The Heiress's Game

Li Chunjing arranged to meet Fei Yang at a tea restaurant in the old town of Dahai City. The tea had just been brewed when Fei Yang came up the stairs.

He's gained a little weight and has cut his hair shorter, making him look much more energetic.

He paused for a moment when he saw Li Chunjing, then quickly walked over, a smile spreading across his face. That smile contained so much—surprise, awkwardness, and a hint of inexplicable expectation.

"Chun Jing, you've changed so much."

He sat down, pulled the chair forward a bit, and scanned her up and down twice. He couldn't quite put his finger on what had changed, but she was just different.

In the past, Li Chunjing always hunched her shoulders slightly, would unconsciously purse her lips when she smiled, and always wore the safest colors for clothing.

She was now sitting by the window in the teahouse, wearing a well-tailored white suit, her hair neatly tied up, and her expression composed.

"You too." Li Chunjing smiled and pushed the manila envelope in front of him.

"This is an IOU. The remaining money, plus interest calculated at the bank loan rate, is all in this card. The password is your birthday."

Fei Yang didn't take the envelope. He looked down at the bank card on the table, his lips moved, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

"You don't have to do that. My mom went too far back then, and I argued with her about it later—we could have avoided it from getting to that point."

Li Chunjing picked up her teacup, took a sip, and didn't respond to the conversation.

She still remembers the scene from that day very clearly—Fei Yang's mother, accompanied by two relatives, stormed into the lobby of her company and, in front of all her colleagues, pointed her finger at her and accused her of marriage fraud.

The corridor was packed with people. The receptionist covered her mouth as she looked at her, and the department head peeked out from his office and then quickly withdrew.

Fei Yang stood silently to the side. She didn't blame him; after all, anyone in that situation might not have handled it better, but she wouldn't forget it either.

"The money belongs to your family, so it should be returned. The reason it dragged on for so long was my fault."

Li Chunjing said calmly, "Now we're even."

Fei Yang finally picked up the envelope, but instead of opening it, he held it in his hand and looked at it over and over.

He was silent for a moment, then looked up at her with a cautious, tentative look in his eyes.

"Chun Jing, actually, we—we can start over. I've been on a few blind dates since then, but none of them really worked out. Don't worry about my mom, I'll talk to her. You have a stable job now, so let's forget about what happened before—"

"Fei Yang," Li Chunjing interrupted him.

"Thank you, but no need."

"I don't want to go back to my old life. It's not because you're bad, it's because I'm different now."

My current job has shown me a lot, a world I never dared to imagine before.

The people I interact with every day, the projects I work on, the things I learn—these things are far more important to me than dating.

Fei Yang opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found that all the words were stuck in his throat.

He wanted to say that you've changed, but he already said that earlier.

He wanted to say that you weren't like this before, but saying that would only make him seem ridiculous.

"Do you—have someone else?" he asked.

Li Chunjing smiled gently, a smile that contained no sarcasm, but rather an appreciation for his adorable question.

She recalled the mountains of documents piled up in Gu Yunjin's study, and how she cried alone in the editing room in front of the monitor the night the trailer for "Walking with Brilliance" was scheduled for release. It wasn't sadness, but the feeling that she had accomplished something.

Fei Yang no longer had a place in her world. He wasn't pushed out by someone else; he was crushed by the path she had walked step by step.

"There's no one else," she said, standing up and picking up her bag. "But I have myself. That's enough."

Li Chunjing opened her umbrella, walked to the roadside, and hailed a taxi. Although she was no longer a personal assistant, she still lived in Suiyuan.

At eighteen, Li Chunjing thought her life was a straight path—find a reliable man to marry, save money to buy a house, have a child, be a good wife and mother, and live out her life like her mother.

Then Fei Yang proposed, and she felt that the road was finally on the right track, and all her hard work and frugality had come to fruition.

Then fate slapped her in the face—she lost her money, her wedding fell through, she lost her job, and her own mother and sister conspired to ruin her.

The slap made her lie on the ground for a long time, but as she lay there, she suddenly realized that the ground wasn't so bad after all—it was cool, the line of sight was low, and she could see many things that she couldn't see when she was standing.

For example, Li Xiaoxiao's nature can never be changed; for example, the hypocrisy in Zhou Xiulan's tears; for example, the women sitting in high-end restaurants are not separated from you by fate, but by opportunity.

Later, she stood up, not by relying on anyone, but by relying on her own hands, feet, and brain, climbing up step by step.

The taxi drove at a steady speed on the overpass. Li Chunjing opened her mobile banking app and glanced at her balance; the number looked very good.

But what she finds most beautiful now isn't the numbers, but the slight nod she makes when Gu Yunjin nods as she reports on project progress in the study.

It was the sense of accomplishment that welled up inside her as she stood behind the monitor, watching Chen Cui and her family smile at the camera on set.

It's the quiet sense of relief that comes with seeing the bank notification of your salary deposit every time you get paid that you silently clench your fist.

These feelings are more real than any man's sweet words and more reliable than any marriage promise.