Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

Mo Yixuan plucked the card out and his hand suddenly start to shake. The card was extremely light but in his hands, it felt like it weighed a ton.

He was afraid to see the words on the card.

Nonetheless, under the light, he could clearly see each and every word. A couple of sentences were written on the card in a beautiful script.

Yixuan, this is He Xiyan and this will be the last time that I’ll be wishing you a happy birthday! I’m not sure why you asked me to meet you today but I’m sorry, we can’t see each other any longer. I’ve started a new relationship and have my own life now. I hope that you would be able to find someone else who would suit you and lead a happy and fulfilling life. In fact, I’m really a very average woman and I’m not as good as you make me out to be. It isn’t worth your time pining over me. Forget about me!

Mo Yixuan shut his eyes tightly when he got to the final word. His eyes were extremely sore, as though sand had gotten trapped within them and two clear drops of tears rolled down the corners of his eyes uncontrollably.

He cried and he was hurting.

He would rather see words of rebuke or even curse words but the words that she had written were the last thing he wanted to see.

Didn’t she know how heartless those words were to him? It felt as though someone had used knives to cut his heart open, then sprinkle salt all over it.

He still remembered the birthday cake he received on the same day five years ago. There had been a card then, and the words on it read –

Yixuan, I truly like you very much. I like you so much, so tell me, what should I do? Can I be your girlfriend? I’ll love you more than any of the other girls who are courting you, I swear!

Mo Yixuan’s heart sank.

Five years later, she had gone from ‘can I be your girlfriend’ to saying ‘forget me’. She had gone from 23 to 28 years old, and time had played the cruelest joke on them.

He didn’t blame her since he was the one who had brought it upon himself. He had not treasured this relationship and he was the one who chose to abandon her.

He returned to the apartment where he lived alone. He fell on the bed as though it had taken the last of his strength to do so. He threw the cake away and threw it by the roadside. He didn’t take a single bite because he did not dare to eat it. He felt as though this was not a birthday cake but a break-up cake. If he ate it, it would signify that they would never get back together.

They had gone from strangers to a dating couple to the most intimate husband and wife relationship. This was the sort of relationship progress that could have been so beautiful and blissful, but going from the most intimate lovers to the strangers they were at the beginning was the most heartless way for a relationship to change and it hurt the most.

This was a sort of pain that only lovers who had been torn apart against their own wishes could understand. Why did love cause some people to disown their own relatives and closest friends? Why did some people commit suicide after a break-up?

This was the power of love.

Now, they had broken up and she had walked out of that relationship, but he had not.

Mo Yixuan clutched at the blanket on the bed, just like how he felt as though someone was clutching his heart this instant. He was always tough and determined but at this point, he finally broke down in tears. Tears rolled down endlessly and this was the first time he cried so hard since his father passed away.

Back then, he cried because the person closest to him had left this world; now he cried because he could not be with the woman he loved.

Both filled him with grief and sorrow.

He suddenly sat up and stared hard out of the window, his hands balling tightly into fists.

No, he would not resign himself to this fate. He refused to admit that their five-year relationship would end in them becoming strangers. Most importantly, he was not willing to let go now that he finally realized that he loved her but she was no longer by his side.