That day, Chu Luyu was tossed around and bullied over and over again for a very long time.
She felt as if she had been thrown onto a surging, stormy sea—rising and falling with the waves, sometimes flung high into the air, sometimes crashing back down.
But to be honest, Jiang Hezhou hadn’t actually done anything too extreme. Yet if you looked closer… it felt like he had done everything.
Chu Luyu never imagined that even though all that drug had gone into his stomach, the one who ended up suffering the most was her.
She couldn’t remember when she had fallen asleep. All she knew was that when she opened her eyes again, daylight was streaming in from outside.
Jiang Hezhou was no longer beside her. After rubbing her eyes, she groggily asked the system: [Cuihua, where’s the male lead?]
System Cuihua: [I don’t know. The state you two were in last night… I didn’t dare watch anymore. By the time I came out of hibernation, you were the only one left in the house.]
The system paused, then added hesitantly: [The male lead probably got a huge shock yesterday. After he sobered up, he got angry and… left?]
Probably, Chu Luyu thought.
By the end of last night, she had clearly seen the disgust value above the man’s head spike up notch by notch until it hit -100. At that moment, she had felt a sense of “finally… finally…” settle in her heart—but back then, she was still trapped beneath Jiang Hezhou and didn’t have the chance to process any other emotions.
Now, the feeling of being utterly hated and despised by someone she liked finally hit her, with a delayed ache.
She asked the system again: [So the male lead has been pushed over the edge by this final blow and is now heading fully into the main storyline?]
System Cuihua: [Probably.]
Chu Luyu: [So where is he now?]
System Cuihua: [I don’t know. Should I go check for you?]
Chu Luyu hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. [Never mind. Since the tasks are completely done, the male lead and I are no longer connected. It’s better that he’s not home—saves me from not knowing how to face him later…]
With that thought, she hurriedly got out of bed.
Since the engagement was as good as broken off, no matter when the male lead decided to make it official, she was leaving today anyway. It was better to pack up quickly while he wasn’t around.
Having lived in the apartment for so long, Chu Luyu had accumulated far more things than she had left at the Chen house. As she packed, she considered throwing some things away, but after going back and forth, she couldn’t bear to part with this or that—each item carried memories. In the end, she filled seven or eight large bags.
Chen Mian had been called over early to help haul the luggage. When he arrived and saw his sister had already packed everything, he looked like he wanted to say something but held back.
“Sis, did you get kicked out?”
Chu Luyu shot him a glare. “Can you talk? This is called a normal breakup, got it?”
“Who breaks up this suddenly?” Chen Mian muttered. “You were fine yesterday—Mom and I thought you two had made up and wouldn’t bring up the breakup anymore. Then first thing this morning, you call me over to move your stuff…”
“Stop with the nonsense and get to work.”
Chen Mian huffed and puffed as he helped his sister carry all those big bags into the elevator. There was so much stuff that there was barely any room for anyone else.
Chu Luyu glanced at it and said, “Perfect. I’ll double-check the apartment for anything I might have left behind. You go down first—I’ll catch the next one.”
After the elevator doors closed, she went back inside.
The apartment looked almost unchanged overall, except for a few corners where some of her everyday items were missing—like the pinkish-white blanket she always covered herself with on the sofa, or the strawberry headband she used to pin back her bangs in the bathroom…
Chu Luyu walked through the entire apartment one last time, lost in memories. Finally, she left a note for Jiang Hezhou on the coffee table, took one last deep look around the room, and turned to leave.
—
At that moment, Jiang Hezhou was still busy at the hotel rooftop, working on the final touches for the proposal setup. He had no idea what was happening at home.
After the girl had passed out last night, he couldn’t bear to keep going. Fighting the urge to explode, he took a cold shower for over half an hour in the bathroom.
Later, when his condition had eased a little, he drove alone to the hospital to get two shots of the antidote serum. It wasn’t until nearly dawn that his symptoms fully subsided.
By then, the girl wouldn’t have woken up, so after only a few seconds of hesitation, he turned the steering wheel and headed back to the hotel.
Tomorrow was the day he planned to propose. The setup was almost complete—just one final rehearsal was needed.
He spent the next two hours going over the process with the hotel staff. When he glanced at the time, he took out his phone and called Chu Luyu.
He intended to ask what she wanted to eat after waking up, so he could buy it on his way home.
But when the call connected, all he got was a notification that her phone was turned off.
Was she still asleep? Had her phone died from not being charged and automatically shut off?
It never crossed his mind that something else might be going on, so he didn’t bother checking the location tracker on her phone. Just then, a staff member came over to confirm another detail with him, so he put the phone down and got back to work.
By the time everything was done, it was already noon.
Chu Luyu’s phone still wouldn’t turn on. Jiang Hezhou didn’t panic—he drove to a restaurant, picked up some of her favorite dishes, and headed home.
But when he got back and pushed open the door, the entire apartment was eerily silent.
The master bedroom door was open, though he couldn’t see inside from the entrance. His heart sank. He didn’t even have time to change his shoes—he strode straight to the bedroom, still carrying the takeout.
The bed, where a small figure should have been lying, was empty. The covers had been neatly folded—unusual for her. Looking closer, he noticed many little things were missing from the room.
Not just the bedroom—even the bathroom, the living room, the kitchen, and even those few volumes of shoujo manga that had been in his study were all gone now.
His heart dropped completely. He had no idea what had happened—all he knew was that the girl was gone, and she had even packed up all her belongings and fled while he wasn’t home.
His face went cold. In a very short time, he forced himself to process the surge of emotion that had just hit him, then scanned the room with his trained, analytical eye.
Finally, he spotted the note Chu Luyu had left him on the coffee table—
[Jiang Hezhou, let’s call off the engagement! I know you must be furious about what I did yesterday—drugging you, tying you up, and slapping you around. You must be utterly disgusted with me now, right? So let’s break it off. I’ll let you go—I won’t bother you anymore!]
Jiang Hezhou: …
He felt like he was going crazy with anger. It was rare for him to lose his composure like this.
His face turned ice-cold. He crumpled the note in his hand, then opened his phone and pulled up Chu Luyu’s current location.
He had assumed she’d gone back to the Chen house at most. But when the tracker loaded, the location displayed was a residential complex he had never heard of and she had never mentioned.
His dark, deep eyes behind his glasses turned utterly cold in that moment.
—
Over the next three days, Chu Luyu didn’t receive a single message from Jiang Hezhou. It seemed like he hadn’t even looked for her—he had just silently accepted the end of their engagement.
At first, she considered changing her SIM card. But after turning her phone back on and seeing that he hadn’t called even once, she figured she was overthinking it.
The system also told her: at this point in the plot, the male lead was supposed to completely part ways with the side female character. Since the female lead had left him that note, he probably just felt relieved—finally free of this big trouble, no longer having to put up with her. Why would he actively seek her out?
What the system said made perfect sense, and Chu Luyu understood the logic.
Understanding it, though, didn’t stop her from feeling down. Technically speaking, this wasn’t even a breakup, but… she was still unhappy!
The system spent a long time comforting her. Eventually, Chu Luyu suddenly realized something: [Wait, Cuihua—I’ve finished all my tasks. Why are you still here?]
System Cuihua: [After the plot tasks are completed in any world, the system has a one-month grace period to make sure the main storyline is fully back on track. Normally, I should go to the male lead or female lead and discreetly observe them. But I don’t want to—I want to stay with you.]
Hearing that, Chu Luyu felt like crying again: [Wah, Cuihua, you’re so good to me! I’m so glad I had you here with me. Thank you, really, thank you!]
System Cuihua: [Hehe, no need to say anything—we Northeastern systems are all about loyalty and righteousness.]
Nearby, Chen Mian and Chu Fanyin, who were pretending to watch TV, were both quietly observing Chu Luyu.
Chen Mian leaned over to his mother and whispered, “Mom, my sister keeps sighing one moment and laughing to herself the next. She’s not going crazy from the breakup, is she?”
Chu Fanyin smacked her son on the head and shot him a glare. “Can’t you wish your sister well? Crazy? Everyone has emotions when going through something—she just needs time to process it!”
“But when you decided to divorce Dad, it only took you a few days… And look at you now—you’re eating and drinking just fine. Unlike her—her appetite’s dropped by half.”
…Though his sister’s “half-appetite” meal still equaled three normal people’s meals, it was still less than before!
Chu Fanyin sighed. She thought to herself—of course she was affected too. But as an adult, she felt she shouldn’t let her own state affect the kids.
Changing the subject, she said, “There’s only a little over ten days until New Year’s. I saw people selling holiday goods all over the streets this morning. How about we take your sister to the supermarket—pick up some New Year’s supplies? Consider it a way to get her out and lift her spirits.”
“Deal!”
Chen Mian eagerly took on the task. He pestered Chu Luyu until she finally agreed to go out.
The temperature outside was still bitterly cold. After being cooped up at home for a few days, Chu Luyu wasn’t used to the chill. She tugged her scarf up to cover most of her face and shrank deeper into her down jacket.
Just then, she felt like someone was watching them from somewhere nearby. She instinctively turned to look, but there was only an empty path and snow-covered flower beds—no one in sight.
She wondered if she had imagined it.
Chen Mian called out to her from ahead, telling her to hurry up. Chu Luyu replied, “Coming,” then stopped thinking about it and walked toward them—
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