At first, Xue Ling thought he was joking, but after asking twice, from beginning to end all he said was that single line—breaking up—without a single extra explanation.

Just like when he had first suggested getting together, proposing the start as if it were a joke, and then just as lightly proposing the end.

So, looking at his utterly indifferent expression, even with a hint of his mind wandering elsewhere, Xue Ling completely lost control of her emotions for the first time and smashed the milk tea in her hand straight into his head.

At that moment, Xue Ling hoped he would get angry—better yet, have a huge fight with her—but he could not even be bothered to get angry. He just wiped his face and turned around to leave.

During the year-plus she had been together with Wen Jiuzhe, there were many times when Xue Ling felt that he did like her.

Wen Jiuzhe had extremely poor patience, but at home he was willing to clean together with her, proactively taking on the most troublesome chores.

No matter what she ordered him to do, he would drag his lazy steps over to get it done, without complaining even once.

Wen Jiuzhe’s temper was actually quite bad as well; he hated being disturbed while sleeping, but when she woke him up at four-thirty in the morning after he had only slept for two hours to go queue at a tourist spot, he still would not lose his temper at her.

At most, he would sit silently by the bed for three minutes, then grab his hair and get up to wash up.

He did not like her overly submissive personality, but he had never lectured her about how this was bad or that was bad.

A year-plus of time could not change the personality Xue Ling had formed over twenty years. The reason she changed was not because Wen Jiuzhe had angered her into becoming more short-tempered, but because she knew that behind her back, Wen Jiuzhe had gone to “talk” to those few people who always liked to take advantage of her.

He was completely biased toward her. If she got into a conflict with someone, he would think she was right without asking the reason, and he never regarded solving problems for her as troublesome.

It was not that Xue Ling did not know she was being taken advantage of, doing extra work that belonged to others; she just did not want to argue with people and cause trouble.

It had been that way since childhood—her close relatives were not around, her uncle was separated by a layer of distance. If she caused trouble and her uncle had to clean it up, the complaints she received afterward made her feel even worse than actually being bullied.

So, taking a small loss could avoid many conflicts. Xue Ling felt it was worth it.

But Wen Jiuzhe—clearly someone a year younger than her—gave her support and love.

He made her feel that it was okay even if she lost her temper, okay even if she ended up on bad terms with others.

Wen Xuan had once sought her out and said to her, “That Wen Jiuzhe is best at putting on an act to deceive people. It’s impossible for him to like you. The only reason he’s with you is to get on my nerves.”

“Believe it or not, if one day I say I don’t think much of you at all anymore, he’ll immediately break up with you, dump you just as cleanly as throwing away trash!”

At the time, Xue Ling was so angry that her whole body trembled, and she raised her hand and slapped Wen Xuan across the face. She felt Wen Xuan was talking complete nonsense—Wen Jiuzhe was not that kind of person.

But on the day of the breakup, watching Wen Jiuzhe’s crisp, decisive back as he turned and left, she began to doubt her past feelings.

Perhaps it really was as Wen Xuan had said—he had had enough of being angry at Wen Xuan, and no longer needed her.

So she actually did not understand Wen Jiuzhe at all.

Thinking that he liked her had all been an illusion; he did not care about her as much as she had imagined. Otherwise, how could he bring up breaking up so easily, not caring at all whether she would be hurt, not even willing to find a single reason.

—The above were the inner struggles and tangled thoughts of the twenty-two-year-old human Xue Ling, three years ago.

After being a zombie for three years, and reuniting with her former boyfriend whom she had once hated to the point of grinding her teeth, his various actions—each more insane and deranged than the last—had already made Xue Ling once again certain that this guy really did love her.

If he did not love her, how could he want to share a bed with a dried-up zombie, how could he kiss a zombie’s ugly face, how could he be willing to give up integrating into the human world for the sake of a zombie.

With that being the case, the reason why he had suddenly and swiftly brought up breaking up three years ago and then left was even more something that drew attention.

“You still don’t understand why I’m angry!” Xue Ling took the writing board from the car, squatted on the ground, and wrote.

Wen Jiuzhe squatted across from her. “Why are you angry? Isn’t it just because I said we were breaking up? Is there any other reason?”

Seeing that it was inconvenient for Xue Ling to write like this, he casually picked up the writing board and held it up. Xue Ling followed the motion and changed her posture, writing on it: “Breaking up is infuriating, but not saying the reason is even more infuriating!”

Wen Jiuzhe said, “That’s not right, is it? Shouldn’t breaking up itself be more infuriating? You’ve already broken up—does the reason really matter that much?”

You’re actually arguing with me now—are you the one who’s angry, or am I?

Xue Ling forcefully wiped off the words on the writing board, then wrote two large characters: “The reason!”

“The reason…” Wen Jiuzhe held the writing board, his gaze passing over Xue Ling to the yellow leaves drifting behind her.

The reason—if you say it’s complicated, it’s complicated; if you say it’s simple, it’s simple.

It was just that the Wen family old master’s health was failing. He was worried that the useless sons and grandsons in the family couldn’t keep Wen Jiuzhe in check, and wanted to add an extra layer of insurance before he died.

The Wen family’s legitimate businesses on the surface weren’t very large, but behind the scenes they also had illegal dealings—antiquities forgery and trafficking. Old Master Wen didn’t want his precious grandson Wen Xuan to inherit it, and instead planned to hand it over to Wen Jiuzhe.

He wanted Wen Jiuzhe to take over in advance, but also worried that if Wen Jiuzhe’s mother died, he would have no scruples about taking revenge on the Wen family. So he planned to arrange a wife for him as well—someone from his second aunt’s side of the family.

In Old Master Wen’s view, even if Wen Jiuzhe was unwilling now, once he married a relative of his second uncle and had a wife and children, he would be completely tied to the Wen family.

He had ruthlessness and courage. With him backing things up, the Wen family’s business could continue to flourish for at least two more generations.

Old Master Wen had been accustomed for many years to arranging the lives of his sons and grandsons. He had never considered that Wen Jiuzhe would resist, nor did he know that his coercion had pushed Wen Jiuzhe to the resolve of mutual destruction.

At the time, Wen Jiuzhe truly did not know how to explain things to Xue Ling.

Was he supposed to tell Xue Ling: “My grandfather wants me to go back, marry early, have children early with the person he’s arranged, and take over the Wen family’s criminal operations—but don’t worry, I’m only pretending to agree. This time, when I go back, I plan to find a way to kill my grandfather.”

“If I’m lucky and don’t get discovered, then after he dies and the Wen family falls into chaos, I’ll be free, I’ll rescue my mom, and I’ll come back to find you. Of course, my mom has heart disease and needs long-term recuperation and medication. If you’re with me, the burden in the future will be very heavy.”

“And if I’m unlucky and the matter of killing my grandfather is discovered, I might have to go to prison. After hearing all this, would you still break up with me?”

An ordinary person would probably run away immediately after hearing that. Xue Ling… she was a bit foolish; he wasn’t sure whether, in a moment of impulsive stupidity, she might say she was willing to wait for him.

Even worse, she might even want to think of ways together with him to break free from the Wen family.

So whether it was the reason, his approach, or the possible outcomes to come, there was not a single thing he could say to Xue Ling.

It was also because he had been too young back then. His own family situation, his uncertain future—these were things he found hard to speak of to an equally young lover.

He didn’t want her to know that he was actually helpless in the face of his terrible life.

He didn’t want her to know that he was about to do something terrifying.

They had only been dating for a year. Dragging her into the Wen family’s mess and even involving the risk of prison—wouldn’t that be far too unlucky for her?

It would be better if she knew nothing at all. That way things would be much simpler—she had just dated a trashy ex-boyfriend with no integrity, and then been inexplicably broken up with.

“You’re still spacing out—talk!” Xue Ling forcefully slapped the writing board, shaking Wen Jiuzhe.

Wen Jiuzhe was jostled and swayed by her push. He organized his words, polished the facts a bit, and spoke of what happened three years ago in a relaxed tone:

“Simply put, the reason was that my family used my mom’s and my grandfather’s serious illnesses as an excuse, wanted me to go home to get engaged and inherit part of the family business, so I had no choice but to break up and go back.”

Xue Ling thought she would hear some even more explosive reason. She didn’t expect something so utterly ordinary and melodramatic, and couldn’t help asking, “That’s it?”

Wen Jiuzhe: “That’s it.”

Xue Ling squatted facing him, the two of them staring wide-eyed at each other for a while, then suddenly asked, “Why did no one come give me five million to make me break up with you?”

Wen Jiuzhe laughed. “Ah, maybe it’s because I’m not worth five million in the Wen family.”

Xue Ling fell silent again for a moment.

“Then why didn’t you explain it clearly back then!”

“You just turned around and left—breaking up was whatever, you weren’t even sad at all!”

Xue Ling wrote rapidly, her handwriting flying wildly. Wen Jiuzhe spent a long time trying to make it out.

Did it look like he didn’t care?

Maybe it was because, if he didn’t pretend not to care, he wouldn’t have been able to say the words “break up.”

When being hurt and feeling pain, the more he had to put on an indifferent, unconcerned front—this had already become a conditioned reflex he’d developed over those years in the Wen family.

Aside from saying “break up,” he hadn’t dared say a single extra word, nor dared look too much at her expression, afraid that if he saw her face, the next second he would be unable to resist saying it was a joke and taking back those words.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know she would be angry. In a dark corner of his heart, he even hoped she would be angrier—best if she sealed off her heart from love from then on, never liking any man again.

If he really couldn’t go back to find her, then in the future, it would be best if every time she thought of him, she got angry once more, never able to forget him no matter what.

Who would have thought that what followed would turn out even worse and more tortuous than he had imagined.

If it were three years ago, a younger Wen Jiuzhe would never have admitted that he was sad.

But now, faced with Xue Ling’s accusations, Wen Jiuzhe smiled and said, “Of course I was sad. Breaking up is obviously sad. You just didn’t notice because I acted well.”

Unfortunately, now that he admitted it, Xue Ling didn’t believe him.

Xue Ling: “Where were you sad? You’re still smiling right now!”

Wen Jiuzhe: “Oh, I’m still acting. Putting on a forced smile.”

Xue Ling: “……”

Wen Jiuzhe: “I’ve already told you the reason—can’t you get back together with me?”

Xue Ling: Your reason would’ve been better left unsaid!

“No! I won’t agree!” She wrote furiously on the writing board.

Wen Jiuzhe suddenly tossed the writing board aside and flopped straight down into the pile of fallen leaves on the street.

“Don’t want to live anymore. No point.”

Xue Ling: “……”

It felt like the number of times she was speechless today was unusually high.

Was this dog learning from her? He was learning from her, right?!

“Ah!” Wen Jiuzhe suddenly shouted, startling Xue Ling. She hurried over and covered his mouth.

Wen Jiuzhe lazily bent one leg, pulled her hand down. “Don’t stop me. Just let a zombie come over and eat me.”

Xue Ling: Fine, fine, so you’re acting crazy too now, huh?

Unfortunately, there were really too few zombies on campus. After quite a while, not a single zombie came over.

Xue Ling sat in the fallen leaves for a bit. Worried that ants might crawl on her, she changed places and sat somewhere else—right on Wen Jiuzhe’s stomach.

If he had the ability, he could just lie there for the rest of his life and never get up.

Wen Jiuzhe tossed two fallen leaves onto her and asked, “You’re not agreeing to get back together— is it because you don’t like me?”

Xue Ling wanted to punch him on the head. He really didn’t understand the question at all. Not agreeing to get back together was because of his attitude.

Whether it was properly explaining the reason for the breakup or apologizing, she just wanted an attitude!

Xue Ling emphasized it again. Wen Jiuzhe nodded, revealing a smile that didn’t look like it belonged to a good person.

“So it’s because of attitude, not because you don’t like me. So you do like me, right.”

Xue Ling: “?”

What exactly are you summarizing here? Who taught you to extract keywords like this?

Wen Jiuzhe: “If it’s an attitude problem, then is apologizing now useful?”

Xue Ling answered decisively: “Useless!”

Wen Jiuzhe: “If it’s useless, then I won’t apologize.”

Xue Ling: “……” Who! Taught! Him! To! Do! Problems! Like! This!

Wen Jiuzhe did a sit-up. “Not getting back together is fine. As long as I know you like me.”

This guy didn’t manage to placate her, but he placated himself just fine. It was truly outrageous.

Wen Jiuzhe stood up, and conveniently picked Xue Ling up with him.

“Then in the future, when you introduce me to others, you’ll have to say, ‘this is my ex-boyfriend that I still like.’”

Xue Ling: Are you sick? Who do I need to introduce you to, and who introduces people like that?!

Stuffed into the car by him, Xue Ling watched as the car drove out of the campus. She kicked him and asked, “Where are you going now?”

Wen Jiuzhe rubbed his arm where it hurt and turned the steering wheel. “Know your place. Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask, ex-girlfriend.”

Xue Ling: “?”

You’re getting worse and worse now? Xue Ling almost laughed from anger. Who was it that nearly fell into depression two months ago because of the words “ex-boyfriend”? Don’t tell me that was all an act?

Before Xue Ling could not resist hitting him again, Wen Jiuzhe spoke up once more: “Even though we haven’t gotten back together yet, who told me that I like you so much, that it has to be you and no one else. So, to answer your question—we’re going to Andong City now.”