Chapter 4.

“You can’t love him! This is all fake, isn’t it? You swore back then that you’d marry me after graduation!”

“Tangtang! Look at me. The one you love is me… right?”

He suddenly gripped my wrist, squeezing hard enough to make me wince in pain.

At my soft gasp, Xu Chen seemed to snap out of his delusion.

I dropped my tone, cold and sharp. “Xu Chen, you were the one who broke that promise first. Do I really need to lay it all out for you? Did you and Shuyue never intend to get married? Or did you honestly think you could keep us both around? If that’s what you were planning, I suggest you get over it.”

I tried to walk past him, but his voice cut through the air behind me—raspy, desperate, and unraveling. “Shuyue and I broke up! Tangtang, I regret it… Please, divorce Chen Yuzhou. Let’s just go back to how we used to be, okay?”

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. I didn’t even bother to stop.

Back when I loved him so much I forgot my own worth, he treated my feelings like trash. In his eyes, I was nothing more than a convenient backup plan—someone to run back to whenever he got tired of playing around.

Now that his safety net belonged to another man, he was panicking only because something he had taken for granted had been snatched away.

But Chen Yuzhou… Chen Yuzhou loved me with everything he had.

—

I first met Chen Yuzhou during my sophomore year of high school.

It was after class, and I was helping our teacher grade papers. The setting sun painted the school buildings in a warm, golden orange. Across the sports field, a scrawny boy stood with his head bowed under the furious tirade of his father, looking as desolate as a stray dog abandoned by the world.

Even from a distance, I could hear every cruel word spewing from the middle-aged man’s mouth.

The boy barely reacted. He didn’t even bother looking up, and his sheer indifference only fueled his father’s rage. A heavy slap cracked across his face.

“You little bastard! Don’t think you can do whatever the hell you want just because your mother isn’t around to raise you! If you keep causing trouble at school, I swear I’ll make you pay!”

With his tirade finished, the man stormed off, leaving the boy standing there, rigid and alone.

I hadn’t intended to pry, but for some reason, I found myself turning around and walking over to him, holding out a handkerchief.

“You’re bleeding from the corner of your mouth… Are you okay?”

When Chen Yuzhou looked up, the haunting stillness in his dark eyes caught my breath. He took the handkerchief and quietly murmured a thank-you.

Later on, I learned that his mother had passed away early, and his father was always too busy to care, leaving him to grow up in a closed-off, rebellious world of his own. Yet somehow, he cracked open a small doorway and let me step inside.

From that day on, I gained a stubborn little shadow. He quietly walked me home, silently shielding me from any hardship or unfairness.

Eventually, rumors began to swirl: Chen Yuzhou was in love with me.

At first, it was just soft whispers, but soon it escalated to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore.

One day, I cornered him and asked point-blank, “What do you actually want from me?”

He only offered a bitter smile. “Shen Tang, I just want you. Can… can you please just let me into your world?”

That day, I lost my temper, crying as I snapped at him, calling him a creep. “Chen Yuzhou, you’re ruining my life!”

His dark eyes dimmed, and the last flicker of light inside them completely died out.

After that, I avoided him like the plague and spent all my time with Xu Chen, the boy who had promised to marry me after graduation.

And from the moment Xu Chen made that promise, Chen Yuzhou vanished from my life entirely.

—

Snapping out of my memories, I realized I was standing outside the private dining room. The loud, lively chatter from inside spilled into the hall as Xu Chen and I stepped through the door to a chorus of welcoming calls.

“Shen Tang! Where have you been hiding all these years? You’ve missed every single high school reunion!”

I offered a polite smile. “Just busy with work.”

Honestly, if Xiaoyun hadn’t begged me to come, I wouldn’t have shown up at all.

Throughout the dinner, Xu Chen kept casting intense, lingering glances at me that made my skin crawl. Excusing myself to the restroom, I took a moment to fix my makeup.

My phone vibrated with a text:

Chen Yuzhou: [Tangtang, is your reunion near my office?]
Me: [How did you know?]
Chen Yuzhou: [I installed a GPS tracker on your phone.]

I let out a helpless laugh. This man… really is a control freak.

When I returned to the room, a game of Truth or Dare was in full swing. A glass bottle spun around the table, slowing down until it pointed directly at me.

“Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” I replied smoothly.

A chorus of cheers erupted instantly. “Put your arms around Xu Chen’s neck, whisper something sweet, and give him a kiss on the cheek!”

The catcalls grew louder, filled with expectant looks directed at the two of us.

I frowned immediately. “No way. I’m not doing that.”

The smile on Xu Chen’s face froze. “It’s just a game, Tangtang. Are you really going to reject me like this?”

The crowd kept egging us on.
“Come on, what’s the big deal? You two used to be so close!”
“It’s just a kiss on the cheek, why are you being so dramatic?”

Xiaoyun suddenly slammed her hands on the table and stood up. “You guys are crossing the line! She’s married! Are you seriously trying to ruin someone’s marriage for a stupid game?”

Someone sneered back, “Who even knows if she’s actually married or just making it up?”

I gently patted Xiaoyun’s hand, then raised my head to address the room. “I am married. And my husband wouldn’t like it if I did that.”

A stunned silence fell over the room.

Xu Chen’s face turned a terrible shade of pale before flushing red with embarrassment. He lunged forward and grabbed my arm. “Tangtang, do you really have to embarrass me in front of everyone like this?!”

Before I could react, the door burst open.

Chen Yuzhou stood in the doorway, his eyes as cold as arctic ice. “And who the hell are you to care about losing face?!”

The atmosphere instantly froze into suffocating terror.

He strode into the room, yanked me straight into his arms, and gently touched the reddened skin on my wrist. “Does it hurt?”

I shook my head and offered a soft smile.

Brushing a strand of hair behind my ear, his voice rang out, low, commanding, and dangerous. “I don’t have the best temper. Shen Tang is my wife, so I’ll ask you all not to cross the line with your jokes.”

His icy gaze locked onto Xu Chen. “If you ever lay a hand on my wife again… I’ll make sure you pay a price you can’t afford.”