Don't Let the Gods Know

A silly, love-struck girl falls for a scheming top-tier star

One night, Jiang Yu opened a game test link a friend had sent her.

It was called: Spot the Scumbag's Tactics.

She gave it a quick try and got 25 points.

The result read: [You're hopeless. Your fate is to be played by scumbags.]

She: "..."

The next second, Lin Jimian came out of the bathroom.

Jiang Yu couldn't help thinking back to the day they first met.

She pushed open the rooftop door and saw him leaning lazily against the wall, a scarlet glow at his fingertips as a pink love letter crumbled into ashes in the smoke.

The girl who had written the letter was in tears.

Lin Jimian curled his lip coolly. "You're too late."

"Don't you have a girlfriend?"

His long lashes lowered as he idly played with a pale red hair tie.

Then he looked up, meeting her bewildered gaze over the other girl's shoulder. "I do now."

His smile didn't reach his eyes. He was so roguish he seemed like a heartless playboy who toyed with people and never took responsibility.

*

This was their first date after getting together.

As Lin Jimian leaned in to get closer, Jiang Yu thought of the five relationships she'd had with scumbags that had gone nowhere. Looking at the 25 on her phone, she suddenly faltered.

Jiang Yu clumsily made up an excuse and tactfully told him, "I believe in Jesus."

That meant no sex before marriage.

Lin Jimian paused, then gently covered her ears.

He whispered, "Then let's keep our voices down so God won't hear us?"

Her face instantly turned red.

*

After they got together, Jiang Yu would often gaze up at his face on the giant billboards in the city center, fully aware of the gulf between them.

He was a top-tier star singer, while she was just a minor internet celebrity.

She spent every minute with him expecting that they would break up sooner or later. When little clues about their relationship started to surface, Jiang Yu thought the ending was already set. But then, the next moment, she saw the post he had shared.

A single sentence filled the yellowed page:

[If God really has power, then He should let her see me first.]

"Bonus scene"

During the truth-or-dare segment of the variety show Couple's Diary, Jiang Yu saw the question about falling in love that Lin Jimian had left in the private room.

She didn't need to think at all.

"After I got home from the rooftop, I slowed down the four-minute music video he'd made to eight minutes. I thought I could use the time it took to listen to one song to get over him, but it wasn't nearly enough."

"So I could only try to press fast-forward on my feelings for him."

*

One day, Lin Jimian suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and wrapped his arms around Jiang Yu, who was lying beside him. Thinking he couldn't sleep because of jet lag, she gently soothed him back to sleep.

He took her hand. "Xiao Yu, I want to hear a bedtime story."

Jiang Yu opened her eyes. "What story?"

"Adam and Eve."

He kissed her misty eyes. "Could you tell me again how they stole the forbidden fruit?"

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