Chapter 1
Chapter 1
“Actually, love and marriage are two different things.”
That was the first thing Yang Jisheng said to me when we met.
Three seconds later, I decided to marry him.
The first time I met Yang Jisheng was in a Zen tea house.
That’s right. A cliché blind date.
My first impression was: this man didn’t really look like a businessman.
His slightly long hair fell in soft curls, and he wore a well-made beige linen shirt with a traditional front closure. A vivid green jadeite bracelet made his wrist look almost startlingly pale as he sat by the window, holding a small teacup and drinking tea.
The sunlight was perfect. Tiny specks of dust drifted up and down in the beam, settling like powdered sugar over his jet-black hair and the nearly translucent curve of his ear, making him seem all the more refined, distinctive, and extraordinarily uncommon.
From certain angles, he even had a bit of an artsy vibe.
And yet, the moment this elegant young man opened his mouth, what he said was utterly absurd. “Actually, love and marriage are two different things.”
“What do you think, Miss Zhong?”
Was that something you were supposed to say to a blind date you were meeting for the first time?
His unexpected honesty caught me completely off guard.
“…Why are you telling me this?”
The playboys I’d dated before would at least put on an act before showing their true colors. But him? He went straight to flashing his underwear… no, his bottom line.
He raised his arm and carefully poured me half a cup of tea, looking very sincere.
“Because I very much hope to marry you, Miss Zhong.”
I didn’t take the tea.
Instead, I leaned back silently in the booth and waited for him to continue.
“Romance is nothing more than squandering dopamine. Marriage is different. As long as there are enough shared interests, that’s all it needs.”
“If you marry me, Miss Zhong, I won’t fool around outside, I won’t get caught up in scandals, and I certainly won’t be like some of our elders and produce an illegitimate child.”
“I will abide by my duties as a husband and fulfill all necessary obligations and responsibilities. I will never put you in an embarrassing position before public opinion.”
At the time, I suspected he was taking a dig at my father.
Because my father was the one who, at the ripe old age of fifty, had been exposed for having an illegitimate child outside the family.
Naturally, I took his excessive frankness with a dose of mockery.
“How can you guarantee that?”
But that handsome face looked back at me with dignity and seriousness. “Don’t worry. I have plenty of other things to do. I don’t have that much energy.”
He lifted the white porcelain teacup to his lips and took a small sip, exuding a calm certainty, as if everything were under control.
“If you don’t believe me, Miss Zhong, we can also sign a prenuptial agreement.”
That same month, we held our wedding.
It was unbelievable. A man who didn’t love me had promised me loyalty.
We agreed to monitor each other, restrain each other, and also warm and support each other… just like so many loving couples who grow old together.
At first, I was uneasy. Would being married to him be difficult?
But in reality, Yang Jisheng was easier to get along with than every man I’d ever dated. Unlike every rich second-generation heir I’d ever met, he was gentle, kept himself clean, and was highly capable at work.
Because he spent all his time in the industrial park, there wasn’t so much as a hen within a ten-mile radius of him. He was so clean it almost made me feel sorry for him.
You might say, then he must be gay.
Impossible.
No matter how busy he was, he stuck to it like clockwork: twice a week with me.
And if he happened to eat or drink anything particularly warming while he was out, he’d insist on one more round.
In terms of personality, character, family background, and certain abilities… he really was good in every way.
He just didn’t love me, that was all.