"Chen, have you ever truly loved anyone?" Yun Ruoxi asked softly, her hand resting gently over his heart. This place—had it ever held love for anyone?
"I love you," Ye Chen replied mildly, his gaze flicking over the fair hand on his chest.
Love—what was that, really?
To him, it was a luxury far beyond reach.
Everyone who had ever loved him eventually left. So, from a young age, Ye Chen had learned not to love anyone.
After all, if they were going to leave in the end, what was the point of love?
If you didn't love, then when the time came to say goodbye, you wouldn't feel the sorrow. You wouldn't cry. You wouldn't shut yourself off like a fool. You wouldn't lose the will to go on.
He had had enough of the pain of losing.
His mother, his sister… and someone else…? He couldn't remember. He always had this feeling—there was someone else. But he couldn't recall her face. Still, Ye Chen knew—they were all gone.
He had once tried to hold on. But all he caught in his fingers was emptiness.
Nothing remained.
If he could forget the coldness of the midnight hours, the gnawing loneliness, then perhaps a life like this wouldn't be so bad. He didn't want to endure another loss.
Some things are too costly to lose—for some people, it breaks them. And with that, the courage is gone.
Yun Ruoxi smiled, her delicate face blooming with happiness and contentment. "No matter what, I'm grateful I've been able to stay by your side all these years."
Ye Chen didn't love anyone. That, she knew.
Though the world claimed she was the woman he adored, his one true love…
But what man, deeply in love with his girlfriend, would keep changing women again and again? Where did that leave her?
Yun Ruoxi understood—Ye Chen was simply lonely…
And deeply insecure.
It sounded ridiculous—how could a man like Ye Chen, ruthless and commanding in the business world, possibly lack a sense of security?
A fairy tale, surely. But Yun Ruoxi knew—he really did. Because he had once shut himself off for three years. Because he had once been seriously ill, psychologically. Because he was cold to the entire world.
Yet, sometimes, she felt he was waiting for someone.
He would often gaze into her eyes in a daze. He never kissed her lips, but he often kissed her eyes—softly, tenderly, with a sense of sorrow.
Only in those moments did Yun Ruoxi feel truly cherished.
A woman's intuition is rarely wrong. She knew—they were all just substitutes for someone else. And for all these years, despite her efforts, she still didn't know who that person was.
Who could possibly be so unforgettable?