After saying goodnight to Lu Bai, Qiu Wu did not go to sleep. Everything today gave her a surreal feeling, and she urgently needed something to calm her racing thoughts.
Opening her chat window with her younger sister, Qiu Tong, she saw the latest chat history stopped two months ago. Her sister had said she wanted a new model of phone. Ever since entering university, Qiu Wu had stopped using the living expenses sent by the Qiu family, meaning she had no idle cash on hand and could only take on more design commissions. After grinding for several weeks, she wired the money to her.
The messages ended with: Sister, you are a big miss now, why are you still so hesitant over this little bit of money? Pouting.jpg.
I am sorry, this money should be enough to buy the high-end model. Remember to buy it at the flagship store, tell grandma I am doing well here, and do not worry.
Her sister did not reply to her again.
In the chat window, Qiu Wu typed: “Is Grandma’s back pain any better?”
Hesitating for a moment, she deleted it character by character.
She recalled what her sister had previously said: “Why do you ask so much? You do not even want to come back.”
She tapped on her sister’s Moments. Inside were a young person’s dreams, complaints about academics, dissatisfaction with her hometown, the joy of going out with friends, and those large stretches of fields, rolling hills, flowing streams, and her grandmother’s stooped back, all of which were both familiar and unfamiliar to Qiu Wu.
Qiu Wu lay in bed, her back pressed against the mattress, smiling gently. The wind from her hometown passed through the sealed dome, temporarily soothing the wanderer’s yearning and granting her a sweet dream.
The next day, as soon as Qiu Wu woke up, she saw her phone screen piled high with messages, all sent by the same person.
Xiang Xiang: You are getting married to the Lu family?!
Xiang Xiang: No way, no way!
Xiang Xiang: Is this true or not? Answer me, you are driving me crazy!
Xiang Xiang: If it is real, do not forget to pull your sister up too. If we get rich, let us not forget each other, big sister!
Xiang Xiang: Why are you not replying?!
Xiang Xiang: Could it be that you are with your person right now?
Xiang Xiang: What does she look like? Is she pretty? Does she look down her nose at people like your older sister does?
Qiu Wu was speechless for a moment, picking the most urgent message to reply to first.
Qiu Wu: I am not married yet.
Qiu Wu: Isn’t it completely normal for a normal person not to reply to messages at one in the morning, little sister?
Qiu Wu: Who told you that?
Xiang Xiang was a young miss of the Xiang family, but she was not favored. At gatherings of wealthy family daughters, the first person looked down upon was Qiu Wu, and the second was her.
Fortunately, both of their mentalities were relatively good. Xiang Xiang was a year younger than Qiu Wu, currently a junior majoring in literature at the Sixth Branch of Luocheng University, and a moderately well-known web novel author.
A few seconds after her message sent, Xiang Xiang’s message bombardment followed closely, and it was unclear whether she had woken up early or hadn’t slept a wink all night.
Xiang Xiang: Ahhhhh, it is true! I thought Aunt Qiu was just bragging. There are probably very few people in the business circle who do not know about this now. My dad went to talk business with Aunt Qiu bright and early this morning.
Qiu Wu: What did she say?
Xiang Xiang: She said you caught Lu Bai’s eye. Even though rumors outside say that sister has no real power, she is still a direct member of the Lu family.
Qiu Wu: That is true.
She remembered a gathering once when a wealthy young miss forced Qiu Ji to drink. Even though Qiu Ji was already so drunk she was about to throw up, she did not dare refuse.
Unable to watch, Qiu Wu stepped forward and wanted to help drink it for her.
The other party sneered and poured that glass of wine directly onto her face.
“What kind of thing are you? You are not worthy of drinking with me either.”
Later, when she was forced to kneel as punishment by the enraged Qiu Ji, she found out that that young miss had married an illegitimate or collateral branch member of the Lu family and was currently the most dazzling person in the entire circle.
Even if Lu Bai was unfavored, just relying on her status as a Lu family member was enough to make small families like the Qiu family reap a fortune.
She really had taken great advantage.
Qiu Wu smiled helplessly and bitterly, while Xiang Xiang continued to question her on the other end.
Xiang Xiang: So what does that sister look like? She is not terrifying, is she?
Qiu Wu recalled the woman’s flawless face and spoke the truth.
Qiu Wu: She is prettier than anyone I have ever seen.
Xiang Xiang: Huh? Could it be that the rumors are true?
Qiu Wu understood the subtext behind Xiang Xiang’s words.
It was nothing more than the head of the Lu family detesting Lu Bai and casually pushing her off to marry into a small family just to spite her.
However, she felt that Lu Bai’s situation in the Lu family wasn’t as bad as the rumors suggested. The woman’s aloof demeanor didn’t look like she had ever suffered any hardships, and people from the other research institutes seemed to hold a great deal of awe toward her.
These matters involved Lu Bai’s privacy, so Qiu Wu couldn’t go into detail.
Qiu Wu: Probably not.
Xiang Xiang: Ahhhh, passing on good luck. I want a pretty sister too.
Qiu Wu: Why pass on luck for this? It is not necessarily a good thing. Your family might not even make you go through an arranged marriage.
Xiang Xiang: Stop trying to comfort me. Recently, my mom has been forcing me to meet several guys. Their greasy and wretched faces make it look like the Xiang family is trying to sell me off.
Qiu Wu: Sigh.
Precisely because she was immersed in it herself, she couldn’t think of any words to comfort Xiang Xiang.
For wealthy families, the children who were out of favor rarely met a good end.
She thought of Lu Bai again.
Marriage was merely a key to unlocking her mother’s inheritance for Lu Bai, but for her, it was a high-stakes gamble.
Out of consideration for her own self-interest, she ought to cling tightly to Lu Bai like a resentful ghost.
Thinking this, she realized Lu Bai had also sent her a message, though it had been pushed down by Xiang Xiang’s messages.
She hurriedly tapped it open, instantly freezing.
7:00, Lu Bai (Girlfriend): Wake up.
7:30, Lu Bai (Girlfriend): Breakfast.
Following that was a photo, showing breakfast identical to yesterday’s dinner.
Qiu Wu couldn’t help laughing.
Why did this feel like an elementary school student turning in homework?
7:35, Qiu Wu: Don’t you even ask if I am awake yet?
Lu Bai: Do I need to ask?
Not strictly necessary, either.
Qiu Wu: If you want to chat with someone, you have to give her an opening to reply, like asking about the other person’s thoughts.
Lu Bai: I understand. Does this need to be added to the rules?
Qiu Wu: No need, just a passing thought. I was joking yesterday anyway. If everything gets written in, how long would those rules be?
Lu Bai: Mm.
When Qiu Wu got up, Wei Jia had already gone out, and Lin Ya, who had returned late, was still sleeping soundly. She washed up quietly and went to the cafeteria to buy two portions of jianbing guozi.
Qiu Wu: Breakfast, jianbing guozi, ever eaten it?
Lu Bai did not reply to her, perhaps having already started working.
It wasn’t until Qiu Wu’s lunchtime that she received a message from Lu Bai.
Unsurprisingly.
Lu Bai: Never eaten it.
Lu Bai: Lunch. What is your lunch?
Lu Bai’s lunch consisted of rice and various dishes neatly arranged in compartmentalized meal trays. Just looking at the exterior, one could tell it lacked oil, lacked salt, and didn’t taste good.
Qiu Wu recalled that Lin Ya had eaten fat-reduction meals for a period of time, which looked pretty much like this. In the end, a starving Lin Ya wildly devoured two giant bowls of Luosifen, ending in a dismal outcome.
Qiu Wu: Beef noodles. Do you just eat these every day?
The beef noodles brimming with red chili oil contrasted sharply with the bland rice above. For a fraction of a second, Qiu Wu developed the illusion that she was living better than Lu Bai.
Lu Bai: Yes.
“Did you actually start dating?” Across the table, Lin Ya noticed her complicated expression and gossiped, “Come, come, come, tell me, what sacred figure captured our department flower?”
Qiu Wu smiled, putting away her phone and starting to eat her noodles. “Guess?”
Three seconds later, Lin Ya’s voice resounded across a five-meter radius. “Really!?”
During the subsequent days, the two of them continued to share their daily lives with one another. The difference was that Qiu Wu’s sharing was more casual; if she saw a pretty blade of grass by the road, she would take a picture and send it to Lu Bai, whereupon she would learn the plant’s name and habits from Lu Bai, making her more useful than a search engine.
As for Lu Bai, she reported her schedule strictly on time. Initially, it was just her three meals, but later, upon Qiu Wu’s reminder, items like work and exercise were added.
Though she would occasionally ask Qiu Wu a question or two, most of the time she acted like a ruthless clocking-in machine.
Qiu Wu was shocked multiple times because she hadn’t expected that someone in this world could genuinely live strictly according to an itinerary, waking up unfailingly at seven every day, sleeping at ten-thirty, working for eight hours, with even the tasks in between completely fixed.
For instance, her three meals had never changed.
Could anyone truly endure that kind of completely tasteless stuff for long?
She even felt a little sympathetic toward Lu Bai.
Until Saturday afternoon, Lu Bai’s itinerary, which hadn’t changed for five days, finally underwent a slight alteration.
16:00, Lu Bai (Girlfriend): Going home.
Qiu Wu: Do you go home every week at this time?
She felt a slight sense of comfort, not expecting Lu Bai to value her family quite so much.
Lu Bai: No, my aunt wants me to go back.
Lu Bai’s aunt was Lu Wen, the chairperson of Future Technology and the actual controller of Luocheng, currently the most powerful person in the world.
Qiu Wu: What does she want with you?
As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt it was a bit dangerous and quickly added, if it involves city-state secrets, you do not have to answer.
Lu Bai: It does not involve secrets. She wants me to return to discuss our marriage issue.
Qiu Wu’s heart sank, inexplicably feeling the unease of an ugly bride being disliked by her mother-in-law.
Qiu Wu: Does she disagree with our matter?
Lu Bai: Yes.
In an instant, several wealthy family plot points flashed through Qiu Wu’s mind: Lu Wen’s face, which looked exceedingly high-ranking and authoritative, glaring down at her, how much money do you want to leave my niece?
Yet she genuinely couldn’t imagine herself and Lu Bai hugging each other and saying that their love was true.
Even a comical picture couldn’t mask the tragic trajectory of the plot.
Qiu Wu knitted her brows, tapping and deleting, before finally sending it out.
Qiu Wu: Then, should we break up?
Judging from these past few days of communication, Lu Bai was only the head of one of Future Technology’s seven research institutes, spending every day cooped up doing her own research without any actual operational power in the company. Obviously, she couldn’t contend with Lu Wen.
Although she probably wouldn’t meet a good end after breaking up with Lu Bai, Qiu Wu didn’t want to drag someone else down with her.
And she certainly didn’t want to wait for Lu Bai to buckle under the pressure and initiate a breakup herself, crushing that tiny shred of dignity she had left.
Lu Bai replied very quickly.
Why? Are you dissatisfied with me in any way?
Qiu Wu: Doesn’t your aunt disagree? Isn’t it a big deal if she gets angry?
On one hand, she worried that Lu Bai was still acting as aloof and unbothered as usual at a time like this; on the other hand, she felt a shameful sense of joy.
Even in the face of Lu Wen’s opposition, Lu Bai had never thought of giving her up.
While this was mostly driven by the woman’s personality, to Qiu Wu, being treated fairly by someone was a very precious experience.
At that moment, Lu Bai was preparing to get out of her car. The old Lu residence was in District One of Luocheng, and entering required passing through layers of security checks, which took quite a bit of time. She rarely came back here normally.
She glanced at Qiu Wu’s reply, tilted her head slightly, raised the outer corners of her brows, and wore a look of slight perplexity on her face, but she replied to the other person first nonetheless.
Lu Bai: Her getting angry is her business; our dating is our business. Personally, I believe our matters do not require other people to decide. Do you wish to break up with me over this matter?
She couldn’t quite understand, but if Qiu Wu insisted, she would respect the other person’s decision.
A few minutes later, Qiu Wu replied to her.
Qiu Wu: No, I do not want to break up, I am just a bit worried. I am sorry, do not be angry.
Worried about what? Why would she be angry?
Lu Bai temporarily set aside her puzzlement: There is no need to worry. I am not angry; this is your freedom.
Considering security and confidentiality, all household chores in the Lu family were currently handled by mechas. The sprawling villa lacked any human warmth. When Lu Bai stepped into the living room, her aunt Lu Wen was sitting expressionlessly on the sofa reviewing documents. Her cousin Lu Jing, who usually clung to her, was currently huddled obediently in the corner of the sofa, while Lu Cheng, the president of Future Technology, stood rigidly straight in front of Lu Wen.
Seeing Lu Bai walk in, the expressions on the three faces varied. Lu Wen raised her eyes calmly to look at her.
Lu Jing shrank further into the sofa, keeping her head down and not daring to look.
Lu Cheng turned her face away, blocking an angle where Lu Wen couldn’t see, and gestured with a twitch of her lips and a blink, seemingly implying something.
Lu Bai looked at her. “What happened to your face?”
“Smack!” Lu Cheng slammed a vicious palm across her own face.
She really was pathetic, casting flirtatious winks at a blind person.
That sound seemed to serve as a signal. Lu Wen casually tossed the documents onto the table, leaning back into the sofa as she raised a hand to massage the bridge of her nose. “I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation.”