I Dare You Not to Fall for Me

When she saw him again seven years later, a friend asked if she still felt the same rush of excitement she’d felt back then. She looked over at the man lounging in his seat. He was tilting his head as he listened to someone beside him, his eyes lowered. A few buttons at his collar were undone, and the crisp, formal white shirt somehow gave him a rebellious air. He looked just as casual and faintly impatient as he always had. She looked away and took a sip of her drink. “That feeling’s been gone for ages.” Back in high school, Jiang Fulin had been the golden boy: a top student, handsome, and rich. He was always surrounded by friends, and swarmed by girls. Jiang Li was one of them, but she was the most unusual one, and the one he liked the least. Everyone knew Jiang Fulin liked sweet, well-behaved girls. Jiang Li was neither. She was strikingly beautiful, and even standing still without doing a thing, she radiated confidence. She changed everything she needed to change, and gave up everything she needed to give up. But after chasing him for so long, all she got was a remark he made to his friends: “Even if I dated someone, I wouldn’t date a girl like her.” Later, he blocked her at the doorway. “You’re so obedient. I tell you to leave, and you just leave?” Jiang Li laughed angrily. “Did you lose your memory, or is your brain broken? Who was it that said he’d never date someone like me? Are you lonely and desperate now? Still trying to string me along?” Jiang Fulin smirked, lowered his head, and breathed into her ear. “Now you can string me along. For the rest of our lives.” Everyone thought Jiang Fulin was cold and heartless, playing Jiang Li for a fool. Only he knew that in the game between him and Jiang Li, he had lost completely.