Chapter 9

*“Shen Wangshu, don’t use up the last of my patience.”*

I stared at the words and remembered our first dinner date, four years ago.

Unexpected overtime had made me forget to tell him I was running late. By the time I finished, more than an hour had passed.

I called in a panic to apologize.

He only laughed.

“It’s all right. I’m still here. Take your time.”

Then, he had patiently waited over an hour.

Now, he couldn’t even wait for me to finish a sentence.

I switched off the screen.

Zhixia frowned.

“What did he say?”

“He wants me to apologize.”

“Even now, he still thinks you’ll do it?”

I didn’t answer.

She sighed.

“Wangshu, I know it’s hard to let go. But think carefully about what it is you can’t let go of.”

I looked down at the ring on my finger.

He had put it there when he proposed. I had worn it for two years, first with tender care, then out of habit. Even when it dug painfully into my hand doing housework, I couldn’t bring myself to remove it.

As though keeping it on meant we hadn’t lost each other yet.

“Zhixia,” I asked quietly, “can someone stop loving a person and just never dare admit it?”

She didn’t answer at once.

After a while, she asked:

“If there were no wedding, no invitations, none of these preparations… If Xue Shiye were just a man asking you out now, would you say yes?”

I froze.

Images crowded my mind. Him interrupting me in front of friends. Blaming me over Yingqiao. Threatening again and again to cancel. And just now—our wedding, yet “There won’t be a wedding” had come so easily to him.

If I met this Xue Shiye for the first time today, would I still like him?

My lips moved, but nothing came out.

Zhixia’s eyes slowly reddened. She didn’t press, only clasped my hand.

“I’ll go and check on your mom. She said she wanted to speak to him.”

My heart tightened.

“She went to find him?”

“Yes.”

I stood so abruptly that I almost tripped over my skirt. Zhixia caught me.

“Slow down!”

There was no time to change. I gathered the dress and ran out.

Mom had always hated troubling anyone. After watching me struggle out of grief time and again, she believed I should treasure this hard-won relationship more than anyone.

I was afraid she would actually humble herself and beg him for the wedding.

As I reached the lounge, I heard her choked voice.

“Shiye, I know Wangshu wasn’t entirely right today either. But she isn’t unreasonable. Some things really hurt her.”

His voice was cold.

“I’ve been giving her chances. If she apologizes, we can rearrange the wedding. She’s the one refusing.”

Mom sounded desperate.

“Do you know how long she’s waited for today? After that wedding fell through, she suffered for a whole year!”

He paused.

“I know all that. I’ve never held her previous engagement against her.”