Almost a year after graduating, Ye Wei Yin was constantly given the cold shoulder by her mom, who urged her to go find a job. Everytime her mom saw her at home, she would complain that it made her annoyed seeing her adult daughter still living with her. After facing this treatment from her mom day in and day out, she couldn’t help but feel a bit wronged. Outside, she was viewed as a flower, while at home she was only a weed. When Ye Wei Yin was at university, her mom would call every couple of days to check up on her. Now that she was home, just the sight of her made her annoyed. If she knew that this was what it would be like, she wouldn’t have broken up with Yin Mu Nian after graduation and instead have gone abroad with him. 

Ye Wei Yin didn’t have the typical interests or hobbies of a nerd who still lived with their parents. She didn’t like reading nor did she like playing video games, she just stayed home doing nothing. In reality though, she did have a plan for herself. She liked baking and aspired to go to France and study under the pastry master Julien. After that, she would open her own sweets shop, get married to a guy in the city, and then leisurely live out the rest of her life. 

Although her dreams were where she hoped to be, the present wasn’t that bad either. 

Ye Wei Yin’s mom was a university professor and she herself majored in pedagogy in university. Her mom wanted her to become a teacher, but Ye Wei Yin wanted to pursue baking, and so she stubbornly held out for one year against her mom. Holding back tears, her mom finally caved in and supported her goal to go to France after being unable to bear the sight of her adult daughter still at home. 

As she got on the airplane to France, she realized that she truly was someone who had not yet seen the world. For the first time in her twenty-three years of life, she was getting on an airplane and leaving the country. 

It had been half an hour since the plane took off and Ye Wei Yin was looking outside the plane like a curious baby. Her eyes were fixated on the cotton candy like clouds that were just inviting you to throw yourself in them and feel how soft they were. 

Sitting beside her was a gorgeous woman, with chestnut hair that fell to her waist wearing a red turtleneck and a black trench coat. Maybe her look reminded Ye Wei Yin of the stereotypical mistress or that she was also very tall and slim, but Ye Wei Yin thought that judging from outer appearances alone, she and the woman beside her were from two completely different worlds. Not only did Ye Wei Yin have an “older sister”* like face, but she had a small physique and was shorter than the national average. The only thing that was above standard was the size of her bust. 

(T/N: A face resembling that of an older woman; not eye catching or fresh）

“Is this your first time out of the country?”asked the woman beside her. 

“Yes, how about you?” Ye Wei Yin curiously asked.

The woman chuckled. “I’ve already been out of the country several times. This time I’m going to see my boyfriend, what about you?”

“I’m going to become a student and learn under a master.”

“A master?”  

“I want to learn how to make pastries. Do you know of the French pastry master Julien? He is the one I want to learn from.” 

The women eyed Ye Wei Lin’s proud and happy look on her face and couldn’t help but want to laugh. A girl that has not yet experienced much of the world with this kind of innocence she could understand. 

The woman laughed, “I don’t know much about pastries, but maybe my boyfriend knows about this…” she trailed on as she forgot the pastry master’s name. 

“Julien.”

“Yes. Julien. My boyfriend likes to eat sweets so maybe he knows.” 

“What does your boyfriend do in France?” Ye Wei Yin asked. Once again she became the curious baby who asked without thinking. 

The women shyly laughed. “He’s gone to France to auction for a bottle of red wine.”

“…” 

At that moment, Ye Wei Yin thought that this was the difference between some people and others. 

Once they got off the plane, Ye Wei Yin and the women walked together until they noticed that at the exit, there were multiple people holding signs waiting to pick people up. The woman looked around and it seemed her eyes showed a hint of disappointment. Ye Wei Yin guessed that maybe her boyfriend hadn’t come to pick her up? As the two walked out the airport, a man wearing a suit got out of a car and smiled towards the women beside Ye Wei Yin. 

Wow, quite the handsome guy! thought Ye Wei Lin. In her mind, the two were a perfect match together. 

“Miss Chen, Mr. He has invited you to have dinner with him at 8 pm tomorrow night. He is currently in Germany and won’t be able to return tonight,” said the guy in the suit. 

It turns out that that handsome guy was not her boyfriend, but only his assistant. If the assistant was already this good looking and fresh, just how good looking would Mr. He be? Ye Wei Yin couldn’t imagine what such a guy would look like. 

As if Ms. Chen understood how her boyfriend was, she wasn’t annoyed, and instead smiled and turned towards Ye Wei Yin.

“Then I guess we part here. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Ye Wei Yin said politely. 

Ye Wei Yin awkwardly watched the car Ms. Chen was riding drive further and further away.

“Comparing yourself to someone else will only make yourself angry,”* she thought. 

(T/N: Chinese proverb 人比人，死气人)

Ye Wei Yin came to France by herself, with no one to pick her up, not to say anyone she knew. She still had to find a place to live on her own and was forced to stay in the cheapest hotel since the money her mom gave didn’t cover all her expenses. Even though she was already 23, she still relied on her parents for financial support. Whenever she thought of that, she felt deeply embarrassed. 

Before coming to France, Ye Wei Yin prepared beforehand by searching for hotels in Paris. She ended up finding one that had a reasonable price. As soon as she checked in, she jumped on the bed and lazed around. Right then, her phone started ringing. Ye Wei Yin looked down at her phone and saw that it was her mom calling. 

“Hey,” she answered the phone with a tired voice. 

“Dan Dan, did you arrive?” 

Dan Dan was Ye Wei Yin’s nickname ever since she was a child because her first word was “Dan”. Soon, everyone in their neighborhood was calling her that. When she was younger she didn’t care, but now that she was older she realized her nickname wasn’t called with sincerity, but it was too late to change what had already become a habit. 

“I’m lying down in the hotel and I’m planning to go to Master Julien’s shop tomorrow night to try some of his pastries and ask if I can be his student.” 

“Hey, the weather said that the part of France you’re in is getting colder and that tomorrow it will snow, so make sure to wear enough layers,” Ye Wei Yin’s mom told her. 

“I know.” 

“Don’t eat anything that others give you, watch your purse, and don’t go out at night. Just stay in your hotel.” 

Ye Wei Yin was a bit frustrated, but she understood where her mom was coming from. Afterall, this was the first time in her life she had gone this far from home. The farthest she had ever gone was her university, which was only on the outskirts of her hometown. As her friend Li Xin Tong said, she was still a baby bird that had yet to spread her wings. 

As the route from the airport to the hotel had been a complicated and long one, as soon as she ended the call with her mom, she fell into a deep sleep from fatigue. 

Having gone to sleep really early, she woke up really early too. When Ye Wei Yin woke up, it was 4:30 in the morning, and after tossing and turning in bed for a bit, she finally sat up. She opened the television only to be faced with a string of fast french that took a lot of effort to even understand some of the short phrases—which she learned before leaving for France from a “100 most common French phrases” book.

If there was no TV to watch, what was there to do? 

And so, Ye Wei Yin went out in Paris at 4:30 in the morning. 

Paris in the early morning was bright like never seen before, the in between of the horizon lightly covered in a blue hue, making everything look like it had a tint of blue. Ye Wei Lin wanted to go see the Eiffel Tower, but since the subways had already closed her only option was to take a taxi, which would be a waste of money. With no other choice, she could only take a walk in the area close to the hotel. 

Ye Wei Lin’s hotel was far from downtown, but since the surrounding area was nice and bustling, there was a constant flow of people who stayed here. 

Ye Wei Lin came up to a crosswalk and debated whether to cross or not. She thought that the few seconds left to cross the road did not matter and started walking across. A couple seconds later, a ferrari driving at full speed towards her could be seen. Thankfully, the driver stepped on the brakes in time and stopped the car right at her feet. Shocked at almost being hit by a car, Ye Wei Lin lost all strength in her legs and fell to the ground. 

Ye Wei Lin was holding herself, while startled, took deep breaths to calm herself down. Sitting on the ground, she suddenly saw a pair of black leather shoes enter her sight. Her eyes began to trail upwards from the shoes to fitted dress pants, a slender waist, broad shoulders, and a casual black shirt that was unbuttoned at the top to purposely show off his sexy collar bones. 

From the opposite side of the Ferrari, a blonde blue eyed good looking girl stepped out. Slim and tall, her physique was no joke. 

Were the two models? 

The blonde girl walked up and put a hand on the man’s back, glanced at Ye Wei Yin, and said “Leroy, c’est quoi le problème?”*. 

(T/N: What’s the problem, Leroy?)

The man did not reply, rather he just stared at Ye Wei Yin. She felt her body getting chills and herself getting angry. Why was this man staring at me with such deep hatred in his eyes? All she did was cross the road at a bad time, was it worth all being this angry?

The man stopped looking at her and turned around towards the car. The blonde girl looked uncertain, but followed him to the car. Not only was his behaviour hard to understand and puzzling, but the girl beside him too. 

At that moment, a scary thought crossed her mind. There’s no way that he went back to his car to get a knife, right? He couldn’t be that cruel to do that to her, right?

And then…

The car drove past Ye Wei Yin and all the fumes from the car blew into her face. 

He left just like that? No words, no nothing? What kind of person was that? 

Ye Wei Yin got up, swiped the dust out of her clothes and continued to cross the street. 

In the ferrari, the man—who did not have one hair out of place—concentrated on the road ahead and drove ahead. Noticing the man’s abnormal reaction to what had just happened, the blonde girl, Clara, wanted to ask him about it but didn’t know how.

 At last, she used accurate mandarin to say “Mr. He, do you know that short girl?”

“How would I know her?” Mr. He replied.

Clara didn’t say anything else, but she thought that something was definitely off about He Chi Yuan.