him.