I opened the door to my house.

The whole place was quiet.

There was no reply to the messages I sent to Aya on my phone, as if they'd sunk into the sea.

I felt a headache, my head was dull as if it had been hit.

First, because of that police officer who seemed to be a murderer.

Second, the appearance of Fang Haoyan reminded me of some unpleasant past.

This entanglement with Fang Haoyan started during university.

The young and impetuous me had made it from a poor and desolate small town to the economically leading Haicheng, and I felt incredibly proud of myself.

There were many pretty girls at the university.

Even though I had always been a top student and remarkably good-looking, the "child everyone else compared their kids to".

But in Haicheng, I gradually became mediocre.

Fang Haoyan was different...

From the moment he appeared at the school in his luxury car, everyone knew the future school prince had arrived.

Handsome, wealthy, with an impressive personality.

Yet such an excellent man fell in love with me at first sight.

Everyone said he was blind. Perhaps I was too, at that time.

He pursued me persistently for two years.

It was like the story of a prince meeting Cinderella.

Cinderella was supposed to be grateful for the prince's arrival.

Everyone thought I should love Fang Haoyan, even Fang Haoyan himself thought I rejected his confession because I felt inferior due to my family background.

But only I knew, I didn't like him from the beginning.

I was angry at those who gossiped about me, and I couldn't stop Fang Haoyan from reinvigorating himself every time I turned him down.

All I could do was treat him with indifference.

But everything came to an abrupt end in my junior year.

It was as if fate played a huge joke on me.

My parents died in a car accident due to fatigue driving...

They also caused the other party to be seriously injured and hospitalized, requiring a large amount of medical compensation.

Later, it was Fang Haoyan who drove me home and helped handle the aftermath.

He rejected my decision to sell the family house, telling me that he would cover the expenses, but I shouldn't sell the house!

If the house was sold, the Jiang family would truly be scattered...

At that moment, looking at his exhausted profile, but noticing the hidden stars in his eyes when he looked at me.

He held my hand tightly, as if firmly telling me—

He wouldn't leave.

Somehow, I decided to be with this boy.

*

I came to work as usual and found my colleagues avoiding my gaze.

I had a bad feeling in my heart.

Sure enough.

The director told me that the higher-ups thought my overall work performance in the past two years was not satisfactory, so I was asked to take a break and go to the HR department to collect last month's salary.

I laughed out loud and pushed open the door to the president's office under everyone's astonished gaze.

Fang Haoyan was sitting in the leather chair, looking at me with a half-smile.

It seemed he wanted to humiliate me and watch my reaction in this way.

I told him calmly, "Fang Haoyan, I quit."

Our gazes locked together.

In the gaps that time had passed, we had already missed each other's life traces.

I didn't remember how I faced the scorching sun when I left the company and went home.

I only knew that I was so tired... really tired...

In this precious land of Haicheng, unemployment is self-explanatory.

I thought, I probably have to pack up and go back to my hometown to find Aya...

That might be good too...

At least then I wouldn't have to constantly worry about that murderer coming to find me again.