Qiu Wu had been mentally prepared for a marriage of convenience for a long time.
For a normal family, marriage might still be the crystallization of love.
However, for a wealthy and powerful elite family that valued power and wealth far more than life itself, marriage was much more like an obscure contract.
They sacrificed the children of the family in exchange for unstable allies.
For a family on the verge of bankruptcy like the Qiu family, it was viewed as nothing less than a straw to clutch at.
As the only biological daughter of the family, Qiu Ji was naturally out of the question for this political marriage.
Now, the only person still of any use was their insignificant adopted daughter.
This was probably the main reason why the Qiu family insisted on raising her to this day after the prophecy had been shattered.
“Mm, I know.” Qiu Wu nodded to show she understood, without asking for any information about her prospective marriage partner.
She didn’t have a choice anyway, so what was the point of asking so much?
This compliant attitude of letting others do as they pleased actually made Qiu Qi feel somewhat awkward. The woman looked away, saying, “This morning, news came from the Luo family that their eldest daughter, Luo Bai, wants to talk to you in person about getting married.”
“Ah?” It was a simple and clear sentence, yet the amount of information was so immense that Qiu Wu couldn’t even figure out where to start complaining.
“That’s the Luo family! Why would they want to marry into our family?” In the end, she picked the most crucial point.
Although families entering into political marriages were not always evenly matched in social standing, a marriage between the Luo family and the Qiu family was roughly equivalent to a wealthy heiress on a whim heading out to find a stray dog to marry.
After all, that was the Luo family.
Future Technology was the foundation of Luocheng’s prosperity, but it was also the family business of the Luo family.
Although the head of the city-state was someone else, almost every citizen of Luocheng tacitly agreed that the head of the Luo family was the true master of Luocheng.
“I don’t know.” Qiu Qi shook her head to indicate she was powerless to help, then gazed at her with burning intensity. “But you should understand the importance of this matter, right?”
Qiu Wu pressed her back firmly against the chair to keep herself from shaking out of sheer nervousness.
“I understand.”
The meeting with Luo Bai was scheduled for the afternoon of the day after tomorrow. Late at night, Qiu Wu sat cross-legged on the bed in her small room, typing Luo Bai into the search bar.
As expected, long paragraphs of character profiles and eye-catching gossip did not appear on the screen.
The only available information was a single brief introduction: “Luo Bai, born in the new calendar year 1125, daughter of Luo Hua, former chief researcher at Future Technology, currently employed at Future Technology Research Institute No. 7.”
Born in twenty-five, which made her thirty-two years old now.
Not even a single photo?
Refusing to give up, Qiu Wu searched for Future Technology and the Luo family next.
The information that came up this time was both numerous and messy, and it took her half a day of sorting to make any sense of it.
The current head of the Luo family and chairperson of Future Technology was Luo Bai’s maternal aunt, Luo Wen, who was Luo Hua’s biological sister. Luo Hua was a genius scientist who had established Luocheng’s status as the first city-state through sheer individual brilliance.
Luo Hua had died in a plane crash eighteen years ago. Shortly after, Luo Wen used embryo technology to give birth to her only daughter, Luo Jing, while simultaneously adopting a girl from a collateral branch of the Luo family to take charge of the specific management affairs of Future Technology.
That girl was Luo Cheng, the current CEO of Future Technology, who frequently topped gossip headlines and single-handedly supported an entire troop of paparazzi.
All of these people could be considered public figures of Luocheng, with smiling ID photos hanging in the encyclopedia.
Only Luo Bai was the exception. Whether it was her own encyclopedia entry or the related pages of her family members, only that single sentence of introduction existed.
Wasn’t this a bit too mysterious?
Qiu Wu inexplicably thought of certain witches who lived in ancient castles and loved to eat children, and she couldn’t help shivering.
“Ah, big sister, which part of me did you actually take a fancy to? Can’t I just change it?”
Rolling back and forth on the bed a few times, gazing through her messy bangs at the low ceiling, Qiu Wu slowly curled up under the covers and muttered,
“Whatever, if it’s a blessing it won’t be a disaster; if it’s a disaster, you can’t avoid it.”
At six o’clock on Sunday morning, Qiu Wu was hauled off to the dressing room by a phone call from Qiu Qi.
Gazing at the entire fully prepared styling team in the room, Qiu Wu silently swallowed her request for a couple of tea eggs to line her stomach, obediently sat down in the chair, and pretended to be a doll that knew how to blink.
After hours of makeup application, Qiu Wu, who was starving and seeing stars, finally managed to get a bite to eat.
Tea eggs were out of the question; even bread had to be broken into small pieces to eat so she wouldn’t smudge her makeup.
“Mm, the makeup looks good.” Pushing the door open, Qiu Qi nodded slightly and approvingly at the makeup artist.
Qiu Ji followed behind her mother, and the gaze she cast upon Qiu Wu was still full of disgust.
With both of them right there, Qiu Wu couldn’t swallow her bite of bread, nor could she spit it out. She could only silently look at the mirror on the table.
Considering that the location of this meeting was a regular restaurant, the stylist hadn’t prepared a formal evening gown for her. Instead, they went with a more casual style featuring a beige long pleated skirt paired with a loose-fitting sweater of the same color. Her normally loose long hair was delicately coiled at the back of her head, and even the few strands falling across her forehead seemed to have been carefully designed through clever ingenuity to make her appear cuter and easier to accept.
The affectionate corners of her eyes were painted into a softer, blunter shape, and her somewhat vibrant lip color was covered with a gentle, soft pink.
As for her face, it was dusted even whiter than that of a traditional East Luocheng native by a couple of shades.
What an innocent, harmless, ready-to-eat little white flower she made.
What if Luo Bai didn’t go for this type?
Qiu Wu couldn’t help but offer a bitter smile.
“Don’t smile like that, you look completely devoid of spirit.” Qiu Qi patted her shoulder like a mother worrying over her daughter getting married. “You need to be more cheerful; everything depends on you now.”
“Mm, I know, family head.” Qiu Wu, who had never been depended on for anything, instantly felt the immense pressure and tried her best to squeeze out a healthy smile.
“Tch, what kind of family head is that? Call me adoptive mother.” Qiu Qi scolded playfully.
“Hmph!” Perhaps unable to stand her mother trying to cozy up to Qiu Wu, Qiu Ji let out an angry snort from the side and slammed the door as she left.
Qiu Wu was startled by the sudden noise, and Qiu Qi hurriedly comforted her, “A-Ji is a bit willful, don’t take it to heart.”
I haven’t known her to be willful only starting today, and surely you didn’t just find out today either, did you?
Qiu Wu understood Qiu Qi’s difficult position and didn’t hold any resentment toward her past cold treatment, but it was hard for her not to feel emotional about the stark contrast in her treatment before and after.
All of this was built entirely upon that eldest Miss Luo whose appearance she didn’t even know.
If she failed, wouldn’t she end up kneeling on the stone slabs of the confinement room until they cracked?
Qiu Wu grew increasingly nervous.
That afternoon, Qiu Wu arrived at the meeting place an hour early: the flagship store of the Eternity restaurant in the center of District 3, Luocheng.
Eternity was a chain restaurant deeply adored by the people of Luocheng. People frequently posted photos of their meals there on social platforms because it was said that Future Technology researchers loved its taste.
A Future Technology researcher was the most revered profession in Luocheng because it represented intelligence, high salaries, and an incomparably bright future. It was also Lin Ya’s ultimate goal.
Qiu Wu had never come here to eat. Firstly, a single piece of cake at this restaurant could buy twenty plates of stir-fried meat outside, and she didn’t want to spend the Qiu family’s money. Secondly, she felt that robots that looked like humans were a bit terrifying.
“Miss Qiu Wu,” a robot waiter holding a recorder flashed a standard smile at her, “Miss Luo Bai has already reserved a table. Please follow me.”
Qiu Wu followed behind the robot, walking through the spotless white hall. Since it wasn’t dining time, there were only a handful of tables occupied in the hall, and the overwhelming majority of the guests wore the white work uniforms of Future Technology.
This place was less than three kilometers away from Future Technology’s headquarters, so they were probably all researchers from the company.
The second floor was reserved for private rooms, with transparent spheres embedded into the flooring of the same material.
Qiu Wu entered one of them at the waiter’s signal. As the door closed, the originally transparent spherical walls instantly turned dark gray, completely isolating the inside from the outside.
Qiu Wu let out a long breath. She always grew unconsciously nervous whenever she reached places with such an excessively high level of technology.
The feeling was somewhat like when she was a child and played wildly in the mountains until evening, unable to find her way home, surrounded only by the sounds of trees and insects, feeling like an intruder whose tiny sounds were drowned out by the vast world, cared for by no one.
How had Qiu Ji put it again?
A bumpkin from West Luocheng, a low-born wretch destined for a lifetime of toil.
Qiu Wu’s mouth twitched as she sat upright on the sofa, fully playing the role of her little white flower persona.
Her phone vibrated twice, and seeing that there was still plenty of time before the appointed hour, Qiu Wu took it out for a quick glance.
It was a WeChat message from Lin Ya.
The other girl had sent a photo of herself buried under mountains of books in the library.
Lin Ya: Ah, exam prep is so exhausting.
Qiu Wu: Then take a short break, look out the window, and let your eyes rest.
Lin Ya: Oh gosh, my brain is complete mush right now. I’m calling it quits for today. What are you up to?
Qiu Wu: Eating out, with a friend.
She really couldn’t bring herself to tell her best friend that she was off to meet a marriage partner; she was afraid Lin Ya would call the police, considering it was already the twelfth century of the new calendar.
Lin Ya: Oh, girl or boy? Anything going on?
Qiu Wu: Girl, nothing going on yet. Do you know Luo Bai?
Two days ago, Qiu Wu had wondered if a Future Technology fanatic like Lin Ya might know details not found online, but she hadn’t asked then for fear of disturbing her exam prep. Now it served as a great topic for distraction.
Lin Ya: Of course I do! The exiled princess of the previous dynasty, a hidden eldest princess, which Future Technology fan doesn’t know her? Why are you asking about her?
Because I might be marrying her.
Qiu Wu massaged her forehead and continued weaving her cover story: Just curious. Aren’t we going to the recruitment fair together? I wanted to understand things in advance. This Luo Bai is so mysterious, I can’t search up any information online at all.
Lin Ya: That’s because you don’t know the inside story. On Luocheng’s public network, Luo Bai is an absolute banned keyword. Any news about her, whether photos or text, cannot be sent out.
Qiu Wu: Aren’t the two of us chatting about her right now?
Lin Ya: Private chats don’t count. Go try posting it on Weibo.
Qiu Wu typed Luo Bai into the Weibo interface and clicked send.
It failed instantly, without even a prompt saying that the content was not displayed according to relevant laws.
Qiu Wu looked astonished: Why?
Lin Ya: The new emperor ascended the throne and is purging the forces of the previous dynasty, obviously. I only heard it from others, but Luo Wen and her older sister, meaning Luo Bai’s mom, never really saw eye to eye. The two of them once almost came to blows during a high-level Future Technology meeting. But Luo Hua was a genius of the type who could single-handedly prop up an entire city-state, so no matter how displeased Luo Wen was, she just had to swallow her anger and bear it. It wasn’t until eighteen years ago, when Luo Hua insisted on taking a plane during a storm to visit another city-state and practically went and killed herself, that Luo Bai turned fourteen. Only then did Luo Wen finally manage to seize control of the entire Luo family and Future Technology. Do you think she’d treat that niece kindly?
Qiu Wu: I see.
An image flashed through her mind of a melancholy woman trapped in a deep courtyard, her talents unrecognized.
Lin Ya sent another message: Though Luo Bai isn’t ordinary either. Word has it she modified her own body and replaced all her bones with titanium-alloy ones. She can send a whole pile of people flying with a single punch. Flesh is weak, mechanical ascension!
Qiu Wu: ……
Well, that changed things. Lin Daiyu had just turned into the Terminator in seconds.
Qiu Wu: I have some things to do, let’s chat later. Remember to get up and stretch, don’t push yourself too hard.
The door of the private room opened, and the waiter served her cake and a hot drink before silently retreating.
Luo Bai had probably assumed she had already eaten lunch. Qiu Wu gazed at the afternoon tea set on her plate, her nose tickled by the sweet aroma as she swallowed hard.
From morning until now, she had only eaten two small pieces of bread.
There was still half an hour before the meeting time, so surely taking a sip of coffee wouldn’t get her caught?
Qiu Wu cautiously picked up the cup and took a small sip.
The drink entered her mouth warm, carrying a very, very faint latte flavor, so faint that she almost mistook it for plain water.
Wait a minute.
Qiu Wu stared in puzzlement at the dark brown liquid in the cup.
This didn’t look like it had been watered down, though.
She took another sip. It was just as bland.
A trace of grievance welled up in Qiu Wu.
This cup of coffee could buy half a cart of apples, so why were they still cutting corners?
At that exact moment, the door of the private room beeped and opened once more.
Qiu Wu’s hand trembled, sending ripples across the surface of the coffee.
A breeze drifting in from outside gently brushed against her cheek, carrying a faint, chilling, metallic scent.
A tall woman walked in and sat down opposite her.
“Hello, I am Luo Bai.”
The tone was very calm, the pitch of her voice low and exceptionally clear, sounding like the cold tail of a fish sweeping across eyelashes.
Those pitch-black eyes swallowed Qiu Wu whole, just like a completely emotionless black hole.