Even the Moon Does Not Know

For reasons unknown, my offhanded declaration of liking Arthur somehow spread like wildfire.

Before long, Arthur tracked me down directly:

“Word on the street is that you like me?”

To be entirely honest, prior to meeting Arthur in person, the campus narrative painted him as a menace, yet in reality, when speaking with him, he carried an air of rugged, untamed swagger.

Though from an impoverished background, he didn’t project an ounce of insecurity or cheapness.

If anything, he resembled an unpolished, unrefined street-smart playboy.

Perhaps having lived in Sebastian’s shadow for far too long, studying human expressions came as second nature to me; after a brief assessment, I sensed the boy wasn’t fundamentally evil.

So I told him straight up:

“Do you need money? Would you be willing to take cash to pretend to be my boyfriend?”

The young master was exceptionally wealthy; every errand he assigned carried generous payouts ranging in the tens of thousands.

Ever since he started dating Clara, Clara’s insatiable appetite for luxury goods meant the volume of errands he handed me multiplied exponentially.

Sometimes when picking up designer handbags or limited-edition jewelry from luxury boutiques for Clara, the sales associates would casually toss a few extra items my way.

Rather than wearing them—since I never felt adorned luxury items made me any more noble—I routinely pawned them at peak market value.

Consequently, I had quietly accumulated a tidy little fortune of over a million in my savings account.

I looked straight at Arthur:

“You don’t need to play the role 24/7; just show up whenever I specifically require your presence.”

The raw, swaggering confidence on Arthur’s face gradually dissolved into confusion as he stared at me for a long, drawn-out beat before asking:

“Why?”

Naturally, it was to safeguard the young master’s romance.

But I couldn’t articulate that truth aloud.

So I improvised an excuse:

“There’s someone I like, but he wants me to find a boyfriend first.”

Arthur arched a brow.

Then he laughed out loud.

Arthur and I spent our days dining off-campus, strolling across university grounds, and occasionally skipping classes to hang out together.

The rumor mill reached Sebastian’s ears in record time.

He insisted on meeting Arthur under the guise of being my concerned friend.

When I first brought Arthur to meet Sebastian, Clara was present as well.

Clara glared at me with unrelenting hostility, while Arthur casually slung an arm around my shoulder:

“Since the campus belle told me you liked me, we naturally got together.”

Clara’s expression twisted in utter ugliness.

Arthur didn’t seem to care whether he was ruffling feathers, showering me with affection throughout the meal by serving food and peeling shrimp with practiced attentiveness.

Extremely thorough in his performance.

Meanwhile, the person who ostensibly called the meeting—Sebastian—remained silent from start to finish.

Only after the meal concluded did he send me a private text message:

【Sophie, as long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters.】

My heart finally settled back into its resting place.

The young master could finally rest easy now.

The young master continued finding chores for me to run.

I discovered that Clara was fundamentally incapable of loving him; she was solely obsessed with his wealth and status.

Yet a genius like Sebastian couldn’t possibly remain oblivious to this reality forever—he simply chose self-deception.

Until the night Clara’s infidelity was finally brought to light.

Clara and Arthur checked into a hotel room together, a scene I happened to witness firsthand while tailing them.

When I burst through the door, Clara was utterly horrified:

“You—you followed me?”

Throwing caution to the wind, I walked up and delivered a stinging slap across her face:

“Sebastian treats you so well, how could you possibly betray him?”

Arthur stood leaning lazily against the bed frame in the background, offering zero intervention.

Recovering from the shock of my unexpected violence, Clara sneered with venomous malice:

“You think you’re playing the noble guardian angel for Sebastian, but do you seriously think he’d ever give you a second glance? Deep down, he probably thinks you’re nothing more than a pathetic, desperate stalker!”

“At least I’m not low enough to sleep around behind his back!”

“Fine, go ahead and run back to squeal to him! See if he believes a word coming from a nobody like you!”

Clara shouted defiantly, daring me.

I glared at her, standing my ground as if prepared to fight to the death right then and there.

Arthur let out a sudden, booming laugh, slumping forward as tears of mirth welled up in the corners of his eyes.

He braced himself against the bed frame, shoulders shaking with silent laughter as if witnessing the greatest comedy on earth.

After a long stretch, he finally straightened up:

“Alright.”

He looked directly at me: “If you stay here with me tonight, I’ll agree to your terms and never touch Clara again.”

I froze in sheer disbelief.

Clara was equally horrified: “Arthur, have you lost your mind? You’re bringing her into this?”

Arthur ignored her completely, fixing his gaze solely on me: “Do you dare?”

I stared at Clara, hesitating for a split second before gritting my teeth and nodding: “Fine.”

Arthur’s eyebrows twitched upward.

He promptly kicked Clara out of the room.

Clara pounded furiously on the hotel door outside for a long while before finally being escorted away by security due to noise complaints.

“Why did you like Clara in the first place, when you knew what kind of person she was?”

I couldn’t fathom it.

Arthur chuckled lazily, reclining against the headboard:

“Naturally it was for money, is that really so hard to understand?”

Seeing my incredulous expression, he laughed again: “You paid me to act as your boyfriend, and Clara paid me to act as her lover—tell me, did Clara not teach you that in this world, people will sacrifice their dignity for cash? Compared to that, taking a wealthy young lady for a ride is practically child’s play. Honestly, you and Sebastian are cut from the exact same cloth—both hopelessly naive to the point of absurdity.”

“Like you said, for money, I’m capable of anything.”

I choked on my response.

Yet he walked over and patted my head gently:

“You paid me upfront, so whatever you want me to do tonight, I’ll happily play along.”

I pushed him away in disgust: “Get lost, stay away from me.”

He shrugged with total indifference: “Suit yourself, but you still owe me an explanation for why you’re so obsessed with Sebastian while watching him date other people.”

I remained silent for a long moment before answering:

“I’m simply not worthy of him.”

“Well, I happen to think he’s the one who isn’t worthy of you.”

“…Shut your mouth.”

He merely flashed an insouciant, carefree grin and dropped the subject.

I had naively assumed that blocking Clara’s infidelity would permanently shield Sebastian from heartbreak.

Little did I know, someone else sent photographic proof directly to Sebastian’s phone on the exact day of his birthday.

Though Sebastian maintained his usual composed facade, I knew he was internally bleeding.

Yet despite such crushing betrayal, he still refused to lash out at Clara.

He merely asked quietly:

“Why?”

Spoiled beyond reason by his endless indulgence, Clara replied with total impunity:

“If you don’t trust me, let’s just break up.”

Sebastian’s lips pressed into a thin, white line of profound misery, yet he remained silent.

Clara grabbed her bag and stormed out.

I remained frozen in my seat, staring fixedly at Sebastian’s shattered expression.

He gazed blankly at me:

“When I was temporarily blinded in the hospital, she was the one who stayed by my side. Despite her stubborn, difficult temperament, she waited on me through it all—how could she possibly betray me? Am I right?”

Stabbed by raw agony on his behalf, the words slipped past my lips before my brain could process them:

“Actually… the person who stayed with you at the hospital that night, and the person in the hotel room with Arthur that night… was me.”

He froze completely, his bloodshot eyes staring straight through me with unblinking intensity.

As if desperately verifying the truth behind my words.

Suppressing the bitter gall rising in my chest, I pulled out the photo Arthur had insisted on taking of us that night in the hotel room and slid it across the table toward Sebastian.

“The photographic evidence won’t lie.”

Sebastian stared down at the photograph for a long, agonizing eternity.

I watched his breathing grow heavier and heavier.

Then watched as profound relief visibly washed over his tense features.

I heard him murmur softly: “So that’s how it was…”

Followed by him pulling out his phone, scrolling to that specific photo, opening WeChat, and transferring fifty thousand to Clara.

A bitter, self-deprecating laugh escaped my throat.

Laughing until my eyes stung with hot tears, my throat parched, and my chest aching with suffocating intensity.

He still loved her that deeply, didn’t he?

My heart finally shattered into a million irreversible pieces.

I thought to myself.

With Sebastian’s formidable intellect, how could he possibly fail to recognize Clara’s utter lack of genuine affection toward him?

Yet he chose willful self-deception.

In that case, why should I bother continuing to shatter his illusions?

Everyone is entitled to their own destiny.

In my universe, loving Sebastian was destined to remain an unrequited, tragic script.

Back when I was twelve years old, nearly drowning to death in a deep river before Sebastian dove in to pull me ashore, I had secretly sworn to dedicate my entire life to serving him.

Yet today, standing here, I suddenly regretted it.

I no longer wished to spend my life blindly serving him.

Even though the young master genuinely possessed a heart of gold.

As Arthur perceptively pointed out that night:

“What Sebastian lacks least in this world is people treating him well. But you—you lack everything, and the only thing you truly possess is this precious capacity to treat others with kindness. Why waste what little you have on someone who doesn’t even need it?”

Precisely.

From this day onward, I intended to place myself at the absolute top of my own priority list.