Chapter 1

On my seventh straight day of overtime, I didn’t get home until eleven at night.

When I entered the code, the door lock flashed an error.

I thought I was so tired I’d remembered it wrong. I tried several more times.

Still wrong.

I called Zhou Xu. He didn’t answer.

I could only stand outside, ringing the bell again and again.

Ten minutes later, Lin Wei stepped out of the lift carrying beer.

She paused when she saw me.

“Why aren’t you going in?”

Then she entered the code with practiced ease.

I followed her inside.

A party popper exploded beside my ear as I crossed the threshold. Confetti covered me.

Everyone in the apartment roared with laughter.

Empty bottles covered the coffee table. Cake was smeared into the carpet. Red wine soaked the sofa cover I’d just washed.

Zhou Xu filmed me on his phone, laughing so hard he could barely stand straight.

“That’s what you get for working overtime and ignoring me all week. Now you know how the silent treatment feels.”

I stood in the doorway without a word.

My boss had scolded me in front of everyone three times that day. I’d revised the proposal twelve times.

I hadn’t eaten dinner. Someone on the subway had stepped on my shoe and broken it.

I had to be back at the office to present at eight the next morning.

And now I was expected to clean up a home that looked like a battlefield.

When I didn’t chase him around scolding him as I used to, Zhou Xu grew displeased.

“What’s with that attitude? It was a joke. You’re getting more boring by the day.”

I bent to pick up the confetti at my feet.

He laughed coldly.

“If we can’t live together anymore, let’s break up.”

I thought of the new code. Even Lin Wei knew it. I was the only one who hadn’t been told.

Suddenly, I didn’t even want to enter the apartment.

“All right. Let’s break up.”

* * *

The living room fell silent.

Zhou Xu stared at me for several seconds before curling his lip.

“Fine. Remember, you said it.”

I went into the bedroom without answering.

Soon, laughter and attempts to smooth things over rose behind me.

“Come on, don’t fight. She’s in a bad mood.”

“Seriously, Zhou, why scare her?”

They spoke lightly, as though our exchange were only a brief interruption to their drinking.

I took my suitcase down from the top of the wardrobe. My hands were weak. It slipped, hitting the floor with a crash.

Zhou Xu followed me in and stood it upright.

“All right. When you’re done sulking, come and eat. There are people here. Don’t make a scene and embarrass everyone.”

I searched for my phone charger without replying.

After a while, his voice grew more irritated.

“Yes, changing the code was wrong. But don’t you know why I did it? I invite you to dinner, you have overtime. I message you, you take hours to answer. Why bother having a boyfriend? Go live with your company.”

It took two searches through my bag to find the charger.

“My boss suddenly needed the proposal today.”

“Your boss. Your proposal.” He laughed. “Always an excuse.”

Lin Wei stood in the bedroom doorway.

“Xiaowan.”

I looked up. She’d changed back into her own shoes.

“I didn’t think things through tonight. Zhou Xu only wanted you to come home earlier. He didn’t mean anything else.”

He turned toward her.

“Why are you apologizing? This has nothing to do with you.”

“But Xiaowan seems to have misunderstood.”

“When doesn’t she misunderstand you?”

He looked at me.

“Lin Wei went to all the trouble of buying these things. You haven’t even thanked her. Instead, you give her attitude.”

I pushed the last clothes into my suitcase and pulled the zip shut.

His face darkened.

“That’s enough.”

He held the suitcase firmly.

“I’ve given you a way to back down. What more do you want?”

I looked up.

“Move.”

His fingers stiffened, then slowly withdrew.

“Su Wan, if you walk out that door tonight, don’t expect me to come after you.”

Everyone in the living room turned.

Someone holding a wineglass stepped aside as I rolled my suitcase out.

“You’re really leaving?”

“Come on. There’s no need.”

“We’ll get the sofa cover washed tomorrow, all right?”

Not one of the people who’d offered to help clean had moved. Cake still stuck to the carpet. Bottles lay everywhere.

At the door, I struggled to put on my broken-heeled shoe.

A girl watched me for a moment, then couldn’t help asking, “If you leave like this, won’t you only come back in the end?”

She didn’t mean any harm.

That was precisely why I didn’t know how to answer.

Lin Wei followed me to the entrance.

“Where will you go this late?”

Zhou Xu laughed behind her.

“Where else? Back to her parents.”

He was right.

Apart from my parents’ home, I had nowhere to go.

**2**

I reached home with my suitcase at one in the morning.

Mom opened the door and stared.

“What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Zhou Xu and I broke up.”

The bedroom light came on. Dad emerged, putting on a coat.

“Had a fight?”

Before I could answer, Mom sighed.

“Look at the time. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Dad stood there a moment, then returned to the bedroom.

The door closed.

Through it, I heard Mom lower her voice.

“I told her she couldn’t keep working overtime. Even a good-tempered man like Zhou would lose patience.”

“What good does saying that now do?”

“She’s nearly thirty. Will she find another man like him?”

A brief silence.

“Ask her cousin tomorrow,” Dad said. “See if that man she mentioned is still available.”

I was still standing in the living room.

Confetti clung to my coat. The broken heel poked from a side compartment of my suitcase.

Mom spoke again.

“Keep your voice down. Don’t let her hear.”

Neither of them had asked why I’d ended the relationship.

The next day, Mom called me more than a dozen times at work, insisting I attend a blind date.

“I’m not going.”

Her end of the line was noisy. She sounded hurried.

“It’s one meal. Don’t act as though someone’s forcing you to marry. If you and Zhou Xu could make up, would I need to worry? Hurry. He’s already there. Don’t be rude.”

I had to use my lunch break to rush to the restaurant.

Chen Yue sat by the window, his coffee half finished.

As soon as I sat down, he glanced at his watch.

“A woman doesn’t need to work quite so hard.”

He called a waiter and passed me a menu.

“I hear you work in planning. Lots of overtime?”

“Yes.”

“That definitely won’t do once you’re married. Someone has to look after the home.”

I said nothing.

“Have you been in a relationship before?”

“Five years.”

His hand paused on the menu.

“That long?”

“We’ve just broken up.”

He looked up, his expression noticeably cooler.

“You’ve only just broken up, and you’re already on a blind date?”

“My family arranged it. I came today to explain.”

“You haven’t got over him?”

“That isn’t the issue. For now, I—”

“Xiaowan?”

Lin Wei’s voice came from behind me.

She and Zhou Xu had just entered.

He looked at me, then at Chen Yue across the table.

Approaching us, he gave a cold little smile.

“You moved out of my place the night before last, and you’re on a blind date today. You had this lined up quickly.”

People began to look over.

I lowered my voice. “My mother told me to come.”

“And you just came because she told you to?”

He stared at me.

“Why was getting you to have one dinner with me always so difficult?”

Chen Yue closed the menu.

“Have you two actually broken up or not?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Her things are still at my place,” Zhou Xu immediately added.

I looked up at him.

He’d watched me pack. He knew all that remained were a few old clothes I no longer wanted.

Chen Yue’s face fell completely.

“You’re still living together?”

Someone at the next table raised a phone.

Lin Wei tugged Zhou Xu’s sleeve.

“Leave it. People are watching.”

She would have done better to say nothing. Her words made their attention even more obvious.

Chen Yue stood.

“Sort out your private affairs yourselves. I’m not interested in playing a part in this.”

He left.

Zhou Xu didn’t stop him. He only stared at me.

“In such a hurry, and you still couldn’t find anyone decent.”

**3**

I took out my phone, scanned the payment code, and paid for my portion.

People kept looking back.

Someone whispered, “Is this what they call finding the next one before finishing with the last?”

I didn’t listen any longer. Taking my bag, I hurried out.

Mom called almost at once.

“How did you upset him enough to make him leave? Your aunt just rang me, and I didn’t know what to say.”

“Mom, I told you I didn’t want to go.”

“Even so, once you’re there, you should speak politely.”

She paused.

“Did Zhou Xu come looking for you?”

I didn’t answer.

She sounded relieved.

“If he’s willing to come back, don’t play hard to get. That Chen certainly isn’t as good as him.”

I hung up.

Only when I reached the curb did I realize I’d been shaking the whole time.

Back at the office, the coworkers clustered around my desk immediately dispersed.

Xiao Zhao held out her phone.

“You should see this.”

The video was less than a minute long.

Its title read:

*Still living with her boyfriend, not properly broken up—and sneaking out on blind dates.*

Someone in the comments had recognized me. My company had been named too.

Just then, the lift opened.

Lin Wei emerged behind HR, wearing a new employee badge.

Someone recognized her immediately.

“Is the man in that video your friend?”

She glanced at me, looking uncomfortable.

“Yes. But what happened that day really was sudden. Zhou Xu hadn’t known anything about it.”

A brief silence fell.

Someone murmured, “So she’d arranged it behind his back?”

Lin Wei looked my way.

“Come on. It’s their private business. Let’s not gossip.”

Soon, HR came to fetch me.

My boss waited in her office. A printed termination notice lay on the desk.

I stood in the doorway with a sudden sense of dread.