Chapter 2

Celeste Restaurant was the most famous lovers’ spot in River City.

It was said that as long as a couple went there together, they would love each other for a hundred years and be bound together for three lifetimes.

I had mentioned it many times before, and how had Claire responded every time?

“Ethan, that’s just a gimmick created by the business, and I’m busy every day, so I don’t have time to play that kind of childish game with you.”

She thought it was a waste of time, but the place where she had celebrated with Ryan yesterday was Celeste Restaurant.

Thinking of her past replies and Ryan’s post, I looked again at Claire’s face, which had once made my heart race beyond control, and suddenly felt a wave of nausea.

“No need, I don’t want to go anymore.”

I suppressed the discomfort in my stomach, shook my head, and refused her charity.

Perhaps she had not expected me to refuse, because Claire froze for a moment before putting on a disgusted look.

“Ethan, you’re a man, so since when did you learn to play hard to get?”

“Don’t overdo it, and if I weren’t trying to apologize on Ryan’s behalf, do you think I’d be willing to go to that kind of place with you?”

Seeing that I did not answer and only crouched down to pick up the woodcarvings one by one, she frowned and looked full of disgust.

“They’re already ruined, so why are you still picking them up? Just throw them all away.”

Even though I had braced myself, my heart still trembled.

My mother had once been a famous woodcarving master, and for a long time after she passed away, I survived by leaning on these woodcarvings.

There was no way Claire did not know what these woodcarvings meant to me.

But she still indulged Ryan and let him destroy them, and in her words, she also treated them as trash.

And her attitude toward me was as dismissive as if she were treating trash too, “I’m already willing to go with you, so don’t be ungrateful, and I’m warning you, if…”

A piercing ringtone suddenly rang out in the cramped storage room.

Claire was interrupted, and she impatiently pulled out her phone, but the expression on her face turned gentle the next second after she saw the name.

“Hurry up and change, and we’ll leave after I finish this call!”

After throwing down those words, she went outside to take the call.

A moment later…

As expected, once the call ended, Claire was gone too.

I ran my fingers across the broken part of the woodcarving, and the sharp texture brought a faint sting.

This kind of thing had happened more than once, and no matter what she had promised me before, as soon as Ryan’s call came in, she forgot everything.

I had fought and competed before, but what I got in return was her hating me even more.

Why could a latecomer win everything, not because the latecomer fought and competed, but because that person’s heart had already fallen onto the latecomer.

I laughed self-mockingly and continued cleaning up the scattered woodcarvings and tools, and aside from the ones too damaged to keep at all, I kept everything else.

Not every obsession should be kept.

Choosing to let go of some obsessions is choosing to let yourself go.

After I finished cleaning up, I got up to get my phone, and just as I was about to check the time, my vision suddenly went black.

Damn it.

I had not eaten breakfast in the morning, and now I had stood up too fast, which triggered my old problem.

A bad feeling rose in my heart, and by instinct, I held onto a box beside me, so I did not collapse to the floor.

Low blood sugar could not wait, and if I did not take in sugar quickly, the worst possible consequence could be sudden death.

My head was dizzy, my body was weak, and every signal from my body was telling me to fall down, but my survival instinct still made me support myself, and after I regained a little strength, I moved toward the kitchen.

In a haze, I seemed to hear my phone ringing.