Chapter 4

Early the next morning, Lin Yuezhou surprisingly went into the kitchen.

He brought a bowl of preserved egg and pork congee to the table and called me over for breakfast:

“You’re awake? I made your favorite preserved egg and pork congee. Come and eat.”

For a moment, I was dazed.

Because no one cooked for Lin Yuezhou when he was a child, he had to learn to cook for himself.

After he grew up, he almost never cooked again.

I could understand; I thought he didn’t want to recall the hardships of his childhood.

After we got together, it was always me who cooked.

The only exception was when I had a minor surgery and was hospitalized.

He made preserved egg and pork congee and brought it to me.

It was the best preserved egg and pork congee I had ever tasted. Later, I would occasionally act cute and ask him to make it for me again.

But he would immediately turn cold: “If you want to eat it, can’t you just buy it outside? Why do you have to make me cook for you?”

At the time, I thought I had reminded him of those unpleasant memories, so I quickly apologized and never brought it up again.

But when I stumbled upon Song Jiaojiao’s Weibo, I finally learned the truth.

During their four years at university, he cooked for Song Jiaojiao countless times.

Because Song Jiaojiao couldn’t get used to the cafeteria food, he specially rented an apartment with a kitchen and cooked different dishes for her every day.

Later, when Song Jiaojiao returned to the country and rejoined their circle of friends, he was always the one cooking at every gathering, just because Song Jiaojiao liked his cooking.

That night, I scrolled through Song Jiaojiao’s Weibo posts one by one, almost masochistically, feeling the love between the lines, like a thief peeking into someone else’s romance.

But that love should have belonged to me.

Lin Yuezhou came over, put his arm around my shoulders, pulled out my chair for me, and spoke with rare gentleness:

“Xiao Li, I’ll take a few days off to spend time with you. Didn’t you say you wanted to see that singer’s concert? I’ll get tickets and go with you, okay?”

I found it a little ridiculous.

He had clearly already been, yet he pretended not to know.

Not long ago, a singer I had liked for many years finally came to my city for a concert.

I eagerly grabbed tickets and asked Lin Yuezhou to go with me.

He said he was busy with work that day and didn’t have time.

But on that day, Song Jiaojiao posted on Weibo: [Which busy guy is so busy but still accompanies me to a concert? Turns out it’s my man~]

The photo was of two hands interlocked in front of the stage.

On the slender ring finger in the photo, there was still a faint mark from a wedding ring.

I didn’t respond and just buried my head in my food.

Lin Yuezhou wasn’t annoyed either. He took out his phone and started looking for tickets:

“If you don’t say anything, I’ll take it as a yes.”

But after searching for a long time, he couldn’t find tickets for that singer’s concert.

I glanced at his phone wallpaper and said quietly, “The concert tour ended this year.”

His finger froze on the screen, his mouth slightly open, at a loss for words.

After a long while, he looked at me, guilt flickering in his eyes:

“I’m sorry… Xiao Li, I’ll definitely go with you next year.”

I smiled, but the smile didn’t reach my eyes:

“That’s what you said last year, too.”

The air in the room instantly froze, leaving only the ticking of the clock on the wall.

I ignored his face, which was gradually turning pale, and said calmly:

“I’m going to work.”