Love meets every hardship, but it seems love doesn’t always win.

Brother Fu and Shen Linxi broke up.

That night, the four of us—me, Zhou Haiyan, Brother Fu, and Shen Linxi—gathered together for dinner.

At first, everything seemed fine.

Until Linxi had too much to drink, pulled her household registration booklet out of her bag, and slammed it down on the table.

Her voice trembling, with the kind of courage that comes from having nothing left to lose:

“Fu Yuan, just one thing today—are you going to marry me or not?

“If you nod your head, we go get our marriage certificate tomorrow.

“I don’t care about anything else, I’ll wait for you, even if it takes ten years, eight years—I’ve got plenty of youth to spare.”

Brother Fu showed no particular reaction. He simply, calmly, moved the wine glass away from in front of her.

“You’ve had too much to drink.”

“Fu Yuan! I’m asking you one last time—are you going to marry me or not?”

The man glanced up, half-joking.

“Weren’t you the one who said this was all just for fun in the first place? Now it’s just a breakup—why can’t Miss Shen handle that?”

The emotion in her eyes shook violently, staring at him in disbelief.

Her expression slowly hardened, and she said, word by word.

“Fine. I, Shen Linxi, am the shameless one, forcing myself onto a man who never wanted me—how pathetic of me.

“Plenty of men out there would jump at the chance to marry me. No need for me to keep chasing after you.”

Brother Fu’s fist, hanging at his side, clenched tight, his face pale as paper, though he kept his tone deliberately light.

“Well then, congratulations in advance on your wedding. Maybe I’ll get invited to your—”

The next second, wine was thrown right in his face.

Linxi slammed the glass down hard on the table, snatched up the registration booklet, and walked out without so much as a glance back.

A black sedan waited outside the alley, the driver having sat there for a long while already.

Not until the last echo of the car’s engine had completely faded away—

did the man suddenly start slapping himself across the face, again and again, pain impossible to hide in his eyes.

He covered his face with his hands, bowed his head deeply, and wept, the sound bitter and heavy.

“I didn’t want to say it that way, but I couldn’t drag her down with me.

“She has better options out there. She deserves a better life ahead of her.”

Nothing in this world holds up to close scrutiny—look closely enough at anything, and you’ll find some hidden grievance buried inside it.

Silence fell over the table, and the sound of restrained sobbing grew steadily clearer.

A heavy, suffocating atmosphere spread through the room, and everyone there felt as though an invisible hand had them by the throat.

Loving each other, and still unable to stay together.

I suddenly found love such a strange thing—laced with a dull, aching pain running through it. The moment love begins, sorrow is already lurking just beside it, waiting.