Mr. Shang Is Still at the Crematorium Today

[Sorry, this story is on hiatus for now. I'll come back to it after finishing the other story I left hanging.]

Everyone knew Shang Qi kept a low-status lover by his side. Although he kept him at home, Shang Qi never deigned to take him out. Rumor had it that Mr. Shang kept a docile canary for comfort, since he was already engaged and deeply in love with his fiance, who had been overseas for three years. The moment his fiance returned, they would officially marry.

Later, when Mr. Shang announced that he would bring his lover to his birthday banquet, everyone thought he was doing it out of spite. After all, the fiance said to have left him behind to spend three years overseas, his unforgotten first love, had just returned.

Fiance and lover, first love and stand-in... Everyone was secretly waiting for the drama to unfold.

Ye Xianzhou was the lover Shang Qi kept hidden away, just as the rumors claimed. He had always thought Shang Qi simply didn't know how to love someone. So Shang Qi's everyday coldness, overbearing attitude, unpredictability, refusal to make their relationship public, and failure to dispel the rumors... none of it mattered.

As long as Shang Qi was truly by Ye Xianzhou's side, that was enough.

Until Shang Qi's birthday. Ye Xianzhou happily took a gift to the banquet, only to hear Shang Qi mention him in front of everyone... in that same aloof, condescending tone, Shang Qi said, "He's just a clingy, obedient diversion."

Ye Xianzhou was a diversion, a stand-in, a joke. No one knew that Shang Qi had once said to his face, "You will be my everything." Only Ye Xianzhou had believed those heartless words in earnest and taken them as gospel.

Ye Xianzhou tossed the birthday gift into the bonfire, watched it burn to ashes, then turned and left.

*

Mr. Shang's lover stood him up, then called while Mr. Shang sat there, his expression dark.

On the other end, Ye Xianzhou said brightly, "Mr. Shang, double congratulations. Happy birthday, and happy breakup."

Before anyone could figure out what was going on, Shang Qi gripped his wineglass and slammed it onto the table. Gritting his teeth, he asked the person on the phone, "What did you say?"

That night, they didn't get to see the fiance and the lover's dramatic face-off, but they did witness an even more talked-about spectacle:

Mr. Shang got a call from his lover and seemed to have been dumped;

Mr. Shang abandoned the guests in the entire banquet hall and hurried out, unable to hide his panic;

And an hour later, he returned in a complete state of disarray and anxiously searched around the trash can outside the hall... reportedly looking for the birthday gift from the low-status lover he kept hidden away.

- A melodramatic, regretful pursuit: he won't get off lightly, and the angst will be turned up to the max.

- The gong has no first love, no engagement, and no physical or emotional cheating. At the start, he's simply a scumbag and a bastard.

Theme: Be positive and optimistic, look toward the sunshine, and live well.