I sprinted to the parking lot as fast as I could, ignoring the stinging pain in my throat and the metallic taste in my mouth. I stepped on the accelerator and sped towards Rachel's location.

It was rush hour, and traffic was heavy. I was caught at several red lights. Desperate, I stopped at an intersection, abandoned my car, and rented a motorcycle.

The location Rachel sent me was at the outskirts of the city, where the roads were bumpy and rough.

I failed to spot a large pothole at the bottom of a slope, causing my front wheel to get stuck and my motorcycle to flip over.

My left leg was pinned under the seat. It took me a long time to climb back up.

Ignoring the wounds and pain, I managed to lift the motorcycle back up. Luckily, it was still intact and started normally.

I hopped back on and once again rushed towards the location Rachel had sent me.

The rest of the road was smoother, and within three minutes, I found the house where Rachel was supposed to be among a row of independent houses in the countryside.

The black metal gate stood wide open. In the narrow shady area inside, Rachel and three other people I did not recognize were sitting around a table, casually eating watermelon and playing cards.

My fierce and intimidating aura startled everyone.

Seeing me dirty and bloody all over, Rachel's eyes flashed with satisfaction.

She turned to the others and said, "Chill. He’s my boyfriend."

Rachel pulled me over and introduced me to her friends. "Zoran, these three are my childhood friends."

I was fuming. The metallic taste of blood was growing stronger in my mouth. "Didn’t you say your parents locked you up?"

A blush of embarrassment appeared briefly on Rachel’s face, but she quickly glossed over it. She said a little awkwardly, "Actually, this is also a test!"

She added, "I didn’t plan to do this. They called me this morning saying they were back from out of town and would be leaving at noon. We haven't seen each other for years, so I rushed back. I told them you gave up on going to MIT for me last year but they didn’t believe me, and that’s why I put you through this test."

The more she spoke, the prouder she sounded. She boasted to her friends, "I told you my boyfriend would miss the exam for me. You guys lost the bet! $100 each, pay up!"

I felt a surge of blood in my throat. I was furious, my chest rising and falling violently.

I could not believe that Rachel had sacrificed my year of hard work just to show off to her friends.

She waved 3 green bills in front of me, brimming with pride. "Aren't I amazing, Zoran? I just made 300 bucks. We can have a lavish meal tonight!"

I looked down and saw that Rachel's hand, casually resting on my arm, was pressing against my wound. Sticky blood gushed out.

Noticing that something was wrong, Rachel looked down at her hand.

Her delicate hand, which had never done any hard work, was now covered in my blood. She took a step back in panic, her face ashen.

Her friend pointed out, "Looks like your boyfriend is hurt. You should take him to the hospital."

I had three broken ribs, which almost pierced my lungs.

My right leg was also fractured from the motorcycle falling on it. I almost became a cripple.

My parents were abroad. I didn't want them to worry, so I didn't tell them that I was injured and hospitalized. Instead, I paid for a personal nurse to take care of me.

Rachel came to see me every day, but I never said a word to her.

This time, I was truly mad. I even considered breaking up with her.

Three days later, Rachel was sent to the hospital after she jumped off a building.

After coming out of the operating room, she was sent to the bed next to mine in my ward. She was still unconscious, her eyes closed.

Rachel's parents waited next to her bed. When they occasionally looked up and meet my gaze, their eyes were full of apology.

"Zoran, we know Rachel is the one at fault. After tricking you and preventing you from going to college last year, she lied to you again. She deserves this. It's our fault for not educating her properly."

The two elders bowed to me repeatedly, making me feel very uncomfortable.

Two hours later, Rachel woke up.

The effects of the anesthesia had not worn off, and she could not move her body. She could only turn her face and look at me with those beautiful eyes, her gaze empty and complicated.

She told me softly with trembling lips, "I'm sorry."

Rachel jumped off a building because I would not forgive her.

She said she wanted to personally experience the pain I felt when I fell off the motorcycle when I went to look for her.

No one could truly empathize with another person's pain without experiencing it firsthand. She wanted to personally feel the pain I had suffered as atonement.

In the end, my heart softened.

We ended up staying in the hospital together the entire summer break.

After being discharged from the hospital, Rachel said she would help me with the procedures to retake the exam.

I shook my head and refused her, taking out an acceptance letter from MIT from my backpack.

"There's no need. I already got in through direct admission."

Before the first year's exam, I had already received a spot from MIT through direct admission, but at that time, Rachel's mock exam scores were still slightly lower than MIT's usual cutoff. I was worried that she wouldn't be able to get into MIT with me, so I declined the offer.

I thought Rachel would be ecstatic when she saw my acceptance letter. We would not have to be in a long distance relationship anymore. We could live together in the same city and go to the same school.

However, when Rachel saw my acceptance letter, her gentle smile abruptly vanished.

She erupted in rage, hitting my ribs that were still recovering from injury.

"Zoran Faraday, you lied to me! You didn't give up the exam for me at all. You went to look for me because you were already accepted. I can't believe I jumped off a building for you! It turns out you don't love me at all!"

Rachel and I went through a cycle of breaking up and making up, ultimately reconciling before the start of the semester.

I carried both our luggage, and we finally entered the campus of MIT together as we had hoped.

However, once we got to school, she continued to test me.

She would create a fake social media account to contact me to see if I would be seduced. When I blocked the unknown account, she would scold me for not recognizing that it was her talking to me behind the fake account.

She would ask me to take a walk on a rainy day, then deliberately not show up. She would stand upstairs watching me wait foolishly in the rain for three hours. Then, she would send me a text saying, "It's so cold, you should go back. I was just testing you."

The next day, I had a high fever which quickly spiraled into pneumonia.

She would take me to club dinners, testing whether I, who was allergic to alcohol, would take drinks for her.

Her friends would watch in amusement as they pushed drink after drink on me, then exclaim, "Rachel, your boyfriend is so good to you. He's willing to risk his life for you."

Rachel sipped on fruit juice, pretending to be modest. "If a person loves you, they'll go through thick and thin for you and endure any hardship. These are just the basics."

Halfway through dinner, I fainted and had to be rushed to the hospital for a stomach pump.

Love had become the hardest math problem to solve. I could no longer distinguish what was a test and what was a trap.

After returning home for the holiday in October, Rachel and I went hiking.

As we were preparing to descend the mountain, I suddenly received a call from my mother.

"Zoran, you need to come back. Your grandmother had a sudden brain hemorrhage and has been rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment."

I grabbed Rachel and started rushing down the mountain.

We took a narrow, unpaved path. There were many pebbles of varying sizes along the way.

Suddenly, Rachel slipped on some stones and stumbled forward.

Because I was walking so fast, I lost my balance as well due to the sudden pull. My back hit a sturdy tree trunk hard. In a panic, I quickly protected Rachel's head with my hand but ended up cutting my forehead on a rock on the ground.

I helped Rachel up, but she suddenly grabbed her leg and cried out in pain.

"Zoran, my leg hurts so much. I can't stand up."

I looked down at Rachel's pitiful, teary face.

A chill rose in my heart.

There were no large rocks where she fell, and her pants were not even torn. I had a hard time believing that she suffered a severe injury.

Even at a time like this, she was still testing me? Maybe the fall was deliberate too.

I narrowed my eyes and asked coldly, "Rachel, you really can't stand up?

Perhaps because my gaze was too sharp, Rachel's eyes darted to the side. She pouted, "What do you take me for? Your grandmother is in the ICU; would I really test you under such circumstances?"

After saying that, Rachel suddenly grabbed a rock the size of a fist and smashed it hard on her kneecap. "Do I have to break my leg for you to believe me?"

I stopped Rachel from continuing to smash her knees.

At this moment, all I felt was disgust.

I threw the rock out of Rachel's hand, helped Rachel up, and carried her on my back.

The descent down the mountain that should have taken an hour took me three hours because I was carrying her.

Just as I got a taxi, my mother called again. "Zoran, you don't have to come to the hospital anymore. Your grandmother has passed away. Just go straight to the crematorium."