This Was True Love!

"So what exactly is true love to you?"

The elegant Shen Jin sat in an armchair, her eyes quietly taking in the view of The Bund. The endless traffic inspired silence, and she lightly bit her thin lips.

"True love?" Li Qingxi forced down her trembling emotions, steadied herself, and took a deep breath. "Yun Xiaoran has no car and no house. Without those things, how can he make me happy? How can he make you happy? Stop putting on an act!"

"Love endures not because of how materialistic it is, but because we believe it can transcend sickness, aging, and death."

"A car and a house aren't love. Sex isn't tied to love. Differences aren't walls that keep love out, and looks certainly aren't an admission ticket to it. Love means two people's interests complementing each other, fitting together, and finding harmony." Sitting in her chair, Shen Jin looked at the hysterical Li Qingxi before her. "I've heard you talk about sex and self-interest, but I haven't heard a word about love."

"Love happens at first sight. People who can't get together at the beginning will have a hard time getting together later, too." Li Qingxi stubbornly argued back, resisting with what little resolve she had left.

"This is the first time I've heard someone make lust at first sight sound so refined." Shen Muge fixed Li Qingxi with a resolute gaze.

"Love doesn't happen all at once. If deep affection is trampled on, then sex becomes meaningless, too."

"If sex represented love, you should find a prostitute. If money represented love, you should find someone rich. But neither of those things represents love, because love isn't a physical urge. It's a flutter in your heart."

"You were with him for four years, but you have no idea what love is." After saying that, Shen Jin rose from her chair and walked out, leaving Li Qingxi sitting alone in the private dining room, mumbling with vacant eyes.

On the way home from the hotel, Sister Hua asked Shen Jin what she and Li Qingxi had discussed, but Shen Jin said nothing. She remained silent, as though something was weighing on her mind.

Meanwhile, her eyes stayed fixed on the scenery outside the window, filled with emotion as she wrestled with complicated thoughts.

This nearly drove Sister Hua frantic. She had already been beside herself over the fact that Li Qingxi knew Yun Xiaoran. Now Shen Jin's refusal to say a word only made her imagination run wilder. "Jin'er, where are we going now?"

"We still need to pick up Yun Xiaoran."

Shen Jin leaned against the car window, her eyes still on the scenery outside. The breeze stirred the strands of hair at her temples, making her look especially beautiful in the evening light. Her eyes seemed to murmur to themselves, yet a faint smile of victory appeared at the corners of her mouth.

Zhou Zeyu had made a point of going shopping with Yun Xiaoran that day to buy him a decent outfit. Now, even standing by the roadside, Yun Xiaoran drew passing glances. Since Zhou Zeyu had other things to do, Yun Xiaoran had told him to leave first rather than wait, leaving himself alone by the road.

"Isn't she here yet?" Growing a little anxious, Yun Xiaoran took out his phone to call Shen Jin.

"Hi, can I add you on WeChat?"

While Yun Xiaoran stood by the roadside, a pretty young woman boldly approached him and held out her phone, ready to scan his code and add him.

The pretty young woman had been watching for a while. Once she was sure Yun Xiaoran seemed to be alone, she made her move.

Just then, a familiar black Audi slowly pulled up. Yun Xiaoran paused in surprise as the passenger-side window rolled down.

In the driver's seat, Shen Jin blinked her beautiful eyes at Yun Xiaoran. When she saw a passerby asking for his WeChat, her previously cheerful mood somehow plummeted. She opened the door and got out. Even in her little white sneakers, she stood 178 centimeters tall as she took her place beside Yun Xiaoran.

I was out there facing off against your ex-girlfriend, and someone nearly stole you right out from under me.

Shen Jin reached out with a slender, delicately defined hand and seized Yun Xiaoran's. Exuding an air of elegance, she stared coldly at the young woman who had been about to ask for his WeChat.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Yun Xiaoran froze, then turned to see Shen Jin looking at him with cold elegance, her hand fair and slender. An inexplicable warmth spread through him, as though someone cared about him again in what had been a dark world.

Her delicately defined hand gripped his wrist. It was cool as a work of art, and she held him as though staking her claim.

"I... I'm here to sell cars. Since your wife already has one, I won't bother you." The young woman instantly put away the phone she had been holding out to scan his WeChat code. With a stiff, awkward smile, she hurried away while the surrounding passersby watched with interest.

"How did you get here so quickly?" Yun Xiaoran asked awkwardly, looking at Shen Jin as he tried to start a conversation.

"If I hadn't come, someone would have gotten my husband's WeChat. How could I stay away?"

Shen Jin studied Yun Xiaoran, interest and appraisal mingling in her beautiful eyes. He used to wear cheap street-stall clothes, relying entirely on his good looks to carry them off.

But now that Zhou Zeyu had put together a whole collection of outfits for him, Yun Xiaoran's overall appearance had improved dramatically.

Even Shen Jin found him particularly enticing that day.

"Let's head home first." Deliberately avoiding Shen Jin, Yun Xiaoran tried to get into the back seat ahead of her. Hearing the word "husband" come out of her mouth had genuinely surprised him.

But Shen Jin was taller than Yun Xiaoran, and her legs were longer, too. She stopped him with one hand, looked at him, and pointed at the passenger seat. "That's your seat."

Yun Xiaoran had no choice but to steel himself and sit in the passenger seat. Once inside, he kept his bright eyes fixed on the scenery outside.

Shen Jin sat behind the wheel and started the car. Looking at Yun Xiaoran's sulky expression in the passenger seat, she let out an almost imperceptible smile. She had already dropped Sister Hua off at home, so there were only two of them in the car.

The car slowly made its way home.

"I didn't expect you to arrive so promptly. I was just about to message you." Sensing that the mood in the car seemed off, Yun Xiaoran tried to start a conversation. As she drove, Shen Jin said, "You still haven't told me what happened yesterday."

After saying that, she lightly bit her lip and put on a smile, pretending to be relaxed. It was far too stiff, though.

"I went to meet my ex-girlfriend that day." Yun Xiaoran finally told her. Keeping an ex hidden from his current partner was disloyal. The fewer barriers there were between them, the better they would get along, even if their relationship might only last a month.

Still, they couldn't spend that time at each other's throats like sworn enemies.

"What did you meet her for?" Shen Jin asked in confusion.

"When I went with my friend to eat at that restaurant in Seaside that afternoon, she apparently saw me and thought I was still pestering her, so she asked me to meet her. We'd already broken up two weeks earlier."

Afraid Shen Jin might get the wrong idea, Yun Xiaoran blurted it all out in a muddle.

Now that Shen Jin knew the truth and had pieced everything together, the barrier she had been keeping in her heart vanished completely, and she smiled.

"But I want to ask why you didn't tell me before that you had an ex-girlfriend... I just want to understand what happened. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine." After turning it over in her mind, Shen Jin still asked him, a trace of jealousy in her voice.

She sounded distinctly sour.

As she drove, her beautiful eyes glanced at Yun Xiaoran's hesitant expression. She blinked, looking especially lovely in the night.

After thinking for a long time, Yun Xiaoran decided to tell her everything about him and Li Qingxi. After all, there was an inspirational saying that went:

"One day, you'll smile as you talk about the things that once hurt you."

And so Shen Jin drove at a leisurely pace, seemingly on purpose, while Yun Xiaoran recounted the whole story.

"So your ex-girlfriend abandoned you for her career as a star?" Shen Jin found it hard to believe. Yun Xiaoran had told her everything about Li Qingxi.

"That's just how the entertainment industry works. Giving up love or friendship for your career is perfectly normal."

Shen Jin, the Top Diva of Chinese Entertainment, the National Goddess, and the Queen of Singing: "..."

"Not every girl who becomes a star is like that." Shen Jin looked at Yun Xiaoran and hurried to explain.

"Maybe." Yun Xiaoran didn't want to continue the topic either.

Shen Jin opened her mouth, then stopped. She desperately wanted to contradict him. Only a little while earlier, she had been berating his ex-girlfriend at the dining table for not knowing what true love was.

They arrived home.

Yun Xiaoran opened the passenger door and got out. Looking at the villa before him, he took another deep breath, then looked toward Shen Jin in the driver's seat.

"Mm..." Yun Xiaoran had been right. After working all day and then driving out to pick him up, her foot was bound to give her some trouble. Shen Jin had just turned off the engine and checked everything when she noticed him still waiting for her out front. Delighted, she put some weight on her previously sprained foot, and it began hurting again.

"Did you twist your ankle again? Why don't I carry you on my back?"

Yun Xiaoran looked at Shen Jin helplessly and slowly approached her.

"I..."

Shen Jin really hadn't applied anything to it, and she had forgotten all about it. Crouching on the ground, she watched Yun Xiaoran approach. Alongside her worry and fear, she felt a little reassured, as though life had returned to the way it used to be.

After Yun Xiaoran deftly scooped her up, Shen Jin wrapped her arms around his neck.

It was her first time being so close to a man. Having been single for all twenty years of her life, Shen Jin instantly flushed red. Afraid she might fall, she nervously tightened her arms around his neck, leaned close to his ear, and murmured:

"You'd better go slowly. If you don't, you're dead!"

"Okay."