1.
Noah Walker had just returned from a business trip. The Rented House he shared with Bạch Tiểu Dụ was silent, devoid of any sign of life.
Bạch Tiểu Dụ’s shoes, usually left by the door, were gone. Her keys sat on the shoe cabinet.
Only then did Noah Walker pull out his phone and search through his contacts, scrolling up and down for a long while before finally finding Bạch Tiểu Dụ’s name.
Their conversation had stopped three days earlier, on the day Noah Walker left on a business trip.
Bạch Tiểu Dụ’s last message had been, “Let’s break up.”
She’d given no reason for the breakup, just that one lonely sentence. It wasn’t like her.
Noah Walker hadn’t replied.
At first, he pretended he hadn’t seen it. He’d been annoyed, thinking he’d respond when he had time. Then he got too busy and forgot.
By the time he remembered, another day had passed. There was no point replying anymore, so he didn’t.
Noah Walker stared at the message for a while. After his business trip, all he felt was aches and soreness. At last, he turned off the screen.
He was dead tired. All he wanted now was to sleep; he didn’t feel like sweet-talking anyone.
This wasn’t the first time Bạch Tiểu Dụ had said they should break up, nor the first time she’d packed her bags and left. She’d be back at the Rented House within three days.
It had happened so many times, and she’d never once failed to come back.
Noah Walker’s flustered, hurried manner from just moments ago had vanished, too.
She’d come back eventually, so why should he waste his energy coaxing her?
Noah Walker was almost arrogantly certain he had Bạch Tiểu Dụ in the bag.
Bạch Tiểu Dụ hadn’t said why she wanted to break up, but Noah Walker could guess.
It was those other men and women, of course.
Bạch Tiểu Dụ couldn’t tolerate even a speck of dirt. She had a thing about cleanliness and wanted a love that was absolutely pure. She held herself to that standard—and expected Noah Walker to meet it, too.
In a way, Noah Walker was the sort of man who never turned anyone away.
With each passing day together, Bạch Tiểu Dụ fell more deeply in love with Noah Walker, while his feelings kept fading amid the dreary routine of everyday life.
Outside, he was chauffeured around in a luxury car, eating steak and salad, relishing every bite and talking with his mouth full. At home, it was plain vegetables and noodles. The two of them could only squeeze into their tiny rented house and listen to Bạch Tiểu Dụ complain that pork had gone up in price again.
Outside, female coworkers wore figure-hugging dresses and beautiful makeup. At home, Bạch Tiểu Dụ wore a padded jacket and no makeup.
One was refined; the other, ordinary.
Who could stand that kind of contrast?
Noah Walker certainly couldn’t.
The night before his business trip, he went to see a movie with a female coworker. He knew she was interested in him, but he was happy to meet up with her anyway.
She wore a low-cut dress and held his arm, the two of them leaning close together. He couldn’t help picking up the scent of her perfume.
Dressed in a suit, Noah Walker went with his coworker to a restaurant and paid generously. Whenever he talked about the global economy, the admiration in her eyes satisfied his vanity.
Bạch Tiểu Dụ had never flattered him like that. All she ever did was bring him down.
His young, beautiful coworker was refined down to every strand of hair. Her skin was fair, and whenever she came close, he could smell the pleasant scent of her hair. And Bạch Tiểu Dụ? She was always in floral clothes, smelling only of laundry detergent.
Noah Walker was swept up in it, even feeling a little giddy.
But even in his giddy state, Noah Walker firmly turned his coworker down when she made suggestive hints.
“I have a girlfriend.”
With a teasing glint in her eyes, Noah’s female coworker asked unwillingly, “Are you really not coming up for a bit?”
Noah Walker shook his head firmly.
Was he really that noble?
Of course not.
It was just that Noah Walker knew full well that someone as beautiful as her had to come with a price tag.
His female coworker’s rent was twice what he paid.
He was just a poor young man with no money or connections, whose only real asset was slightly above-average looks. The only place he had to his name was a little house, and his parents weren’t in the best of health.
This kind of beauty was more than he could afford.
Noah Walker admitted he was a bit of a flirt, but the novelty and excitement of life outside could help him keep enduring the dull, routine life he shared with Bạch Tiểu Dụ.
Besides, nothing had actually happened between them. At most, it was a little variety in an otherwise calm, boring life. It wasn’t a big deal.
Right?
2.
Bạch Tiểu Dụ wasn’t nearly so forgiving.
She caught the scent of perfume on Noah Walker—sweet but not overpowering, both innocent and alluring, not the sort of thing cheap perfume could match. She also spotted a bright red lipstick mark on his shirt collar, left there “by accident” by his female coworker. Just an “accident.”
Faced with Bạch Tiểu Dụ’s furious outburst, Noah Walker remained utterly calm.
“If that’s what you think, then I guess I’ll just have to accept it.”
He didn’t want to waste time explaining. After saying that, he left Bạch Tiểu Dụ to fall apart and turned to go take a shower.
That was how the two of them had always been. Noah Walker had taught himself to control his emotions, pushing Bạch Tiểu Dụ to the breaking point, then acting calm when she was at her most frantic, making it look as if she were just being unreasonable.
When Noah Walker came out, Bạch Tiểu Dụ had calmed down. She sat alone, clutching her stomach and crying quietly.
“Go to bed.”
Bạch Tiểu Dụ ignored him.
Noah Walker finally lost patience and tossed his phone to Bạch Tiểu Dụ. “Go to sleep if you want. If you’re not going to, turn off the light. I have a business trip tomorrow.”
Half-asleep, Noah Walker heard Bạch Tiểu Dụ crying. He felt a little guilty, but he was too tired to comfort her, so he reassured himself instead: “I’ll talk to her tomorrow. If she’s still crying then, I’ll figure it out.”
He hadn’t crossed the line. His conscience was clear.
He’d given Bạch Tiểu Dụ his phone. She could see the nice-guy card his female coworker had given him and know that nothing had happened.
The sun would rise again tomorrow, just like always.
Early the next morning, Bạch Tiểu Dụ got up very early. Her face was pale, and she looked downright unwell.
Noah Walker felt a little guilty. He gently explained that there was nothing between him and the other woman. Knowing Bạch Tiểu Dụ was on her period, he went to pour her a glass of hot water.
He really was a good boyfriend—even he was moved by his own thoughtfulness.
But Bạch Tiểu Dụ wasn’t satisfied. She said her stomach hurt and insisted that he go buy her brown sugar water.
“There’s white sugar at home. Can’t you drink that instead?”
The little bit of guilt he’d managed to scrape together disappeared under Bạch Tiểu Dụ’s unreasonable demands.
What a fuss. How bad could the pain be? Did it really have to be the brown sugar sold at the shop downstairs? Her legs weren’t broken. Why couldn’t she go herself?
He had to get her used to this.
Noah Walker poured her a glass of water with white sugar in it. Bạch Tiểu Dụ didn’t take it, so he slammed the glass down on the table. “If you want it, get it yourself. If you don’t, then forget it.”
Then he ignored Bạch Tiểu Dụ and went off to play video games.
A little while later, Noah Walker turned around. The glass was empty.
Look at that. All that complaining, and you can still drink it, can't you?
A little while after that, Bạch Tiểu Dụ asked him to go buy brown sugar again.
After drinking the sugar water made with white sugar, her complexion didn’t improve; it got worse. Noah Walker also decided Bạch Tiểu Dụ was just being difficult on purpose.
His memory of that day was a little hazy. He only remembered that he seemed to have said a few things that went too far. Looking back now, he realized they might have hurt Bạch Tiểu Dụ.
She really was both sensitive and fragile.
Noah Walker admitted that during the three days he was away on a business trip, he hadn’t once reached out to Bạch Tiểu Dụ—but wasn’t it unreasonable of her to leave like that?
What gave her the right to decide on her own to end their relationship?
What gave her the right to come and go as she pleased?
“Go ahead, then. Don’t come back.” Noah Walker tossed the suitcase onto the floor. He didn’t even take off his shoes before flopping onto the bed, unconcerned that Bạch Tiểu Dụ had left.
He called up the friends he usually drank with—the ones Bạch Tiểu Dụ disliked most. “Hey, Old Tang? Want to go drinking today? We’re not coming home until we’re drunk!”