Chapter 17
Edward Quan ·
He looked at me, apparently searching for the right words.
“I’ve thought it over. If you don’t want to apologize, you don’t have to for now. I’ll explain things to Yingqiao myself. I won’t let her interfere in our affairs again. We’ll choose a new date.”
He hesitated.
“And if you don’t want another venue, we can discuss that too.”
I was surprised. He so rarely made so many concessions unprompted.
Before, one step back from him might have made me too happy to speak.
Now I felt only a strange stillness.
“Shiye,” I said quietly. “There’s no need.”
He frowned.
“No need for what?”
“To rearrange the wedding.”
His face stiffened.
“You’re still angry?”
“No.”
“Then why keep making a scene?”
A sadness rose in me. Even now, he was certain this was only a tantrum.
“Xue Shiye.”
I lifted my left hand and slowly removed the ring.
He watched, the color draining from his face.
“What are you doing?”
I said nothing, only let the ring rest in my palm.
He hurried a step closer.
“Don’t be impulsive, Wangshu. I’ve agreed to hold the wedding again. What more do you want?”
I looked up.
“Nothing. I’ve simply decided not to marry you.”
He went utterly still.
A long time passed before he seemed to understand.
“You want to break up?”
“Yes.”
“Over this one little thing today?”
I shook my head.
“Not just today.”
“Then why?” His voice tightened. “Because of Xu Cheng’an?”
I didn’t answer.
His gaze passed over my shoulder toward the hall outside the window. Something suddenly came back to him.
“You said you wanted this place to yourself for half an hour. Twelve to twelve thirty.”
“Yes.”
He looked at my dress, then at the ring in my palm.
His expression grew worse by degrees.
“Shen Wangshu.” His voice was almost inaudible. “You won’t marry me, but you insist on keeping that half hour. Do you want to stand in that hall alone, in this wedding dress… and finish the wedding you never had with Xu Cheng’an?”
—
### 15
After a long time, I nodded faintly.
“Before… yes. I did think that.”
He went deathly pale.
“Well done, Shen Wangshu.”
He stumbled backward. For a long moment, he couldn’t speak.
“Four years together. Two years preparing for the wedding. And all along, I was the only one who truly wanted to get married?”
“No.”
“Then what?” His voice rose sharply. “How long are you going to keep lying?”
I closed my fingers around the ring.
“Do you remember the first time we went grocery shopping together?”
He froze, apparently not expecting me to reach so far back.
“You calculated the price of everything. Even two packs of tissues—you took out your phone to work out which was better value. I teased you all the way home. Then you said that when we had our own place, we’d build a huge study. I would buy the