Chapter 1

Today is my 24th birthday, and also the one-year anniversary of my relationship with Lu Che.

I spent half the day busy in the kitchen, finally managing to set up a table full of dishes. Before I could even take a photo, I received a call from Lu Che saying he’d be late because of overtime.

“Manman, Baby, don’t be mad. I’ll try to come home as early as I can, okay?”

A man’s deep, magnetic voice coaxed me through the phone. I was just about to complain when, out of nowhere, I heard a woman’s mocking laugh on the other end.

My fingers tightened around the phone. Distracted, I hung up.

I’ve always been sensitive to voices, and that delicate, coquettish laugh-I’d only ever heard it from one person.

Gu Siyin, Lu Che’s childhood sweetheart and the girl-next-door.

Last year, when I first got together with Lu Che, he took me to meet his friends.

His childhood buddies all called me “sister-in-law” and “little sister” with great enthusiasm, until Gu Siyin arrived late, wearing an off-shoulder knit sweater and a floor-length beaded tulle skirt, holding a bouquet of flowers.

The whole scene went eerily silent for a few seconds, then erupted in a chorus of sighs and whistles.

Gu Siyin walked through the crowd, unfazed by the teasing around her, and handed me the flowers:

“Nice to meet you, sister-in-law. You’re so beautiful.”

I didn’t miss the flash of amazement in Lu Che’s eyes. I just smiled, accepted the flowers, and thanked her.

Afterwards, when Lu Che introduced her to me, he called her the girl-next-door.

Gu Siyin kept her composure, smiling brightly the whole time, which finally put me at ease.

I didn’t interact with her much after that. The last time we met was when she graduated from college and invited us out to dinner, even specifically asking Lu Che to help her find an internship at his company.

Thinking of this, my brow twitched: Could she have joined Lu Che’s company?

Rubbing my aching temples, I opened WeChat, found Gu Siyin, and clicked on her pink Cat Avatar.

As soon as I entered her Moments, my attention was caught by a selfie.

In the photo, she was holding onto a man’s arm. Her brown hair was bathed in the soft glow of a streetlamp. Although the man’s face wasn’t shown, the atmosphere was unmistakable.

I zoomed in on the picture, looked at the Jaeger-LeCoultre Watch on the man’s wrist-the one I’d picked out myself-and then read the caption: “No matter when, my brother will drop everything to come find me, hehe.” My eyes burned with tears.

I took a deep breath and commented below:

“What the hell are you giggling about?”