Chapter 1
Han Siyu's eyes flew wide open. He was soaked and sticky, red wine dripping down his face and clothes. He sat in a dazed state for a moment before snapping back to reality. Looking around, a wave of bitter familiarity washed over him—oh, far too familiar. He had spent seven years remembering this exact day, and now that he was back, it felt as though it had happened only yesterday.
"Han Siyu, I'm tired of this. I'm very sorry, but I don't feel the same about you anymore."
Han Siyu looked at him with icy indifference, then shifted his gaze to the smaller, more petite boy standing uncomfortably close at his side.
Then he looked at the face of... what was his name again? Ah, yes. Li Qiang. The man expressed no guilt whatsoever, looking at Han Siyu as though he were the one in the wrong.
"I've heard about your engagement to Lei YuChen," Li Qiang said angrily. "How could you?"
Whispers rippled through the party guests as Li Qiang spoke, already murmuring insults directed at Han Siyu. In the past, Han Siyu would have panicked, desperately trying to explain himself. Instead, he had only been rebuked, humiliated, and driven into reclusiveness, too ashamed to step out in public.
Han Siyu looked back on his past self with a mixture of disbelief and shame. This man? What on earth did I ever see in him back then?
"And your point is?" Han Siyu asked flatly.
Li Qiang was taken aback by Han Siyu's coldness. Was this really the same person who had clung to him so desperately just yesterday? Right now, Han Siyu was looking at him as if he were a complete stranger—or a corpse.
"You're not even going to deny it?" Li Qiang demanded furiously.
Han Siyu merely pointed a finger at the person cowering next to him.
"You don't seem to be denying the thing standing right beside you, either," Han Siyu said with a faint, mocking smile. "So the feeling's mutual. I'm glad we're on the same page."
Li Qiang was left entirely speechless. This was not how things were supposed to go! Why was Han Siyu so indifferent? Without waiting for a reply, Han Siyu began to peel off his milk-white jacket, now thoroughly ruined by red wine, and tossed it right onto the petite boy.
"Oh, I'll need you to pay for the dry cleaning, Mr. Whatever-your-name-is," Han Siyu smiled. "Don't think you can wash that stain out."
He turned to walk away, but Li Qiang scoffed behind him.
"Ha! You think pretending not to care will make me want you back? Not in a lifetime!"
Han Siyu didn't bother to dignify that with a response. But the moment he spotted Lei YuChen walking through the entrance, a genuine smile touched his lips. He strode past Li Qiang without sparing him another glance.
Lei YuChen's father and Han Siyu's father were close friends and business partners, so naturally, they had wanted to tie their families together. Growing up, Han Siyu had intensely disliked Lei YuChen.
He had always viewed him as a creep who wouldn't stop staring at him. He had called Lei YuChen out on it multiple times, yet the staring never ceased. From kindergarten, elementary, and junior high to high school, they had been forced into the same schools. It wasn't until college that Han Siyu finally caught a break from him—and promptly fell headfirst into his toxic relationship with Li Qiang.
That romance hadn't lasted, of course. Their relationship had fractured because Han Siyu refused to give up his purity before marriage, while Li Qiang was essentially a stray dog in human skin. Li Qiang had sworn up and down that he loved him, playing the devoted boyfriend for three whole years—right up until today, when Han Siyu finally discovered he had already deflowered someone else: Zhi Xiasheng.
Zhi Xiasheng was the protagonist of the novel. One fateful night, after being drugged, he had crossed paths with Li Qiang in a classic, cliché-ridden "accidental" encounter.
After that, the two men kept "coincidentally" running into each other, their romance blossoming until Li Qiang inevitably dumped his current partner (Han Siyu) to ride off into the sunset with the protagonist.
As for Lei YuChen, he had always loathed Li Qiang. The exact reasons were a mystery, but the two men had constantly been at each other's throats. In his past life, Han Siyu had fought tooth and nail against marrying Lei YuChen. When the marriage finally happened, Han Siyu had spent his days locked away from the world, projecting all his misery onto Lei YuChen and blaming him for the end of his relationship.
Looking back, Han Siyu realized just how stupid he had been. Lei YuChen hadn't done a single thing wrong.
