If Yan Dai had to pick the absolute “loudest” person on her WeChat contact list lately, it would undoubtedly be the one named “Chu Yuan.”
She didn’t actually know much about Chu Yuan, only a few of the most basic details:
She was 21 years old this year, much younger than Yan Dai herself, a fresh college graduate, the heiress to the Chu Group, and Yan Dai’s future marriage partner.
Beyond that, there wasn’t much else she knew.
Oh, wait. To be more precise, in the brief few days since they had added each other on WeChat, Yan Dai had become a little more familiar with her, allowing her to add a few more bullet points to that list.
For instance, her nickname seemed to be “Xiao Yuan” (Little Round). Chu Yuan had mentioned this herself; she occasionally enjoyed referring to herself that way.
Chu Yuan liked to draw, was a total foodie, had a lot of friends, and possessed an incredibly strong desire to share things, evident from the daily life snippets she posted on her Moments.
Yan Dai didn’t usually have a habit of looking through other people’s Moments. Her own Moments page was so neglected it was practically growing mold and mushrooms, and she rarely bothered to clean it up, meaning she had even less energy to pay attention to anyone else’s feed.
But Chu Yuan updated her Moments with such high frequency that Yan Dai inevitably scrolled past them a few times.
Sometimes, Chu Yuan would share her recent sketches, adding a few complaints in the caption. More often than not, she would post photos of late-night delicacies or group pictures of her drinking and hanging out with friends.
An even more obvious trait was that Chu Yuan was a high-energy chatterbox. Compared to Yan Dai, they were practically at two completely opposite extremes.
Yan Dai didn’t like to talk much. Most of the time, she preferred solitude, drinking coffee by herself or handling emails during overtime. She really didn’t like her personal space being disrupted.
So, they had many differences.
Initially, when she received Chu Yuan’s friend request, Yan Dai hadn’t felt much of anything.
After all, it was a political marriage, a union existing for the sake of an alliance between two powerful families. They had only met briefly at a family dinner before the marriage was finalized.
There were no feelings between the two of them. Rather than calling the other person her wife, the words “business partner” were a much more accurate description of their relationship.
She didn’t like Chu Yuan, and Chu Yuan didn’t like her.
After marriage, they would treat each other with mutual respect. Their relationship could be that of friends or colleagues, but they wouldn’t become lovers.
If Chu Yuan met someone she liked outside the marriage in the future, Yan Dai would be perfectly willing to turn a blind eye.
This was the marriage life Yan Dai had envisioned for them.
But gradually, Yan Dai began to realize that things were starting to feel a bit strange.
Her arranged marriage partner seemed exceptionally enthusiastic toward her.
There were fixed “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” and “Good night” messages every single day.
Every day also included a fixed trio of questions. Have you eaten? Are you asleep yet? Are you busy with work right now?
Her ways of addressing Yan Dai were even remarkably intimate. She called her “Sister” with every breath, and sometimes even “Sister Yan.”
She would very proactively report her daily routine. Yan Dai had almost completely figured out Chu Yuan’s dietary preferences by now, not only that, she also knew Chu Yuan dreamed of raising a pet puppy, but simply hadn’t had the chance before because she was still in school.
In short, Chu Yuan had used a highly proactive approach to swiftly squeeze into her life. Even before Yan Dai could fully react, her life had already become completely filled with the name “Chu Yuan.”
After just a few days of chatting, Yan Dai actually developed an illusion that she was truly dating Chu Yuan.
But how could they be dating? Given their current relationship, they really couldn’t be called lovers.
Therefore, this was exactly what puzzled Yan Dai.
What did Chu Yuan mean by this?
Because they were about to get married, she wanted to establish a good relationship in advance?
After all, while this marriage might not last a lifetime, it was bound to continue for quite a while. As long as the mutual benefits remained, there was no reason for them to end the marriage early.
Thus, even if their relationship didn’t need to be passionately close, it at least couldn’t be too hostile.
As long as they didn’t make a massive, ugly scene like her own two mothers used to do, they could live together in harmony.
There was absolutely no need to be as enthusiastic as Chu Yuan was being.
But if she ruled out that possibility, the only remaining explanation was…
Chu Yuan liked her.
When this thought began to surface in her mind, Yan Dai couldn’t help but let out a self-deprecating smile, finding it utterly absurd.
How could that be possible?
They had only met once so far, and the number of words they had spoken face to face probably didn’t even exceed twenty.
How could Chu Yuan possibly fall for her?
It was simply too unrealistic.
Since she couldn’t guess Chu Yuan’s true motive, Yan Dai stopped dwelling on the matter.
After all, she was genuinely incredibly busy during her business trip to Yunnan. Reviewing work materials every day was exhausting enough, and she truly had no spare time or energy to reply to messages from someone she wasn’t familiar with at all.
Yes, completely unfamiliar.
If she had to make a comparison, she was actually much more familiar with her clients.
So initially, she would only reply to Chu Yuan’s messages in passing while handling her work emails after finishing her daily tasks.
This was solely out of consideration for the fact that Chu Yuan was her fiancée. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, Yan Dai would have treated these kinds of texts as spam and ignored them entirely.
After burying her head in work for several days and finally wrapping up all the business in Yunnan, Yan Dai prepared to return to Beijing.
It was only after Yan Dai briefly replied with her approximate return time to Beijing that she finally found the time to thoroughly look through Chu Yuan’s Moments feed.
In the past, she had only looked at whatever popped up when her feed refreshed. But actually clicking into Chu Yuan’s personal profile to view her Moments, this was the first time.
How could one describe Chu Yuan’s Moments?
If she had to summarize it with a specific phrase, it would probably be “vibrant with life.”
Among the people on Yan Dai’s WeChat contact list, very few still posted this kind of content. Through the screen, she could almost touch the interesting soul belonging to Chu Yuan on the other side.
Unwittingly, Yan Dai finished reading several of Chu Yuan’s posts.
She continued scrolling down.
She spotted a post from about a week ago.
Chu Yuan: My future looks completely famished. Where can I even buy food at this hour? Who can understand the craving for wild mushroom hot pot right now?
Attached Image: A cartoon picture of a penguin wearing a chef’s hat and sunglasses, holding an iron spatula.
In truth, looking closely, there wasn’t anything particularly special about this post. Yet, for some reason, it managed to tickle her funny bone. She couldn’t help but curl her lips and let out a very soft chuckle.
Yan Dai thought to herself that her memory had always been excellent. If she remembered correctly, the day Chu Yuan published this post should have been the exact same day Chu Yuan asked her about Yunnan’s local delicacies.
She still remembered that Chu Yuan had specifically mentioned this Yunnan delicacy at the time, wild mushroom hot pot.
Beside her, Yang Wen, who was just about to deliver a report, suddenly heard a soft laugh.
Yang Wen: “?”
What was going on with President Yan?
The Yan Corporation had recently wanted to launch a project in Yunnan, but things hadn’t gone very smoothly, leaving them dizzyingly busy over the past few days.
The entire project team had been tightly wound from top to bottom. As the leader, Yan Dai hadn’t had an easy time during this period either.
At their busiest, she had even stayed up all night for two consecutive nights.
During this time, the expression on Yan Dai’s face had always been faint or carrying a hint of worry.
Today was the first time Yang Wen had seen Yan Dai smile.
Though the smile was subtle, she genuinely looked somewhat happy.
Yang Wen guessed. Could it be because the cooperative project in Yunnan had finally been successfully negotiated after so much effort, allowing them to thoroughly relax, which was why Yan Dai was so pleased?
But that didn’t seem right either.
The cooperation agreement had already been signed several hours ago.
If it really was because of work, why didn’t she look happy a few hours ago when signing the contract, but instead waited until now?
It could only be due to some other reason.
However, even though Yang Wen was shocked and bewildered by this, there was absolutely no way she would ask directly.
Daring to openly speculate about the boss’s thoughts, did she not want her job anymore?
Still, she was incredibly curious.
Yang Wen cleared her throat lightly to remind her. “President Yan.”
Yan Dai put away her smile. “What is it?”
Yang Wen quickly said. “The online video conference for the project report is about to begin.”
Yan Dai’s tone returned to its usual flat cadence as she put down her phone. “Alright.”
After speaking, Yang Wen also reminded her that there was another meeting scheduled for tomorrow after they returned to Beijing, and then she promptly excused herself.
The online project report lasted for a full hour and a half.
It was only after the meeting ended and she returned that Yan Dai saw Chu Yuan’s message offering to pick her up from the airport.
Naturally, Yan Dai replied that it wasn’t very convenient.
After all, there was a meeting tomorrow.
As for what Chu Yuan replied…
Chu Yuan directly sent her a selfie and asked, “Don’t you want to see me?”
Yan Dai tapped open the photograph.
That illusion that she was currently dating someone quietly drifted back into her heart once again.
Were they already in such an intimate relationship now?
Yan Dai thought about it. She didn’t repeat her rejection a second time. Instead, she typed back two words. “Up to you.”
Right after that, she directly sent over her flight details.
Every previous reply had been out of politeness.
After all, though they couldn’t be considered familiar right now, they would eventually get married in the future.
And this time was also out of politeness.
Since the other party wanted to do it, then she would let her do it.
In any case, having someone pick her up from the airport wasn’t something that needed to be avoided.
Even if she didn’t marry into the Chu family, it would have been someone else.
If Chu Yuan was willing to proactively build a good relationship with her, there was no harm in it.
Meanwhile, Yang Wen, who had just received an email instructing her to postpone tomorrow’s meeting, was left bewildered.
Wasn’t this matter already set in stone?
Maybe the schedule was just too packed, and President Yan needs some rest, Yang Wen rationalized to herself.
Meanwhile, back in Beijing, Chu Yuan became completely overjoyed upon receiving this message.
Even though it was just a simple “Up to you,” it meant that Yan Dai had agreed to let her pick her up from the airport.
Tomorrow, she could finally meet Sister Yan.
Chu Yuan, who had already returned home cradling the flowers, stuffed them into her mothers’ arms and gave each of them a big bear hug.
“Thank you, Mama. Thank you, Mommy.”
“Thank you to the country, thank you to the Party.”
Chu Mingshuang couldn’t help but chuckle and scold playfully, “Why did you suddenly go crazy right after coming back from a trip outside?”
Liang Mi, on the other hand, was full of indulgence, seemingly having already guessed something.
Chu Yuan’s beautiful eyes curved into crescent moons: “I get to meet Sister Yan tomorrow!”