I asked back, "If my best friend says that Chiyu is my lapdog, and marrying you is like keeping a dog, playing with it when happy, kicking it when angry. If I don't stop them but instead laugh and drink, would you be happy? Do you think I still love you?"

Chiyu choked.

"You see, the same thing happens to me, and you think it's a joke, saying I'm too sensitive and should be more generous. But when it happens to you, you don't think it's a joke anymore? You think my best friend is insulting you, right?"

He remained silent for a while and said, "I would also get angry, I would dislike your friends. But I wouldn't break up because I value our relationship more."

I chuckled, "Chiyu, don't you understand yet? If I let my best friend insult you without stopping or interfering, it means I don't love you anymore. The same goes for you. If you let your friends insult me, it means you haven't loved me for a long time. Even if we get married, we may not grow old together."

He tried to explain desperately, "It's not like that, Yueyue, I really love you..."

I interrupted him, "True love means that even when we were just falling in love, you wouldn't allow anyone to speak ill of me, even when I'm not around."

In the early years of our relationship, I often went to see him and heard his roommate comparing me to the campus belle.

In university, I was just an ordinary student, not some popular beauty.

But Chiyu was outstanding, one of the campus heartthrobs, and many girls liked him.

So many people couldn't understand why he would like me.

One time, I heard him stopping his friends from gossiping about me.

His voice was firm, "In my heart, Chen Yue is the best. No other girl is as lovely as her. I love her optimism. No matter how big my troubles are, as long as I see her, my mood improves. That's why I love her. From now on, I don't want to hear you say anything bad about her, or else, we'll end our friendship!"

Now, just thinking about those words from him still makes my heart race.

I loved him so much for being like that.

However, in just seven years, he changed.

For him, I might have become only a responsibility.

Because after seven years of being together, he felt he owed me an explanation.

He proposed to me on one hand, willing to marry me, but on the other hand, he allowed his friends to insult me.

I said, "Chiyu, you're not the same person anymore, so I don't love you."

He couldn't say anything and could only watch me leave silently.