Chapter 6 — The Lost Brother

Su Duyet Minh brought his car to a gradual halt. His sharply defined facial features drew closer to mine, the ambient streetlights reflecting brightly within his dark eyes. His gaze drifted downward, lingering softly upon my lips before rising again to meet my own with quiet intensity.

“So, promise me this—do not rush to accept him. Will you?”

A sudden, fierce flush surged across my cheeks. My mind lagged by a beat, frozen in place before I managed a dull, obedient nod. A faint, knowing smile touched his lips as he escorted me to the base of my apartment building and bid me a polite farewell. I punched the security code into the keypad and pushed the door open, only to freeze when I saw the interior bathed in a blaze of light. Bui Nha Thanh was sitting upright on the sofa, his eyes fixed coldly on his wristwatch.

“How on earth did you get in here?!”

“Vu Vu, I have always told you that you are far too simple. Your password never changes; it is always the exact same string of numbers, far too easy to guess.”

The corners of Bui Nha Thanh’s lips curled upward in a mocking smile as he rose from the couch and strode toward me.

“It takes you precisely twenty minutes to commute from your office to this apartment.”

“Yet tonight, it took you a full thirty minutes.”

His tall figure loomed over me, casting a shadow that carried an overwhelming sense of oppression.

“Those extra ten minutes... what on earth were the two of you doing?”

I retreated step by step until my spine struck the ice-cold wall behind me, leaving me utterly trapped with nowhere left to run. Raising my chin, I glared at him.

“What I do is none of your concern.”

“This place does not welcome you. Get out immediately!”

“Then whose presence does this place welcome instead?”

Bui Nha Thanh’s hand shot out, wrapping tightly around my wrist and jerking me violently toward his chest.

“Was it the man who brought you home?”

*Slap!*

My hand swung through the air and struck his face with a sharp crack. Bui Nha Thanh’s head snapped sharply to the side. He pressed his tongue against the inside of his bruised cheek, showing no trace of anger. Instead, with a haunting gentleness, he leaned forward and pressed his cheek against the palm of my hand.

“Vu Vu, I was wrong. I will no longer pretend.”

“I never wanted to break up with you at all...”

The tips of my fingers trembled uncontrollably as a profound wave of revulsion rose from the depths of my stomach.

“A breakup is a breakup. There is no turning back.”

The corners of Bui Nha Thanh’s eyes grew bloodshot, his voice cracking into a ragged whisper.

“But back then, you provoked me into agreeing to it.”

“You suddenly demanded a breakup without a single word of explanation; surely you could have given me some time to let my anger cool?”

I stared at him in utter disbelief before letting out a sharp, incredulous laugh.

“Bui Nha Thanh, do you honestly believe that I was merely throwing a tantrum all this time?”

He remained completely silent, making it painfully clear that this was indeed what he had believed all along. I let out a dry, mirthless laugh as I brushed away the hot tears spilling down my cheeks.

“Bui Nha Thanh, do you even have a heart?”

“For the past four years, your eyes have seen only Hua An. You have never once cared about my feelings.”

“You are the one who allowed your heart to stray, yet how dare you stand on some moral high ground to judge and lecture me?”

The color drained entirely from Bui Nha Thanh’s face, leaving it ghastly pale. His voice rasped as he tried to defend himself.

“An An and I have always been nothing more than ordinary friends...”

“Stop lying to yourself!”

I shoved him away with all the strength I had left.

“My emotions did not simply explode out of nowhere. I endured and swallowed my pain until I physically could no longer bear it.”

“She shared every trivial detail of her daily life with you, and you never once found her annoying.”

“She was able to follow you all the way to Beijing, while I was forced to remain trapped in our hometown.”

“Every single incident, every single choice—do you dare swear on your life that you never once harbored romantic feelings for her?!”

Panic flickered across Bui Nha Thanh’s features as he stumbled forward.

“Vu Vu, I admit that I was momentarily drawn to her, but you are the only one I have ever truly loved!”

I shed no more tears. I strode across the room and flung the apartment door wide open.

“Bui Nha Thanh, you genuinely make me sick to my stomach.”

“Get out right now. Do not ever pester me again, and do not force me to truly despise you.”

His shoulders slumped forward in defeat. With heavy, dragging footsteps, he walked out into the corridor. He lingered in Guangzhou for three agonizing days, yet I refused to grant him even a single meeting. Left with no other choice, he was forced to fly back to Beijing alone. The very first thing he did upon his return was pack his belongings and move out of the apartment. Hua An stood by the doorway, looking bewildered and anxious.

“Why are you suddenly doing this? If you leave like this, what am I supposed to do?”

Bui Nha Thanh merely stuffed a few changes of clothes into his suitcase, his gaze resting upon her with an unyielding frost.

*Hua An, I was foolish and confused, but were you simply foolish along with me?*

“Vu Vu was your dearest friend. Do not expect me to believe that you were blind to her feelings.”

“Both of us are utterly pathetic and vile.”

His brutal words struck her like physical blows, causing Hua An to stumble backward twice, her expression twisting into one of utter humiliation and dismay. The door slammed shut with a deafening crash. Shortly afterward, Bui Nha Thanh transferred to a completely different company. Yet, whenever the memory of my disgusted eyes flashed through his mind, he could only find temporary refuge at the bottom of a liquor bottle. As the days blurred, his performance at work deteriorated until the company finally pressured him to resign. With nowhere left to turn, he drifted back to our quiet hometown, taking up a mundane job so ordinary it was entirely invisible. He lived in a perpetual, dreamlike haze until the day his mother casually mentioned that I was getting ready to marry. He sat motionless on the sofa for an entire night, staring blankly into the dark. In the end, he purchased a train ticket back to Guangzhou. The wedding ceremony was breathtakingly grand. I stood radiant in a pristine white wedding gown, surrounded by the heartfelt blessings of everyone in attendance—the very picture he had envisioned in his mind since we were seventeen and eighteen years old. Yet, the man standing beside me was no longer him. Bui Nha Thanh crouched on the pavement outside, burying his face in his hands as he wept uncontrollably. A small child, drawn by the sound of his desolate crying, trotted over on clumsy little legs and held out a tiny piece of wedding candy.

“My mommy says that if you eat something sweet, you won't want to cry anymore. Here, you should eat it.”