The Chestnut Girl - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

On the day we were supposed to have dinner, an uninvited guest appeared in front of me.

“Lingling.” My ex-boyfriend, who should have been far overseas, called my name with deep affection.

I was a little impatient. “What? We broke up ages ago.”

He argued, “I never agreed to that!”

I was baffled. “Weren’t you the one who said that if I came back to China, we’d break up?”

Lin Xiu raised his voice. “I said that to stop you from coming back!”

I couldn’t be bothered to argue. “It’s all in the past. Anyway, I think coming back was great. Why insist on being a second-class citizen abroad?”

His face flushed slightly. “You’re still young. You don’t understand how the world works. You won’t be able to make it here-”

“Don’t lecture me about my life.” I cut him off firmly. “My lab is almost finished. I’m not going back.”

Lin Xiu fell silent for a moment, then handed me a bouquet of yellow double lilies. “Then I can come back for you too. Let’s get back together.”

I stared at the flowers for a long while.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a suspicious, sneaky figure approaching.

I looked up.

“Why can’t we end things with some dignity? I don’t like yellow. How many times have I told you that?” I said helplessly.

“Besides, you don’t actually think I don’t know about how you immediately hooked up with some young girl and then got dumped by her, do you?”

Lin Xiu’s face stiffened. He defended himself, “I was the one who ended it! I still can’t forget you. No one understands me better than you-”

“She doesn’t understand you!”

Liang Suting finally couldn’t take it anymore and jumped out. “She already broke up with you. Can you have some shame and stop pestering her?”

He grabbed Lin Xiu by the collar, his expression so dark it was frightening. “Get lost!”

I stared in shock at Liang Suting, who, in my memory, had such a good temper that he was almost quiet and reserved. “You curse at people too?”

Liang Suting was so angry he started blurting things out. “That kind of person-you actually liked that kind of person? He has no male virtue at all, messing around with everyone. Not like me. I’ve always kept myself clean. I haven’t dated anyone from high school until now. Even my secretary is a man. And I don’t like women younger than me. I only like women my age.”

Are you standing up for me, or are you taking the chance to brag about yourself?

How am I supposed to respond to that?

Seeing me stay silent, Liang Suting got even angrier. “You dated him, so why-why couldn’t you-”

Feeling a little embarrassed, I hastily cut him off. “What’s there to ask? Back then, he happened to do me a huge favor and solved a problem for me, so I thought I’d give it a try.”

Great. Now this was going to become a criminal record in the future.

I looked at Liang Suting and felt that his timing really couldn’t have been worse.

“Forget it. I’m not in the mood for dinner today. Let’s do it ano-”

I slammed on the brakes. I couldn’t say “another day.” Liang Suting didn’t understand human language.

“-I’m not eating. I still have a pile of things to deal with.”

“What things? I can help.”

“No need!” I took a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m really not in the mood today.”

Liang Suting stood there blankly. “But-”

Only then did I notice that his trunk was stuffed full of flowers.

Purple ones.

I turned my head away and didn’t look again, then got into my car.

But just as I drove to the school gate, guilt got the upper hand.

Leaving him there like that didn’t seem very nice.

So I made a U-turn.

When I got back, Liang Suting was on the phone, practically seething.

The voice on the other end was lazy. “That just means she’s still tangled up with her ex-boyfriend.”

Liang Suting flew into a rage. “That’s because she’s loyal and values relationships! And she didn’t want to give that man the time of day at all! I’m not jealous that he got to be her boyfriend! I just think her taste is awful!”

The person on the other end yawned. “Then do her a huge favor too, and you can take the opportunity to make her marry you. Didn’t you say her family was in debt? Just help her out.”

Liang Suting looked suddenly enlightened. “You’re right. I need to do her a huge favor! Make her feel guilty toward me, and then she’ll think I like her! This is my revenge plan!”

He hurriedly got into the car. “I need to go see what she needs right now-”

“Liang-”

I watched him floor the accelerator and shoot off. I couldn’t help but sigh. As expected of a Lamborghini. The horsepower really was something else.