The first hour after their breakup, the wind and rain outside hadn’t stopped. Lu Xingyan, with his hair still wet, sat at his desk staring at his phone, his eyes bloodshot and filled with anger.
He regretted it.
He regretted breaking up with Shen Xingruo in such an informal way, using a voice message. Breaking up over the phone or in person would have been better. At most, he would replay the scene in his mind, and the anger wouldn’t feel so real or vivid.
But with a voice message, he had replayed their breakup scene thirty times in the past hour. The more he listened, the more his mindset crumbled. The more he listened, the more explosive his emotions became.
Eventually, he stopped replaying it. Shen Xingruo’s sarcastic remarks were already deeply embedded in his mind.
“I hope you have a great time wasting away at that trashy university.”
“Lu Xingyan, you’re just a love-struck idiot.”
“Let me officially inform you, from now on, we are over!”
…
Feeling extremely agitated, Lu Xingyan threw his phone onto the bed. He placed his hands on his hips and paced back and forth in his room.
There was only half an hour left until the deadline to modify his university application.
He kept pacing, glancing at the time now and then, feeling as conflicted as a severely schizophrenic patient.
—What kind of crappy relationship was this? It fell apart in less than a month.
—No, he never should have dated that proud peacock. She changed her attitude faster than flipping a page.
—The funniest part is that he even gave up attending Xing University to go to a trashy university for her. It was as if his brain had been kicked by a donkey.
—No, that’s wrong. Since they had broken up, he had no reason to go to that trashy university anymore.
—Right, change it back, now, immediately!
Finally finding a reasonable excuse for himself, Lu Xingyan hurriedly turned on his computer with just ten minutes left.
In his browsing history, there was a link to the website where he had previously logged in to fill out his college applications. He clicked on it directly. But once inside, he hesitated.
…What was his exam admission number and registration number again?
He rummaged through his desk but couldn’t find them. He had no idea where he might have tossed those papers. As time ticked by, sweat started to bead on his forehead.
Standing by his desk, he forced himself to stay calm and tried to remember when he had last seen that little piece of paper. No matter how hard he thought, he just couldn’t recall.
At this critical moment, he finally understood that if he didn’t change his application back, he and Shen Xingruo were done for.
With only five minutes left, Lu Xingyan even dug through the trash can but still couldn’t find it. He decided to call Shen Xingruo.
However, her phone was turned off.
Pressing his temples, he started to despair. Maybe he should just leave it as it was, or go to Lu Shan to get a good scolding, shamelessly asking him to pull some strings to help change it back.
With three minutes left, Lu Xingyan sat on the edge of his bed, holding his head in his hands. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind!
Their class group chat had previously shared a spreadsheet with everyone’s credentials. At the time, he hadn’t paid much attention and had found He Siyue’s constant tagging of everyone annoying.
He grabbed his phone from the bed and scrolled through the messages.
—There it was!
Seeing a glimmer of hope, Lu Xingyan bolted to his computer with his phone. In his hurry, he mistyped the numbers twice before getting the credentials right. Then he entered the password — both his and Shen Xingruo’s birthdays.
The page successfully loaded!
He quickly changed his application to the University of Xingcheng, majoring in the School of Literature and Communication, Chinese Language and Literature.
With one minute left, he clicked submit—
A confirmation box popped up, and he successfully submitted his changes!
Lu Xingyan stared at the computer screen for a few seconds, then inexplicably laughed. Leaning back into his soft chair, he finally relaxed.
As he leaned back in his chair, Lu Xingyan realized that in this short time, he had already sweated through his shirt in a room cooled to twenty-three degrees Celsius.
After changing his application, Lu Xingyan didn’t plan to inform Shen Xingruo right away. After all, he had just tried calling her, and it didn’t go through. Plus, he was still fuming.
Moreover, his bold declaration, “If we don’t break up, I’m not Chinese,” was still ringing loudly in his ears. He wasn’t shameless, but groveling late at night to make amends was beyond even his lack of shame.
He sat quietly for a moment and then decided to take another shower. Afterward, he didn’t even touch his phone, just crawled under the covers and went to sleep, planning to head straight to the airport tomorrow to meet Shen Xingruo and her father.
With her father present, she couldn’t very well give him a hard time. Once they were in Paris, everything would be easier. Strolling hand in hand down the romantic Champs-Élysées and buying her a few Prada and LV bags should help dissipate half her anger.
Lu Xingyan’s plan seemed flawless, but he failed to realize that his mindset was rapidly heading toward a point of no return, akin to considering changing his nationality.
Their flight was in the afternoon, but for an international departure, they needed to arrive at the airport well in advance. Lu Xingyan set an alarm and woke up early. The suitcase, packed by Shen Xingruo earlier, was ready. He checked his documents, changed into a flashy and stylish outfit, and headed out.
On the way, he called Shen Xingruo—her phone was off. He called Shen Guangyao—also off. A sense of unease began to creep in.
He tapped his fingers on the armrest of the car seat. Upon arriving at the airport and searching around, he found no sign of them.
When he tried to print his boarding pass with his passport, there was no flight information for him…?!
It was already twelve-thirty. He called Shen Xingruo again—still off. He tried Shen Guangyao’s phone, and this time, it connected on the second try.
“Uncle Shen, have you arrived?” Lu Xingyan asked immediately.
Shen Guangyao’s voice was calm, “We just got here.”
Lu Xingyan breathed a sigh of relief.
But before he could fully relax, Shen Guangyao added, “It’s still dark here. Has it reached noon back home? Have you had lunch?”
…?
Lu Xingyan was stunned.
“Uncle Shen, you and Shen Xingruo… are in Paris?”
“Hmm? You didn’t know?” Shen Guangyao asked, then seemed to understand something and glanced at the expressionless Shen Xingruo beside him.
Shen Xingruo, showing no change in her expression, took the phone from Shen Guangyao and spoke in a calm voice, “We’re already in Paris. If you don’t want to come, don’t force yourself. International roaming is expensive, bye.”
Lu Xingyan was left stunned.
After returning the phone to Shen Guangyao, Shen Xingruo didn’t offer any explanation. She simply followed him out. The early morning Paris sky at around five o’clock cast a cold and distant light on her face.
The previous day, Shen Xingruo had planned to head back to Huize, taking the subway and then a high-speed train. However, Shen Guangyao had called unexpectedly, saying he needed to leave for France urgently. He planned to take a flight at one in the morning and suggested Shen Xingruo and Lu Xingyan follow their original flight schedule, with someone else picking them up at the airport.
Upon hearing this, Shen Xingruo unhesitatingly asked Shen Guangyao to help her change her flight too, so she could leave from Xingcheng Airport directly.
When Shen Guangyao asked what to do about Lu Xingyan, she calmly replied that he had other plans and didn’t want to come.
In truth, Shen Xingruo had initially intended to wait for Lu Xingyan to reconsider and change his university application back. They would then fly to Paris as planned the next day. She thought the extra day apart might help dissipate their anger. She was even willing to compromise her principles for her precious first love, letting this incident slide.
But Lu Xingyan’s response had deeply disappointed her.
During the few hours at the airport, they had a heated argument and broke up in an undignified manner.
After Shen Guangyao met her at Xingcheng Airport, she had him cancel Lu Xingyan’s ticket.
Shen Xingruo was the type who, no matter how angry, would retain a final shred of rationality. So, in the last half hour before the application deadline, she logged into Lu Xingyan’s application portal on her phone.
For once, Lu Xingyan had stuck to his stubbornness—he hadn’t changed his application.
As disappointment overwhelmed her, Shen Xingruo even considered changing Lu Xingyan’s application herself. But her fingers hovered over the screen, unable to proceed.
This was Lu Xingyan’s life. She might be able to forcibly correct his path once, but she couldn’t do it for a second, third, or countless future times. At that moment, she realized clearly that while she liked Lu Xingyan very much, she couldn’t walk this path with him.
The rain-washed night sky in Xingcheng was clear and bright, reflecting her extreme disappointment. Shen Xingruo chose to turn off her phone and temporarily distance herself from the city.
Paris, the city of romance and one of the four major global cities, was her escape. She had visited once with Song Qingzhao when she was very young, but her memories of it were vague.
In the following days, Shen Guangyao was busy with his art exhibition. Shen Xingruo only visited the art gallery hosting the exhibition on the first day, spending the rest of her time exploring Paris on her own.
The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées… Paris had countless famous attractions, but visiting them alone felt somewhat lacking.
Her brief relationship with Lu Xingyan, which hadn’t even lasted a month, had ended abruptly. Logically, her feelings shouldn’t have been deep, yet her attempts to relax and distract herself over the next few days left her in a mixed state of not being entirely bad but also not good.
She hadn’t activated international roaming on her phone and had switched SIM cards, contacting Shen Guangyao only when she went out. She also temporarily uninstalled WeChat because every time she opened it, she couldn’t resist replaying their breakup conversation, which was irrational and hurtful. Replaying it even once could leave her feeling down for the whole day.
After three days of isolation from her usual social circle, Shen Xingruo felt her emotions stabilizing. On the fourth day, she reinstalled WeChat. The moment she logged in, hundreds of messages poured in.
He Si Yue, Ruan Wen, Shi Qin, Li Chengfan, Zhao Langming, Bian He… She scrolled through all the messages but found none from Lu Xingyan.
“Did you read He Siyue’s messages?”
He Siyue: “Shen Xingruo, why aren’t you answering your phone?”
He Siyue: “Do you know what’s going on?”
Ruan Wen: “Xingruo, is what they’re saying about Lu Xingyan true?”
Ruan Wen: “Where are you?”
Shen Xingruo sat on the hotel balcony, continuously scrolling through the messages. Most of them were similar, except for a few sarcastic jabs from Lu Xingyan’s so-called friends, accusing her of being heartless and turning her back on him after becoming the top scorer. The rest all asked about the same thing—whether the rumors about Lu Xingyan were true, how he was doing, and where she was.
She clicked on the various links her friends had sent, and her lips, usually a pale color, slowly pressed into a thin line as she read:
“High School Entrance Exam Scandal: Money and Power Can Manipulate Results?!”
“From Failure to Genius: A Sudden Epiphany or the Influence of Money?”
“Son of Jinsheng Group’s Chairman Involved in High School Exam Scandal, Provincial Education Bureau Investigates”
Her heart sank as she absorbed the gravity of the accusations.