Chapter 1

At the party, when my boyfriend Gu Huai’an was holding Lin Zhaozhao, his first love, by the hand, I heard the other coworkers whispering beside them,

“Shen Yan was still delivering documents in the middle of the night. She has no shame. Mr. Gu already has a real girlfriend, and she still keeps clinging to him.”

He said we would go public when the time was right, and I waited two years, only to see him tell the whole world that Lin Zhaozhao was his girlfriend.

Lin Zhaozhao paused, and her gaze drifted lightly over the guests below.

“Girls should really respect themselves. Don’t keep thinking about things that don’t belong to you.”

The whole room’s eyes landed on me at once.

I tightened my grip on the wine glass until my knuckles turned white, but I said nothing.

The next afternoon, I handed in my resignation, then turned around and called Zhao Mingyuan, the biggest rival of Gu’s Group.

“Mr. Zhao, I wonder if you’d be interested in taking Gu’s Group down.”

At the company party, I sat in a corner and watched the perfect couple on stage.

My boyfriend Gu Huai’an was dressed in a suit and tie, while his first love, Lin Zhaozhao, wore a red dress. They stood under the spotlight with their fingers laced together.

“Let me officially introduce everyone to my girlfriend, Lin Zhaozhao.”

Gu Huai’an’s voice carried through the entire banquet hall over the speakers, and the room exploded.

I lowered my head and glanced at the Cartier ring on my ring finger. The light hit it and stung my eyes.

There was still a birthday engraved on the inside of the ring.

That night, he had personally put it on my finger and told me that when the time was right, we would go public.

Now I understood that the time he meant was the day Lin Zhaozhao returned to the country.

“No wonder Mr. Gu has been single all this time. He was waiting for Miss Lin to come back.”

The marketing manager, Ms. Wang, sitting next to me, gossiping with the coworker beside her in a low voice, sounded like she had suddenly figured everything out.

“Exactly. The daughter of the Lin family and our boss are the perfect match.”

On the other side, the intern Xiao Chen leaned over to gossip.

“Doesn’t Shen Yan always go to Mr. Gu’s office? She even delivered documents in the middle of the night. She has no shame.”

“No wonder she always has to close the door when she gives reports. So that’s what she was thinking about.”

“Mr. Gu already has a real girlfriend, and she still keeps clinging to him. What is she after?”

“Money, obviously. What else could she be after?”

I remembered that just two nights ago, Gu Huai’an was still telling me on the phone, “This quarter’s plan is all riding on you.”

So my full effort in their eyes was nothing more than being “after money” and “having no shame.”

I tightened my grip on the wine glass in my hand.

For two years, I wrote plans for him, did competitor analysis, negotiated with clients, and drank through social obligations until I was throwing up blood, only to get called “shameless.”

And Lin Zhaozhao only had to stand there, loop her arm through his, and she could get everyone’s blessings.

“Before I came back to the country, I heard people say Huai’an was very popular at the company.”

She paused, and her gaze drifted lightly over the guests below.

“Girls should really respect themselves. Don’t keep thinking about things that don’t belong to you.”

The whole room’s eyes landed on me at once.

Some people were sneering, some were whispering, some looked at me with pity, and more had eyes full of contempt and mockery.

I sat there, my fingers tightening until my nails dug into my palm.

Gu Huai’an stood on stage, less than ten meters away from me. His gaze swept across the room, stopped on me for less than a second, then moved away.

He didn’t look at me.

He never looked at me.

Lin Zhaozhao held his arm and smiled with gentle elegance.

Had he ever looked at me that way?

I tried hard to remember, but my mind was blank.

He only sent me messages late at night saying, “Revise the plan,”

saying, “Sort the client info and send it to me,”

saying, “Come to the office early tomorrow.”

Occasionally, he would say “Thanks for your hard work,” but he never, ever looked at me for an extra second in the daytime, in front of other people.

I stood up, and as the people around me looked over, I held my wine glass and walked expressionlessly toward the restroom.

Whispers came from behind me: “Look at her face. She’s not going to cry, is she?”

“She deserves it. Who told her to have no shame?”

I pushed open the restroom door and turned on the faucet. Cold water rushed over the back of my hand.

My phone buzzed. It was a message from Gu Huai’an.

“You can leave first. I’ll come find you later.”

I left the chat box and kept my finger hovering over the screen for a long time.