An Old Love in the Capital

Five years ago, Sheng Qingran broke up with Xie Songyuan, believing it was the best choice for them both. Five years later, when the worst suggestion of all, marrying her former lover, was put forward, she couldn't understand why she'd agreed without hesitation. With a prenuptial agreement in place, they played the loving couple in public. Beneath their false affection lay echoes of the past. They acted so convincingly that they even fooled themselves. In private, they were a resentful couple, sharing a bed but dreaming separate dreams. They clashed at every turn, as if every word were meant to stab the other in the heart. A friend who knew their story teased, “If either one of you were mute, you would have gotten back together long ago.” Sheng Qingran smiled faintly. “We're already married. Doesn't that count as getting back together?” In everyone's eyes, Xie Songyuan was a proud, untamed golden boy. Whatever he wanted, people would place it in his hands without his even asking. But five years ago, Sheng Qingran was the one thing he couldn't have. She broke up with him without even giving him a reason, cutting ties without a second thought and leaving him shattered. In the middle of the night, he would wake from his dreams and ask himself, “Why does it have to be her?” After they married, his barbed remarks were nothing more than resentful attempts to find out: Why did she break up with him? Why did she marry him? He never imagined that those words, once tossed out so lightly, would become bullets aimed at his heart when he learned the truth.