Chapter 3: Breaking Up

When I woke up, the spot beside me was empty. Zhou Xiangyu was nowhere to be seen.

The humiliating memories from last night came rushing back in a blur, replaying so fast they nearly made my head spin.

I never imagined that getting drunk to blow off some steam could lead me to break my own personal record for making a complete fool of myself.

My face felt like it was on fire. I burrowed beneath the covers, seriously considering whether I could just disappear from the face of the earth.

I had… apparently managed to knock the legendary tycoon of Port City flat on his back—and then, in a truly responsible display of drunkenness, force a kiss on him.

As for what happened after that, someone might as well have hit the Delete button on my memory. There was nothing. Just a vast, mysterious blank.

Knock, knock.

The sound of someone knocking on the door put an end to my plan to play dead.

“Miss Hsu, are you awake?”

I glanced toward the foot of the bed and noticed a neatly prepared outfit waiting there. I quickly got dressed, tidied myself up as best I could, and went to open the door.

Standing outside was a middle-aged man in a well-tailored suit. He had the polished, courteous air of a high-end butler.

I looked at him awkwardly.

“Hello… Are you?”

He smiled kindly.

“Just call me Uncle Guo. The boss asked me to wait here for you. He had some urgent business to take care of first. Wherever you need to go, just let me know. I’ll drive you there.”

There was no need to guess who this all-powerful “boss” was.

I fell silent, a strange mixture of emotions stirring in my chest.

Zhou Xiangyu really was meticulous. He’d disappeared right after last night’s little “incident,” yet he’d already arranged a private car for the “victim.”

With no other choice, I obediently got into Uncle Guo’s car.

Worried about my mother, I decided to go to the hospital first. I was afraid that my breakup with Jiang Ye would make him angry enough to take it out on her.

But strangely enough, everything was perfectly fine.

What surprised me most was that the medical assistance application that had been stuck in limbo for ages was suddenly approved with almost miraculous speed.

The moment I held the paperwork in my hands, I nearly thought I was seeing things.

With this assistance, I was officially free from my financial dependence on Jiang Ye.

We didn’t need a VIP hospital room or a life of luxury. As long as my mother and I could live in peace, that was enough.

I quietly tucked my happiness away and returned to the dorm.

But the moment I reached the building, a familiar figure caught my eye.

Jiang Ye was standing there, his gaze lowered as he waited for me. There was something almost lonely about him.

My heart dropped straight into my stomach.

I couldn’t move forward, but turning back wasn’t exactly an option either.

The moment he saw me, he strode over.

There was none of the arrogant, teasing attitude he’d had last night, and not even a hint of anger. Instead, he looked at me…

and smiled.

“Hsu Lian, how about breakfast with your boyfriend?”

He raised an eyebrow, his voice gentle, as if nothing had happened last night. As if there had never been a bet. As if we were still the happiest, most peaceful couple in the world.

Too bad the memory of being used as a wager was already carved deep into my heart.

I had never been clearer-headed.

So this was all I had ever been—a source of entertainment whenever they were bored.

A Cinderella dream?

In the real world, it was almost laughable.

I shook my head and walked past him.

“Sorry. I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Jiang Ye was faster than me. He grabbed my wrist, his voice beginning to lose its patience.

“Hsu Lian, what the hell are you doing now?”

I frowned and looked him up and down.

I couldn’t understand how he could act so naturally after that phone call last night.

“Jiang Ye, you know exactly what happened last night, don’t you?”

His expression froze for the briefest moment, but just as quickly, he returned to his usual calm.

He reached out as if to touch my cheek, his voice turning coaxing and gentle.

“What could possibly happen to my sweet Lián Lián? Stop being upset, okay?”

I slapped his hand away.

I wasn’t even sure whether Zhou Xiangyu and I had gone all the way last night, but my disgust toward Jiang Ye had already reached its breaking point.

I looked at him coldly.

“Jiang Ye, you should actually be happy. Because I’m not as innocent as you thought I was.”

I paused, then smiled faintly.

“I’ve already done everything I was ‘supposed to do’ with someone else. So let’s break up.”

Jiang Ye’s face darkened instantly, his breath turning cold.

But a second later, he gave a dismissive laugh, as though I’d just told him a harmless joke.

“Hsu Lian, you heard some ridiculous rumor, didn’t you? Is that why you’re deliberately saying this just to make me angry?”

I was at a complete loss for how to escape from the man who was so determined to play dumb.

Thankfully, a familiar, sing-song voice rang out from a distance like a lifeline.

“Hsu Lian! The advisor is looking for you. It’s urgent!”

I seized the opportunity, spun around, and hurried straight toward her.

Xiao Shi—whose veins practically ran on gossip—immediately nudged me with her elbow, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“What happened? Trouble in paradise again?”

Before I could answer, she launched straight into her own commentary.

“You have no idea. Your little ‘Young Master’ is seriously devoted to you. He’s been standing out here since last night.”

She pointed toward the road.

“Look! That warhorse of his is still parked there, hogging the entire spotlight on the boulevard.”

As she spoke, she glanced toward the flashy Lamborghini sitting in the middle of campus.

Knowing she was about to launch into a full-blown gossip session, I quickly poured cold water on her enthusiasm.

“No trouble. We broke up.”

The smile on Xiao Shi’s face froze.

She went completely silent, staring at me as if I’d just announced that I was an alien.

And honestly, who could blame her?

Everyone at the university knew how spectacularly Jiang Ye had pursued me back then.

Ever since we got together, people had whispered that I was nothing more than a lucky little sparrow who’d won the lottery, flown onto a high branch, and somehow transformed into a phoenix.

In their eyes, any smart little sparrow would know better than to glue herself to that towering tree with industrial-strength superglue.

Desperate to save the conversation from becoming awkward, Xiao Shi quickly changed direction. She patted my shoulder sympathetically.

“Ah… relationships come and go. People fall in love, people fall out of love. It happens. I get it, I get it!”

Then her eyes lit up again.

“But this time, the advisor really is looking for you. And it’s good news! Apparently, it’s about that scholarship you applied for a while ago.”

I stopped in my tracks.

For the first time in a long while, a genuine spark of happiness flickered inside me.

If I got this scholarship, my path toward staying on for graduate research would practically be secured.

Suddenly, the future looked brighter than ever.

Even the dark cloud hanging over me—the ex-boyfriend named Jiang Ye—seemed to shrink into something as insignificant as a speck of dust.

They say when you lose in love, you win in your career.

For once, whoever came up with that saying wasn’t wrong.