I'm sorry, but your fiancé loves me.

During high school, Qin Qihan went to another school.

After much discussion, Qin Qihan chose a prestigious school known for its science programs and strict academic atmosphere, while Zhou Xue stayed at the private high school.

The two schools are located across most of the city, one in the east and the other in the west. If there is no traffic, it takes more than forty minutes to drive there, but if there is traffic, it can take forever.

When Zhou Xue heard the news, she remained silent for the entire afternoon. She sat on her windowsill, hugging her knees, looking down at the lawn below: "Why can't we go to the same school?"

Her mother sat down next to her, patted her hair, and said, "Qihan chose it himself; he likes the competition class at that school."

Zhou Xue buried her face in her knees and mumbled an "Mmm".

She didn't press the matter, nor did she make a scene, because she was already sixteen and knew that making a scene would be useless. That night, she opened her diary and wrote a line on the first page:

"We're more than a forty-minute drive apart. I'll come find you."

High school life was not as easy as junior high school. There was a lot more homework. Although the Zhou family was not strict with her, Zhou Xue was proud and worked hard to get first place. Every day she went to class, did her homework, participated in club activities, chatted with her friends, and went shopping.

Life went on uneventfully, but the only thing that kept her on her mind was Qin Qihan.

She went to his school almost every weekend.

She got up early Saturday morning to put on makeup and pick out clothes, trying on three or four outfits in front of the mirror before deciding what to wear. Then she had the driver take her to the prestigious school on the other side of the city.

She usually arrives in the morning and waits for him to come out of the school gate.

Qin Qihan sometimes had extra classes for competitions on weekends, and sometimes she didn't. She couldn't figure out the pattern, but he could always see her at the door whenever he came out.

Sometimes he wore his school uniform, sometimes he changed into his own clothes. She could see him walking out of the teaching building from afar, his steps neither fast nor slow, carrying his schoolbag just like when he used to sit in the study reading books, heavy and steady.

She ran over, looked up at him, and smiled, "I've been waiting for you for ages! Are you hungry? Want to eat together?"

"I have a test paper to write today," he said.

Zhou Xue relied on the hope in his heart to get through many afternoons when he rarely spoke.

On the way home, she always leaned against the window and smiled. The driver would see her smiling face in the rearview mirror and ask, "Miss, are you in a good mood today?" She would nod and say, "The weather is nice today."

Regardless of the weather, seeing him always made her feel better.

But she also noticed that he was becoming increasingly distant.

It wasn't the kind of blatant estrangement that meant ignoring someone; it was a polite, courteous, and distant manner, like treating an ordinary friend.

When he talks to her, he looks into her eyes. When she reaches out to take his arm, he subtly shifts his body to the side. The movement is so subtle that she almost doesn't notice, but her hand misses.

It's normal, actually. When they entered high school, she became more like a woman and he became more like a man, so it was inevitable that they would become more distant from each other.

Zhou Xue felt a pang of sadness welling up inside her again. But she suppressed the pain and continued to smile and lean closer.

She started looking into his whereabouts. Zhou Xue knew people at his school, so she asked several friends of friends to find out who Qin Qihan was close to at school, whether he was dating anyone, and whether he had someone he liked.

The messages came back intermittently:

Some say he has a good relationship with the class monitor, who is a girl.

Zhou Xue would memorize every name she heard, then find an opportunity to visit his school "casually" to meet those people and scare them a little.

After starting university, she went to the best comprehensive university in the city, while Qin Qihan went to another school that focused more on economics and management. The two schools were actually close to each other, only three subway stops apart.

Zhou Xue was overjoyed and would go to his school every few days when she had fewer classes.

She knew every building, every canteen, and every path in his school like the backyard of her own home.

She even found a spot in the library that he frequented—on the third floor by the window, where he could see the row of ginkgo trees outside.

Sometimes she would arrive early to reserve that spot, sitting there with a textbook for her major, waiting to "bump into" him after class.

Qin Qihan was already used to her appearances, and when he saw her sitting in that spot waving at him, his expression hardly changed.

Then one day, she overheard his roommate casually ask, "Your girlfriend surnamed Zhou didn't come today." She stood there stunned for several seconds, then leaned against the wall, covered her mouth, and laughed for a long time.

After she finished laughing, she took out her phone and sent a message to her mother, saying, "Mom, I want to marry him."

Her mother replied with a question mark, but she didn't explain. She put her phone back in her pocket and skipped away.

But that period was also when Qin Qihan was the coldest to her.

She could clearly sense that he was distancing himself. When she messaged him, his replies became shorter and shorter, from "um" to "okay" to "fine," and sometimes he wouldn't reply at all.

While holding her phone and waiting for a reply, Zhou Xue would stare at the screen for a long time, feeling extremely distressed as she read the increasingly shorter messages.

Once, she went to his school to celebrate his birthday, but he ignored her. She stood there for a long time, until her nose started to sting. She took a step back, turned around, and left.

That day, she returned to her school, sat in her dormitory and cried. She opened her diary and wrote a very long passage.

When I got to the last sentence, the pen paused for a moment, then I pressed down hard to finish the sentence:

Even if he doesn't like me, I will continue to like him.

Later, even Qin's parents couldn't stand it anymore.

That day was a family banquet at the Qin family's residence. Zhou Xue was also there. She sat next to Qin Qihan and served him food, but she didn't touch the food in his bowl from beginning to end.

Qin's mother saw all of this, and after dinner, while Zhou Xue was in the garden, she called Qin Qihan into the study and closed the door.

"Qihan," Qin's mother said, her tone not harsh but with a hint of seriousness, "aren't you being too cold to Zhou Xue?"

Qin Qihan stood in the study, back ramrod straight, and after a few seconds of silence, he spoke: "I wasn't being cold."

"You put the food she puts in your bowl but don't eat it; you just grunt when she talks to you and then ignore her. How many years has she been chasing after you? From when you were seven until now." Qin's mother sighed. "Besides, we are very satisfied with her. You could try to get to know her better."

In his early years, Qin Qihan was completely clueless about relationships, so he didn't say anything.

Moreover, after graduating from university, the two families even sat down together to formally discuss the marriage arrangement.

Qin Qihan was also present that day. He sat on the sofa with a cup of tea in front of him and did not express any opinion from beginning to end.

Zhou's parents spoke at length, as did Qin's parents, about cooperation, shares, and the integration of the two families' businesses after the marriage.

Zhou Xue didn't hear a word of what they said. She stared at Qin Qihan's profile the whole time, her face expressionless, but she didn't refuse either.

After the meeting, the two families ate together. While getting drinks, Zhou Xue leaned close to him and whispered, "You agreed?"

Qin Qihan glanced at her sideways. He looked at her for two seconds, then said, "Mm."

"Why?" she asked. Her voice was a little tense, afraid that he would say something that would hurt her.

"There's no reason why. It's all the same who I marry."

No one would feel uncomfortable hearing those words, but that night, sitting in the car on her way home, she buried her face in her scarf and laughed the whole way, her eyes crinkling with laughter. She took out her phone and sent a message to her younger brother—

"Zhou Yao, your sister is getting married!"

The city lights outside the car window flowed past her one by one. Leaning against the window, she thought about the future, about moving into his house, about waking up every morning and seeing him first thing, about them going to her parents' house for dinner together on weekends...

She felt that her life was perfect from that day on.

The person she had liked for so many years was finally going to be hers.

After Zhou Xue became Qin Qihan's girlfriend, she gave him almost everything she could.

She remembered all his little habits, sending him good morning and good night messages every day without fail. Sometimes he would reply, sometimes he wouldn't, but she didn't care. What she cared about was whether he felt comfortable when he was beside her.

Qin Qihan was still not very enthusiastic towards her, but the two of them still talked about marriage.

The parents of both families sat together to choose a wedding date, flipping through the almanac for a long time before selecting an auspicious day for marriage. Qin Qihan sat beside them, holding a cup of tea, occasionally humming in agreement, but never raising any objections from beginning to end.

Zhou Xue sat next to him, gently holding his little finger under the table.

After the wedding date was set, she got busy.

Choosing a wedding dress, booking a venue, writing invitations, tasting dishes, and selecting wedding favors—she did everything herself, her busy schedule radiating an intense and joyful excitement.

But one day, everything began to change.

It was a Saturday, and Qin Qihan was going to the Zhou family's house for dinner as usual. She had sent Qin Qihan a message beforehand, but he didn't reply.

Without giving it much thought, she changed her clothes, grabbed the snacks she had bought, and drove to the Qin family home, intending to find him herself. When she arrived, the housekeeper opened the door and said Qin Qihan wasn't there; he had gone out. Zhou Xue paused for a moment, placed the snacks on the dining table, and called him. It rang for a long time before he answered.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Outside," he replied, his voice flat.

"Aren't you coming over for dinner tonight?"

"Um."

"What about tomorrow?"

"I have things to do tomorrow too."

She paused for a few seconds, then said, "Okay. Let me know when you're done."

The phone hangs up.

After that, his attitude towards her seemed to become perfunctory. Even if he stayed at her house for a while, he would not stay overnight. He refused to sleep in the guest room and insisted on leaving, as if someone was waiting for him late at night.

She started to become suspicious.

She started looking through his social media and asking his assistant about his schedule. On the surface, everything seemed normal. There were no strange chat logs, no hidden contacts, and no girls sending him ambiguous messages.

His life remained exactly the same as before: working and reading.

The only change was that he spent less time with her.

She didn't understand why. She asked him, and he only said, "I'm a bit tired lately" or "Let's go next time."

When she pressed him for more information, he fell silent. She sat in her room flipping through her diary and came across a sentence she had written many years ago: "Even if he doesn't like me, I will continue to like him." She stared at that line for a long time, feeling her eyes sting with tears.

She started having insomnia, tossing and turning in bed at night, wondering why he wasn't coming anymore, whether she had done something to annoy him, whether he didn't want the marriage anymore, or whether he had fallen for someone else.

Every thought that popped into her head felt like a tiny needle pricking her heart, so densely packed that even her breathing became shallow.

One day, she couldn't hold back any longer and went to his company without telling him.

She was carrying a box of freshly baked osmanthus cakes, the flavor he loved when he was a child. She had stopped to buy them when she passed by that time-honored shop. The paper bag containing the box was still warm, and the sweet fragrance of osmanthus wafted out from the gaps, lingering on her fingertips and cuffs.

When she entered the Qin Group lobby, the receptionist recognized her and greeted her with a smile. She nodded and went straight to the elevator, pressing the button for the top floor.

She wasn't there to check up on things.

She told herself no.

She just happened to be passing by, just happened to buy osmanthus cake, and just happened to want to see him.

She stood in the elevator watching the floor numbers jump one by one, and had almost convinced herself.

Qin Qihan's office door was ajar. As she approached, she heard voices inside, paused, and instinctively softened her steps. Standing outside the crack in the door, she could see two people inside through the narrow gap.

Qin Qihan sat behind his desk, a document in his hand, leaning back in his chair, his posture more relaxed than usual. A young woman stood opposite him, talking to him.

Just as she was about to push the door open and go in, she suddenly heard Qin Qihan say a sentence with a smile:

"If you say anything inappropriate again, you don't need to come next time."

Zhou Xue stopped in her tracks, her hand resting on the doorknob, but she didn't apply any force.

The two of them chatted back and forth, even exchanging some jokes. Zhou Xue had known Qin Qihan for many years, and she knew his way of speaking, his way of being silent, and his way of looking at people.

But she had never heard him speak to anyone in that tone.

She immediately pushed open the door and went in. The woman turned around; she was very beautiful and smiled slightly at her: "Miss Zhou."

Oh, she's a secretary.

Zhou Xue stood at the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

She recognized the secretary; her name was Yun Muqian. Since she was a secretary, and therefore a company employee, it was normal for her to be somewhat familiar with Qin Qihan. Zhou Xue walked over gracefully, placed the pastries on the table, and extended her hand to her.

"We meet again."

Yun Muqian gently squeezed her hand back.

From here on, everything is fine. And from here on, everything starts to go wrong.