Fu Sinian stood in the center of the living room of Moon Lake Bay Villa, looking at everything he had meticulously prepared. An unconscious smile curved at the corner of his lips. Today was Su Wanning’s lunar birthday. He had marked it on his schedule and started preparing a full week in advance.
The living room was filled with her favorite champagne-colored balloons. A brand-new lace tablecloth covered the dining table, and at its center sat a large bouquet of vivid red roses. He remembered her once saying she envied the female leads in dramas who were pampered like princesses by their husbands, so this year he had deliberately turned their home into something like a fairy tale.
In the kitchen, the chef he had hired had already finished preparing several of her favorite dishes. They were all complicated home-style meals—things she often said she wanted to eat but found too troublesome to cook herself. On the sideboard in the dining room sat an exquisite Black Forest cake, with cream carefully piped into the words: “Happy Birthday to My Princess.”
The most thoughtful part, however, was the velvet box tucked inside his suit pocket. Inside lay a diamond necklace—the very one she had admired in a magazine last month. He had pretended not to care at the time, but in truth, he had already arranged for it to be custom-made overseas, even having their initials engraved inside.
He glanced at the time. 5:30 p.m. She should have just finished work. He could hardly wait to see the look of surprise on her face.
Taking out his phone, he dialed her number. As he listened to the ringing tone, his heartbeat quickened unexpectedly, like an inexperienced young man going on his first date.
The call connected. The background noise on her end was somewhat chaotic, sounding like a restaurant.
“Wanning,” his voice softened unconsciously, “are you off work? Come back early today. I have a surprise for you.”
There was a brief silence on the other end. Then Su Wanning’s slightly hurried voice came through. “Sinian, something urgent came up at the company. I have to work overtime. I can’t leave.”
Fu Sinian’s smile froze.
He could hear faint clinking of tableware and soft background music from her side. It didn’t sound like an office at all.
“Overtime?” His voice turned heavy. “At the office?”
“Yes, at the office,” she replied, impatience evident in her tone. “There’s an issue with a project. The whole department has to stay and handle it. Go ahead and eat. Don’t wait for me.”
At that moment, a man’s voice suddenly came through the phone. Though faint, Fu Sinian heard it clearly. “Wanning, I think I ate something bad. My stomach really hurts…”
That voice made the blood in his body turn cold in an instant.
Then came Su Wanning’s flustered reply. “Jingchen, are you okay? Your face looks so pale… Sinian, I can’t talk right now. Something urgent came up here!” This chapter is updated first at novelping . com.
The call was hastily cut off, leaving only the cold, mechanical tone of disconnection.
Fu Sinian held the phone tightly, his knuckles turning pale. Jingchen… Gu Jingchen. They were having dinner together… on his wife’s birthday.
He slowly walked to the dining table, staring at the carefully prepared dishes. Suddenly, everything felt like a cruel joke. The food she loved, the cake she had longed for, and the expensive gift in his pocket—all of it now seemed unbearably ironic.
Time passed, second by second. Outside, the sky gradually darkened. He didn’t turn on the lights, letting the darkness swallow him whole.
He sat on the sofa in the living room, his gaze empty as he stared at the door. Maybe she would come back… Maybe it had just been a misunderstanding. Countless thoughts churned in his mind, each one tearing at his already shattered heart.
He remembered her birthday last year. He had been forced to work late due to an important international meeting. By the time he returned home, it was already late at night, yet she had been sitting on the sofa waiting for him. On the table sat a small cake she had made herself.
“I knew you’d be busy this late,” she had said with a smile, throwing herself into his arms. “So I waited for you. You have to eat cake on your birthday.”
That cake hadn’t looked good. The cream had been unevenly spread, the writing crooked and clumsy. Yet to him, it had been the sweetest cake he had ever tasted.
But now…
The clock on the wall pointed to eleven. She still hadn’t returned. Fu Sinian stood up and walked to the dining table, looking at the delicate Black Forest cake. The cream lettering had begun to melt slightly, just like the beautiful memories between them, slowly fading away.
He picked up the knife, intending to cut a slice, but in the end, he put it down again. Eating a birthday cake alone felt unbearably pathetic.
When he finally threw the entire cake into the trash, his movements were gentle, as if afraid of disturbing something fragile. The carefully prepared dishes had long gone cold, losing their original color, aroma, and taste.
He returned to the sofa and took out the velvet box from his pocket. Opening it, the diamond glimmered coldly under the faint moonlight. F&W—Fu Sinian and Su Wanning. He had once believed those two names would be intertwined for a lifetime.
At midnight, the clock struck twelve. Her birthday had already passed. Fu Sinian still sat in the darkness, like a statue frozen in place.
At last, the sound of a key turning came from the entrance.
He suddenly lifted his head, a trace of expectation flashing in his eyes—something he himself didn’t even notice.
Su Wanning pushed the door open and turned on the living room light. Seeing him sitting on the sofa, she was startled.
“Why are you sitting here without turning on the lights?” she frowned, obvious fatigue on her face. “You scared me.”
Fu Sinian looked at her silently. She was still wearing that unfamiliar dress, her makeup refined and intact. She didn’t look like someone who had been working overtime at all.
“Working this late?” His voice was frighteningly calm.
“Mm, the project was troublesome,” she replied perfunctorily, slipping off her high heels. “I’m exhausted. I’ll go take a shower first.”
She didn’t notice the carefully arranged decorations in the living room. She didn’t see the untouched birthday cake in the trash. She didn’t even notice the open velvet box in his hand.
From the moment she entered to the moment she went upstairs, her gaze didn’t linger on him for more than three seconds.
Fu Sinian slowly closed the jewelry box, cutting off the diamond’s light entirely in the darkness. Listening to the sound of running water from upstairs, he suddenly felt that this home he had so carefully arranged had become unbearably cold.
That night, he sat alone in the living room until dawn.
After her shower, Su Wanning went straight back to the bedroom, as if she had completely forgotten this special day—and forgotten that her husband was still downstairs, waiting for her.
Moonlight streamed through the window, casting a long shadow over him. All the carefully prepared surprises, all the anticipation in his heart, slowly dissolved into the night, leaving behind nothing but endless cold.