chapter 1
The story of how Xu Chen came to marry me could have been lifted straight out of a television romance.
I was an ordinary college girl spending summer vacation back home in the countryside. One day, half the neighborhood crowded into our tiny courtyard. A BMW and a Maybach were parked outside, surrounded by enough new appliances and furniture to furnish a mansion.
I pushed aside the curtain and walked in.
The first thing I saw was a sharply dressed man sitting in the middle of our sofa. Xu Chen had one elegant leg crossed over the other and carried himself like an emperor paying an incognito visit to the common folk.
He got straight to the point. “My grandfather sent me here to marry you, Su Ruan.”
My mouth fell open. The first thing that slipped out was, “What the hell are you barking about?”
Shock flashed across his face.
It did not take me long, however, to realize that fate had apparently dropped a jackpot right into my lap.
Xu Chen’s secretary spent half an hour explaining the situation. The short version was that when Xu Chen’s grandfather had been sent to the countryside as an educated youth, my grandfather had once saved his dog’s life.
No, wait. His life.
Ever since then, Grandpa Xu had been determined to unite our families through marriage. Xu Chen’s father had fled all the way to South Africa to grow bananas rather than honor the betrothal made before he was born.
Xu Chen, on the other hand, was shrewd and practical. He knew perfectly well that refusing his grandfather’s order would cost him an enormous inheritance.
I crouched beside the coffee table, cracking sunflower seeds between my teeth. “According to every drama ever made, shouldn’t you be nobly rejecting this arranged marriage and running off to find your one true love?”
Xu Chen snorted. “You watch too much television.”
The seeds looked so good that he grabbed a handful and joined me.
“Isn’t an inheritance worth hundreds of millions more tempting?” He glanced sideways at me. “All I have to do is marry someone. I can’t lose, especially when you’re fairly pretty.”
He licked his dry lips. “What about you? Shouldn’t you be fighting this too? We don’t have any feelings for each other.”
“Do I look stupid?” I said. “I get married, receive a huge allowance every month, gain a grandfather who adores me, and never have to see my annoying husband because he won’t come home. I don’t even have to give birth. How is that not happiness?”
Xu Chen inhaled a sunflower seed and nearly choked.
When he finally stopped coughing, he pointed at me. “Fine, Su Ruan. We’ll sign a one-year marriage contract. I won’t touch you, we stay out of each other’s private lives, and I’ll pay you one hundred thousand yuan a month. When the year is over, we go our separate ways.”
One hundred thousand?
I almost thought I had misheard him.
What more could a woman ask for? I would have happily looked after his dream girl through an entire pregnancy for that kind of money.