“Marry me.”
The delicate fragrance of tea filled the air. The private teahouse was decorated in an elegant modern Chinese style that exuded a sense of luxury, while a traditional wooden guqin nearby added a touch of refined tranquility. Outside the window, lush greenery stretched as far as the eye could see, creating a peaceful and secluded atmosphere.
Jiang Die had not yet recovered from the soothing surroundings when the man sitting across from her spoke again, repeating the same words he had said over the phone.
Hearing such an inexplicable sentence over the phone had frightened her so much that she had stopped drinking her water, abandoned the things she had been packing, and hurried over to meet him. Now, seeing the man repeat those words without the slightest hint of joking, Jiang Die realized that he was actually serious.
She found the whole thing absurd and could not help asking, “Wait, Mr. Lu, did pretending yesterday actually get you into character?”
“Do you like me?”
Lu Liyan held his teacup and had just taken a shallow sip when he raised his eyes and gave her a cool, indifferent look.
All right, there was not the slightest trace of affection in his eyes, which meant he must want something else from her.
Although…
Jiang Die remembered that the novel had mentioned that Shengyi Company was the most famous clothing company in S City. She had even looked into it carefully last night and discovered that it was backed by the Lu Group.
There was no need to explain the weight of the Lu Group in S City. It was a genuinely powerful corporation, and the Lu family was one of the top wealthy families. Later in the novel, Jiang Weiling had managed to secure a partnership with a small company under the Lu Group through her own methods, earning Feng Youmei’s favor.
After all, the Lu family and the Jiang family were worlds apart, so the man in front of her, who could casually give her shares in Shengyi Company, was definitely no ordinary person. Jiang Die genuinely could not figure out what he could possibly want from her.
“Let’s put everything else aside for now. Do you even know me? Right now, all you know is my name. You don’t know anything about my family, and besides…”
Jiang Die paused before getting to the main point.
“I don’t even know your name. Don’t you think this is absurd?”
After she finished speaking, Lu Liyan did not rush to explain everything. Instead, he picked up his phone and made a call.
“Xiang Yan, come in.”
The next second, the private room door opened from outside, and Jiang Die watched as a man walked in carrying a document folder.
“President Lu.”
“Miss Jiang.”
Xiang Yan took out a booklet from the document folder and placed it in front of the girl.
Before Jiang Die could look at it, she heard Lu Liyan calmly say, “I already learned everything about you on my way here. Now you can take some time to learn about me.”
Jiang Die: “…”
Excuse me?
There was no such thing as taking things step by step. Did having power make him so unreasonable?
Jiang Die indignantly opened the booklet, only to choke when she saw the name on the photocopy of the identification card on the first page.
She thought she had misread it. After closing her eyes and opening them again, the three large characters “Lu Liyan” were still clearly printed on the paper.
“You… you, you’re Lu Liyan?”
Jiang Die felt as though she had been struck by lightning, and she even began to stammer.
Because Lu Liyan had spent a long time abroad, very few people had actually seen him. Yesterday, when Jiang Die searched for the Lu Group, news about the Lu family kept appearing. Among them, the headline “The Lu Family’s Bloodbath: Lu Liyan Returns to China Only to Fight His Father for Power” has been one of the hottest topics recently.
Most people believed that Lu Liyan was rebellious and unfilial, with ruthless and brutal methods that had made everyone tremble at the mere mention of his name.
Jiang Die was not particularly frightened by his reputation, but behind him stood the Lu family. She took back her earlier thought that having power was not a big deal.
This man really did have power.
Lu Liyan simply continued brewing his tea at an unhurried pace and replied, “Do you want to see my ID?”
“No, no need.” Jiang Die wiped at her forehead, even though there was not actually any sweat there.
From the moment she had met this man, every gesture and movement he made had carried an air of wealth and status, but no matter how much she had tried to connect the dots, she had never imagined that he would be Lu Liyan.
For someone of his stature to come to the Jiang family was practically like an immortal descending to the mortal world to experience ordinary life.
But the Jiang family normally had no opportunity to come into contact with someone like him. Otherwise, Feng Youmei would not have needed to arrange marriage prospects for her. Just securing a single project with the Lu Group would have been enough to save them years of struggle.
Still, it was better not to pry into the affairs of powerful people.
Jiang Die simply assumed that he had come to experience ordinary life and did her best to remain calm as she finished reading the booklet. It contained everything from the companies under the Lu Group to the men and women of the Lu family, young and old, along with their various relationships to Lu Liyan.
At that moment, the man’s voice sounded beside her, cold as ice.
“The Lu family is far from peaceful. I only recently returned to China, and there are too many people watching for me to make a mistake, while others want to plant spies by my side. If I want to establish myself firmly within the Lu family as quickly as possible, I need a marriage, and you are the most suitable candidate.”
“So you want me to be your shield in the Lu family?”
Jiang Die finally understood.
Ever since Lu Liyan returned to China, quite a few people in the Lu family had been sending women to his side, each hoping to claim a share of the benefits. She was someone who stood completely outside their interests and had nothing to do with any of them. Her actions yesterday had also given him a sudden idea.
After all, in front of so many witnesses, they had genuinely become engaged.
“Is this why you helped me yesterday?”
Xiang Yan silently listened from the side. Although his body was still there, his soul had already wandered away a long time ago.
There was simply too much information to digest.
Last night, his boss had instructed him to keep the matter hidden from the old master, but who could have expected that the old master would already know every detail of what his boss had done at the engagement banquet?
Ever since the old master learned that Jiang Die was getting engaged, he had constantly expressed his regret to Xiang Yan. So after finding out what had happened at the engagement banquet, he was practically hoping that his boss would genuinely get together with Jiang Die and turn the fake relationship into a real one.
Thus, his boss had decided to go along with the situation. Jiang Die happened to be someone the old master approved of, and before Lu Liyan took the position of head of the Lu family, marrying her would also give those flies in the Lu family something to keep them quiet.
“We simply need something from each other.”
Lu Liyan did not deny it. His tone was cold and matter-of-fact as he stated the truth.
“As far as I know, Feng Youmei has already found a marriage prospect for you.”
“I only need one year. After one year, I will give you fifty million. You can choose to stay in the Lu family, but there will be no real feelings between us. You can also leave and find someone you genuinely like. I will arrange for him to become a general manager at one of the Lu Group’s subsidiaries. That will also give you something to show the Jiang family.”
After all, marriage was something that made little difference to him.
Jiang Die opened her mouth but did not speak. Inside, however, she could not stop marveling.
Fifty million?
Jiang Die’s attention was completely focused on the money.
She had lived this long and had never seen so much money before.
It was not that the other conditions were unappealing. No matter how she looked at it, this was a deal where she could only profit and never lose.
Who could possibly refuse?
She cleared her throat, silently reminding herself that she needed to have some dignity, while preparing to say that she would consider it.
At that moment, Xiang Yan raised his hand to check the time and broke the silence.
“President Lu, we have another meeting at noon. We should leave.”
Lu Liyan calmly straightened his cuff and stood up, his expression as tranquil as still water.
“Jiang Die, you can think about it, but you’d better not forget what you said about owing me a favor.”
Jiang Die: “?”
What was with that faintly threatening tone?
She suddenly regretted secretly slipping her business card into his pocket that day.
But then again, with his influence, even without that business card, he would have been able to find her.