When Ling Xiao returned to the dorm, Li Yang was playing a video game. Seeing that Ling Xiao's face looked wrong, Li Yang immediately took off his headphones. "What's wrong? Did she stand you up?"
Ling Xiao didn't speak; he simply handed over his phone.
After looking through the Moments feed, Li Yang's expression darkened instantly. "Damn, this woman..."
"I should have figured it out long ago." Ling Xiao's voice was very calm, but Li Yang could hear the chill beneath it. "All her abnormal behavior lately has been because of Lin Yu."
Li Yang hesitated for a moment before finally speaking. "Actually... I've been wanting to tell you for a while."
"What?"
"Last week, when I went to the bar, I saw Su Yao and Lin Yu..." Li Yang paused. "They were acting pretty intimate."
Ling Xiao closed his eyes for a moment.
So everyone knew, and only he had been foolish enough to trust her.
Ling Xiao sat down on the edge of the bed, gripping the unsent blue velvet box tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force. Li Yang handed him a cup of hot water, which Ling Xiao took mechanically, feeling no warmth at all.
His phone suddenly buzzed with a message from Su Yao: "Let's meet at the campus cafe tomorrow afternoon at three. There's something I want to tell you."
Catching a glimpse of the message, Li Yang sneered, "Is she finally going to lay her cards on the table?"
Ling Xiao stared at the screen, his heart gripped as if by an invisible hand. He slowly typed his reply: "Okay."
That night, Ling Xiao tossed and turned, unable to sleep. In his mind, every single memory of the past year and more with Su Yao replayed on an endless loop—the welcoming party where she sang in a white dress, the intimacy of sharing a single umbrella on a rainy day, her look of surprise when she received the necklace he had worked three months to buy for her birthday... Looking back now, all those memories were cast in a false, artificial light.
The next afternoon, Ling Xiao arrived at the cafe half an hour early. He chose a table in the very corner and ordered a black coffee. Its bitter taste spread across the tip of his tongue, yet it could not compare to the bitterness in his heart.
At three o'clock sharp, Su Yao pushed open the door. She wore exquisite makeup today, dressed in a new dress Ling Xiao had never seen before, and on her feet were those four-figure designer shoes she had once posted about in her Moments. She glanced around the room, and her expression froze for a fraction of a second upon seeing Ling Xiao, but she quickly recovered and walked over with an elegant stride.
"Have you been waiting long?" Su Yao sat down across from him, her tone as casual as a greeting between ordinary friends.
Staring at her, Ling Xiao noticed that the silver chain around her neck was precisely the one she had claimed was "lost," except that it now bore a much more dazzling diamond pendant. "Not long," he said in a dry voice.
A waiter came over to take their orders. Su Yao ordered a caramel macchiato, specifically requesting skim milk. Once the waiter left, she finally met Ling Xiao's eyes directly. "I think you've probably guessed it."
"Guessed what?" Ling Xiao heard his own voice sound remarkably calm. "Guessed about you and Lin Yu? Or guessed that you've been lying to me this whole time?"
Su Yao pursed her lips, her lip-glossed mouth shining brightly under the lights. "Ling Xiao, neither of us is a child anymore. Some things don't need to be spelled out."
"I need them to be," Ling Xiao said, word by word. "I want to hear you say it yourself."
Soft piano music played inside the cafe, and students at nearby tables chatted in low voices, occasional bursts of laughter drifting over. All these ordinary sounds grated harshly on Ling Xiao's ears now.
Su Yao sighed, her gaze drifting toward the window. "Fine. Lin Yu and I are together. It started two weeks ago."
Even though he had mentally prepared himself, hearing the words aloud still made Ling Xiao feel a wave of dizziness. He clenched his fists, his fingernails digging deep into his palms. "Why?"
"Why?" Su Yao repeated, then let out a sudden laugh—a laugh that made her seem entirely unfamiliar to him. "Ling Xiao, are you serious? Just look at yourself, and then look at Lin Yu."
She looked Ling Xiao up and down, her gaze lingering on his faded jeans and ordinary canvas shoes. "How much is your monthly living allowance? Fifteen hundred? Two thousand? A single pair of Lin Yu's shoes costs more than half a year of your living expenses. What kind of job can you find after graduation? An engineer making five thousand a month? The annual profit of just one hotel owned by Lin Yu's family is in the millions."
Every single word pierced Ling Xiao's heart like a knife. He wanted to retort, but he found his throat too dry to utter a sound.
"I'm not a materialistic person," Su Yao continued, stirring her newly arrived coffee with a small spoon, "but I don't want to spend the rest of my life worrying about a mortgage. The life Lin Yu can give me is something you can never provide."
"So this is your reason for betraying me?" Ling Xiao finally recovered his voice. "Because of money?"
"Not just money." Su Yao let out a scoff. "It's perspective, it's vision. Ling Xiao, what else can you do besides study? Lin Yu started participating in his family business back in his sophomore year. And you? You don't even know how to socialize."
A few girls at the neighboring table kept glancing over, whispering among themselves. Ling Xiao felt his face burn, and a wave of humiliation washed over him.
"You've been really good to me for the past year and more," Su Yao's tone softened abruptly, making it hurt Ling Xiao all the more. "But feelings can't pay the bills. Ling Xiao, you're a good guy, but we're just not suited for each other."
The "good guy" card. Ling Xiao forced a bitter laugh inwardly—what a classic ending.
"That necklace," Ling Xiao suddenly said. "I worked three months to buy it. You told me you lost it, but it was with Lin Yu all along?"
A flash of embarrassment crossed Su Yao's face, and she instinctively touched the chain at her neck. "This... I just didn't want to hurt you back then."
"And what are you doing now?" Ling Xiao's voice began to tremble. "Making a special trip to humiliate me?"
"I'm here to make things clear." Su Yao set her coffee cup down with a crisp clatter. "I don't want to string you along, and I don't want to sneak around behind your back. Lin Yu is taking me to the Maldives next week, and I figured I should make a clean break with you first."
The Maldives. Ling Xiao remembered promising Su Yao that once he got a job, he would definitely take her to the seaside. Now, that promise could never be fulfilled.
"Oh, right," Su Yao said, taking an envelope from her delicate handbag and pushing it across the table. "This is the money for the gifts you bought me over the past year. I kept track of everything—it's around five thousand. Lin Yu said it's better to keep things clean this way."
Staring at the envelope, Ling Xiao suddenly laughed, a laugh carrying a bleakness he hadn't even known he possessed. "How thorough."
"Ling Xiao..." Su Yao seemed about to say something else, but her phone suddenly rang. Seeing the caller ID, a sweet smile bloomed on her face instantly. "Hello? Yeah, I'm at the campus cafe... Okay, I'm coming out right now."
Hanging up, she hurriedly stood up. "Lin Yu is here to pick me up. Keep the money, and from now on... let's just pretend we never knew each other."
Ling Xiao sat frozen in place, watching Su Yao walk toward the door without looking back. Through the glass window, he saw a familiar black Porsche parked by the roadside. Lin Yu was leaning against the car, opening his arms the moment he saw Su Yao. Su Yao broke into a run, threw herself into his embrace, and the two shared an intimate kiss.
Someone in the cafe let out a whistle. Ling Xiao lowered his head and noticed his hands shaking violently. The cup of black coffee had already gone cold, a thin, unsightly film forming on its surface.
He picked up the envelope, slowly tore it into pieces, and then stood up to leave. Passing by a trash can, he tossed the scraps inside along with the blue velvet box.