Chapter 1

So much for making a good impression.

I had, after all, put her through plenty in bed back then.

When I graduated and returned home, I left her a large sum of money and disappeared without saying goodbye.

Now, when we met again, she was the head of the Liu family—a woman everyone in the business world wanted to curry favor with—while I was about to enter an arranged marriage with her younger brother, Liu Sinan.

I lowered my head, terrified she would recognize me.

My oblivious father pushed me toward her.

“Ms. Liu, this is my daughter, Chi Wanyin. I hope you’ll look after her from now on.”

I rolled my eyes inwardly. I was marrying her brother, not her. Why would I need her to look after me?

“Chi. Wan. Yin?” Her cool voice lingered over every syllable, the corner of her mouth curving upward. “What a lovely, gentle name.”

Guilt gnawed at me, and I ducked my head even lower.

First, I had never told her my real name when we were abroad.

Second, nothing I had done to her back then could remotely be called gentle.

She held out a hand. “Liu Chengxi. It’s nice to meet you. We’ll be family soon.”

My head snapped up.

Nice to meet me? Had she truly forgotten, or was she pretending?

I took her pale hand and smiled in return. “I’ll be counting on you from now on, Jiejie.”

Our eyes met. We released each other at the same time, but her fingertip glided over my palm, leaving a tingling trail that might have been accidental.

What was this woman playing at?

At dinner, Dad and Liu Chengxi did most of the talking.

Under the table, I texted Liu Sinan.

“Has your sister always been called Liu Chengxi?”

“Yeah.”

I looked up at the unruffled woman across from me and scoffed inwardly.

Well, well. The name she had given me back then had been fake too.

“Did she study abroad?”

“How did you know?”

I ignored the question and kept typing. “Did your family fall on hard times a few years ago? Or did your parents treat your sister badly—refuse to give her money, that sort of thing?”

Liu Sinan dropped his chopsticks. I took the chance to duck under the table as if to help retrieve them.

We bumped heads beneath the table.

He stared at me as though I had lost my mind and whispered, “Did you eat something that fried your brain? When has my family ever been short of money? Before our parents died, they doted on my sister more than anyone. They were terrified their precious daughter would suffer while studying abroad, so the transfers into her account never stopped.”

That did not add up. When I met Liu Chengxi, she had been a broke student working part-time at a bar to cover her living expenses.

Had I mistaken her for someone else?

Was Liu Chengxi not the woman I had once kept?

Liu Sinan had no reason to lie to me about it. We were allies, after all.

He looked aggressively straight, but he was deeply closeted.

I had caught him with his arms around another man at a gay bar when I went there with a friend.

Our arranged marriage was purely a deal of mutual convenience.

We would keep up the act for three years, then find an excuse to divorce amicably.

Neither my father nor his sister knew a thing about it.

Liu Sinan and I were still whispering under the table, completely unaware that the other two people had stopped talking.

Then a hand settled on my waist, followed by the pleasant scent of perfume.

I jolted upright and smacked the back of my head against the table, hissing in pain.

At some point, Liu Chengxi had moved into the seat beside me. She sat perfectly straight and elegant. Her left hand slid from my waist to cover the hand I had pressed to the back of my head, gently rubbing the sore spot through my fingers.

“What secrets are you whispering about down there? Why not let me in on them?”

Dad answered for us. “They’re young and in love. Of course they can’t keep away from each other.”

With one sentence, my dear father managed to give both Liu Sinan and me goose bumps.

Liu Chengxi’s left hand moved again, this time to my ear. She gently rolled my earlobe between her fingers.

“Is that so? In that case, perhaps Wanyin should stay at the Liu estate for a while. It would give them time to get to know each other.”

I was ready to combust. My ears were sensitive.

I wanted to refuse, but I was afraid the moment I opened my mouth, an altogether suggestive sound would escape. So I endured it, face burning, and shot Dad a look that screamed no.

Dad and I had no telepathy whatsoever. He mistook my blush for shy agreement and accepted on my behalf.

And that was how I ended up moving into the Liu estate.