Chapter 2

After a sleepless night, I tore the stranger’s photograph to pieces through gritted teeth. At midnight, I silently picked up every scrap.

I should have refused. But my stepmother was a formidable woman.

She knew exactly where to hurt me.

At my proposal, a crack appeared in Wei Yuxi’s numb expression. “We only met twice before the engagement. Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Hearing the urgency in my voice, he shook his head. “I’ve been blind for a year. I may never recover.”

“If you marry me, your life will be over.”

So the two of them had even used the same excuse to reject the marriage. I sighed. “Is marriage really the end of the world?”

“Both families’ stocks hitting the daily limit down—that would be the end of the world.”

Wei Yuxi fell silent.

The doctor beside him frantically signaled at me, his hands moving so fast they blurred. I softened my voice. “If you don’t want this, we can wait a couple of years until the public loses interest, then divorce quietly.”

After a long moment, Wei Yuxi nodded. “Just what I’d expect from a Columbia graduate.”

I ignored the faint mockery in his tone. “Then shall we get married this week?”

“Why the hurry?”

“The sooner we marry, the sooner we can divorce.”

He rose. Only then did I realize how tall he was, nearly half a head taller than me. His sharply defined eyes looked down at me, nothing like the vacant eyes I had imagined on a blind man.

“All right.”

“Anything else?” I asked.

“You’re prettier than your photograph.”

Then he smiled. It was pale and fleeting, a ripple opened by the wind before the calm returned.

Once more aloof, Wei Yuxi pointed toward the door—an unmistakably unfriendly dismissal.

The doctor hurried me away. Behind us, the grand symphony surged back to life. Much later, I learned its name.

Tragic and heroic, yet unstoppable.

Beethoven’s Fifth—Fate.

The wedding was held a week later.

With so little time, everything from the venue to the ceremony was kept simple. My stepmother bought my gown off the rack, and its enormous skirt nearly sent me tumbling off the aisle. Laughter rolled through the hall.

Besides the gown, I wore a white lace blindfold, an almost comically obvious attempt at concealment.

Wei Yuxi, by contrast, wore a bespoke cream suit. With his pale, handsome face and dark eyes, he stood motionless beside the officiant like the perfect model groom.

I had to admit he was beautiful.

It made him difficult to dislike.

The moment my father placed my hand in his, I clutched his arm. “Please help me.”

“Hm?”

“My skirt is too long. I might fall.”

Wei Yuxi turned toward me and lowered his voice. “You want a blind man to steady you? Are you sure?”

His clear eyes were entirely unfocused, but to everyone else, it looked as though he were gazing tenderly down at me. Cheers rose from both sides of the flower-lined aisle.

In the distance, I saw my father and stepmother smiling as if proud of my obedience. My stepsister stared at her phone, bored and utterly detached.

The officiant continued. “Now, may the bride and groom exchange rings.”

That was when the ceremony hit a snag.

No one had accounted for the groom being blind.

Wei Yuxi took the ring and reached for my hand, only to veer off course and seize the officiant’s hand instead.

The hall went silent.

I pinched his palm lightly. Wei Yuxi understood at once, yet kept hold of the officiant with perfect composure.

“Thank you, sir, but would you mind stepping aside? I would rather not have a third person between my beloved and me.”

The officiant hastily moved. After one suspended beat, good-natured laughter swept through the guests, dissolving the tension.

Once the rings were exchanged, we walked forward as the ceremony required. At the end of the platform, I squeezed his hand again.

“Three steps forward, then down.”

Wei Yuxi stopped and inclined his head toward me, as if sharing an intimate whisper. “So when you asked me to support you, you were actually helping me?”

“Helping you is helping myself.”

“I see.”

Dimples appeared in the face that had been so indifferent moments before.

Perhaps we lingered too close for too long. The guests below began chanting for a kiss. My smile had already frozen painfully in place, and I wanted nothing more than to escape.

Wei Yuxi held me still.

Two cool fingers touched my cheek and carefully traced my features. His dark eyes narrowed as if he were studying my face.

At last, he found my lips with uncanny precision and brushed them with his own.

“Thank you for marrying me.”