The next day.
Early in the morning, Fang Youyao woke and looked in the mirror. The red marks on her neck had faded a little.
She picked up her phone. Shen Liang had sent her a message.
[Yaoyao, why is your suitcase by the front door? When did you get back?]
Fang Youyao hesitated, then chose to lie:
[I came back this morning. Zhou Lin had something come up, so I dropped off my suitcase and left.]
[I didn’t want to wake you, so I didn’t tell you.]
Shen Liang replied almost immediately.
[Oh, I see. I thought you’d come back last night.]
Fang Youyao’s fingers paused for a moment.
[No.]
She got up and washed up.
She wasn’t in the mood to go to work today, so she simply took the day off.
[I’m not coming to the office today. Zhou Lin has something going on.]
Before Shen Liang could reply, Fang Youyao turned off her phone.
Facing the mirror, she covered the marks on her neck with foundation.
After checking out of the hotel, she went to a nearby supermarket and bought some premium fruit, two tins of formula, and a LEGO set.
She took a taxi to an upscale residential complex in Jing’an District. She and Zhou Lin had arranged a few days earlier that she would visit her best friend, who had recently given birth to her second child.
Zhou Lin lived on the twenty-sixth floor, in one of two apartments on the landing. The apartment was 120 square meters, with prices starting at 100,000 yuan per square meter.
Zhou Lin’s mother-in-law opened the door. Seeing what she was carrying, she greeted her warmly. “Xiao Fang, you’re here! Come on in.”
Fang Youyao went inside and set everything down on the coffee table.
From inside the bedroom came a baby’s wailing. Zhou Lin was losing her temper.
“Cry, cry, all you do is cry! You won’t eat anything I feed you. What do you want?”
Zhou Lin’s mother-in-law hurried in and picked up the baby. “She’s just a little baby. What could she possibly understand? What good does it do to keep scolding her?”
Zhou Lin looked up and saw Fang Youyao standing in the doorway. Suddenly, she seemed terribly aggrieved. She sat on the bed and began wiping away tears.
Zhou Lin’s mother-in-law carried the baby out. “You two talk.”
Fang Youyao sat down beside Zhou Lin and patted her back soothingly. “Linlin, what’s wrong?”
Leaning against her shoulder, Zhou Lin cried. “I don’t know. I just feel like losing my temper. The sound of the baby crying drives me crazy.”
Fang Youyao thought she might have postpartum depression.
Zhou Lin had been her college roommate, and she’d had the gentlest temper in the whole dorm.
“Linlin, have you been feeling down because you’ve been cooped up at home too long? Why don’t we go shopping and get a change of scenery?”
The two of them went to the mall.
Fang Youyao linked arms with Zhou Lin as they wandered and chatted. Zhou Lin’s spirits improved a little.
But when they passed the third floor, Zhou Lin suddenly pointed toward a Sephora perfume counter in the distance.
“Isn’t that your Shen Liang?”
Fang Youyao followed the direction of her finger and froze.
Shen Liang stood tall in understated designer casualwear that still couldn’t hide his air of refinement.
Beside him stood a young woman in a blue floral H&M dress. She looked lively, fresh-faced, and pure.
A sales associate packed up a bottle of the latest perfume and handed it to the woman. She playfully tugged on Shen Liang’s arm, and the two of them walked away laughing and talking.
Fang Youyao stood where she was, watching him disappear beneath the mall’s bright white lights, her expression unreadable.
A few days earlier, while she was overseas on a business trip, she had asked Shen Liang if he could pick her up at the airport.
She had been exhausted by work and had desperately wanted to see him as soon as she got back to the country, to find comfort in his presence.
But Shen Liang had said he was busy and turned her down outright, telling her to make her own way back.
They had been together for so many years, yet it seemed they were always busy with school or work, and even when they were together, they always talked about work.
For example, Shen Liang hated shopping.
He said it was a waste of life and time, completely pointless.
So Fang Youyao almost never made the unreasonable request that he “go shopping with her.”
In this relationship, she had always been the one in the weaker position.
She always put him first, taking care to consider his feelings.
But now…
So he could be that indulgent with another woman, accompanying her without thinking it was a waste of time.
Maybe he just didn’t want to go with Fang Youyao.
Zhou Lin called to her carefully. “Yaoyao, do you want to go after them and ask what’s going on?”
Fang Youyao looked away. Her expression was calm as she gave a slight shake of her head. “It’s fine. Let’s go.”
If she hadn’t heard what he’d let slip in his drunken honesty last night, perhaps she would have been swept up in her emotions and rushed over to demand to know what their relationship was.
But after thinking it over all night, she had decided to pull away from this relationship.
So none of it mattered anymore.
That evening.
Fang Youyao went home.
The place she shared with Shen Liang.
A 160-square-meter apartment in a residential complex not far from the office.
Five years ago, when she began helping Shen Liang build his business, he bought an apartment here for convenience.
Fang Youyao was pursuing a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s ACM class.
Before she had even graduated with her master’s degree, she had already received offers from several top technology companies around the world.
But Shen Liang had asked her to stay and help him.
Shen Liang had started his own gaming company. He wanted to succeed without relying on his family, to prove himself.
The fledgling company was short on talent.
Fang Youyao had resolutely turned down a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity and joined Shen Liang’s obscure little company.
She had been with him from the ground up as they carved out a place for themselves in online gaming technology.
Now their careers were tightly bound together.
Before she broke up with him, she needed to disentangle their professional lives.
Fang Youyao felt irritated.
Shen Liang still wasn’t home, and the apartment was pitch-black.
She turned on the lights.
Her suitcase was still near the front door.
Shen Liang hadn’t even bothered to drag it into the room for her.
Fang Youyao gave a self-mocking smile.
The living room was spotless. Shen Liang must have called the cleaners.
By the time she had finished unpacking, Shen Liang came home.
“Yaoyao, how did the negotiations go? Were they smooth? Did you settle the engine licensing and customization terms?”
The first thing Shen Liang asked about was work.
It was always like this.
Whenever she came back from a business trip, his first questions were always about the project, the contract, and the technical barriers.
He only cared whether the deal would go through and how much it would benefit the company. He never cared whether she was tired or asked how difficult the process had been.
Fang Youyao gave a slight nod, her expression blank. “Yes. The quote was five percentage points higher than expected, and we made concessions on the source code.”
Then she took her pajamas and walked past him to shower.
She came out wearing a dark green silk slip. Her already fair skin looked even paler, a faint pink flush clouded her cheeks, and her long black hair fell smoothly to her waist.
Shen Liang had changed into his pajamas and was leaning against the bed. His skin was pale, his lips faintly colored.
He had exceptionally fine features: a full forehead, sharply defined brows, and a pair of alluring eyes that curved at the inner and outer corners. Even when he looked at a dog, he seemed to gaze at it with tender affection.
He worked out regularly, and his build was tall and lean.
Shen Liang’s gaze fell on the legs peeking out beneath the hem of her nightdress, and his eyes darkened.
As Fang Youyao walked past him, Shen Liang suddenly reached out, seized her wrist, and yanked her toward him.
She lost her balance and fell into his lap, instinctively looping her arms around his neck.
Shen Liang stared at her striking face, his gaze wandering as he rested a hand on her thigh and stroked upward.
Fang Youyao had bold, striking features. She was radiant and beautiful, with a full bust, a slender waist, long legs, and a voluptuous figure.
Shen Liang’s mother didn’t like her looks. She was all smiles to Fang Youyao’s face, but privately told relatives that she looked like a seductress and seemed disreputable.
Fang Youyao had once overheard her while hiding behind a door.
But Shen Liang was very taken with her looks and figure; he couldn’t resist her.
All these years, she had been the only woman by his side, and the only woman he had ever slept with.
Fang Youyao lowered her eyes, pressed down on his hand, and gently pushed him away. “Go take a shower first.”
Shen Liang answered in a hoarse voice, “Okay.”
Fang Youyao rubbed her brow lightly, her eyes tired.
She sighed and picked up Shen Liang’s jacket from the bed, intending to hang it in the closet.
Something slipped out of its pocket and hit the floor with a crisp clatter.
Fang Youyao bent down to pick it up.
It was a Sephora perfume sample.
She held it to her nose and smelled orange blossom.
Shen Liang came out, water dripping from his hair. A towel was wrapped around his waist, and the outlines of his abs were faintly visible.
He saw Fang Youyao staring blankly.
“Baby, what are you doing?”
She came back to herself and held up the perfume sample. “It fell out of your pocket.”
Fang Youyao looked him straight in the eye, wanting to see what he would say.
Shen Liang smiled, his lips curling up. He lied without even blinking. “I passed through the mall today and picked it up for you.”
He never wore perfume and knew nothing about it. He had no idea what the difference was between a full-size bottle and a sample.
Cheng Yao had slipped it into his pocket that day. The young woman had said she wanted to wear the same scent as him.
Fang Youyao tightened her grip on the perfume. Her eyes flickered, then settled into calm. “Mm.”
She accepted it without exposing him.
She didn’t tell him it was only a sample.
She didn’t tell him how clumsy the lie was.
It was a long time before Shen Liang understood one thing:
Only someone who has decided to leave stops caring about so much.