Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I was fired on the spot by the hotel manager.

It wasn’t a surprise.

I changed out of my uniform, took back my old coat, and headed out through the employee exit.

Hurried footsteps echoed behind me.

“Wen Qiao.”

I didn’t stop.

Lu Chenzhou caught up and grabbed my shoulder.

“Stop.”

I shook off his hand.

“Mr. Lu, you have a fiancée waiting for you inside.”

His expression was grim.

“Who arranged for you to be here?”

“I told you, the manager reassigned me.”

“Which manager?”

“If you want to investigate, go ahead.”

He fell silent for two seconds, his voice dropping even lower.

“Why didn’t you come to find me?”

That question actually made me laugh.

The wind at the hotel’s back door was freezing.

Wrapped in my thin coat, my shoulders shook with laughter.

“Find you?”

“What for?”

“To watch you get engaged?”

Fire flickered in the depths of Lu Chenzhou’s eyes.

“Four years ago, you made such a clean break.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking at him. “And you were pretty quick to get engaged, too.”

It was as if he had been slapped across the face.

His complexion turned pale instantly.

“Wen Qiao.”

“Don’t call me that.”

I took a step back.

“It wouldn’t be good if your fiancée heard you.”

He gritted his teeth.

“I haven’t touched her.”

I froze for a moment.

Then, I found it absurd.

“Whether you’ve touched her or not, what does that have to do with me?”

“It does.”

He took a step forward.

“Wen Qiao, it matters.”

The calm in his eyes was beginning to crumble.

He had always been like this.

The more he lost control, the lower his voice became.

It was as if he was afraid that once he spoke, all his vulnerability and embarrassment would be exposed.

I was intimately familiar with this side of him.

And I feared it most.

Because I had softened my heart for him countless times before.

I clenched my fingers.

“Lu Chenzhou, I only came here to work today.”

“Whether you’re getting engaged or married, it has nothing to do with me.”

He stared at me.

“Then why did you call me ‘Mr. Lu’ just now?”

I blinked, stunned.

“What?”

“You only used to call me that when you were angry.”

His voice turned raspy.

“You still remember.”

In that moment, I almost wanted to hurl my bag at his face.

What right did he have?

What right did he have to use that tone four years later, reminding me of how close we once were?

I said coldly, “Mr. Lu, people have linguistic habits.”

“Don’t think so highly of yourself.”

He was speechless.

I turned to leave.

He blocked my path once more.

“What about your brother?”

My footsteps halted.

“Are you investigating me?”

“I’m not.”

“Then why are you asking?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Before you left back then, he was waiting for surgery.”

My heart felt as if it had been suddenly seized by a hand.

So he remembered.

He remembered everything.

And yet, he still let four years pass.

I looked up and said, syllable by syllable, “Thanks to the Lu family, he’s still alive.”

Lu Chenzhou’s face changed completely.

I didn’t want to look at him anymore.

This time, I walked away quickly.

He didn’t chase after me.