Chapter 3: I Don’t Want to Marry You Anymore

Wen Zhixian put on makeup to cover the faint redness on the left side of her face and headed to the café early in the morning.

After graduating, she had opened a small, cozy café with a refined atmosphere. However, it had been a long time since she had arrived at the café at 7:30 AM.

Since she was there early, she brought breakfast for the staff.

After being out of touch for three days, her appearance at the café surprised the staff, and they all greeted her warmly.

“I brought breakfast for everyone. Please share it,” Wen Zhixian said, handing over two bags full of breakfast items.

“Boss, where have you been the past couple of days? We messaged you, but you didn’t reply.”

Wen Zhixian joked, “I was off breaking up with my boyfriend.”

The staff were stunned. The boss had recently mentioned bringing wedding candy for them once she got married.

But they didn’t press further. One of the young women grinned and said, “Don’t be sad, boss. That tall, handsome guy who’s 1.88 meters might come in today—just looking at him can make you feel better.”

Wen Zhixian chuckled, “What handsome guy? You’re so fixated on him.”

The other staff members started chatting excitedly, telling her, “There’s this handsome guy, about 1.88 meters tall, who comes to the café three times a week, always right at 8:00 AM. We even checked—he’s never late.”

“And we’ve noticed that for the past few weeks, he always comes on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.”

This piqued Wen Zhixian’s curiosity. What kind of guy could make such a strong impression?

Though curious, she wasn’t particularly interested. After teasing them a bit, she ordered a coffee and found a seat in the corner.

She rested her elbow on the table and gazed out the window at the pedestrians. Suddenly, she spotted a familiar face, and her eyes widened in surprise.

The staff member placed her coffee on the table and, noticing where she was looking, got excited. “Boss, look! That’s him—the handsome guy. Isn’t he just a visual treat?”

It was him.

The man who had returned her keys at the apartment complex that day.

“I’ll treat him to a coffee,” she said. He had mentioned it was just a chance encounter that day, but seeing him again felt like fate.

The staff member grinned mischievously and whispered in Wen Zhixian’s ear, “Boss, you’re smooth~” before scurrying away with the tray, clearly amused.

Wen Zhixian smiled helplessly, and when she saw him enter the café, she immediately got up and followed him. After he placed his order, she quickly scanned her payment code before he could, and the payment went through.

The staff member, recognizing it was her boss, stifled a laugh and pretended not to notice, simply saying, “Please wait a moment.”

The man paused, his phone still in hand, and turned to look at the woman standing beside him.

It was her.

He couldn’t help but let his gaze linger on the left side of her face.

“We meet again. Thank you for returning my keys the other day.” She smiled softly and returned to her seat.

She had waited outside her door for at least fifteen minutes that day. Perhaps he had been waiting downstairs the whole time. She was grateful to him for showing her a stranger’s kindness when she was in such a terrible mood.

His gaze followed her until she sat down, and then the staff member’s voice broke his reverie, “Sir, here’s your coffee.”

He took the coffee and walked over to Wen Zhixian’s table. Before he could say anything, she cut him off, “Don’t even think about paying me back.”

He smiled slightly, “Thank you for the coffee.”

Wen Zhixian watched him as he walked away. He wasn’t pushy or overly serious—he wasn’t as boring as she initially thought.

As she turned her head, she touched her left ear. Everything sounded a bit muffled, and occasionally there was a buzzing noise.

She massaged her ear a few times before finally deciding to go to the hospital for a check-up to ease her mind.

After a series of examinations, the results showed that her hearing wasn’t damaged—just a mild case of tinnitus, for which she was prescribed some medication that should help over time.

Leaving the hospital, she glanced at the medical report several times. At that moment, she really wanted to slap Gu Yuchen, but at the same time, she had no desire to see him.

She was the type to hold grudges, and she knew she would remember the slap from Gu Yuchen for the rest of her life.

When Wen Zhixian returned to the café, it was busy with customers, and she spent the entire afternoon working non-stop.

The café closed at 9:00 PM. Seeing that there were no more customers in the last ten minutes, she let the night-shift staff leave early while she prepared to turn off the lights and lock up.

As she was cleaning up the cups, someone entered through the door. Without looking up, she said, “Sorry, we’re closing.”

The person didn’t respond, so Wen Zhixian finally looked up, and her entire body froze.

It was Gu Yuchen.

He was holding the small blue velvet box that she had asked Song Kairui to return to him.

Gu Yuchen’s expression was cold, and he stared at her intensely.

Wen Zhixian forced herself to stay calm as she slowly placed the cup she was holding into the cabinet.

“Wen Zhixian, what is this supposed to mean?” He slammed the small box onto the counter. “What does it mean to return the ring?”

Hearing his voice pulled Wen Zhixian back to that day. In his eyes, even his ex-girlfriend’s cup was more important than her—he had slapped her because of it.

“What do you think it means? I don’t want to marry you anymore.” As she spoke the word “marry,” her heart tightened, and her voice trembled slightly.

Anger flashed across Gu Yuchen’s face. “You’re making a fuss over this? Since when did you become so unreasonable?”

Whether he was showing his true colors or speaking nonsense out of anger, Wen Zhixian couldn’t care less about his words at that moment, nor did she bother to delve into their meaning.

“Making a fuss? This is a small thing? You hit me—that’s a small thing? Then tell me, what’s a big thing?”

Her emotions grew more uncontrollable as she spoke. She felt like she was going crazy. Her love for him meant nothing, and now he was telling her it was all trivial.

“That stupid cup is more important to you than I am. It broke, and that’s a big deal to you? What, are you going to kill me and bury me with your stupid cup?”

Seeing Gu Yuchen’s face darken, she let out a scornful laugh and forcefully threw the small blue box out the door. She pointed at the door and yelled, “Get out, get out of here!”

The man who was just about to enter the café froze in place, stopping at the doorway.

Having never been told to “get out” before, Gu Yuchen was so enraged that he gritted his teeth and sneered, “I came all this way to see how you were doing, and I must be a damn fool for it.”

Without looking back, he stormed out of the café, picked up the small blue box from the doorway, and tossed it into the trash.

The man who had just witnessed the entire scene stood at the entrance, once again observing something about her. The last time he saw her, the left side of her face was swollen; this time, she was fighting with her boyfriend—or maybe he was now her ex?

He stepped inside and began to say, “Excuse me, is there any…” coffee left?

But before he could finish, he noticed the woman in front of him silently crying, tears streaming down her face. Although she wasn’t making any loud noises, he stopped speaking.

Just as he was about to say something, Wen Zhixian’s expression suddenly grew resolute. She wiped her tears with a few tissues and smiled at him, asking, “Would you like something to drink?”