I Faked My Death to Get My Rival into a Maid Outfit—Then It Backfired! - Chapter 3

Pei Jing dragged my hand down to his—

Chest.

Oh. His heart.

Not that I’d been imagining anything strange.

Pei Jing had been a year below me at university. From the day I’d met him, he had always done everything with meticulous care.

Everything had to be the best. For example—

The cat ears he’d bought could actually move. They had electronic sensors built in.

Every time Pei Jing blinked, the ear brushing my cheek gave a little twitch.

They faded from silver to gray and even had temperature sensors inside.

They looked as though they’d broken through flesh and grown straight out of him.

No one could resist something that fluffy. As if possessed, I reached up and pinched one.

Pei Jing tilted his head and looked up at me. His lips glistened, which meant my earlobe was probably covered in saliva too…

“Why won’t you have me? It was the same three years ago. Fifty million shares in stock options couldn’t make you stay, and now even the ghost I imagined is rejecting me.”

Three years ago…

That was where all the bad blood between Pei Jing and me began. The memory sat in my heart like a thorn.

“You already know why.” I made my voice cold, deliberately trying to hurt him. “You couldn’t keep me when I was alive. What makes you think you can keep me dead?”

Pei Jing leaned his entire weight into me, pinning me so hard against the wall that breathing became difficult.

“I hate you,” he snarled.

It might have sounded more menacing if tears hadn’t been spilling from the corners of his eyes.

“I know. Me too.”

There was no easy way to describe what I felt for Pei Jing. At university, he’d been the junior I always looked after.

In my senior year, my roommate, Pei Jing, and I started a company together.

Because he was younger, I instinctively took care of him in a hundred little ways. But I could never forgive what he’d done…

Afterward, our falling-out had been ugly. I couldn’t forgive him, yet somehow I couldn’t hate him cleanly either.

Now guilt over deceiving him had joined the mix, turning the whole thing into some kind of custom cocktail.

“I hate that the person you love isn’t me! I hate that you never make me your first choice!”

“Do you think you deserve to be?” I shot back.

Pei Jing stared at me, the rims of his eyes scarlet with disbelief.

As if he couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth.

His breathing grew deep, every exhale pounding against my eardrums.

The air pulled tight. I pressed myself to the cold wall and swallowed without making a sound.

Somebody, please save me—