Chapter 1

Sometimes, a woman’s sixth sense is just that sharp.

While Jiang Ye was taking a shower in the bathroom, a call came in on his phone.

A local number, no caller ID.

I answered.

I said “Hello” twice, then asked, “Who’s this?”

On the other end, there was silence, then the call hung up.

Just those few seconds of silence, it felt like a tacit understanding.

The other person knew who I was.

And I also realized something was off.

So I unlocked Jiang Ye’s phone.

Using that number, I found the person in his social app.

It was a girl–a soft, cute anime avatar, nickname Peachie, no note, and message notifications muted.

Their chat was very clean.

There was only one unread message: [I miss you.]

Just those few words, and my heart clenched tight.

I thought, most likely, Jiang Ye was cheating.

The hand holding the phone suddenly felt weak and powerless.

I tapped into the girl’s WeChat moments.

The cover photo was probably of herself–hair in a bun, pouting lips, radiating youthful vibes, really pretty.

I didn’t look closely, just took a photo of it with my own phone.

She had posted quite a lot.

I scrolled through quickly, then stopped at one post.

She wrote: [I only want 199 for the transfer, not a yuan more!]

Below was a screenshot.

It was a chat screenshot between her and Jiang Ye.

Note: Princess Caretaker.

She asked Jiang Ye: [Where’s the 199 you promised me?]

Jiang Ye transferred 20,000.

She didn’t accept it, sent it back.

[I only want 199!]

Jiang Ye replied with an ellipsis, but still transferred that amount to her.

She said: [Do you know what 199 means? It means I want to be with you forever!]

Expressionless, I took a photo to keep as evidence.

After leaving the girl’s WeChat moments, I went into Jiang Ye’s transaction history.

I checked all of their transfer records.

One after another, so many that I couldn’t see the end.

The most regular and largest was 50,000 at the beginning of each month.

It had continued for three months.

Besides that, there were 10,000, 20,000, 1,000, 2,000, 100, 200–too many to count.

Including some special numbers: 199, 520, 1314¹.

I photographed every single transaction.

I stayed calm the whole time.

Even remembered to mark their chat window as unread before exiting.

Footnote:

1. 199, 520, 1314(199, 520, 1314): Numbers used in Chinese internet slang for their phonetic resemblance to romantic phrases: 520 sounds like “I love you”; 1314 sounds like “for a lifetime/forever”; 199 (especially “99”) sounds like “long-lasting/forever.”