I'm sorry, but your fiancé loves me.

The warm light in the private room bathed everyone in its glow. Yun Muqian could smell the faint scent of soap on Chi Qiusheng—clean, like the smell of a freshly washed white shirt drying in the wind.

She lowered her eyes, her eyes stinging with tears.

"Who are you waiting for?" Zhou Yao had already sat down on the sofa, his long legs propped up on the coffee table, and casually picked up a cherry from the fruit plate and popped it into his mouth.

Chi Qiusheng chuckled softly: "That person might not come, but I still want to wait and see."

Yun Muqian knew who he was talking about.

She used to be like that.

Her heart felt slightly damp; memories, like an old cotton cloth soaked in water, fell heavily to the ground.

In her senior year of high school, the sycamore trees behind the school's back gate began to shed their leaves. At that time, she was still Jiang Xiaohua, wearing a school uniform that had been washed until it was faded. Every day at noon, she would hide in the stairwell on the top floor of the teaching building and eat two cold steamed buns for lunch.

Chi Qiusheng always helped her; he was a very good person and could always see through her predicament at a glance.

Before each monthly exam, her review materials would have several extra pages of handwritten notes, and bread and snacks would often appear in her drawer. Once, she had a fever and took half a day off, and when she returned to the classroom in the afternoon, there was a cup of ginger tea on her desk.

She knew it was him.

But she never asked her directly. She was Jiang Xiaohua, the ugly, poor, and isolated "rat" in the class.

She didn't dare.

All she could do was sneak back to the empty classroom during Friday PE class while everyone else was running and playing ball on the playground, and pull out the chocolate she had saved up to buy from the bottom of her backpack.

She carefully placed the chocolate at the very back of his desk drawer, not knowing if he liked sweets, but she had nothing else to give him.

Once, after she finished putting away the chocolates, she noticed that his desk was a bit messy, so she reached out and tidied it up for him, smoothing out the curled corners and putting the pens back into the pen holder one by one.

As I was tidying up, I heard a slight noise behind me.

She turned around abruptly.

Chi Qiusheng stood behind her, holding an empty water glass in his hand, obviously back to get water.

He probably didn't expect anyone to be in the classroom during PE class, and a hint of surprise appeared on his handsome face.

The afternoon sun slanted in through the window, and her face flushed instantly, burning from the tips of her ears all the way down to her neck. She opened and closed her mouth, but couldn't say a word.

"I...I..." Her throat tightened, and her eyes welled up with tears, unable to utter a single word.

She came to refute him, and he stood there, overwhelmed by shame and panic, tears streaming down his face.

Chi Qiusheng smiled, stopped in front of her, and then, in front of her, took out the Dove chocolate she had just put in, tore open the wrapper, broke off a small piece, and put it in his mouth.

"It's delicious," he said, his voice tinged with amusement. "I always finish it every time you put it in."

Her tears flowed even more fiercely, but her heart ached as if it were being submerged in warm water.

The tide of memories was interrupted the next second by Zhou Yao's languid voice:

"Brother Chi, who exactly are you talking about? The place is completely full."

Yun Muqian snapped out of her daze and curled her fingers on her knees.

The private room was filled with the clinking of glasses and lively conversation, and no one noticed her momentary lapse in concentration.

Chi Qiusheng didn't reply. Yun Muqian cautiously glanced at him. He lowered his eyes, seemingly lost in thought.

At this moment, Zhou Xue came over with a glass of champagne. Her high heels made no sound on the carpet, but as soon as she approached, the people at the table unconsciously moved aside.

She wore a hazy blue silk shirt paired with a pair of neatly tailored white wide-leg pants. Her long hair was loosely tied back, and the engagement ring on her ring finger reflected a small cluster of light.

"What are you talking about so seriously?"

She smiled and sat down on the other side of Chi Qiusheng, pushing the champagne towards him. "Qiusheng, it's rare to see you at an event like this."

Chi Qiusheng said, "It's nice to go out for a chat once in a while."

Zhou Xue took a sip of her wine:

"I'm getting my marriage certificate next month, and the wedding is in December. You have to come, or I'll be heartbroken."

"Congratulations," Chi Qiusheng said, his tone polite but distant. "I probably don't have time."

Zhou Xue's smile remained unchanged, but she quickly turned her gaze to Zhou Yao and patted his ankle, which was resting on the coffee table: "You have no manners. Put your feet down. There are so many people watching, what kind of behavior is this?"

Zhou Yao cried out "Ouch!" and pulled his leg back. He grinned and leaned over. The siblings joked around for a while, while Yun Muqian sat quietly to the side, occasionally laughing along.

In the corner of her eye, Chi Qiusheng suddenly turned his head and tilted it slightly in her direction.

She once harbored girlish dreams, hoping that one day she could become beautiful and stand openly beside Chi Qiusheng.

She mentally rewrote her ugly face a hundred times, imagining whether she would be worthy of him if she had a higher nose bridge, bigger eyes, and fairer skin.

But now that she has truly become more beautiful, she has to pretend she doesn't know him.

Before she can successfully avenge herself, she must not reveal her past to anyone.

"Qiusheng, do you have a girlfriend?" Zhou Xue's voice suddenly rang out.

Chi Qiusheng shook his head.

A girl nearby jokingly asked, "Chi Qiusheng, with your looks and qualities, the girls chasing after you could line up from school all the way to the riverbank, right? How come you're still single? Are your standards too high?"

"Yeah, yeah, so many girls in our class had a crush on you back then, and you didn't even like any of them?"

"I don't want to know anyone," he said.

The private room was quiet for two seconds before the topic was quickly steered elsewhere.

Without warning, her phone lit up, the screen vibrated on the table, and emitted a short, muffled buzzing sound.

She glanced down and saw that the caller ID showed Qin Qihan's phone number.

She hung up because she couldn't answer the phone, but he called back the next second.

Zhou Yao asked her with concern if something was wrong.

Yun Muqian forced a smile: "I'll go outside to answer it, so as not to disturb you."

She grabbed her phone and stood up. The phone kept vibrating in her palm, the screen flashing on and off as if urging her to hurry.

She stopped in the restroom and pressed the answer button.

Where is it?

Qin Qihan's voice came through the receiver, deep and direct.

"I'm eating out. It wasn't convenient to answer in the private room just now, I didn't want to disturb everyone."

"What friend?" he asked.

"It was... a gathering arranged by Zhou Yao." She hesitated for a second, but still mentioned Zhou Yao's name. Given Qin Qihan's methods, it would be too easy for him to find out who she was with tonight; hiding it would only make her seem suspicious.

"His sister is here too, we're having dinner together."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone. "Zhou Xue is there too?"

"Mmm," she responded, her voice low.

"That's why I didn't dare answer your call just now. She was sitting not far from me, and I was afraid she'd see you calling me, which wouldn't be good."

"What time will it end?"

"It should be soon. I'll leave after sitting for a little while longer." Her voice softened further. "Are you... waiting for me?"

He did not answer the question.

But Yun Muqian knew that he was waiting for her.

Lately, he's been contacting her more and more frequently. Sometimes, after finishing work late at night, he'll drive half an hour to come over, even if he doesn't do anything but just pick her up from bed and hold her.

"Send me your address," he said. "I'll pick you up when I'm done."

"No need—" She was about to refuse, but she swallowed her words back in time. Refusing him would only make him more persistent.

"Okay," she changed her mind, her voice gentle and soft, "I'll send you the address when I'm almost done. Don't come too early; it'll be boring waiting outside."

A very soft "hmm" came from the other end of the phone, as if he was barely satisfied. Then he added:

"Don't drink alcohol."

"Okay, I know." She smiled, her eyes crinkling, even though he couldn't see her. "I just drank juice."