The city lights of Shanghai glittered against the night sky, a canvas of neon reflections and shattered dreams. Xiu Xinyi barely registered the hum of passing cars as she stood before the door of Room 1806, her breath uneven, her fingers tightening around her phone.
"Come to Room 1806. I miss you already. ❤️"
Her boyfriend, Chen Yuze, had sent that text. Five years of love, of whispered promises, of a future she had once believed in—and yet, something felt off. Yuze never called her to hotel rooms. He was supposed to be on a business trip. So why was he here? And why did her gut twist with unease?
Her heart pounded as she reached for the door handle. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe she was overthinking.
But the moment she stepped inside, her world shattered.
Silk sheets, tangled bodies, gasps of pleasure.
There he was—Chen Yuze, the man she had once imagined walking down the aisle with. And beneath him, arching into his touch, was none other than Liu Meilin—her best friend since university.
Xinyi's breath caught in her throat. She should have screamed. She should have demanded an explanation. But all she could do was stand there, her body frozen in place as their betrayal played out like a slow-motion nightmare.
Meilin was the first to notice. Her eyes widened in horror as she scrambled to cover herself, the silk sheets slipping from her shoulders.
"Xinyi, I—"
Yuze turned, his face paling faster than a drowning man gasping for air. "Xinyi, this isn't what it looks like."
She let out a hollow laugh. "Really? Because from where I'm standing, it looks exactly like what it is."
She had always prided herself on being a woman of control, on keeping her emotions carefully restrained. But right now, fury coiled in her chest, hot and all-consuming.
Yuze stumbled toward her, reaching out as if to grasp the remnants of their dying relationship. "Listen, I—"
"Don't touch me," she snapped, stepping back, her voice icy.
The room felt suffocating. The expensive perfume Meilin wore—one she had gifted her—now smelled rancid. The sheets Yuze once held her in now felt like a graveyard of memories.
She didn't cry. Not yet.
She turned and walked away, her heels clicking against the marble floor with a finality that sent a chill through the air.
She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her break.
That night, Xiu Xinyi made a choice.
The girl who loved with blind devotion was gone.
And in her place, a new woman would rise.
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