chapter 5

Xu Chen and I had originally planned to register our marriage in the second half of the year. His strategy was to delay as long as possible. If he could fool his grandfather and secure the inheritance before we registered, he could avoid the marriage altogether.

He would still pay me, of course.

I did feel guilty because Grandpa Xu sincerely wanted us together and treated me well. Yet I also truly needed money.

There was no tragic reason behind it. My family was not destitute, and no one was sick.

I simply loved money.

I loved seeing a full savings account and more digits than I could count in my balance.

At first, Xu Chen called me materialistic.

“Maybe I was a copper coin in my last life,” I mused.

He rolled his eyes. “Then I was the man who minted you.”

Money would let me open the cat café I had always wanted, draw comics, buy a large house, and bring my parents to live with me.

So when I saw Yin Ranran’s message, I sent her a sticker from Xu Chen’s account. Then I opened her social feed and liked her newest post.

The picture showed her fingers entwined with a man’s. His hand was slender and handsome.

I recognized it instantly as Xu Chen’s. While working on a comic, I had once dragged him over and used that beautiful hand as my model.

I could not help marveling at Yin Ranran. Had she not been chasing Shen Xiao only recently? How had she captured Xu Chen so quickly?

Before I finished wondering, Shen Xiao texted me.

“Come to Green Tea Restaurant.”

I asked why, but he sent only a blurry photograph. Yin Ranran was clinging to a middle-aged man, her cheek pressed coyly to his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” I replied. “Is that her father? Why do you care if a daughter eats with her dad?”

His silence successfully hooked my curiosity.

I dressed entirely in black, wrapped myself up until I looked suspicious, and arrived at the restaurant. Shen Xiao sat alone at a large table in the far corner, chin propped lazily on one hand.

“I ordered these for you. Eat.”

After a few bites, I remembered why I was there. “Did you call me all this way just to feed me?”

“No. I ordered too much, and wasting food is a shame.”

I glared. “Get to the point.”

He pushed his phone toward me.

A secretly recorded video was playing. Yin Ranran truly had terrible luck. Every time she met a lover, someone caught her.

She entered a private room, sat directly on the middle-aged man’s lap, and kissed him all over the face. After fixing her lipstick, they began discussing Xu Chen.

“Weren’t you supposed to win him over?” the man asked. “Why do I hear he’s getting married?”

“So what?” Yin Ranran said. “He doesn’t love that woman. I can still wrap him around my finger.”

The man straightened his tie. “Fine. Take his money, then dump him.”

“Of course. Those pretty boys can’t compare to a real man like you.”

My worldview cracked down the middle.