Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was hosting a dinner at Yueyi Club, the finest private club in Gangcheng, for the heir to a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. I wanted to bring him into my lab.

A burst of noisy commotion came from outside the door.

“The bride and groom have completed the rites. Send them to the bridal chamber!”

“Kiss! Kiss!”

“No, they have to drink the wedding toast first.”

Yueyi Club had become the first choice for the young masters of high society precisely because of its privacy and security. As long as they did not go too far, the owner here would cover for them.

On any other day, if someone disturbed me while I was entertaining a guest, I would definitely have filed a complaint. But when I remembered that I was getting married tomorrow too, I found myself oddly infected by the joy outside.

The truth was, hadn’t I once wanted to cut loose too? To ride across the grasslands with my groom, my white veil streaming behind me, free and unrestrained like wandering heroes.

That was the grand declaration I had made back in college.

Yet in the span of just ten years, I was about to become a proper, well-behaved daughter-in-law of a wealthy family.

The wedding guests were all connections from my future in-laws, my own family, and business partners.

The entire wedding process had been carefully arranged as a performance under the media’s gaze.

My guest said he needed to take a call and went out to the terrace beside the private room.

Bored while waiting, I pushed the door open out of curiosity and glanced outside.

Among the two people being surrounded and urged to kiss, I spotted Huo Yanxu at once.

After the two of them finished kissing, the group noisily poured into a private room.

I was marrying Huo Yanxu tomorrow. I did not want any misunderstandings or knots left between us before the wedding.

Worried I had mistaken him for someone else, I instinctively ran out of my private room.

There was a dedicated server stationed outside that room. I tipped him, and he stepped away for a short while on the excuse of going to the restroom.

I pushed the door open a crack and looked through the gap. I knew everyone inside. They were several second-generation rich kids and young heirs who were close to Huo Yanxu.

I also got a clear look at the girl sitting beside Huo Yanxu. She was the one he had just kissed.

I knew this girl. I had met her a few times.

When I attended gatherings with Huo Yanxu, she had suddenly shown up twice, saying she was the daughter of the Haicheng Cheng Family.

Back then, I had felt that the way she looked at me was hostile, but I had not paid it much mind. I only thought that a handsome rich young master was bound to have a few admirers.

The atmosphere in the private room was lively. Everyone was so carried away with their fun that no one noticed me peeping in.

Someone fawned over him, saying, “We prepared a wedding night suite upstairs for you and Jiayin today. If you don’t go home tonight, Youyi won’t have a problem with it, will she?”

“She’s definitely in the lab right now. Whether I go back or not, she won’t know.”

Huo Yanxu reached out and pulled Jiayin into his arms. “The bride pickup tomorrow is at night. There’s plenty of time.”

Jiayin lowered her head, seeming a little shy.

He quietly took a diamond ring from his pocket and slipped it onto Jiayin’s ring finger.

The diamond was huge, its gleam almost dazzling.

Huo Yanxu gently lifted Jiayin’s chin. “Satisfied now? You married me before Ye Youyi did.”

Someone asked unhurriedly, “Aren’t you afraid Ye Youyi will find out and turn on you?”

Huo Yanxu arched a brow.

“I’m not afraid even if she finds out. Forget the fact that her family can’t afford the disgrace. With my grandfather’s personality, treating reputation as his life, he’ll naturally step in and help me keep her.

“What’s wrong with having a wife who makes money for me? All I need is to live well, eat well, drink well, and be happy with the person I like.”

Jiayin buried her face against his chest. “I’ve sacrificed so much for you. You can’t let me down.”

The implication was that she had suffered a great grievance by willingly becoming his hidden mistress.