“Ah… oh, all right, all right!”
After hearing why Ji Yanli had come, Xia Feifei gave an awkward smile and hurriedly agreed. They exchanged contact information, then politely said goodbye and went their separate ways.
They were so distant and formal with each other that they might as well have been strangers on the street.
Xia Feifei turned the corner and got into a Mercedes worth over a million. Right behind her, her newly married contract husband also climbed into a Maybach worth tens of millions, ushered in by his driver.
Once inside, Ji Yanli opened his laptop and went back to work. Just then, his phone rang.
He lit up the screen. Seeing the familiar name, he answered in a good mood, only for an urgent voice to come through at once.
“Hello? Young Master Ji, my dear big brother, where are you?”
“Didn’t we agree that my Xue’er would meet you at the café at one this afternoon?”
“Big brother, do you have any idea what time it is now?”
“You left my star girl waiting there for over two hours. Is work really that important? Do you even still want that contract wife of yours?”
“I have a wife.”
Ji Yanli had barely finished making that casual statement when a loud crash came through the phone, cutting him off.
He couldn’t tell whether something had fallen over or what had happened. Still, Chen Yanci was a good friend, so he asked with concern, “What’s wrong? Chen Yanci, are you okay?”
“Ah… I’m fine. I’m fine.”
Ignoring the pain from the boiling water that had scalded the back of his hand, Chen Yanci pressed him urgently, “Y-you said what, Young Master Ji? What wife? Where did you get a wife? You stood my Xue’er up—so where did you find a wife?”
“She came to me.”
This time, before Chen Yanci could ask another question, Ji Yanli gave him a rough account of what had happened.
It wasn’t that he was sharing his happiness with his friend, or even explaining himself. It was simply that Chen Yanci was the big boss of Worry Relief Hall.
Yes, that Worry Relief Hall—the one Xia Feifei had gone to in search of a rented husband.
“Wait, so, Young Master Ji, you’re saying you not only stood my Xue’er up, you also poached my client?”
“And you pretended to be my employee and got a marriage license with her?”
“Ji Yanli, you’re the only son of the Ji Group, which ranks among the top ten on Hua Nation’s rich list, and you’re worth hundreds of billions. You really have the nerve to steal my business?”
“This is unbelievable, unbelievable…”
Having summed it up perfectly, Chen Yanci immediately lost his composure. As he spoke, he pressed the call button beside him. “Secretary Wang, get Human Resources to send me the file for a woman named Xia Feifei right away…”
“One million!”
At the number he heard over the phone, Chen Yanci’s expression changed at once. “All right, never mind.”
Releasing the button, he immediately turned ingratiatingly to Ji Yanli. “Oh, Young Master Ji, we’re brothers. Why speak so formally? It’s only one client. If you need anything, just say the word and I’ll do whatever I can.”
“Stop sweet-talking me. Back to business, brother: I want you to keep my identity secret.”
The rare seriousness in Ji Yanli’s voice made the usually joking Chen Yanci solemn as well. He promised at once that Ji Yanli could rest easy—he would never let it slip.
Meanwhile, Ji Yanli, having put his concerns to rest, had no idea that his new wife in name only was currently kneeling in the grand hall of a luxurious villa because of him.
Smack! The red marriage certificate struck Xia Feifei squarely on the head, then fell to the floor.
“Outrageous! Xia Feifei, do you have any idea what you’re doing?”
“You knew full well that Dad had already arranged a time with Old Madam of the Ji family, and now you pull this? Are you trying to drive your own father to his death and ruin Xia Corporation?”
The more Father Xia, Xia Junkai, spoke, the more agitated he became. His large hands waved and trembled uncontrollably in the air.
“Get divorced, Xia Feifei! Go and get divorced right now, or you’re no daughter of mine!”
“Have you ever really treated me like your daughter?”
Xia Feifei, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly raised her head and looked at Father Xia. “As my biological father, tell me, Mr. Xia Junkai: after I was born, did you or Mom ever take care of me?”
“When I was fed cold leftovers, bullied by my classmates, and nearly died because a nanny gave me too many sleeping pills so she could go to bed early, what were you doing?”
“For more than ten years, my maternal uncle cared about me and took me away. In all those years, did either of you ever come to Rong Nation to see me even once?”
A tear slipped uncontrollably from the corner of Xia Feifei’s eye. She wiped it away with a quick gesture and continued.
“What a fine ‘heiress of the Xia family’ I am. I used to think you loved me, and that you’d brought me back from my uncle’s place to make up for all the years you’d neglected me.”
“But…”
A self-mocking smile lifted the corners of her mouth. The last vestige of Xia Feifei’s hope for her father’s love vanished completely.
She picked up the marriage certificate from the floor and rose to her feet, holding it up as she spoke to Father Xia with absolute certainty.
“Whether you approve or not, Mr. Xia Junkai, I’m telling you right now: I will never get divorced.”
“You ungrateful brat!”
Smack! With that furious shout, Xia Junkai slapped Xia Feifei across the face.
“N-no, Feifei, listen to me. Let me expl—”
When Xia Feifei saw Xia Junkai move toward her, she covered her cheek and hurriedly backed away, putting more distance between them.
Xia Junkai paused briefly, about to speak again, but Xia Feifei cut him off in a firm voice.
“I won’t get divorced. Even if you disown me, I won’t become your pawn, marry for the sake of an alliance, and serve as a stepping-stone for your career.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Xia Feifei turned and walked away. Xia Junkai shouted after her louder and louder, even threatening that if she walked out that door, he would never acknowledge her again. She didn’t stop.
Xia Feifei hurried to the garage and got into a luxury car, ready to leave the suffocating home. Then Mother Xia, Chen Zixin, who had stayed silent and hidden in her room, appeared in front of the car.
“Feifei, what kind of nonsense are you pulling? Look how angry you’ve made your father! Get out of the car and apologize to him.”
Apologize?
Her mother’s words made Xia Feifei’s anger flare higher and higher.
After all, compared with the selfish Father Xia, her mother, blinded by love, frustrated Xia Feifei even more.
For the sake of that so-called love, Mother Xia had given away people, possessions, even family property, helping Father Xia build a successful career despite his modest background.
Even after he succeeded, he despised and berated her, cheated on her, and even beat her.
And still, she kept begging him over and over not to leave, as though she were grateful for it.
Chen Zixin did have some motherly affection for Xia Feifei, but compared with Father Xia, it was negligible.
“Mom, move!”
Xia Feifei didn’t want to waste any more words on Mother Xia. She rolled down the window to make her position clear, but Chen Zixin came closer and quickly grabbed her arm, scolding her indignantly.
“What’s wrong with you, child? You’ve been back for a while now. Your father and I give you good food and nice things, and this is how you repay us?”
“Feifei, you’re twenty-three. You’re not a child anymore. When you came back, didn’t we agree that we’d find you a good family? What do you mean by suddenly getting a marriage license with some nobody from who-knows-where?”