Chapter 1 No More Self-Degradation
“Sheila Emerson, once a woman passes thirty, she’s just waiting to be picked over. While you still have some assets, hurry up and find a good family to marry into.”
Clutching two bottles of Louis XIII, Sheila stood in the noisy club hallway, impatiently saying, “Mom, I have a boyfriend. I’m not going on a blind date with you.”
“What boyfriend? That penniless wretch of yours?”
“Sheila, wake up! Five years ago, he said he was saving money to buy a house! And you believe that crap?”
“Mom! Stop it! This year, at the end of the year, we’ll definitely buy a house and get married.”
Sheila angrily hung up the phone, wiping away the tears in the corner of her eyes.
In fact, because he was poor, Kane had never mentioned marriage to her.
And she had quietly worked hard for six years, only two thousand away from owning a house in the precious capital.
Sheila was a down-to-earth person, never thinking about those unrealistic things.
And so was her boyfriend, Kane Maxwell, who worked three jobs every day, just to give her a stable home.
Thinking of this, her heart was filled with happiness.
Sheila picked up the two bottles of Louis XIII, secretly cheering herself on.
She would drink herself to death tonight to secure the collaboration!
But as she passed a slightly ajar carved copper door, she suddenly heard a girl’s voice from inside.
“The other day I went to Otter Bay to look at houses, guess who I ran into?”
“Haha, Sheila, she went there to look at houses too, but the price scared her away. You should have seen how ridiculous she looked then.”
“She’s really a bit dumb, still thinking that Kane isn’t marrying her because he’s poor.”
Sheila’s eyes widened in disbelief as she crept closer to the door.
“It’s not really Sheila’s fault, right? You can only blame our brother for acting too well. Look at the rags he wears every day.”
Sheila had never seen the people speaking inside. She comforted herself with a lucky thought.
It must be a coincidence, someone with the same name, they weren’t talking about her.
But the next second, a man wearing a black alpaca coat casually strolled from the other side and sat down.
Although his back was to the door, Sheila immediately recognized the back of her boyfriend of six years. The alpaca coat he was wearing cost over five thousand yuan. The rags they were talking about were her birthday gift to him, which she had saved up for months to buy.
Sheila’s beautiful face gradually lost color, and her knuckles turned white as she gripped the wine bottles tightly.
Then the man leaned back on the sofa with a carefree attitude, his long legs stretched out casually, revealing half of his handsome face.
He played with a gold lighter in his hand, his thin lips slightly raised in a subtle smile, “I just think it’s fun, what’s it to you?”
“Didn’t you say you were just playing around? It seems like you’re getting more and more into it, or have you really fallen for the ramen princess?”
“Tch!” Kane lazily glanced at Kelsey, “Do you think that’s possible?”
Kelsey scoffed, “Impossible? Who was it that dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night, asking me to help with that thrifty app? If you bother me while I’m sleeping again, I’m ending our friendship.”
Another man agreed, “Exactly! I was trying to pick up a girl that day, and he actually made me download that thrifty app. Do you know how embarrassing it was to be seen?”
Kelsey asked again, “When are you planning to come clean with the ramen princess? Don’t forget, you have a fiancée.”
Kane lit a cigarette, his face expressionless, “I can’t get married for a while.”
“Huh? You haven’t had enough fun yet? The ramen princess is twenty-six this year, right?”
“Are you going to squander all of her youth?”
“The ramen princess is so pitiful, remember to give her some extra money as compensation when you’re tired of playing with her.”
Kane gently exhaled a puff of smoke, his face expressionless, “Why are you talking so much today?”
He even had a fiancée!
Sheila stared intently at Kane, wanting to rush out and demand an explanation, or beat him up, but her whole body was shaking, and her throat felt like it was being strangled. When she opened her mouth, a cold wind rushed in, causing her a sharp pain, and she couldn’t make a sound.
How much she wished Kane could say: It’s not playing around, I want to marry Sheila, I was forced to lie to her until now.
But he didn’t.
Six years of intense love and selfless devotion were just a joke in his circle.
Sheila stood near the door of the private room, the cold air from the window penetrating every inch of her skin, eroding her bones, hurting her knees so much that she couldn’t straighten them.
She took out her phone and called Kane.
Inside the private room, Kane glanced at the screen and raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet.
Someone immediately suggested, “Put it on speakerphone, let us see how devoted the ramen princess is to Kane.”
Two or three people echoed.
“Yeah!”
“Let us learn a thing or two.”
Seeing Kane indifferently put it on speakerphone, Sheila’s heart stabbed again, and she even hated herself for being so pathetic as to make this call.
Her voice was slightly hoarse, “Still delivering food?”
Kane’s tone was full of tenderness and doting, “Sheila, there are a lot of orders tonight, you rest early, don’t wait for me.”
Someone mimicked in a low voice, “Sheila... Kane is so gentle.”
Kane glared back without changing expression, his eyes as cold as a deep pool, and the person immediately lowered their head in submission.
But Kane noticed something was wrong and asked in a deep voice, “What’s wrong with your voice... Have you been crying? Who bullied you?”
The familiar tone and concern made her tears immediately fall uncontrollably, “Kane... My mom is urging me to go on blind dates and get married, but I told her, I only want to marry Kane.”
Everyone pricked up their ears and looked at each other.
Someone whispered, “Kane, the ramen princess is trying to force you to marry her.”
Kane’s face froze, and he fell silent.
Sheila looked at him with a glimmer of hope.
If he confessed at this time, if he could marry her, she could forgive all his deception.
However, inside the private room, the air pressure around Kane was low, and his well-defined fingers tapped on the sofa armrest every now and then.
Finally, Kane spoke, “Sheila, I can’t give you the life you want.”
The meaningful sentence, as the poor Kane, he couldn’t give her anything, as the wealthy second-generation, he had to marry someone else, even less could he give her what she wanted.
Sheila bit her dry lips, wanting to give herself one last chance.
“I got an internal discount for the apartment, and already paid the deposit, the down payment is one and a half million, now I only need five thousand more.”
“Let’s get married, okay?”
One second, two seconds... even longer, Sheila finally gave up completely in his silence.
She smiled sadly.
“Can’t we?”
“You can’t marry me?”
The people over there were already rolling their eyes to the heavens.
“This ramen princess, she really dares to think! She’s simply a toad trying to eat swan meat.”
“Kane, you might as well come clean with her!”
Listening to everyone’s ridicule, Sheila’s heart was broken. Kane had never loved her, right? That’s why he would allow others to trample on her dignity at will.
Kane finally squeezed out from between his teeth, “Sheila, I didn’t say... didn’t say I wouldn’t marry you, but can you wait a little longer...”
“No.” Sheila wiped the tears from her face, “I can’t wait any longer.”
No matter how much she loved him, she would not allow herself to be self-degrading anymore.
“Kane, since we can’t get married, then let’s break up.”
