Twists in life are like this: if they cannot tear two people apart, they only draw them closer.
This rule fit Su Ziyan and Xu Duyan perfectly.
After a busy half-day, Su Ziyan finally lay on the clean bed.
A sense of exhaustion washed over him, and he suddenly felt incredibly sleepy.
As drowsiness set in, his memories accelerated.
Countless intimate scenes between the two flashed by like a super-fast montage.
Their life together afterward hadn’t been simple or mundane; they had encountered many things and crossed paths with various people for better or worse.
But no matter the twists and turns, they would always end up sitting on the sofa together, watching TV while eating dinner.
Xu Duyan often leaned against the back of the sofa to tease Su Ziyan, but the effect gradually diminished as Su Ziyan grew up.
In the end, it was she who would “attack” him out of frustration, only for Su Ziyan to pin her down until she begged for mercy.
This daily routine had long since become second nature, as if they would always stand by each other’s side without hesitation, no matter what happened.
They were always this inseparable.
Sometimes, Su Ziyan even felt that they were closer than siblings — more like lovers.
But perhaps that was just his delusion.
After all, as year followed year, he was certain that he liked Xu Duyan.
An elder sister’s actions could indeed tug at a boy’s heartstrings.
Thus, after the College Entrance Examination ended, Xu Duyan happily drank a great deal of alcohol.
In her drunken state, the two of them shared many intimate and impulsive moments…
The next day, Xu Duyan tried to act as if nothing had happened, but Su Ziyan confessed to her…
Xu Duyan only hesitated for a single moment before rejecting him.
Afterward, Su Ziyan confessed many more times, but without exception, the result was always rejection.
Until his junior year of college, when Su Ziyan met Cheng Qingyun, he never confessed to his Sister again.
He told her he had found a girlfriend — a very good girl who was small and cute, a Legal Loli, though quite shy.
At that time, he looked into Xu Duyan’s eyes.
He couldn’t decipher the complex emotions within them — regret, sadness, and relief all twisted together into an indistinguishable tangle.
Finally, they settled into a forced smile.
“Then, congratulations…”
Xu Duyan’s voice was as soft as fragile, cracking ice.
“Isn’t that wonderful? Later, if you’re sure about her, bring her back to meet me.”
However, in their lives during his visits home, the two of them never spoke of Cheng Qingyun again.
Everything went on as usual.
Previously, Xu Duyan would always have Su Ziyan sit by her legs and gently massage his temples.
Back then, after every massage, she would joke, ‘Once you have a girlfriend, we won’t be able to do this anymore. You should be lying on your girlfriend’s lap instead.’
Later, after Su Ziyan confessed to her, that joke changed to, ‘Don’t get any ideas. I’m just giving you a massage. Don’t think of it in an ambiguous way, like a Knee Pillow.’
Once Su Ziyan actually had a girlfriend, she stopped making those jokes altogether.
Yet, she would still let Su Ziyan lie on her lap and would still suddenly hug him from behind while he was cooking…
She no longer made those slightly ambiguous jokes; she simply performed those intimate, couple-like actions in silence… and Su Ziyan said nothing, responding only with his own silence.
It was a mutual, unspoken understanding.
And after that… what happened after that?
His consciousness felt as if it were sinking into a cold sea, and Su Ziyan drifted off to sleep.
***
When he woke up, it was already the following day.
Su Ziyan prepared to pack his things and head home.
The only reason he had stayed in this city was to be with Cheng Qingyun.
Now that they had broken up, there was no reason to stay.
His birthday was in two weeks.
If he went home, he could still eat the Chocolate Cake his sister ordered for him.
He wondered if Xu Duyan would give him a kiss to comfort him if he told her he was heartbroken over the breakup.
As for his source of income, because he had made a large sum of money writing novels during college, he was now a Full-time Writer.
At most, he would occasionally work as a Residency Singer in a bar when he felt bored.
Moving to a different city wouldn’t affect him at all.
No sooner said than done.
He booked a flight for the afternoon, sent messages to both his Sister and Cheng Qingyun, and began packing.
He didn’t expect that Cheng Qingyun would see his message immediately.
This woman, who bore a striking facial resemblance to Xu Duyan but had the body of a loli, was suffering from a rare bout of insomnia.
She had always been a smart person who could easily control her own emotions and the emotions of others.
Logically, she shouldn’t be losing sleep.
She certainly shouldn’t be losing sleep out of anger over a breakup.
But now, she was truly, deeply angry.
She had been so furious that she hadn’t slept all night.
No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t understand why her happy visit to Su Ziyan had resulted in him dumping her.
What made her even angrier was the timing.
From the moment she entered the house and they began kissing, everything between them had been passionate and inseparable.
Yet, he had the nerve to suggest breaking up immediately after?
He had turned a mundane breakup into a “breakup bang.”
Even worse, most people have a “breakup bang” after deciding to split.
How could he finish the act and then immediately bring up breaking up?
Was he even human?
If he wanted to break up, he shouldn’t have done it!
And so, Cheng Qingyun — who had been exceptionally intelligent since childhood, played with people’s hearts, and had never suffered any major grievances — felt her mind go wild with rage despite her expressionless face.
She was completely sleepless.
She lay silently in bed staring at the ceiling, having stayed up all night.
By the time she snapped out of it, it was already time for breakfast.
She was hungry, but she was too lazy to get up and order takeout, and there was no one to cook for her.
She was currently in the process of gradually inheriting her father’s company, so her schedule fluctuated between being extremely busy and having periods of leisure.
When busy, she lived at the company; when free, she would go to Su Ziyan’s place to find her boyfriend.
When working at the company, her father’s former trusted secretary, that Aunt of hers, would prepare delicious meals for her at mealtimes.
The problem was that she was currently in a period of leisure.
She had planned to go to Su Ziyan’s house to eat his home-cooked food!
After the breakup last night, she was too ashamed to go home.
She could only slink back to her private room in the office in the middle of the night, take a shower, and go to bed.
Having experienced such an ordeal, she naturally wouldn’t call her secretary to come take care of her.
It was simply too embarrassing.
Even with her thick skin, she couldn’t bring herself to tell the Aunt who had watched her grow up that she had gone to see her boyfriend in the middle of the night, only to get dumped and forced to run back in shame.