Chapter 1: Her Name Is Chi Mo, Guan Yizhou's Girlfriend
That woman was an idiot. Song Huaiyu knew it.
The moment he stepped out of the bar, he spotted her sitting on the front steps, head hanging low.
She seemed completely drunk, her body sliding limply down the steps, then a few seconds later she'd struggle to lean forward and dry heave a couple of times. Her cream-colored skirt suit was wrinkled all over, one high heel had fallen off beside her, and the leather on the other had a long scuff mark—looked like she'd taken a tumble on her way out.
Song Huaiyu stopped in place and lit a cigarette, casting a sidelong glance at the woman's disheveled state. A faint sneer curved at the corner of his mouth.
Her name was Chi Mo. She was Guan Yizhou's girlfriend.
To this day, Song Huaiyu still remembered the first time Chi Mo showed up at one of their gatherings.
Guan Yizhou hadn't bothered with a proper introduction—he'd just had someone casually move an empty chair over for her. A few girls who liked Guan Yizhou giggled among themselves, their unfriendly gazes landing on Chi Mo without the slightest attempt to hide it.
When the bar's kaleidoscopic lights swept over, Song Huaiyu caught a glimpse of her ashen face and tightly clenched hands through the glass in his hand.
Her knuckles were white and bloodless, trembling visibly.
Song Huaiyu only glanced twice before looking away.
Two months at most, maybe less. Guan Yizhou would definitely move on to the next one.
Of course, he wasn't the only one who thought so back then. Xu Yicheng hadn't even bothered to remember her name.
But no one expected that Chi Mo would end up staying by Guan Yizhou's side for ten years.
From eighteen to twenty-eight, Yuan Siyu started making a fuss in disbelief: "Zhouzhou isn't actually going to marry Chi Mo, is he?! His parents beating him to death is more likely than that!"
Yes, the Guan family would never allow a woman like Chi Mo—whose family background and status were completely mismatched—to marry into their household. Even though she'd long since graduated from university and found a job that seemed respectable enough.
Song Huaiyu never believed they'd get married.
See... the problems between them were hardly trivial. Otherwise, why would Chi Mo be sitting on the steps crying after drinking herself into this state?
"Hey." Song Huaiyu flicked his cigarette away, walked over, and kicked Chi Mo's foot. With a hint of mockery, he asked, "Want me to call Guan Yizhou?"
Chi Mo slowly raised her head, tears still clinging to her face, her eye makeup long since smeared beyond recognition. She squinted up at Song Huaiyu, seemingly not recognizing him at first.
Song Huaiyu shot her a cold, sidelong look.
From their first meeting until now, Chi Mo had changed quite a bit.
Look at her now. She'd completely dressed herself up like a Jiangzhou local.
What a shame. Her fashion sense had improved, but her brain hadn't grown an inch.
"Oh, it's you..." Chi Mo finally made out the man standing above her. Then she grinned—a little dazed, a little dopey. The look on her face wasn't really any different from before.
Song Huaiyu lost his patience, his tone turning sour. "Are you going to have Guan Yizhou come get you or not?"
"Guan Yizhou?" Chi Mo wobbled to her feet, bracing herself against the steps, and murmured, "...Oh, right. He's my boyfriend... I have a boyfriend..."
Song Huaiyu frowned slightly. Seeing her stand, thoroughly disgusted by the smell of alcohol on her, he instinctively took half a step back.
Chi Mo was barefoot on one foot. After clambering up, she barely managed to steady herself by gripping the stair railing, but the swaying made her cover her mouth and retch a few more times...
"Chi Mo, is your head even clear right now?" Song Huaiyu asked coldly, frowning.
Chi Mo shook her head, her head drooping.
The long silence killed whatever interest Song Huaiyu had left. He sneered, too lazy to ask again, and was just about to pull out his phone to call Guan Yizhou when a pair of ice-cold hands suddenly slid onto his arm.
The smell of alcohol around him instantly thickened. He stopped moving, his eyes slanting downward, following the hand with pale pink nail polish upward. Chi Mo was clinging tightly to him, her entire body pressed against his.
She tilted her head up and blinked at him with a naive, dazed expression.
"Want to have a drink together?"
Under the still-dazzling lights at the bar entrance, Song Huaiyu's face was cold and cutting. With his usual sarcastic disdain, his tone rising at the end, he asked Chi Mo, "Why would I have a drink with you?"
Chi Mo laughed foolishly. "Come on, you and I have known each other for so many years... what's wrong with having a drink together?"
Still laughing, she insisted on standing on tiptoe and leaning in closer.
Song Huaiyu leaned back, putting distance between them, and scoffed. "You and I count as knowing each other?"
"Of course." Chi Mo pushed her luck and rubbed against his arm again. The elevated body temperature from the alcohol was now unmistakably obvious. Even Song Huaiyu himself probably didn't realize how intimate their posture was at that moment.
She smiled and asked, "Aren't we?"
Of course not. In the ten years she'd been with Guan Yizhou, the two of them had probably exchanged fewer than twenty sentences.
"What's wrong with having a drink together..." Seeing he wouldn't agree, Chi Mo complained discontentedly: "The drinks here are really good, I just had some... come on, come on, just one drink. You know... it's not like I have any friends in Jiangzhou..."
She muttered as she dragged Song Huaiyu toward the bar.
Song Huaiyu let her pull and tug him along, but his eyes maintained their cutting coldness the whole time.
Before Chi Mo pushed him down onto the sofa, Song Huaiyu raised his hand and checked his watch.
Two in the morning.
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"Cheers!" Chi Mo's cheeks were flushed red, her tongue thick from drinking. She raised her glass with a beaming smile and clinked it against the lemon water in front of Song Huaiyu.
Her hand was trembling a little, and the clink spilled quite a bit onto the counter. She hurriedly grabbed a napkin to wipe it up, but found that no matter how she wiped, it wouldn't come clean. In the end, she just yanked her own sleeve over and scrubbed at the table...
Song Huaiyu frowned and immediately scooted aside. Coldly, he asked, "Chi Mo, what exactly are you trying to do?"
Chi Mo stared at the wet table and giggled twice. Then, very abruptly, she furrowed her brows, lowered her eyes, and asked in a dry, raspy voice, "Do you all really hate me that much?"
Song Huaiyu didn't answer.
Chi Mo pouted and went on by herself. "I know, none of you like me. You think I'm not good enough for him... But I've tried so hard... really... it's so exhausting, do you even know? I'm really tired..."
As expected, it was still about Guan Yizhou.
Song Huaiyu lost his patience and sneered coldly. "Does it matter whether we like you or hate you? Isn't it enough that Guan Yizhou likes you?"
"Oh..." Chi Mo let out a drunken burp and downed her second glass. "Doesn't matter, doesn't matter... we won't be seeing each other anymore anyway~" She giggled again and said, "...Guan Yizhou and I... are breaking up..."
Song Huaiyu didn't take it seriously and gave a flat "Oh."
"You don't believe me?" Chi Mo turned her head and looked at him.
No one would believe it, because in these ten years they'd broken up at least thirty times.
Seeing that Song Huaiyu wasn't saying anything, Chi Mo anxiously tried to dig up something to prove it. But the moment she lowered her head, the alcohol churning in her stomach made her choke and cover her mouth.
She turned and scrambled, fumbling for the trash can under the table, half her body tumbling into it...
Bleurgh...
Song Huaiyu shot to his feet, frowning, and put at least two meters between himself and Chi Mo and her trash can. Then he immediately pulled out his phone and called Guan Yizhou.
"Yeah, come pick her up."
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After that night, Song Huaiyu went abroad for a while. He didn't return until Jiangzhou had warmed up again.
Xu Yicheng and the others couldn't wait to put together a gathering, pestering him repeatedly until they finally dragged Song Huaiyu out of his bed.
Everyone had grown up. They each had their own things going on. The days of messing around every day were long gone, and chances to get together for drinks had become much rarer. So whenever an opportunity like this came up, where everyone could actually make it, they'd want to empty out their wine cellars.
Sure enough, the moment Song Huaiyu walked in, he saw that these guys were already more than half drunk.
Xu Yicheng rushed over and slung an arm around his neck, complaining, "You went off and had fun by yourself again, didn't you?! So unfair. Why didn't you think to call us?"
Yuan Siyu had a cigarette dangling from his mouth and was casually loosening the buttons on his shirt. He chimed in, "Give it a rest. He's the freest one now. Hasn't even dated anyone in two years. All day long flying abroad to see art exhibitions, listen to concerts... Hey, young master, you're not suddenly going to announce you're getting married one of these days, are you?"
Song Huaiyu took off his coat and tossed it onto the sofa beside him, casually asking, "Who's getting married? Zhouzhou, are you getting married?"