chapter 1

Coming out of the movie theater, I was still buzzing.

I wished I could become sworn sisters with Nicky on the spot.

“Finally, a movie that gets what a healthy relationship looks like!”

I took Xie Ji’s hand and apologized, full of guilt.

“I’m sorry, baby. I realize I’ve been emotionally neglectful of you all this time.”

“From today on, you’ll check in with me every five minutes, keep three meters away from everyone regardless of their gender, and never spend more than ten minutes in the bathroom or the shower…”

Xie Ji listened quietly, his expression calm.

As always, he agreed obediently.

My heart was bubbling with happiness. I couldn’t help but feel that a boyfriend you trained yourself was always the best.

I’d had an insatiable need to possess and control people since I was a child.

In elementary school, I latched onto my mom. In middle school, I latched onto my grandma.

The two empty-nest seniors developed such PTSD around raising children that they never dared push for a second grandchild again.

For my grandma’s mental well-being, my mom transferred me to a boarding school far from home in high school.

She lectured me earnestly: “If it’s really that bad, just start dating early. Couples being inseparable is only natural. I have only one requirement for you—stay on the right side of the law!”

I took her words to heart. Before long, I set my sights on the boy in our class who seemed mute but was impossibly handsome.

My deskmate leaned in and told me quietly.

“His name is Xie Ji. He’s like a robot—nobody’s ever seen any expression on his face. I heard he has some kind of emotional disorder. His parents divorced and neither of them wanted him.”

I was thrilled.

Didn’t that mean his emotional perception was a blank canvas?

I could paint whatever colors I wanted on it!

“I’m going to chase him!” I declared.

My deskmate wasn’t surprised. She even shot me a pitying look.

“It’s not like nobody’s ever tried. But he has no feelings. He’ll never fall for anyone.”

Whatever. I was chasing him for my own happiness, not his.

So I pursued him for a full year.

Breakfast, love letters, ambushes and small talk every single day—not once did I let up.

Finally, a frown-like expression appeared on his face.

His pitch-black eyes were filled with pure incomprehension.

“Gao Qiao, if I agree to be with you, will you stop all of this?”

I was stunned for a second, then my eyes lit up.

“No. I’ll only double down.”

He froze for a moment too.

In the end, I walked out hand in hand with the school heartthrob, under the shocked stares of the crowd.

Once I’d won him, I dropped the act completely and let my true nature run wild.

No talking to girls alone.

Aside from studying, his mind had to contain nothing but me.

Never go more than a minute without replying to my messages.

After school, he had to come to the little grove and let me kiss and hug him for a full thirty minutes.

The first time we kissed, his thin lips were swollen and red, his breathing ragged, and his misty eyes were full of confusion.

Just as I’d expected, he didn’t think any of these demands were abnormal—because I’d told him this was simply how relationships worked. Apart from classes and sleep, every other waking moment had to be spent glued to each other.

Now, we were already seniors in college.

My possessiveness only grew stronger, and my demands kept multiplying. Yet he managed every single one of them.

Xie Ji was simply the man destiny had tailored for me!

Zzzz…

A faint hum of static suddenly rang through my mind, and then a thing calling itself “the System” spoke up:

[Hey, extra. Xie Ji is the male lead of this plane. He has a destined partner. He was never your Mr. Right!]