Chapter 17

Shen Yuxiu slammed his fist against the wall. Crimson blood dripped down, staining his eyes red.

His fist clenched tightly, then loosened, and he forced a faint, bitter smile. “Yinshan Residence-the property deed has always had your name on it.”

I stared at him in astonishment.

He continued, “Do you want a Rolls-Royce? I’ll have someone pick one up for you later. Whatever else you want, just tell me. Don’t fight with me. You know what I want you to say.”

To be honest, I was moved for a fleeting moment. But only for a moment.

The past is the past.

“Shen Yuxiu, on your 28th birthday, I arrived early at the venue and overheard what you said.”

Shen Yuxiu’s body trembled. He looked at me in disbelief, as if he wanted to say something, but his mouth opened only to fall silent.

I shook my head with a smile and repeated his words: “Song Zhiwei is very beautiful, but she’s just for fun.  As for marriage, I have someone else in mind.”

“We were just playing around. And right before you decided to get married, I sensibly stepped away. Isn’t everything unfolding exactly as you wanted? What more could you possibly be dissatisfied with?”

Shen Yuxiu looked utterly defeated. “Ming Rao and I aren’t what you think. I only asked her to play along with me. I thought you didn’t care about me anymore and wanted to make you jealous. That day, I was just being flippant. The one I truly love, the one I want to marry, has always been you.”

I froze. “If you’d said that six months ago, I would have cried.”

I had imagined countless times the scene of myself walking down the aisle in a wedding dress to marry him. All of it shattered on that day.

“You wonder why I didn’t act on it? I know the reason. Because deep down, you look down on me. A gold-digging actress-what right does she have to be proposed to by someone as lofty as you? Of course, she has to beg and grovel to marry you; only then would she be worthy of your status.”

“You waited for me to use the necklace to force you into marrying me, so you could convince yourself that you were merely keeping a promise, not acting out of genuine affection. You were just pitying me, granting me the title of ‘wife’ as an act of charity.”

“To you, I was a pet. You could spoil me, treat me well. When a pet leaves, of course the owner feels sad. But a pet and its owner can never be equals.”

Pain filled Shen Yuxiu’s eyes. “Don’t demean yourself.”

I said, “I’m not demeaning myself. You’re the one who belittled me!”

After I paid off my debts, I spent all the money I had left to buy him a Patek Philippe watch.

1.28 million.

Shen Yuxiu never wore it. Later, I found out why-it was too cheap.

The least expensive watch he had ever worn was a Richard Mille worth 12 million. What I gave him barely covered the rounding error.

Yet that was the pinnacle of what I could imagine.

To Shen Yuxiu, I was like that watch-unpresentable and unworthy of the spotlight.

“You said we were just playing around. Fine. You helped me a lot; you could say everything I have is because of you. So, I played along with you.”

“You wanted to get engaged? No problem. I wouldn’t ruin your marriage, so I left on my own accord.”

“And now, what are you doing? When I loved you, you said it was just a game. When I gave up my illusions and played along, you said you loved me. What is this? A love time lag?”

“But it’s too late. In our last six months together, every time you treated me well, I thought to myself, ‘What a great sugar daddy you are.'”

“Seeing you hurt me and the people around me for Ming Rao, I thought, ‘That’s normal. After all, we’re just playing around. How could I ever compare to your future wife?'”

“Watching you propose to her, I thought, ‘What a perfect match. She would never give you a gift that’s unpresentable.'”

“I don’t even dare to believe you when you say you want to marry me. I’m afraid that if I agree, your friends will suddenly appear, followed by their mocking laughter.”

“Shen Yuxiu, you see, even if we truly got back together, I would always remember that I am beneath you in your eyes. I don’t want that. The past is the past. In the future, I want to live with my head held high.”

Shen Yuxiu stood there for a long time, stunned, before finally mustering a single sentence: “I’m sorry.”