Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I never expected to wake the next morning in Lu Yuzhi’s arms.

I remembered lying obediently on my side before falling asleep. I had even edged closer to the side of the bed.

I had always slept neatly too.

Yet the moment I opened my eyes, his face was right there, and my heart skipped a beat.

I decided to make my escape before the person involved noticed.

The instant I moved, the arm around my waist tightened.

Holding my breath, I looked up. He was still asleep.

I moved again. His arm tightened again.

After several failed attempts, I shut my eyes and pretended to sleep.

Then I genuinely fell asleep.

When I woke again, Lu Yuzhi had already gone to the office.

Under normal circumstances, newlyweds should have left for their honeymoon the next day, or at least spent a few days wrapped up in each other.

Lu Yuzhi and I were not a normal couple.

He had only recently taken over the company and was extremely busy.

As for being wrapped up in each other, that was even less likely.

On the bedside table, I found a card pinning down a handwritten note.

“The account is in your name. There’s a little money in it. Tell me if it isn’t enough.”

Signed: Lu Yuzhi.

The bold, incisive handwriting suited both his personality and the way he conducted himself.

I checked the balance on a whim and discovered that, in Lu Yuzhi’s world, tens of millions counted as “a little money.”

I put the card away. Since the account was in my name, I accepted it as a matter of course. No one picked a fight with money.

That afternoon, Lu Yuzhi messaged to say he would be away on business for a week.

I read the message, looked up at the cavernous apartment, and made my decision immediately.

I gave the housekeeper the week off, grabbed a bag, and returned to my own apartment.

The moment I opened the door, two little creatures ran over with their tails held high and rubbed against my ankles.

One was an orange cat.

The other was also an orange cat.

Orange cats did have a reputation to uphold, after all.

They rubbed against me until they flopped over and exposed their bellies.

Who could possibly resist?

After happily petting one with each hand, I opened two cans of food for them.

“Eat up. Your big sister just came into a lot of money. You’ll never run out of canned food again.”

They seemed to understand and ate with even greater enthusiasm.

After tidying up, I went into the studio, set up my easel, and began drawing without any particular aim.

The cats’ meows eventually brought me back to myself. Only then did I realize I had unconsciously sketched the scene from last night: Lu Yuzhi drying my hair.

I had no desire to add color, so I photographed the line art and posted it to my account on a lifestyle app.

“Ah! This is the first time I’ve seen you post line art. I can’t wait for the finished piece!”

“It looks so sweet. My craving for romance has reached its absolute peak!”

“Oh no, my head is itchy. Am I growing a lovestruck brain?”

“Camping here for the finished art!”

Likes and comments poured in.

Most of them urged me to color it and said they would wait for the finished piece.

I removed the canvas, set it in a corner, and covered it with a dust cloth.

I did not know how to be with Lu Yuzhi.

My youthful love had received no response whatsoever-not even a rejection.

Loving Lu Yuzhi had once been my secret.

I had not dared confess to his face, yet a confession online had seemed too casual.

So I chose the most old-fashioned method, but also the one that felt most sincere, to express a young girl’s tender love.

I poured all my courage and honesty into that letter.

And heard nothing.

The truth was, I had never known how to express love.

To outsiders, I was a spoiled princess, adored by everyone and blessed with an easy life.

It was all bravado.

I had been born to parents who could not stand each other, the product of their business marriage.

My father almost never came home. My mother was cold and remote.

Once, I woke after two days unconscious with a high fever to find no one beside my bed.

I hated being alone in an empty house.

Cold. Suffocating. An endless loneliness.

The instant I became an adult, my parents rushed to finalize their divorce, though as far as I was concerned, the paperwork changed nothing.

My father promptly married his mistress, who brought with her a daughter only a few months younger than me and a son several years younger.

My mother flew abroad without a care and found herself a young foreign boyfriend.

Wherever I went, I was the extra person no one needed.

I seized the chance to move into the small apartment purchased for me years ago and adopted two stray kittens.

Life grew bright. The future seemed full of promise.

Just when I thought I had finally escaped that suffocating family where I had never belonged, I was told the company had run into cash-flow problems and I needed to enter a business marriage.

I was not even my father’s only daughter.

Yet my younger half sister was free to pursue love, while I was told, “The family has supported you all these years. It’s time you accepted your responsibility.”

When I learned my intended husband was Lu Yuzhi, my feelings were impossible to name-a tangled mixture of everything at once.

He seemed entirely unconcerned by the fact that I had confessed to him and failed. He treated me much as he had in high school, except that the years had made him more polished.