Chapter 2

"I'm a man, Violet," Zack said, taking a deep breath and reverting to his usual cold demeanor. "I have to put my career first. I need to work hard to earn a lot of money. Only then can I give you a good life.

"Do you think marriage is as simple as getting a marriage certificate? A successful marriage requires a large amount of material resources for it to be sustainable. You'll only be pressuring me if you force me to marry you now. It'll be utterly pointless."

Zack was behaving as he usually did, painting his lack of care in a positive light by trying to convince me that everything he did was for my sake.

In the past, his words would have deeply moved me. I would even blame myself for being too immature and constantly causing trouble for him.

But at that moment, I only felt exhausted.

I wanted to demand answers from him.

I wanted to ask him why he designed a wedding dress for Quinn in his diary if he wasn't ready to get married.

I wanted to ask him why he was willing to buy a 200 dollar cake for her when he claimed that getting married needed a vast amount of material resources. Why was he willing to splurge on her when he wasn't even willing to treat me to a meal that was a little over ten dollars?

But when I opened my mouth, it felt like something was lodged in my throat. I couldn't say a single word as tears spilled down my cheeks.

Zack breathed out a long sigh when he saw me cry. Surprisingly, he pulled me into his arms and murmured, "Be good. Stop crying. I admit that I've neglected your feelings because I've been so busy recently.

"I'll marry you once I've saved up two million dollars, alright? I can start selling my patents now. I won't make you wait too long…"

I wondered if he was serious about marrying me when he had already promised to marry Quinn.

I wanted to question him. The words were already at the tip of my tongue when his phone suddenly rang.

Reminiscent of a running code, Zack immediately reverted to his usual state.

"Alright," he said into the receiver. "I'll be there as soon as possible."

He shot a cold look at me after he hung up. The gentleness in his eyes had completely disappeared.

"I just got a call from the lab. My professor berated me for being late. Your unreasonable tantrum delayed the progress of my important experiment, Violet."

He pulled out the black notebook again. He uncapped the pen and drew a heavy line across the page.

"I'm docking one point. Including the nine points from before, you've accrued a total of ten points," he said, looking at me with eyes that were devoid of warmth. "I'll have to block your number for a week since you've made more than ten mistakes. Those are the rules."

Right in front of my face, Zack navigated to his contacts list and blocked my number. He then turned around and left without sparing me a single glance.

His roommates hastily chased after him.

Silence descended upon the dorm room once the door slammed shut.

I wiped my tears and took out my phone.

Quinn's account was the first one I saw when I checked my social media. She had posted a new update just a minute ago.

She was wearing an exquisite dress in the photo, holding a cup of bubble tea. The background showed her standing in front of Zack's laboratory building.

The caption read, "The smart princess had no choice but to impersonate a certain knight's professor to get him out of trouble."

Zack had left a comment on the photo.

"Smart cookie."

My eyes stung as I stared at the two words.

It turned out that there was no important experiment. His professor hadn't rushed him to return to the laboratory either.

Everything had been orchestrated by Quinn, and Zack had willingly played along.

I quietly liked Quinn's post.

A wave of memories crashed over me.

Due to my reserved personality, I had always viewed dating as a path to marriage.

Zack had pursued me for an entire year during my freshman year. He played guitar outside my dormitory and prepared an umbrella for me on rainy days.

In the end, I accepted his feelings. I thought that something as romantic as only loving one person for my entire life had actually happened to me.

However, I finally understood what was happening now. It turned out that one would unconditionally show their bias and high tolerance to another person when they truly cherished them.

But I had never experienced that.

I couldn't help but think that I had lived such a pitiful and wretched life.