Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Outside the nightclub.

It was just past midnight when Gu Jinzhi came out, his tie hanging loose, a yawn on his lips and a bored, listless look on his face.

A blonde girl had her hand lightly looped around his arm. There was a forced brightness in her eyes, along with a professional smile.

The two of them lingered at the entrance, as if neither was quite sure what came next.

Gu Jinzhi took out his phone and glanced at it. A flash of loneliness crossed his face before he tucked it back into his pocket.

Probably because that message, “Company meeting. I’ll be back later,” still had no reply.

Seeing them about to walk off again, I raised my arm and called out, “Gu Jinzhi!”

I was afraid this would drag on any longer.

Gu Jinzhi froze. In a panic, he started to pull his arm free.

Then, as if something occurred to him, he forced himself to stop and act calm.

His eyes locked hard on me, refusing to miss even the smallest reaction.

The blonde girl was a veteran of this line of work. There was no scene she hadn’t seen.

When she saw that Gu Jinzhi didn’t move his arm, she didn’t let go either. The smile on her face only grew sweeter.

Only after seeing that I had no reaction did Gu Jinzhi fling her hand away. He looked at me coolly and said, “I was entertaining clients. What are you doing here?”

Before I could answer, he turned and told the girl to leave first.

Once she had gone far enough, he walked over and stared straight at me.

I knew he had been waiting for me to bring up the wedding myself.

So I let the smile fade from my face and looked at him coldly. “Cancel the wedding.”

The cigarette Gu Jinzhi had just bitten between his lips dropped to the ground with a soft tap.

“Buxun, stop messing around. Why would you say something like that out of nowhere?”

The calm indifference he had shown over the past while was gone. His hands trembled as he tried to grab me, but I stepped aside and avoided him.

On the street in the small hours, there was only the sound of the wind.

“I don’t like the smell of smoke.”

“What?”

I didn’t like the smell of cigarettes or alcohol. Every time our home was filled with those smells, my father would be in the middle of a rage.

Later, I met Gu Jinzhi, and he pursued me relentlessly.

Outside my office building, outside my apartment complex, he was always leaning against some flashy car, a cigarette between his fingers, trying to look cool.

“Miss Yu, would you do me the honor of getting to know me?”

He had just put out his cigarette when he came up to me, wrapped in a wool coat and the heavy scent clinging to him.

I frowned and took a step back. “Mr. Gu, I don’t like chain-smokers.”

Because of that one sentence, I never saw Gu Jinzhi smoke again.

Until three months ago, after we came back from meeting the parents.

He started smoking again.

As if he were learning this for the first time, he pulled the cigarette pack from his pocket and threw it hard into the distance.

“Then I won’t smoke anymore.”

“I don’t like your mother either. Just like she doesn’t like me.”

“I don’t like high-profile relationships or lavish weddings either.”

“And I don’t like that group of brothers of yours who only know how to make jokes at women’s expense.”

At that, Gu Jinzhi’s lips began to tremble.

“At first, I only wanted to try dating you and see how it went. My friend said going too long without a love life can stunt the development of your cranial nerves.”

“When I agreed to be with you, my project had hit a bottleneck. My hair was falling out by the handful.”

“You showed up with a bouquet of roses. I looked at that face of yours and thought it might be worth a try.”

“Now I think marrying you still isn’t quite going to work.”

“Let’s break up.”

The conversation after that was ugly.

Ugly on Gu Jinzhi’s part alone.

His voice shook as he tried to win me back. When he saw I wasn’t moved, his eyes turned vicious.

“Even your own parents call you a whore. What kind of decent person could you possibly be?”

“Yu Buxun, once you leave me, let’s see who else will ever want you.”

“Only a twisted family like yours could raise a freak like you!”