The century wedding of the Shao and Lu families was drawing to a close.
Romantic classical music intertwined with dazzling lights, weaving an extravagant glow throughout the banquet hall, which still shimmered brilliantly beneath the shifting lights.
Up a vintage staircase blanketed in roses, the bride of the evening was hiding away in the dressing room, taking a much-needed rest.
Lu Meng rested her head against her mother’s leg, eyes closed as she muttered with a hint of childish exhaustion, “Getting married is so tiring.”
“Remember to take a nice bath tonight.”
Lu Ling had originally planned to come upstairs, say a few words to her daughter, and leave. But seeing how exhausted Lu Meng was, her heart ached. She couldn’t bring herself to go.
Mother and daughter rested together for a while before Lu Meng received an urgent phone call.
She didn’t know what the person on the other end said, but she straightened at once and answered wearily, “I’ll go over now.”
Lu Ling guessed it was something at the university. Her brows drew together. “On such an important day, why are they still calling you?”
Lu Meng had always had a gentle temper. “The students don’t know I’m getting married today. It’s fine, Mom. Don’t worry.”
“Do you really have to go?”
More than anything, Lu Ling hated seeing her daughter run herself ragged. After taking the call, Lu Meng’s expression had turned grim, and she hadn’t even changed out of her banquet dress. She hurriedly threw on a coat.
“There’s been a fire. One of the students is missing.”
That was serious.
No matter that her daughter was married now, in Lu Ling’s eyes, Lu Meng was still her child. She didn’t try to stop her again. “I’ll take you there.”
“No need.” Lu Meng smiled as she refused. “Dad will start looking for you if he can’t find you. There’s a driver taking me. Please don’t worry.”
Lu Ling said nothing more. She simply straightened her daughter’s collar for her, helplessly sighing, “Go on, our great Teacher Lu—”
“Oh, and remember to tell Bofan.”
“Okay.”
Lu Bofan was actually quite busy himself. When Lu Meng left, she saw him surrounded by people, the center of attention, and didn’t go over to disturb him.
When she’d first received the call, she’d honestly thought it was some kind of prank.
A boy had confessed to a girl beneath the women’s dormitory, lighting a whole circle of heart-shaped candles. At the time, everyone had been too busy watching the spectacle.
No one had expected that after being rejected, he’d held a grudge, climbed up to the second floor of the women’s dormitory, and started a fire, intending to take everyone down with him.
Once she arrived at the scene, Lu Meng realized it was even more serious than the phone call had made it sound.
A fire truck was parked outside the dormitory. Girls still in their pajamas huddled together in groups of three or five, while the dorm supervisor stood there loudly berating the boy who had started the fire. Several of the middle floors were visibly coated in soot.
After making her way through the noisy crowd, Lu Meng finally found the students in her class.
She taught at one of the country’s top universities. Lu Meng had once naively assumed that university students, especially those who had earned their places through excellent grades, shouldn’t be particularly difficult to manage.
The teacher who shared her office had merely rolled her eyes and spent every day complaining to Lu Meng about the baffling things some of the students did.
Until tonight, Lu Meng had only listened to those stories as gossip.
Now, she understood them firsthand.
The fire had mainly affected the middle floors. Fortunately, the students had evacuated quickly, and no one was injured.
Several students who couldn’t be found had simply gone to a hotel to rest. Once Lu Meng had confirmed that everyone was safe, the knot in her chest finally loosened.
By midnight, most of the people outside the dormitory had dispersed.
Her driver couldn’t bring the car inside and was waiting outside the campus. Lu Meng’s calves were aching so badly that she could barely stand.
She found a bench and sat down. Taking her phone from her pocket, she was about to message the driver when her gaze stopped on a profile picture she wasn’t all that familiar with.
Before leaving, she’d sent Lu Bofan a message:
Something happened at the university. I have to go deal with it.
Only a minute later, a gray timestamp appeared beneath his reply.
Got it.
She’d been too busy to notice the message at the time. Perhaps out of a husband’s sense of responsibility, about half an hour later, he’d sent another:
Is it serious? Do you need my help?
Lu Meng quickly typed back, answering him with the same polite formality:
It’s been taken care of.
Perhaps feeling that sounded too distant, she added two more words:
Thank you.
After sending it, however, she made no move to get up.
She simply sat there, lost in thought.
She and Lu Bofan had known each other for only seven months.
When Lu Ling had sent her his information, Lu Meng had never considered refusing. Instead, she’d carefully read every bit of it.
By any measure, Lu Bofan was so flawless that it was difficult to find fault with him.
She’d been perfectly willing to get to know him. She hadn’t expected his phone call the very next day.
His voice was as calm as still water, yet unexpectedly pleasant to listen to. With impeccable courtesy, he asked which day would be convenient for them to meet.
Lu Meng gave him a time, and before long, they met in person.
The fact that his information had made it into her hands in the first place meant that Shao Tingyuan and Lu Ling had already chosen him from countless candidates.
Of everyone they’d considered, Lu Bofan was the one they felt was worthy of their daughter.
And, honestly, he fit Lu Meng’s ideal standards for a partner remarkably well—especially the fact that he was busy with work.
Both sides felt good about the match, and everything that followed progressed smoothly.
They didn’t meet many times. About a month later, Lu Bofan called again and calmly asked what kind of wedding she wanted.
Lu Meng came from a comfortable family and had grown up cherished.
She hadn’t developed a spoiled or unreasonable temperament, but neither was she the sort to shortchange herself.
After thinking for a moment, she answered him politely, “Would you like me to organize everything and send it to you?”
The man’s voice remained even. “Sure.”
So Lu Meng spent an entire evening reading wedding guides and eventually put together six pages in a Word document.
And that was the edited-down version.
She emailed the file to him. It wasn’t long before she received his reply:
The two of them conducted themselves with such businesslike efficiency that they seemed less like a couple preparing for marriage and more like two people negotiating a project.
Lu Meng didn’t mind his coolness.
Aside from their wedding photoshoot, she and Lu Bofan didn’t see each other again.
And she had to admit—Lu Bofan had carried out every single detail in that Word document to the letter.
After the vows, when the man tipped up her chin and kissed her, he asked whether she was satisfied with the wedding.
The kiss was light as a butterfly’s touch, impeccably gentlemanly. Their breaths mingled with deliberate restraint, yet somehow it felt as though he’d gently hooked something inside her.
Suppressing the faint ripple that had stirred in her heart, she met his dark eyes and answered softly,
“Very satisfied.”
Sitting on the bench now, Lu Meng belatedly remembered that he seemed to have smiled at the time.
At least for now, Lu Bofan had done everything perfectly.
If not for the unexpected incident at the university, this should have been their wedding night.
A flicker of guilt rose in Lu Meng’s heart as she wondered whether she ought to apologize.
In the stillness of the cold, silent night, slow, steady footsteps sounded unusually clear.
Black leather shoes gleamed beneath the streetlights. Their subdued dark-red soles pressed lightly over her shadow.
Lu Meng raised her eyes.
When she saw the man standing before her, she was so caught off guard that, for once, her mind went blank.
“You… why are you here?”
Lu Bofan’s gaze drifted lazily downward.
Beneath her black coat, the uncovered hem of her red dress fluttered gently in the breeze. She was still wearing a pair of delicate stilettos. The tops of her feet were pale, but a faint dark-red mark was hidden around one heel.
The beautiful mermaid had been hurt, yet she hadn’t even taken off her heels.
“To take you home.”
His answer was neither warm nor cold.
Although the two of them had no real feelings for each other yet, Lu Meng knew that abandoning her husband on their wedding night was hardly proper. Apology immediately appeared on her face.
“I’m sorry. Something urgent came up just now—”
“You!”
Her red lips parted. The last syllable rose in a trembling note, and the rest of her words caught in her throat.
Lu Bofan paid no attention to her stunned expression.
He dropped to one knee.
When he noticed her instinctive retreat, his cool hand closed around her slender ankle. He didn’t even lift his eyes as he said calmly,
“Don’t move.”
“…..”
Once her heels had been removed, Lu Meng’s bare feet suddenly seemed to have nowhere to go, and she didn’t know what to do with them.
Lu Bofan didn’t stand.
Holding both of her heels in one hand, he bent slightly and gazed steadily into her eyes with those deep, unreadable eyes.
Lu Meng understood what he meant.
She didn’t hesitate. She slipped both arms around his neck.
In the next instant, his other arm passed beneath her legs, and he lifted her effortlessly into his arms.
“I came to take you home. I’m not here to collect an apology.”
The residential area was deserted at night. Streetlights on either side cast their uncertain glow, stretching the shadows of the two of them long across the road.
They had known each other for only a few months. It would be fair to say they were still strangers to one another.
And yet, at this moment, the woman’s beautiful mermaid-tail dress swayed gently, seeming almost intimately entwined with the man’s dark suit.
It was the first time Lu Meng had been this close to a man.
Her gaze wandered idly over his features, tracing them one by one, until it suddenly collided with his deep-set eyes.
They were like an endless midnight sky—intoxicating, impossible not to fall into.
Her heartbeat stumbled.
Suppressing the sudden emotion, she asked with deliberate innocence, “So you came all the way here just to pick me up?”
Perhaps it was her imagination, but the man seemed to smile.
The walk from the dormitory to the campus gate was not short, yet his breathing never changed. His arm held her securely as he unhurriedly tossed the question back at her.
“Isn’t it only natural for a husband to take his wife home?”
Husband.
Wife.
Lu Meng’s parents had a wonderful relationship. After decades together, they were still as loving as ever.
That was the kind of marriage Lu Meng had always wanted—a marriage like Shao Tingyuan and Lu Ling’s.
So she wasn’t opposed to being close to Lu Bofan.
She simply hadn’t grown accustomed to this new identity yet.
She awkwardly changed the subject.
“By the way, is Uncle Chen still waiting for me?”
Uncle Chen was her driver. He’d driven her here earlier and might have been waiting outside the campus this entire time.
Lu Bofan didn’t continue their previous conversation.
“I told him to leave first.”
When they walked out of the residential area, the security guard at the entrance proved spectacularly incompetent. He was snoring away inside and hadn’t noticed anyone coming or going.
Uncle Chen really had left.
Only the man’s understated black sedan remained.
The driver opened the rear door for them. Lu Meng got in and immediately noticed a pair of women’s flats waiting inside.
Seeing where she was looking, Lu Bofan explained calmly, “Mom told me your feet were hurting before I came.”
Only then did Lu Meng realize that the “Mom” he’d mentioned was Lu Ling.
Her awkwardly bare feet finally had somewhere to go.
She also realized that Lu Bofan had probably been waiting for her for quite some time.
For a man who could earn tens of millions in minutes, waiting must have seemed like a particularly wasteful use of time.
After hesitating for a while, she thanked him anyway.
Lu Bofan crossed his legs. He didn’t bring up any more talk about marital duties. Instead, he simply looked at his courteous new wife with leisurely composure.
“What if I don’t accept a verbal thank-you?”
Lu Meng froze.
She genuinely hadn’t expected him to say that.
After thinking it over, she asked sincerely, “Then how would you like me to repay you?”
Lu Bofan hadn’t expected her to actually consider it.
She apparently still had no idea how wicked a man he could be at heart.
A businessman like him always left himself room to maneuver.
He gave her no definite answer.
“Keep it on the books for now.”
Lu Meng didn’t think much of it. She simply said, “Okay.”
Her phone began buzzing incessantly.
The diligent photographer was still editing photos late into the night, sending her a flood of pictures and asking for her opinions.
Lu Meng opened one.
Then, as though suddenly remembering something, she looked at the man beside her.
“The photographer sent over today’s photos. Do you want to see them?”
Lu Bofan gave a quiet hum of acknowledgment.
Lu Meng’s finger moved down the screen. “Then I’ll forward them to you—”
“No need to go through all that trouble.”
The man’s voice was neither warm nor cold as he interrupted her.
Lu Meng looked over in confusion.
Suddenly, an arm hooked around her waist and pulled her into his embrace.
Lu Bofan didn’t let go. He simply held her there, his legs still crossed, his posture languid and relaxed.
His black, gleaming, serious-looking, expensive leather shoes happened to reveal a thin flash of red soles.
He tipped up her chin, neither too forcefully nor too gently, turning her dazed, beautiful face toward the screen.
His voice fell lightly between them.
“Just look at them like this.”