Six Years Later, My Ex-Boyfriend Became My Boss

[Rental-apartment romance | Bride price | Reconciliation after a breakup | He's desperate to win her back | Tension between colleagues | Realistic romance | One couple, both untouched]

Six years ago, he worked three jobs a day to save up for the bride price. My heart ached for him, so I broke up with him in the cruelest way I could.

Six years later, he'd become a rising tech tycoon, and after being laid off, I was assigned to work at his company. On my first day, he said in front of the whole company, “People from the contractor's side should follow procedure. There's no need for introductions.”

Everyone thought he hated me. He trashed my proposal, transferred me off my position, and watched as I was carried out of the celebration dinner with a bleeding stomach. He never even entered my hospital room. I thought he hated me too. So I bristled with thorns and swallowed the words “I didn't mean what I said” for six years.

He didn't know that beneath my collar, I wore a silver ring identical to his. And I didn't know that he'd kept a pile of takeout orders in his drawer after crossing out my name, or that the three hundred messages in his drafts folder included one written six years ago.

Then he pushed a Marriage Application Form in front of me. In the approval box were the two characters I'd written myself back then: “Get in line.”

Shi Yan, six years ago you asked me if I hated you, and I couldn't give you an answer. Now it's my turn to ask you: how long do you plan to stay in line?

I can't hate you, can't quit you, can't let you go, can't get over you. Four words aren't enough to explain it. All I can say is, I don't know.