Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Her name is Chi Mo, and she's Guan Yizhou's girlfriend That is a foolish woman, Song Huaiyu knew. When he walked out of the bar, he spotted her at a glance, sitting with her head lowered on the steps at the entrance. She seemed completely drunk, her body sliding limply down the steps. A few seconds later, she struggled to push her head forward and retched a few times. Her off-white skirt was covered in wrinkles, one of her high heels had fallen off and lay beside her, and the leather surface of the shoe still on her foot had a long, scraped-up mark—it looked like she must have taken a fall on her way out. Song Huaiyu stopped in his tracks to light a cigarette, cast another sidelong glance at the woman's disheveled state, and a trace of disdain curved smoothly at the corner of his mouth. Her name is Chi Mo, and she is Guan Yizhou's girlfriend. To this day, Song Huaiyu still remembers what Chi Mo looked like the first time she appeared at one of their gatherings. Guan Yizhou didn't make a point of introducing her; he just had someone casually make room for her. A few girls who liked Guan Yizhou giggled and laughed, their unfriendly gazes landing unblinkingly on Chi Mo. When the colorful, shifting lights of the bar washed over her, Song Huaiyu saw her pale face and tightly clenched hands through the glass of his drink. Her knuckles were pale and bluish-white, trembling visibly. Song Huaiyu only looked for those two brief moments before turning his gaze away. At most two months, perhaps even shorter, and Guan Yizhou would definitely move on to the next one. Of course, he wasn't the only one who thought that at the time; Xu Yichen didn't even bother to remember her name. As it turned out, no one expected Chi Mo to stay by Guan Yizhou's side for a full ten years. From eighteen to twenty-eight, Yuan Siyu began to make a fuss with suspicion: "You don't think Zhouzhou is actually going to marry Chi Mo, do you?! The chances of his parents beating him to death are higher than that!" Indeed, the Guan family would never allow a woman whose family background was such a complete mismatch to enter their household, even though she had long since graduated from university and had a seemingly decent job. Song Huaiyu had never believed they could ever get married. Look at that... were their problems really just minor issues? Otherwise, why else would Chi Mo be sitting on the steps crying after drinking herself into a state like this? "Hey." Song Huaiyu flicked his cigarette away, walked over, and gave Chi Mo's foot a nudge, asking with a hint of mockery, "Do you want me to call Guan Yizhou?" Chi Mo slowly raised her head. Tears still hung on her face, and her makeup was completely smeared beyond recognition. She squinted at Song Huaiyu, seemingly failing to recognize him at first. Song Huaiyu gave her a cold, sidelong look. From the first time they met until now, Chi Mo's changes were truly more than just a little bit. Just look at her now—she had completely dressed herself up to look like a local from Jiangzhou. What a pity; her fashion sense had improved, but her brain hadn't grown a bit. "It's you..." Chi Mo finally made out the man standing above her, then broke into a grin—a bit dazed and rather foolish-looking. In that moment, she didn't seem all that different from the way she used to be. Song Huaiyu lost his patience, his tone gradually growing. "—Should I call Guan Yizhou to come pick you up?" "Guan Yizhou?" Chi Mo steadied herself against the steps and wobbled to her feet, muttering, "...Oh, right, he's my boyfriend... I have a boyfriend..." Song Huaiyu frowned slightly. Finding the smell of alcohol on her at that moment utterly repulsive, he instinctively took half a step back. Chi Mo was missing one shoe. After struggling up and steadying herself by grabbing the handrail, the movement caused her to cover her mouth and retch a few more times... "Chi Mo, are you still in your right mind?" Song Huaiyu asked coldly, his brow furrowed. Chi Mo shook her head and let it drop. The prolonged silence caused Song Huaiyu to lose all interest. With a cold sneer and too lazy to ask any further, just as he was about to pull out his phone to call Guan Yizhou, a pair of ice-cold hands suddenly slipped onto his arm. The smell of alcohol around them instantly grew thick. He halted his movement, his gaze sweeping downward as he followed that hand with its light pink nail polish upward, only to see Chi Mo clinging tightly to him, pressing her entire body against his. She tilted her head up and blinked at him innocently, her eyes hazy. "Care for a drink together?" Under the dazzling lights at the entrance of the bar was Song Huaiyu's cold and harsh face. With his usual cynical disdain, his voice curling upward at the end, he asked Chi Mo, "Why on earth would I want to have a drink with you?" Chi Mo chuckled foolishly. "Look at you, the two of us have known each other for so many years... What's wrong with having a drink together?" Mid-laugh, she insisted on standing on her tiptoes and leaning in close. Song Huaiyu leaned backward, putting distance between them, and scoffed, "Do we even count as knowing each other?" "Of course we do." Pushing her luck, Chi Mo rubbed against his arm again. The body heat elevated by the alcohol was strikingly obvious now, and perhaps even Song Huaiyu himself didn't realize how intimate their posture was at that moment. She smiled and asked, "Isn't that right?" Of course not. At least during the ten years she had been with Guan Yizhou, the two of them probably hadn't spoken twenty words to each other. "What's wrong with having a drink together..." Seeing that he wouldn't agree, Chi Mo began to complain discontentedly. "The drinks here are really good, I had some earlier... Come on, let's go, just one drink. You know how it is... I don't have any friends here in Jiangzhou anyway..." Muttering to herself, she tugged Song Huaiyu back toward the interior of the bar. Song Huaiyu let her pull and drag him along, though his eyes maintained a harsh, detached indifference throughout. Before he was pushed down onto the sofa by Chi Mo, Song Huaiyu raised his wrist and checked his watch. Two in the morning. ＊ ＊ "Cheers!" Chi Mo's cheeks were flushed bright red, her tongue thick from intoxication. Holding her glass, she cheerfully clinked it against the glass of lemonade in front of Song Huaiyu. Her hands were shaking slightly, and as soon as the glasses touched, a good deal of the drink spilled onto the tabletop. She hurriedly grabbed some tissues to wipe it up, but finding that she couldn't clean it properly no matter how hard she tried, she simply grabbed her own sleeve and began wiping the table with it rubbing against him... Song Huaiyu frowned, immediately shifting to the side, and asked in a cold, chilly tone, "Chi Mo, what on earth are you trying to do?" Chi Mo stared foolishly at the wet table and chuckled twice, then suddenly frowned, lowered her eyes, and asked in a dry voice, "Do you guys all hate me?" Song Huaiyu didn't answer. Chi Mo pursed her lips and muttered to herself, "I know, none of you like me. You think I'm not good enough for him... But I've already tried so hard... Really... Do you have any idea how exhausting it is? I'm so, so tired...." As expected, it was still because of Guan Yizhou. Losing his patience, Song Huaiyu gave a cold chuckle. "Does it matter whether we like you or hate you? Isn't it enough that Guan Yizhou likes you?" "Oh..." Chi Mo let out a hiccup and tilted her head back to finish her second glass of wine. "It's fine, it doesn't matter... Anyway, we won't be seeing each other ever again anyway~" She giggled foolishly, then added, "Guan Yizhou and I... are breaking up..." Song Huaiyu didn't take her seriously and gave a flat, indifferent "Oh." "You don't believe me?" Chi Mo turned her head to look at him. No one would believe it, because in the past ten years, they had broken up at least thirty times. Seeing that Song Huaiyu didn't speak, Chi Mo eagerly tried to fish something out to prove it. But the moment she lowered her head, the surging alcohol in her stomach choked her, and she covered her mouth. She turned around, scrambling frantically to find the trash can under the table, and plunged halfway into it.... Blech... Song Huaiyu stood up abruptly. Frowning, he backed away until he was at least two meters away from Chi Mo and her trash can, and immediately pulled out his phone to call Guan Yizhou. "Yeah, come pick her up." ＊ ＊ ＊ After that night, Song Huaiyu went abroad for a period of time, and didn't return to the country until Jiangzhou started to warm up. Xu Yichen and the others couldn't wait to set up a gathering, nagging and inviting him over and over again until they finally dragged Song Huaiyu out of bed. Everyone had grown up and had their own lives to attend to. The days of hanging out and playing around every single day were gone for good, and days spent drinking together had become even scarcer. Therefore, once a rare opportunity for everyone to get together arose, they were practically ready to empty out their home wine cellars. Sure enough, as soon as Song Huaiyu walked through the door, he saw that these guys were already half-drunk. Xu Yichen rushed forward, threw an arm around his neck, and complained, "You brat went traveling alone again, huh?! That's really uncool, how come you didn't think to call us along?" Yuan Siyu, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth and casually loosening the buttons of his shirt, chimed in, "Oh, give it a rest. He's the most free out of all of us right now. For the past two years, he hasn't even bothered dating a girlfriend, spending all day and night going abroad to look at art exhibitions or listen to concerts... Hey, I'm telling you, Master Huaiyu, you damn well aren't going to suddenly get married one of these days, are you?" Song Huaiyu took off his outer coat, tossed it onto a nearby sofa, and asked casually, "Who's getting married? Zhouzhou, are you getting married?"