The moment I grasped the situation, I lunged fiercely toward the door. But before I could take a single step, two massive hands gripped my shoulder.

  I struggled, my gaze fixed on the figure barely visible through the sliver between the door and its frame.

  "Liang… Liang'er—"

  Before I could finish pronouncing her name, my body was violently hurled to the ground.

  Bam!

  The impact rattled my entire frame.

  "Argh…!"

  I fell face-first, completely helpless. A second ter, my head was smmed against the floor. The world spun, and drops of blood began to slide down my face; I could barely make out the conversation that followed.

  "Boss, what do we do with him?" asked the other man in a suit, the one pinning my head down.

  "Throw him out," Lin Hai ordered with indifference.

  At that moment, the suite doors swung wide open. A figure emerged with hurried steps. It was Su Liang'er. Her breathing was ragged, her hair disheveled, and her cheeks were flushed.

  She passed right by me. Without looking at me. Without stopping. Without saying a single word. As I watched her silhouette vanish toward the elevator, a piercing pain settled in my chest.

  ***

  "Get lost already!" the guard roared as he shoved me forcefully onto the pavement.

  I fell to my knees on the asphalt, but I didn't feel the physical pain. My mind was trapped in that room, on that silhouette, on that silver bracelet. With trembling hands, I pulled out my phone and quickly dialed Liang'er's number. I needed her to tell me it was a lie. That it was a mistake.

  Tuut... tuut... The number you have dialed is currently out of service.

  "Dammit... Dammit!" I cursed, smming my fist against the ground.

  I stood up and began to run. I had no fixed direction; I just knew I couldn't stay still. I ran under the scorching sun for what felt like hours, only stopping to rest when the sun began to set, tinting the city in shades of orange. My uniform clung to my body with sweat and dust. I had hundreds of messages from Boss Lan; I would almost certainly be fired after today, but right now was not the time to worry about a job.

  After catching my breath, I moved again. I dodged pedestrians who looked at me with loathing and crossed streets without gncing at the traffic lights, hearing the screech of brakes and the insults of drivers. But I didn't care.

  "Where are you? Where did you go, Liang'er?"

  Two hours passed. My legs were bucking with exhaustion. I stopped for a moment and colpsed onto a bench. I took out my phone and dialed again. Once, five times, ten times. But nothing; the same message kept repeating:

  The number you have dialed is currently out of service.

  An hour after that, the city was already submerged in bright lights that hid the moon. Even so, I didn't stop.

  Tuut... tuut...

  The instant the sound changed, my heart gave a violent leap. The call went through.

  "Hello?" her voice sounded on the other end. So clear, so calm.

  "Thank God!" I exhaled, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to catch my breath. My vocal cords were dry. "Liang'er, are you... okay? Where are you?! Tell me where you are right now!"

  "At the office," she replied. Her tone was the same as always: ft and devoid of any emotion.

  "Office?" I repeated, bewildered. "Liang'er, I was just at the hotel... I saw... I'm coming there right now, wait for me, I—"

  "No!" her voice cut through the air. "I'm in an important meeting. Don't you dare come here, Lin Feng."

  I gripped the phone so hard it creaked.

  "I understand... but I need to see you. We have to talk about... about that bastard, Qin Moshen. I know what he did to you, I know he forced you, I—"

  There was a brief, eternal silence, so thick I could hear her breathing on the other side.

  "I want to break up," she said finally, shattering the atmosphere.

  "Break up?" my voice cracked. "What are you talking about? We have an engagement, Liang'er. Our grandfathers—"

  "I want to cancel the engagement, Lin Feng. It's over. I don't want to marry you."

  The noise of the city vanished instantly, and in the midst of this abyss, there was only her and me.

  "Liang'er, listen to me... you don't have to be afraid of him. If he's threatening you, if this is because of what happened in the suite... we can report him. I will advocate for you, I don't care about him or his family, you—"

  "Enough!" she interrupted firmly. "Stop making a fool of yourself. Young Master Qin didn't do anything... that I didn't consent to. Do you understand? Nothing."

  My world went dark for an instant.

  "What? Liang'er... what are you saying!?"

  "Exactly what you heard," her voice was now as sharp as a knife. "I've wanted to end this for a long time, but I didn't know how to do it without damaging my family's reputation. But it doesn't matter anymore... Lin Feng, look at yourself. You're just a delivery boy, a poor devil who can barely support himself. If it weren't for that old debt between our families, I would never have stooped so low as to be with someone like you."

  I clenched my fists until blood began to ooze from my palms. Her words hurt more than any blow I had ever suffered in my life.

  "Listen," she continued. "In consideration of these three years you wasted with me, I will transfer 5 million to you. Consider it payment for your services. With that, we no longer owe each other anything."

  The moment her words fell, a dry vibration shook the phone against my ear. I lowered the device with a movement slower than usual. The screen, smeared with sweat, lit up with a clear notification:

  [CENTRAL BANK: Transfer received +5,000,000. Sender: Su Liang'er]

  I stared at the figure on the shattered screen. My eyes blinked, struggling to process what I was seeing.

  Three years.

  One thousand and ninety-five days of effort, of saving every penny for a future together, of promises we whispered... and yet, she threw it all away.