chapter 2

Xu Chen mistook my stunned silence for dissatisfaction.

“Fine, two hundred thousand a month,” he added immediately. “But don’t even think about touching my property. When we divorce in a year, I’ll give you another twenty million as compensation.”

I was one breath away from blasting into the sky.

And that was how two schemers with approximately eight hundred ulterior motives between us cobbled together a household.

To keep Grandpa Xu from becoming suspicious, we pretended to date passionately for two months. Then, for the sake of appearances, we moved in together.

Xu Chen had a dream girl. Her name was Yin Ranran, and the two of them had remained “friends” while she lived abroad. Yet whenever she called, starlight seemed to rise in his eyes.

When she learned that Xu Chen was getting married, she came straight home and demanded that he bring me to a gathering with their friends.

Yin Ranran was rich, beautiful, and blessed with legs that went on forever. She worked as a flight attendant and had the kind of presence that changed a room the moment she entered.

Xu Chen, who had been looking at his phone, immediately put it away. Without even trying to hide his eagerness, he tapped the empty seat on his right.

Yin Ranran understood the invitation perfectly. She sat beside him and kissed his cheek right in front of me.

Somehow, I looked like the other woman.

I did not care. Xu Chen had thrown more than enough money at me, and our marriage was only a mutually beneficial transaction.

Halfway through dinner, I ate too much and went to the restroom.

There, to my astonishment, I caught Yin Ranran getting intimate with another man.

It was not some stranger either. It was one of Xu Chen’s closest friends, Shen Xiao.

What was a man doing in the women’s restroom? Was he a pervert?

Yin Ranran was the one pressing close to him. Shen Xiao merely leaned against the sinks, showing no reaction as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Xiao, I’m back,” she murmured. “Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

Shen Xiao laughed coldly. “Yin Ranran, since when were we close?”

Embarrassed, she loosened her arms. “You messaged me and asked me to come back. I thought…”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh, that. Xu Chen asked me to send it.”

I listened from a stall with great enthusiasm and silently mourned for Xu Chen. The woman he loved was apparently in love with his best friend.

What sort of spectacular melodrama had I wandered into?

Just as Yin Ranran was about to speak again, someone in the stall next to mine released a series of magnificent, rhythmically timed farts.

I held my breath and did not dare move.