Standing Next To You-Chapter 549: I never stood a chance, didn’t I?

But Fei Chuan did not give up. When he received another location the next day, he bailed on Melanie once again and traveled to yet another graveyard in a distant city. However, just like before, it was not the one he was looking for.

For the next three days, Fei Chuan visited multiple graveyards in different cities—some near the capital, others much farther away. Each time, he found an excuse to leave Melanie behind.

When he received yet another call and stood up to go, Melanie, who was sitting beside him, smiled sadly.

Fei Chuan turned to her. "I have to—"

"Go?" Melanie looked up at him with a pained smile. "It’s been almost a week since I got here, but I haven’t spent a full day touring with you. It feels like you’re not even enjoying this—like you’re just doing it out of obligation. Is it because my brother told you to?"

Fei Chuan lowered his phone but, for once, didn’t leave immediately. He sighed. "...It is indeed rude of me to keep leaving in the middle of our tour—"

"If you’re just forcing yourself to accompany me, you should have said so from the start." Melanie bit her lip. "You could’ve told my brother you didn’t want to. You could’ve kicked me out of your place." She had told herself not to say these words, but she couldn’t hold them back any longer.

"Every time you leave me alone to go to some ’place’ you need to be, I feel awful." Melanie’s voice trembled, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She told herself to stop—to not ask, to not say it.

But the words left her lips before she could stop them.

"Can’t you see why I’m here, Fei Chuan?"

Silence stretched between them. Fei Chuan glanced around at the breathtaking scenery. They were at the top of a tower, surrounded by a vast field of sunflowers. Beyond the golden blooms stood historic buildings that had been preserved for centuries—a place rich with history and beauty, a destination many tourists longed to visit.

Yet, in this stunning place, he couldn’t appreciate it.

Fei Chuan sighed. "I know."

Melanie’s smile faltered, turning even more strained. She didn’t want to ask what he meant by ’I know’—she was afraid of the answer.

But Fei Chuan spoke before she could.

"And I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to like you back."

A sharp pain stabbed through Melanie’s heart, like a thorn she could neither remove nor ignore.

A moment of silence stretched between them, suffocating and heavy. But now that the truth was out, Melanie knew she had to muster the courage to ask.

"Is it because of her?... Bei Sangyun?"

The name Fei Chuan had desperately tried to forget echoed in his ears, and he felt a lump form in his throat. He couldn’t bring himself to say no.

Melanie slowly stood up. "...I don’t want to give up on you. If your heart isn’t occupied by anyone, and you just don’t like me yet, then I’ll keep fighting for you." She took a deep breath, her voice trembling. "But... if your heart still belongs to her, no matter how hard I fight, I’ll never be able to win, right?"

She looked at him solemnly, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"Do I have a chance, Fei Chuan?"

Fei Chuan met her gaze. He had once considered Melanie as a woman—her background and beauty were exceptional, and she was caring, the kind of woman many men desired. But...

His fingers curled into a fist.

"...I will only end up hurting you because I wouldn’t be able to love you."

It was a cruel, unforgiving truth—one that Melanie found difficult to swallow. But Fei Chuan’s solemn expression and unwavering words told her that she had never truly stood a chance.

She sank back into her seat, feeling utterly defeated. "Leave. I don’t want to see you."

Fei Chuan stood there for a moment before quietly saying, "Assistant Chen will come to get you." He hesitated, then added, "You’re a great woman. And I truly hope you find someone who will love you the way you deserve."

With that, he turned and left.

And when his seat had grown completely cold, Melanie’s shoulders shook. She wept for her broken heart.

...

Additional Scene:

"I am Melanie, Fei Chuan’s fiancée."

A beautiful woman with wavy golden-blonde hair stood in front of a grave. Her fair skin and white dress made her look like an elven fairy. With the natural backdrop surrounding her, she seemed as if she had stepped out of a fantasy.

However, despite her stunning smile, if one looked closely, there was helplessness hidden beneath her expression.

Melanie observed the grave before her. She had heard that this woman had no living relatives to care for her resting place. Nor did she have friends who visited. Yet, compared to the surrounding graves, hers was well-maintained.

Melanie’s gaze shifted to the fresh flowers placed beside the tombstone, and her heart clenched with jealousy and envy.

"It’s funny... People say I have no reason to be jealous of anyone. I have a great family, a good background, and my looks don’t fall short compared to others. But here I am... envying a dead woman." She muttered absentmindedly, her voice laced with self-pity.

A gust of wind blew past, fluttering her skirt.

Melanie composed herself once again and smiled. "He always comes here, doesn’t he? Then you must have heard from him by now—we’re getting married tomorrow. The man of my dreams will finally become my husband, just as I wished."

Her smile remained, but her eyes dimmed. "I’ve heard so much about you, and I can’t help but be curious. Even after all these years, even after your death, he still can’t forget you. He still dreams of you."

She paused, her smile turning bitter.

"How did you do it? How did you make him think of you every single day? How did you make him obsessed with you, even in death? How did you make him unable to forget you?"

Another gust of wind blew past, rustling the leaves of the acacia tree beside the grave.

"Can you... can you stop haunting him in his sleep? Can you give him peace of mind?" Melanie pleaded, her voice trembling. "You’re already dead. Please don’t leave behind a shadow that keeps him trapped. Please... set him free."

She spoke as if the dead woman could hear her, as if her prayers would be answered.

Only the sound of rustling leaves echoed in the graveyard.

Melanie suddenly chuckled—a hollow, bitter laugh. "What am I even doing? I must be out of my mind. Right now, I’m actually considering whether to go through with the wedding or not."

Her laughter carried the weight of sorrow. "Funny, isn’t it? I spent years wishing for him to look at me, to fall for me, to marry me. And yet here I am, contemplating whether to walk away from it all."

The laughter faded, and so did her smile.

To be honest, she had been considering whether to go through with the wedding or not.

All this time, she had never truly felt that Fei Chuan loved her. She convinced herself that it was just his nature—that he wasn’t capable of expressing his feelings like other men. She made excuse after excuse.

But standing before this grave, she finally saw the truth.

"I love him. I love him so much that I was willing to be blind and foolish for years. I let him keep coming back to a dead woman, bringing her flowers—more than I ever received. I watched him spend time in this empty place, far more than he ever spent with me... and I let it all slide." Melanie’s eyes reddened.

"I thought that with time, he would forget you. That with my love and care, he would heal. That one day, he would finally look at me and realize... I was the one standing beside him all along."

A tear slipped down her cheek.

"But... that day never came."

She wiped the tear away, though more threatened to fall.

"I wanted to keep fighting for him. I wanted to win his love. But I never stood a chance, did I?" Melanie smiled painfully. "Because his heart only has room for you—a dead woman."

Another tear fell, then another. She wiped them away, but the ache in her chest remained.

"It’s not fair. You’re not even here. You’re just... staying dead. And yet, I lost—completely and utterly—despite doing everything I could."

Her voice wavered, but she forced herself to say it. It was convince herself, while she was still rational.

"This marriage... it will be loveless. And we’ll both be unhappy for the rest of our lives. It’s better for it to never happen."

Melanie clenched her fists, trying to suppress the unbearable pain in her heart.

She loved him. She loved him so much.

But her love was useless.

He would never see her—because he was too busy chasing a ghost.

And how could she compete with a dead person?

Even though she loved him, she had to let him go. Not just for Fei Chuan—but for herself.

Because this... this was the only way she could still respect herself.