Chapter 17

Cheng Yedu asked to meet me.

He looked stern, staring at me as if I were a criminal.

“Fang Xiaolin said you’re going to MIT. Is it true?”

“It is.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” he demanded, firing off questions. “We were together for a year, and you never mentioned it once. Lin Zhixia, what do you take me for?”

He looked utterly betrayed, as if I were the worst kind of person.

But he was the one who used me to fill his time while waiting for his old flame to return.

In our relationship, I was completely faithful. I never cheated or used him as a substitute. I was just trying to build a better future for myself.

He sneered.

“You played your cards perfectly, didn’t you? You claimed to love me, and you made all my friends think I was treating you poorly! But the truth is, you had this planned all along. You just used me as a stepping stone!”

“What am I to you? You earned all that money and never spent a dime on me! Was I just a vibrator? A disposable condom you threw away after you were done?”

His accusations were getting out of hand. I tried to defend myself.

“You used me as a placeholder, too. You were waiting for your old flame, and I was waiting to save enough money for my studies. We don’t owe each other anything.”

He lost it. “But you used me for free! And you lived in my apartment!”

Everyone in the coffee shop turned to look at us. Someone started filming.

Fearing he might demand back rent, I quickly tried to placate him.

“Don’t talk about yourself like that. It was love at first sight for me. You were very important to me.”

After we got together, the grind of saving money didn’t feel so hard anymore. I was in a good mood every day.

When we walked down the street together, people would look at me with envy, and it fed my vanity in the best way.

…

Just then, a sharp female voice cut through the air.

“Lin Zhixia, have you no shame? He has a girlfriend, and you’re still trying to seduce him!”

I frowned. “Ji Tangli, did they teach you to talk like that in America, or were you just born without manners?”

She had just started a job at an institution where personal conduct was highly scrutinized. If she wanted a fight, I was ready. I didn’t mind if this little drama of two women fighting over a man went viral.

There were plenty of details that wouldn’t look good for her.

The academic world, especially abroad, doesn’t care about things like this.

As long as you’re not sleeping with your advisor or your student, any romantic scandal is just a colorful footnote to your achievements.

I added more fuel to the fire.

“I really love Cheng Yedu. Is it a crime to love someone?”

“If you truly loved him, you wouldn’t have broken up with him after high school graduation. Do you have any idea how heartbroken he was? I was the only one who cared.”

“Lin Zhixia, you’re shameless!” Ji Tangli grabbed a glass of water to throw at me, but then she saw someone filming. She lunged at the bystander, trying to knock the phone out of their hand, and a scuffle quickly broke out.

I picked up the single rose from the vase on our table and handed it to Cheng Yedu.

“This is the last time I’ll fight over you with another woman.”

“Goodbye, ex-boyfriend.”