Chapter 3

In my junior year of college, I went to Country M as an exchange student. At a gathering for international students, I met Shen Yuxiu.

There’s a hierarchy among international students as well. He stood at the very top, admired by all, always the center of attention. Even the venue for the party was his penthouse apartment.

As for me, I was the unlucky soul who got pushed into the pool by a suitor, who, after being rejected, lashed out in anger. My bikini was also torn off in the struggle.

Hunched over, I shrank into a corner, enduring everyone’s stares-angry, embarrassed, so mortified I wished I could drown myself.

They whispered about whether I had done it on purpose, if this ordinary student was trying to use her looks and body to play the victim and climb the social ladder.

Shen Yuxiu descended like a god from the heavens, draped a bathrobe over me, and bent down to say, “Go tidy up in the restroom.”

Looking at his face, I suddenly felt my heart race.

My heart was pounding so loudly I could hear it myself-I wondered if he could hear it too.

I tightened the bathrobe around myself and whispered, “Thank you.”

I hurried into the restroom to change.

When I came back out, I saw the person who had pushed me into the pool and yanked off my bikini laughing and joking in the crowd.

I stormed over, grabbed his hair, and shoved his head into the water-forcing him from cursing and shouting, to begging for mercy, to sobbing uncontrollably, crying out for me to spare him.

Finally, I yanked off his swim trunks and flung them away.

When I let him go, he didn’t dare look at me, scrambling off in embarrassment to find his trunks.

I lifted my chin high like a victor, full of pride.

Then I turned around-only to meet Shen Yuxiu’s amused gaze.

My mind went blank in an instant. That’s it, would he think I was too fierce?

Later, Shen Yuxiu told me that what he liked most was the way I pressed that guy’s head into the water, proud as a peacock.

Between us, it was him who started things.

It was his passionate pursuit, his confession, his public declaration of my place by his side.

Even after I entered the entertainment industry, he cleared the way for me, bent down to make a path, helping me climb higher step by step.

But in the end, he was also the one who personally shattered my delusions.