Chapter 3: A Thorn in My Heart.

Wen Yue and Jiang Sha’s wedding went off without a hitch, shockingly so. The only anomaly was Jiang Sha himself. The infamous player actually blushed the second he saw his bride walking down the aisle. A glitch in the matrix, perhaps?

Xie Yun was there too. Knowing I didn’t want to see him, Wen Yue had thoughtfully seated us tables apart. Yet after the reception, as I was taking a stroll through the gardens, I ran straight into the Xie brothers.

Xie Jin-yi was still exuding his usual bad-boy vibe, flicking a lighter open and shut as he smirked mockingly at his older brother. “Bro, she kicked you out last night, didn’t she? I told you, she doesn’t like you. I like her. A lot!”

Five minutes later, Jin-yi was forcefully “escorted” into a waiting car by bodyguards on his brother’s orders. Before being shoved inside, he didn’t forget to throw me a pathetic, kicking-a-puppy look.

Just like that, the garden fell silent, leaving only Xie Yun and me. The air grew thick enough to choke on. I cleared my throat, about to say something to smooth things over for Jin-yi, but Xie Yun cut me off with an intense, unreadable stare.

“I meant what I said last night. I like you. It wasn’t just talk. I’m serious.”

I kept my expression cold. “Your fiancée is coming back soon, what’s the point of saying all this now? Jiang Ngu, your childhood sweetheart, the family alliance… You think I don’t know?”

Xie Yun sighed softly, his tone completely calm. “Those alliance rumors were just idle jokes made by the elders. And Jiang Ngu… she could never be my fiancée. She likes women. Specifically, my divorced aunt.”

Me: …???

My brain temporarily crashed. A faint curl touched the corner of his lips as his voice dropped into an intimate, meaningful register. “Were you jealous? I’m sorry. Even if it was just a misunderstanding, I should have explained sooner so you wouldn’t have to suffer like that.”

—

I tossed and turned all night after getting home, unable to catch a wink of sleep. The whole thing felt entirely surreal. Out of nowhere, a high school memory flashed in my mind, the source of all our bad blood.

Power had cut out across the entire school building, plunging us into pitch blackness. In the chaotic scramble, I accidentally slammed right into Xie Yun, my lips brushing against his jaw. I froze on the spot. He just frowned, reaching up to touch the skin I’d just grazed.

I snapped instantly. “What’s that supposed to mean?! You think I’m gross?!”

“I don’t.” He dropped his hand, but the icy detachment in his voice said otherwise.

Mortified and furious, I shoved him back hard. “Then get the hell away from me!”

It turned out I had never hated Xie Yun. What I hated… was the agonizing feeling that he didn’t care about me at all.

Now that the phantom barrier of a “childhood sweetheart” had been dismantled, I felt utterly ridiculous. The one who had been thoroughly conditioned wasn’t Xie Yun, it was my own stubborn heart.

Xie Yun saw right through me. He even had the sheer nerve to propose: “So… can I come back to your house and let you bully me again?”

“In your dreams!”

I snapped at him, but in the dark room, the corners of my mouth curved up unbidden. Maybe that golden cage hadn’t been keeping just Xie Yun locked up after all.

—

A month passed without Xie Yun reaching out. Jin-yi, on the other hand, was unusually persistent, trying every trick in the book to win me over. But my patience had limits. I finally laid all my cards on the table.

“Xie Yun and Jiang Ngu were never engaged. You didn’t just lie to me, you secretly recorded our conversation and played it for him, didn’t you?”

The young man’s face instantly went paper-white. Tears spilled over as he broke down in the shattered, ugly cry of a total loser. “I fought for you, I plotted, I used every dirty trick I had… but where did I go wrong? All I did was like you!”

Liking someone wasn’t a crime, pity I already had my eyes on someone else. Watching Jin-yi cry, my brain traitorously replayed the sight of Xie Yun kneeling inside that iron cage, his broad shoulders tensed, blue veins pulsing against his skin… Yeah, I had definitely dug my own grave.

—

Shortly after Jin-yi was sent abroad, Wen Yue dropped a massive bombshell about Xie Yun during one of our gossip sessions.

“Ngu Ngu, remember that streamer guy, Jie Taotao, you used to be obsessed with? The whole scandal that destroyed his career? That was Xie Yun’s doing. He even bought out the guy’s agency.”

I stared at her, stunned.

Wen Yue smirked devilishly. “You threw so much money at him from your main account, you think Xie Yun wasn’t burning up with jealousy? He literally changed his profile picture to pure black and spammed sad love songs for days. Didn’t you notice? Besides, that streamer kind of looked like a discount Xie Yun… turns out he’s always been your type!”

I was rendered speechless. So the cold, aloof CEO had been playing jealous games behind the scenes way back then.

—

The very first thing Xie Yun did upon returning to the country was compete for the development rights to the West District, a project I had my eyes on too. When he walked into my office in a bespoke suit, I noticed right away: he had gotten thinner.

“The West District project… I’ve withdrawn my bid,” he rasped out. Pausing, fine beads of sweat broke out on his forehead as he hesitated. “I heard… you have someone you like now. I just want to know… who is he?”

I stood up and slowly closed the distance between us, his familiar cedar scent instantly wrapping around my senses.

“Why don’t you guess?”