Since last night, when Jiang Xinli told Xue Yin the truth about his relationship with Yun Bo, he had been trying to pretend nothing happened. He didn't want to burden her. He forced himself to look calm and accepting, as if he had already figured everything out and let it go.
Just as Jiang Xinli had said, he was himself—unique and irreplaceable. He wasn't anyone's stand-in. Nor was he the pathetic shadow living in the dark, inferior to the Mermaid Prince in every conceivable way.
Yet, in this very moment, a trivial everyday detail made the emotional wall he had painstakingly built shatter like fragile glass with a resounding CRASH.
"I..." The young man pressed his thin lips into a straight line. He lowered his eyes, hiding the overwhelming inferiority and urge to escape that surged within him. But his white-knuckled grip on his chopsticks and his slightly trembling shoulders betrayed his deep-seated anxiety.
Jiang Xinli looked at him with concern. "Xue Yin, are you okay?"
