On the way back, Fu Huaizhou drove Pei Yan home while Li Yueting trailed closely behind them.
It was already past lunchtime. Pei Yan had initially planned to treat Fu Huaizhou to a meal, but with Li Yueting sticking to them like a shadow, she abandoned the idea.
“I had a great time today,” Pei Yan said. “Thank you for bringing me here.”
Fu Huaizhou replied, “It’s nothing. I often bring my cousin here. Hasn’t Yueting ever taken you out like this?”
Pei Yan let out a faint, mocking laugh. “He spends all his time in nightclubs. Do you think he has the time for this?”
Feigning awkwardness, Fu Huaizhou asked, “Really, never?”
Pei Yan said self-deprecatingly, “No, never. But we’ve had plenty of arguments.”
Surprised, Fu Huaizhou remarked, “You argued? Whenever we hang out, he seems pretty easygoing.”
Pei Yan scoffed, “You two only meet at nightclubs, right?”
Fu Huaizhou explained, “Yes, but I just go for drinks. Work stress, you know? Moonlight is run by a friend, so I drop by to show support.”
“Of course he’s easygoing at nightclubs,” Pei Yan retorted. “Plenty of women are there to flatter him.”
Fu Huaizhou’s brow twitched slightly. “So… you two have really broken up?”
“Yeah,” Pei Yan turned to gaze out the window at the passing streets. “It’s over.”
She didn’t know why she was telling Fu Huaizhou all this.
But saying it out loud didn’t feel as painful as she’d expected.
What hurt her most wasn’t the breakup itself, but the fact that Li Yueting had deceived her throughout their relationship.
Unable to forget his first love, he had still confessed to her with seemingly genuine affection; after they got together, he grew distant; yet whenever she made him hangover soup, he would become tender and attentive again.
That gentle side of Li Yueting made her catch a fleeting glimpse of her eighteen-year-old self.
For a fleeting crush, she had entered into a miserable relationship.
Even though Fu Huaizhou had already heard about their breakup firsthand, he couldn’t resist asking again.
As Xihe Garden came into view, Fu Huaizhou dropped her off without a word and drove away.
Li Yueting paid him no mind for now, chasing after Pei Yan into Xihe Garden.
The Pei family servants didn’t know that their second young lady had broken up with Li Yueting. From a distance, they assumed the couple was having a quarrel and discreetly made themselves scarce.
Crossing the entrance courtyard, Pei Yan strode ahead, leaving him behind.
Li Yueting, familiar with the place, followed her in but halted abruptly in front of the main house.
Pei Ying’s striking yet icy face came into view, and he instinctively took half a step back.
Ignoring his predicament, Pei Yan walked straight into the soaring-ceiling living room.
“Mrs. Wu, I’m starving! Is there anything to eat?”
Pei Yan collapsed onto the sofa, waiting to be served.
Mrs. Wu shook her head with an indulgent smile and headed to the kitchen to prepare something for the second young lady.
Li Yueting was stopped at the entrance, locking eyes with Pei Ying.
The Pei family affairs were now largely managed by Pei Ying.
“Regarding the marriage alliance between the Pei and Li families, we’ll discuss it in detail after my parents return to the country. For now, please leave my home, Young Master Li.”
“Sister Ying,” Li Yueting pleaded meekly.
Pei Ying looked down on him coldly. “I don’t deserve that title. I’ve never approved of this marriage—I only tolerated it because Xiao Yan liked you.”
Li Yueting argued urgently, “I can explain the video from that night! Nothing really happened with that woman. Besides, the wedding is just around the corner, I—”
“I don’t care whether anything happened with that woman or not,” Pei Ying’s gaze turned frosty. “She used to foolishly revolve around you, but don’t think I don’t know how you treated her.”
“I…” Li Yueting was left speechless.
He knew deep down that he hadn’t truly been good to Pei Yan.
Pei Ying continued, “As for your mention of an arranged marriage in the video, that’s utter nonsense. I’ve already secured the alliance between the Pei and Wu families through marriage. Xiao Yan’s engagement to you was solely because she liked you. Now that she no longer does, I naturally have to call off the engagement.”
“The eldest daughter of the Pei family, having taken over the family business, does have the obligation to enter into an arranged marriage. But the second daughter does not. So, don’t use that rhetoric about political marriages—it doesn’t work on our family.”
“Young Master Li, I won’t see you out.”
Li Yueting stared blankly at Pei Ying’s retreating figure. It seemed… he was really going to lose Pei Yan.
No—he couldn’t!
Almost as if possessed, Li Yueting could only think of Pei Yan’s virtues. He couldn’t break up; he couldn’t let the engagement be canceled.
After entering the hall, Pei Ying saw Pei Yan sitting on the floor again, eating at the coffee table, and frowned.
Pei Yan immediately picked up her tray and went to the dining room, sitting properly.
“Have you thought it through?” Pei Ying sat down opposite her.
Pei Yan nodded. “I have.”
Pei Ying said, “I told you long ago he wasn’t reliable.”
Pei Yan retorted, “Isn’t Wu Ke unreliable too? Why don’t you divorce him?”
Pei Ying clicked her tongue. “Stay out of adult matters. At the very least, in the eyes of outsiders, we’re a model couple.”
Pei Yan snorted. “Model couple? Who knows how many women he’s keeping outside.”
Pei Ying paused. “…Well, it’s mutual. Be a little more polite to Wu Ke next time.”
Pei Yan froze, her face full of disbelief. “You’re keeping a toy boy too?”
“Is that so strange?” Pei Ying looked at her as if she were an oddity. “Should I live like a widow for him?”
Pei Yan forgot to chew. “Sis, you guys are really wild. So what the media says is true.”
Pei Ying chuckled. “Unlike you—naive and pure. Don’t believe in men’s platonic ideals. Physical attraction is what might be real love. But you never understood that before. I’m telling you this now because I realize I’ve been too protective, leaving you ignorant about everything.”
Pei Yan carefully reflected on her relationship with Li Yueting.
They had been together for three years, half of it long-distance. It seemed he had never really shown any physical desire for her.
“Sis, what counts as physical attraction? What if he’s just a creep?” Pei Yan asked innocently.
Pei Ying laughed. “Love at first sight is controlled by genes—it’s more reliable than love that grows over time. If he’s attracted to your beautiful appearance and body, he won’t be able to resist kissing, holding you, or even more when he’s with you.”
“Even if you break up later, the happiness at that time was real,” Pei Ying added.
Pei Yan imagined herself in bed with a man and blushed. “You’re…”
Honestly, she was kind of looking forward to it.
“Li Yueting isn’t even willing to kiss you. Do you think he really likes you?”
Pei Yan sighed. “He doesn’t. Can you stop emphasizing it? He was still the one I fell for at eighteen.”
Pei Ying frowned. “Li Yueting is decent-looking, especially those captivating peach-blossom eyes. But one thing I don’t get is, you grew up with him since childhood—how did you even fall for him?”
“Ah!” Pei Yan sighed. “I’m surrounded by rich people, but there are very few as handsome as him. On my eighteenth birthday, he stood under my window in a white shirt, calling my name gently, and I just couldn’t resist.”
“Who would have thought that when I confessed my feelings, he had already been secretly dating Ning Ran for several months. I had no choice but to leave the country with a broken heart.”
“And who could have guessed that years after he and Ning Ran broke up, he suddenly confessed to me.”
Pei Ying sneered, “So then you recalled your teenage crush and wanted to experience that feeling of being in love again, which is why you got together.”
Pei Yan scratched her head, “Pretty much.”
It wasn’t like she didn’t have suitors overseas, but men all over the world were the same.
They changed girlfriends faster than a rocket could keep up.
Just then, Li Yueting appeared in her life. She thought, childhood sweethearts – a perfect match! And so they got together.
A series of message notifications chimed from her phone.
Pei Yan took it out and her eyes immediately lit up: “Sis, I won’t be back for dinner tonight.”
“Where are you going?”
“Xia Xia is back! She asked me to go to a bar with her tonight.”
“A bar?”
“Yeah, I just went through a breakup. It would be strange if I didn’t drown my sorrows. What others have, I should have too.”
“…”
Pei Ying had always felt that her younger sister’s mental state wasn’t quite right – she had these erratic episodes every now and then.