Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After dinner, Grandma called me into the study for a private talk.

I knew she wanted to ask about Zhou Jin.

I didn’t want to keep her in the dark, so I told her everything about running into him at the banquet the night before.

“Shu Shu, I’ll tell you the same thing I told you before: the Zhou Family’s waters run too deep. They aren’t the kind of people a family like ours should provoke.”

“I know.”

Grandma had said those exact words seven years ago, right after Zhou Jin and I first made our relationship official.

But we were in love back then, convinced that we could overcome any obstacle the world threw our way.

Zhou Jin’s parents had also reassured us repeatedly that he wouldn’t inherit the family business. They promised to let him live a carefree life, pursuing whatever his heart desired.

Only then did Grandma reluctantly give her blessing.

Back then, Zhou Jin was the family’s golden boy. Not only was he doted on by his parents, but he also had an older brother who was the ultimate protective sibling. If Zhou Jin had asked for the moon, his brother would have found a way to pluck it from the sky for him.

Naturally, this nurtured his wild and unbridled personality.

Later, his parents died in an accident.

His brother, the one who loved him most, ended up in a hospital bed in a vegetative state. Everyone knew it wasn’t just a simple traffic accident, but no one dared to tear down that thin veil of pretense.

After the funerals, Zhou Jin held me and cried for a long time.

In the two years that followed, I never saw him shed another tear.

Just like that, he grew up.

Steady, reserved, shrewd, and brilliant-these were the words people suddenly used to describe him. But the arrogant, wild, and goofy boy I had loved was gone forever.

The final two years of our relationship were marked by endless arguments and cold wars.

Breaking up, getting back together, breaking up again, and reconciling once more.

It was a repetitive, never-ending cycle.

During our final fight, we deleted each other’s contact information. I was dead set on ending it for good that time, but he had a sudden change of heart and locked me inside his villa in the suburbs.

He hurled cruel words at me while simultaneously kneeling on the floor, begging me not to leave him.

In a fit of rage, I smashed a desk lamp over his head.

We cursed each other with the most vicious words imaginable until Ji Ting arrived with help to rescue me.

I thought he would continue to harass me, but instead, he left the country that very night.

I quickly moved on to my sixth boyfriend. I tried my hardest to be good to him, desperate to prove that I wasn’t the one who had been discarded.

However, my efforts terrified him.

After our fifth date, he suddenly sent me a message saying my love was suffocating and that he wasn’t mentally prepared to be tied down. Then, he transferred me 66,666 yuan as a breakup settlement.

I was so angry I cursed him out. Once I was done, I started to cry.

It just so happened that Song Zhiyuan and his mother were visiting our house that day. I grabbed him and dragged him out to drink with me.

I ended up getting completely wasted.

And then, some rather indescribable things happened.

To make matters worse, we were walked in on by a group of people.

My mother said that since we were both adults, a bit of physical intimacy was normal. Song Zhiyuan’s mother, however, was in tears, claiming her son had never even held a woman’s hand and was being taken advantage of.

I massaged my temples, my head throbbing with a splitting headache.

Finally, Grandma asked him if he was willing to let me take responsibility for him.

He calmly pulled on his pants and asked me what ring size I wore.

And that was how the farce ended.