Under a TikTok video of me looking fabulous, I saw a girl tag her boyfriend. [Move over everyone, my man loves this type, let him see first!] I clicked on her profile and froze. It was the girl who bullied me relentlessly in high school. I'd recognize that face even if it were turned to ash. I didn't sleep a wink that night. I went through every single one of her videos, then clicked on the boyfriend she'd tagged. I sent him a DM. [You there?] 01 Before seeing Chloe again, I'd imagined countless times what she would be like now. I thought bad people would get their karma, that she'd be living a miserable, poverty-stricken life. But no. In the videos she posted, she was at a $5,000-a-night hotel in the Maldives one day, seeing the aurora in Iceland the next, and then driving a convertible into the sunset on the West Coast. In her most recent photo, she was sitting in a black Rolls-Royce, wearing a Chanel suit, smiling brightly at the camera, not a care in the world. She seemed to be living a truly great life. But why? I stared at her smiling face on the phone screen. Slowly, that smiling face turned into her in her school uniform, laughing while slapping me, over and over again. When her hand hurt, she let the people behind her take over. She laughed from the side, pointing a camera at my swollen, bleeding face: "Smile, Lee. Don't you love being a little slut? Why aren't you smiling anymore?!" She grabbed my hair forcefully, her smile widening: "Smile!" Chloe's malice towards me started when the boy she liked gave me a birthday gift. On my birthday, he gave me a bag. I heard his mom brought it back from Paris, worth over $3,000. I was scared stiff and refused to take it. In a fit of pique, he threw the bag at me, saying he'd just trash it if I didn't want it. While I was holding the bag, at a loss for what to do, Chloe walked in. She snatched the bag away, looked at it for a while, and suddenly smiled. But that smile was twisted, making me shudder. "I begged him for this bag for three months and he wouldn't give it to me. I didn't expect he wanted to give it to you." She looked up at me, a look that made my hair stand on end: "Lee, you're quite capable." From that moment on, Chloe started targeting me constantly. The thing I feared most every day was school ending, because I never knew when she and her clique would corner me in the bathroom, followed by beatings and humiliation. During that time, I lived in fear every day and had nightmares every night, but I didn't dare tell anyone. My parents divorced when I was young, and both had new families. Only my grandma, who had a limp, was willing to take me in. She ran a small deli, working from dawn till dusk selling sandwiches to support my schooling. I was one of the few students in that private school who was admitted on a full scholarship because of excellent grades. I didn't dare tell the teachers because Chloe threatened me with my grandma. And I knew the school would turn a blind eye to Chloe, whose family had power and influence. I could only study harder, thinking about testing out early and leaving this place. But even that little hope didn't materialize in the end. The night before the SATs, Chloe locked me in the bathroom again. This time, she had people strip me and take photos. I was locked in the bathroom all night and couldn't leave, so I didn't know that those photos appeared in various local group chats that very night. I also didn't know that Chloe deliberately had someone go to my grandma's store and show her the photos. Grandma was anxious because she couldn't find me at home, so she limped her way to the school to look for me. Then, because she was too anxious and didn't look carefully when crossing the street, she was hit and run over by a semi-truck driven by a drowsy driver. She died on the spot. I only found out the news the next morning when the janitor let me out. I saw stars, my head was spinning, and my mind went blank as I lay on the floor. When I woke up, I was already in the hospital. In one day, I lost the chance to change my destiny through the SATs, and my grandma, who was my only family. I hardly remember anything about what happened after that day. Probably because the physical pain was too great, my body turned on a self-protection mechanism and sealed away that memory. I only remember a teacher coming to see me. I heard her saying regretfully to others in the hallway: "She was ivy league material. What a pity." Nothing happened to Chloe. She was just called to the principal's office and criticized. Because her dad was a famous local entrepreneur and a major taxpayer, the principal didn't dare offend him. I used the last bit of money my family had to handle grandma's funeral. I didn't have money to repeat the year, so I could only find a factory job to support myself. Chloe, on the other hand, was sent to a university in California and started her wonderful life. ...... I sat on the bed. The lights were off in the bedroom, and I just stared blankly at the dark ceiling like this. During the hardest years, I often stared blankly like this. Actually, life got much better later. After I made money, I took adult education courses, saved some money, and opened my own online women's clothing store. I was my own model. Fortunately, I was good-looking and caught the trend. Business got bigger and bigger over time, and now I'm financially free. I thought I had forgotten the past. I thought I could start a new life. But the moment I saw Chloe's face, I suddenly realized that I had never let it go. I hated her, hated her to death. I sat there until dawn, my slightly stiff fingers finally clicking on the account she tagged. It was a male profile with just a few simple lines, no videos posted. But I quickly found out his identity. Nate Quinn, Chloe's fiancé. The Gu family nearly went bankrupt when she was in college, and finally came back to life through marriage. The Quinn family was the big tree the Gu family leaned on. It was also the guarantee that Chloe could live such a privileged life now. Chloe didn't remember me anymore. It's funny to say, she personally pushed me into hell. Her smiling face was in every one of my nightmares, but she didn't remember me anymore, and even tagged Nate in my comment section to see. I clicked on the chat icon next to Nate's profile picture, thought for a moment, and sent him a DM. [You there?] 02 Three days later, I opened Nate's chat box for the umpteenth time. He still hadn't replied. I wasn't surprised. Judging from the information I'd collected these days, Nate was pretty clean in terms of relationships. Chloe tagging him should just be a casual joke. She knew Nate wouldn't be interested. It's strange to say, he's the heir to the Quinn family. Judging from the videos and photos found, he's at least 6'2". Thanks to his celebrity mom, he also has a face that could debut right away. Such a standard rich, tall, handsome guy, his favorite activity isn't picking up girls, playing with cars, or showing off wealth, but fishing. Yeah, like an old man, finding a seaside or pond, setting up a fishing rod, and fishing all day. Seeing that online DMing wasn't going to work on him, I checked a lot of information about him, and even followed him downstairs at his company. Nate's life is very regular. Two points and one line every day, and then he will take out one day every weekend specifically to go fishing. After figuring out his off-work time, I drove my car behind him. After a red light, I cut in behind his car and slammed right into it! With a "bang", the car in front stopped. Then Nate, dressed in a suit, walked down with a frown and tapped on my car window. I smoothed my hair and glanced at the rearview mirror out of the corner of my eye. I specially hired a makeup artist with a five-figure price tag to apply makeup, ensuring every eyelash was exquisite while not looking too made-up. Sure enough, when I opened the car door, Nate's furrowed brows relaxed a bit. Chloe must know that Nate likes my type to tag him. He might not be interested just because of a face, but at least he wouldn't feel disgusted with me. I looked up, revealing a perfectly angled face of 45 degrees, apologizing in a panic: "Sorry, I'm a new driver. I was too anxious just now and didn't react. Are you okay?" Nate shook his head, walked to the back of the car and took a look: "It's not very serious. Let's drive away first and don't block the road here. We'll go through insurance directly later." I nodded, and the two of us stood by the roadside like this, waiting for the insurance company people to come and finish the whole process. Then I naturally took out my phone, opened the QR code and handed it to him: "Let's add WeChat. Contact me if there's anything." My attitude was too natural, not giving him a chance to refuse. Nate paused, took out his phone and scanned me. "I'm really sorry today. Let me treat you to a meal some other day?" I looked up at him. "No need. Insurance is done. Contact me on WeChat if there's anything." He refused me as I expected, got in the car and left. I watched his car merge into the traffic flow, clenched my phone, and a smile appeared at the corner of my mouth. Today's goal has been achieved. I didn't expect to get close to Nate so quickly. Getting his contact information is already a success. I like people who are challenging. If he takes the bait too quickly, it wouldn't be fun. I found all of Chloe's social media accounts. She seems to really like Nate. Almost nine out of ten posts are about Nate. She's obviously obsessed with him. The Gu family has shown more and more signs of decline in recent years. If it weren't for the capital injection from the Quinn family to support it, it would probably have gone bankrupt long ago. Chloe. I'd like to see if she can still live so comfortably without Nate. If God doesn't give her retribution, I'll come myself. 03 I studied Nate's Moments overnight. He's really a person with a very simple life. Almost no updates. He only shows off in his Moments when he catches a fish. I didn't actively chat with him, just posted a photo in my Moments after a few days. The ripples in the dark pool water were blown up by the wind. I held a big silver carp and pursed my lips at the camera. [Another day without coming up empty-handed!] I waited for a week. Nate didn't like or comment. But he didn't post to Moments this week either, obviously didn't go fishing. In the second week, I continued posting. Still silver carp, still that deep pool, just that the fish this time was a circle bigger, weighing four or five pounds. [Big fish!] He still didn't reply. In the third week I continued. [Can't catch 'em all, literally can't catch 'em all.] Then I went to apply a face mask and sleep. I turned on my phone early the next morning. Among the dozens of like avatars, I finally saw the one I was waiting for. Nate commented: [May I ask where this is?] I looked at the phone and curled the corners of my mouth. Hooked. 04 When I saw Nate again, he was obviously more talkative. "Is the fishing spot you mentioned really have that many fish?" I looked him over discreetly. He was wearing a black hoodie and gray sweatpants. His black hair wasn't slicked back with hair gel, but scattered naturally on his forehead. When talking about things he was interested in, his eyes opened slightly and shone brightly. He didn't look like the indifferent and noble person in financial magazines at all, but more like a young man in his early twenties. I nodded: "You'll know when you go. I haven't come up empty-handed many times I've been there." Actually, I didn't know how to fish at all. I frantically caught up on knowledge these days just to catch Nate, this fish. This fishing spot was also discovered by me after inquiring from countless people and wandering around the mountains by myself. Nate, on the other hand, when fishing was mentioned, obviously talked a lot more. When he got excited, he showed me videos of him fishing for catfish in the Amazon River. I was amazed again and again, and then showed him photos of me fishing for tuna out at sea. His eyes lit up, and then he felt a bit regretful: "I wanted to go fishing for tuna before too, but I've been too busy and haven't had the chance." He looked up at me and looked straight at me for the first time: "I didn't expect you to like fishing so much too. Girls who love fishing are really rare." We talked more and more, starting to talk about sports, favorite music, movies and books. Then he was surprised to find that we actually have quite a few common hobbies. We both like skiing, both like Mishima Yukio's "Afternoon Towing", both like listening to Koji Tamaki, and we can also understand each other's preferences in places where we differ occasionally. When we finally recovered, we realized that we had chatted for a whole afternoon, and it was getting dark. After that, we often went fishing and chatted together, and we even raised a little wild cat together. This yellow kitten was only a few months old. Every time we went fishing, it would obediently lie aside waiting to eat fish. Sometimes when we both didn't catch a fish, it would anxiously meow to urge us. I named it Nian Nian, meaning having abundance every year. Every time I went, I would kiss and hug it. Nate wasn't so interested in it. Every time Nian Nian went to rub against him, he would avoid it. He's a bit of a germaphobe and dislikes cat hair sticking to him. That night, Nate asked me for the first time when parting: "When will you come next time?" I thought for a moment: "Work is busy recently, hard to say." A trace of disappointment that was hard to detect flashed across his eyes, but he still nodded politely and didn't say much. I didn't go for the next week. It wasn't until the second week that I arrived late. Seeing me again, Nate didn't show it on his face, but quickly moved his chair towards me. "Where have you been these days? Why haven't you come fishing?" I walked over and touched Nian Nian lying on the ground. It stretched its body on the ground. Its little belly was bulging and it had gained a lot of weight. Its fur was sleek and smooth. It looked well cared for. "Have you been feeding it these days?" Nate raised his chin reservedly, his tone carrying a hint of blame: "You insisted on naming it, but haven't cared for it these days." He soon became a bit proud again: "Of course I took care of it. I come to fish for it to eat every day." Nian Nian walked over and rubbed against his leg. Nate frowned, disdaining verbally: "Can you stay away from me? Every time you rub hair all over me." But his hand picked it up familiarly and put it on his lap. Nian Nian laid comfortably on him. His black jacket was immediately covered in cat hair, but he didn't mind. Instead, he scratched its chin with ease. I watched from the side and made a conclusion in my heart. Turns out he's a tsundere. I secretly laughed inwardly and sat aside to hold the fishing rod, but accidentally got my hand pricked by the fish hook. I hissed and squeezed my finger. A drop of bright red blood emerged. Nate immediately put Nian Nian down, took out a Band-Aid from the box on the side, and walked over frowning. "Why so careless." I wanted to take the Band-Aid, but he naturally said: "Hand." "You're quite prepared——" I looked up with a smile, but swallowed the rest of the words when I ran into his line of sight. Too close. Unknowingly, we seemed to be too close. The bright orange setting sun in the mountains gradually dyed blue and dimmed. The wind was trapped in the valley, bringing up moist water vapor. I could smell the faint woody scent on Nate. I didn't know if it was perfume or aftershave. His pupils were lighter than average people, with a kind of inorganic coldness and clarity. At this moment, however, they reflected me completely. The wind blew my hair across his face. He just looked at me blankly like this until Nian Nian meowed impatiently from the side. We both recovered at the same time and suddenly took a step back respectively. Nate quickly turned his head with his back to me, squatting down and stroking Nian Nian's back: "Fish. It's starving." I burst out laughing. In the dim light, his ears turned red inconspicuously. He sat aside fishing without speaking. However, Nate, who usually had great patience, fidgeted all evening tonight and didn't catch a single fish all night. From that day on, there seemed to be a tacit understanding between us. When he came fishing, he would always ask me to come along. We went out at least twice a week. Sometimes it was in desolate mountains, sometimes it was on the boundless sea, sometimes it was at a fishing farm he rented out. However, every time there were only the two of us. During this period, I kept paying attention to Chloe's Weibo. Her posts showing off her relationship became fewer and fewer, and in the end, she hadn't posted a single one for several days. I watched coldly, and then met her boyfriend in my best condition with the most exquisite makeup during the day. This kind of relationship, where both knew it clearly but pretended to be confused, fermented for two months before I felt the time had come. That night, when he was holding Nian Nian, I suddenly asked: "Nate, do you have a girlfriend?"
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