Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When I got to work, my best friend Dandan messaged me and asked to meet up that evening. She said it was important.

I was on edge the entire day. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be anything good.

After we met and made a little small talk, Dandan lowered her voice. “Did you know Lu Zhi’an has been eating alone with that intern in the company cafeteria every day?”

When I didn’t react, she added, “Breakfast!”

“If there wasn’t something going on, who would act like a lunatic and make plans to eat breakfast together? Instead of sleeping in a little longer first thing in the morning, they’re messaging back and forth-you wait for me, I’ll wait for you. They’ve got way too much time on their hands.”

Seeing that I still wasn’t saying anything, Dandan waved a hand in front of my face. “Hello? Did you go stupid?”

I was thinking: Ah. So they’ve been having breakfast together for a while now.

For a moment, I felt as if the stone that had been hanging over my head had finally dropped. With a thud, it fell straight into a bottomless pit.

It would be a lie to say I hadn’t minded how often he had brought up Xu Lin lately. I still loved him, after all.

But I had my pride. If he didn’t say anything, then I would keep my mouth shut and not ask.

Now things were clear. Somewhere I couldn’t see, Lu Zhi’an had started living an interesting little life of his own.

Dandan started giving me ideas, telling me to go to his company.

“Bring something over. Stake your claim a little. Young girls, you know-having a bit of admiration for older men is normal. She might not actually be trying to steal him from you.”

“Declare your territory first. If she has any shame, it’d be best if she backs off. If she doesn’t, I’ll help you curse her out.”

I shook my head. Back when I chose to stay in Beijing, it wasn’t so that one day I could march over like some discarded wife in a trashy story and make a scene.

Besides, the moment I did that, I’d become exactly the kind of woman people mocked online: demanding that other women stay away from her boyfriend, when her boyfriend looked like a kappa.

Thinking of that kappa picture, I laughed at the worst possible time.

Dandan shook my arm like she’d seen a ghost. “Hey. Pull yourself together. Grow a spine. Get him to marry you as soon as possible. You two have been together for eight years already. How much longer are you going to drag it out?”

“Huh?” She had completely lost me.

Speeding up marriage right after discovering my boyfriend might be having an emotional affair? Was I crazy, or was Dandan?

“Don’t glare at me like that. Do you think men with his education, salary, and looks are easy to find? I can tell you from personal experience-they’re not! Once a man like that gets snapped up, he basically never goes back on the market.”

Seeing that I was about to argue, Dandan waved a hand and cut me off. “I know what you’re going to say. You want pure love. You want true love. But so-called love, so-called marriage-sometimes it’s just a game of strategy. All those loving couples out there? Behind closed doors, only they know what it’s really like.”

A trace of pity entered her voice. “Qiuqiu, Lu Zhi’an still has feelings for you. He’s just been distracted for a moment. At our age, getting to know a new man from scratch-unless you’re living in the world of a Mary Sue novel-will only mean someone more selfish, more cold-blooded, and a whole new mess of problems.”

I fell silent. I knew she was right. Dandan had always been honest with me, and she had told me every single bitter thing she had encountered while going on blind dates.