He Heyum was twenty-seven years old and a perpetual bachelor, specifically a simp who had spent ten whole years playing that role.
His goddess was Miao Yangyang, a transfer student from their senior year of high school who had even been his desk mate for half a semester.
From the very moment he laid eyes on Miao Yangyang, He Heyum had a gut feeling that she was the one.
He Heyum kept a secret that no one outside of his family knew: he suffered from a severe form of facial memory impairment, commonly known as prosopagnosia, or face blindness.
People with face blindness cannot remember faces; instead, they have to rely on specific identifying features to figure out who is standing right in front of them.
This condition made He Heyum too afraid to greet acquaintances on the street because he could not tell who was who, terrified that mistaking someone would lead to an awkward situation for both parties.
Miao Yangyang, however, had a particular obsession with the color purple. She wore purple clothes all year round, and even when the school enforced its strict uniform policy, she would still pin a purple butterfly hair clip to her hair.
He Heyum had no idea whether Miao Yangyang was conventionally pretty or not. To someone with face blindness, the concept of pretty carried no real definition.
He only knew that Miao Yangyang was easy to recognize and hard to mistake.
Because purple equaled Miao Yangyang.
And so, He Heyum launched an enthusiastic campaign to pursue his true love sent from the heavens, Miao Yangyang.
As the only son and heir of Jiangcheng’s richest man, money was the last thing He Heyum lacked.
He marched into a high-end accessory store and, with a grand sweep of his hand, bought every single purple accessory in the shop to gift to Miao Yangyang. From that day on, he officially began his one-way, non-refundable ATM-simp journey.
A simp is a simp, and a simp ends up with nothing in the end.
Why did she prefer to stay single rather than be with him? Miao Yangyang’s answer was always the same.
You are a great guy, but I feel like you deserve someone better.
It had been the exact same excuse for a decade.
With his peers marrying one after another and starting families of their own, He Heyum, at twenty-seven, remained a loyal, virgin-for-life simp.
Goddess Miao Yangyang was unmarried as well, and rumor had it that she had recently gone off to participate in a matchmaking show on a major television network.
One night past midnight, inside his nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-square-meter mansion, He Heyum opened his chat window and nursed his heartache in solitude.
After much deliberation, deleting, and rewriting, he sent out just two characters, heavy with the bitter ache of yearning: “Are you there?”
It was deep into the early morning hours before Miao Yangyang finally replied.
With dark circles under his eyes, a trembling He Heyum opened his phone with burning anticipation, only to find that his goddess had simply sent him a link.
Zhenai Network, a premier domestic matchmaking website! Find the right match for you and walk hand in hand into the palace of marriage!
Was the goddess hinting that she wanted to walk into the palace of marriage with him?
Overwhelmed with emotion as he felt his hardships finally paying off, He Heyum tearfully clicked register.
Congratulations on becoming a member of Zhenai Network!
We have detected that your qualifications surpass ninety-nine percent of your peers, and we cordially invite you to participate in our show’s matchmaking segment to find your true love.
I believe in you, bro. May lovers finally tie the knot.
Can not talk, can not talk, the kid is crying again. Sigh.
His good friend Lin Pi dropped that single line on WeChat before throwing his phone aside to go comfort his wife and child.
Talk about twisting the knife. Lin Pi, who was the exact same age, was all lovey-dovey with his wife and now even had a second child on the way, while He Heyum had never even been in a single relationship.
Today, he was determined to win his goddess over and wash away his humiliation!
He Heyum stood in front of the full-length mirror, adjusting his tie. His expression was dead serious, but his heart was pounding with excitement.
He smoothed down his immaculate hair and turned to look at the butler standing respectfully beside him: “How do I look?”
The butler bowed slightly, a smile in his voice.
Young Master, you look effortlessly charming, handsome, dashing, elegant, distinguished, and exceptionally talented!
He Heyum was thoroughly satisfied. “Get a raise tomorrow.”
Clutching a meticulously prepared bouquet of nine hundred and ninety-nine starry-sky roses, he stepped into a global-limited-edition Rolls-Royce, escorted by bodyguards in black suits, and headed grandly toward the television studio.
And now, please welcome tonight’s final guest!
As the host finished speaking, the heavy automated doors in front of He Heyum slowly slid open.
Dazzling, brilliant stage lights beat down on him one by one, while countless burning, probing gazes converged upon him.
Can you feel it
Jean Roch says
Can you feel it, feel it, feel it?
Upbeat, dynamic music burst through the speakers, and the head cameraman hoisted his rig high, wildly panning the lens.
He Heyum walked forward amidst the roar of sound effects and applause.
He took the microphone from Teacher Meng, a trace of tension showing in his eyes.
“Hello everyone, my name is He Heyum, I am twenty-seven years old, and I come from Jiangcheng.”
Feeling the assessing gazes fixed on him from the guest seating area, He Heyum strained his eyes, trying to spot Miao Yangyang’s figure.
Yet every face in his vision looked like nothing more than a blurry shadow, completely impossible to distinguish.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up. On the far right of the guest seating area stood a slender young woman dressed in a purple long dress, wearing a familiar purple butterfly hair clip on her head.
It was undoubtedly Miao Yangyang.
The music gradually faded. The bald host beside him smiled warmly, handing over a tablet computer: “Please choose your heart’s desire.”
At the same time, the system will intelligently match a recommended guest for you. When we enter the power-reversal phase, we will reveal the recommended guest for your romantic choice.
He Heyum glanced briefly at the tablet, which displayed another grid of indistinguishable faces that only made him dizzy.
He gave a light cough and spoke up: “There is no need.”
“I am only here for one person today.”
As soon as those words left his mouth, an uproar rippled through the audience and the stage.
Ignoring the show’s format entirely, was this a stunt hired by the production team for ratings, or someone who came specifically to crash the set?
He Heyum curled his hand into a fist against his lips with a faint smile, rubbed the back of his head shyly, accepted a bouquet of roses handed off by a pre-arranged assistant backstage, and walked straight toward the guest seating.
He stopped right in front of the girl in the purple dress, his eyes shining brightly: “Yangyang, I have pursued you for ten years. Give me a chance, and I will give you happiness.”
The giant screen on stage chimed in with a custom-edited montage, playing clip after clip of their supposed moments together, bathed in a soft pink glow that made everything look sweet.
Yet as people watched, their expressions began to grow rather peculiar.
To say the girl in the purple dress being confessed to looked anything like the female lead in the video montage would be a stretch, as they looked absolutely nothing alike.
The girl in the purple dress wore a look of utter bewilderment, while the girl in the white fishtail dress sitting beside her turned pale with fury.
Miao Yangyang felt like she could grind her teeth to dust. Her best friend was right, because this wealthy second-generation heir He Heyum had never been sincere with her at all! Ten years, and he could not even remember her face!
She stormed right up to the two of them, raised her hand, and delivered a sharp, resounding slap across He Heyum’s face, screaming: “You scumbag!”
“So you only recognize the clothes and not the person? Get the hell out of here, you absolute idiot!”