How Do We Pretend to Be in Love

Love is instinct, but in the adult world, love is often a "performance" and a sophisticated "calculation." Every story in this book tells the same theme: how we act decent in front of others, and how we face the calculating self when we turn around. The men and women here are both actors with superb acting skills and accountants who are always looking at the reports: When some people face the final invitation from their soul mate, what they calculate in their mind is the total cost of gas, tolls and lost work time. Because they have calculated a "dead debt", they choose to live in the ruins of their marriage. Some people manage relationships like a business, accurately control the "input-output ratio" of rent and gifts, quantify love as a fixed expenditure of 6,500 yuan per month, and pursue the cost-effectiveness of "too much is not worth it, and less is not worth it". Some people took the meatballs that their boyfriend handed to others at a hot pot restaurant, only to realize that they were just the "pick-up" option; some people were lying next to their lover, only to find that his tenderness was all the habits left by their predecessors. "How We Pretended to Love Each Other" does not write fairy tales, but only the "hidden rules" that have been crushed by life. It reveals the cruelest truth in intimate relationships: many times, what maintains a relationship is not love, but the closed loop of interests, the consideration of sunk costs, and the shady "little treasury" hidden under the car seat. After reading this book, you may re-examine the person next to you: Does he really love you at this moment, or does he find out after calculation that you are the "optimal solution" with the lowest cost?