Chapter 1

I can see how many times I have left to meet someone.

For most people, the number is one. For the boy I grew up with, it was 31,441.

So ever since we were little, I’d treated him as a husband I was raising for myself.

I even taught him the Three Obediences and Four Virtues—traditional rules for a dutiful wife, rewritten for my future husband—and kept tabs on everything he did.

Ji Chenfeng found me annoying. More than once, he tried to set me up with someone else.

“Stop making up lies about how many times we’ll see each other, little shadow.”

His eyes were smiling. His words stung.

“My roommate’s good-looking, too. Try getting to know someone else.”

He took out his phone and scrolled through his photos. A picture of him with another pretty boy flashed past before he reached the one of his roommate.

“He’s a bit quiet, but he’s a decent guy. You’re always clinging to me—”

I stared at the long string of digits above the boy’s head in the photo.

For the first time, I said yes.

“Then send me his contact.”

I pulled out my phone. Ji Chenfeng went deathly pale.

The number above his own head had fallen to nine.

……

The moment I held out my phone, Ji Chenfeng abruptly switched off his screen.

I looked up at him.

“Battery’s dead. Some other time.”

He looked pale. In my vision, the digits above his head kept counting backward.

At last, they stopped at nine.

Something slammed into my chest, but I didn’t tell him.

When he saw me staring at him without blinking, some color returned to his face. He curved his lips and picked up the umbrella beside him.

“Come on. Let’s go home.”

It was Friday. A fine rain pattered against the ground, scattering ripples.

“That boy on your phone. Was that Zhang Ming?” I asked quietly.

He stiffened beside me, then sighed.

“We took it at the last club event. Forgot to delete it.”

“We’re not even dating. You’re always policing everything I do…”

His impatience silenced me. The ache in my chest still tugged at me, but it eased a little when I saw the number above his head.

“I was only making conversation…”

I wasn’t planning to keep tabs on him anymore.

It was just that, for the first time, the walk home seemed so long.

I’d brought it up because I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

After all, I knew now that Ji Chenfeng and I had no future together.

Of course I had no right to tell him what to do.

But his expression darkened further.

“You know perfectly well whether you were just making conversation. All these years, I haven’t been allowed a single friend besides you.”

He’d always gone along with it before. Only recently had he started resisting.

“Then make some more friends. I won’t interfere.”

I hadn’t spoken loudly, but his breathing suddenly grew heavier.

Veins stood out on the hand gripping the umbrella. He was about to say something when his phone rang.

Zhang Ming’s name flashed on the screen. Ji Chenfeng didn’t answer. He simply held the phone stiffly, his dark gaze fixed on me.

Before, I would have frowned and made a fuss.

I would have made him recite our rules before I forgave him, then snatched his phone away and hung up.

Now, I watched for a few seconds and looked away.

The call rang out. Zhang Ming’s next message appeared clearly on the screen.

*Ji Chenfeng, did you bring an umbrella? I’m downstairs outside the dorm. If you’re free, could you come get me?*

“So you’re really not going to stop me?”

Ji Chenfeng’s jaw was tight.

“Then I’m actually going.”

I nodded, took the umbrella from the side pocket of my backpack, and opened it over myself.

Only when his back disappeared from view did I slowly lower my eyes.

Fate had played one hell of a joke on me.