Wen Xi was led into an office by a woman dressed in professional attire.
The room was enormous, decorated in cool gray tones. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows was a panoramic view of the entire city, spread out like a giant chessboard.
The desk, the bookshelves, the sofa—every single item was arranged with meticulous precision. A faint scent of pine lingered in the air, cold and restrained.
Wen Xi stood beside the sofa, unsure whether she should sit down.
“Please wait a moment. President Fu will be here shortly.”
The woman’s tone was polite yet distant. After speaking, she turned and left, gently closing the door behind her.
Only Wen Xi remained in the room.
Lowering her head, she looked at her white dress and sneakers again. In this refined office that was elegant to the point of coldness, she looked like a scavenger who had accidentally wandered into an art museum.
She did not dare sit down. She simply stood there, her palms slowly growing damp with sweat.
After an unknown amount of time—perhaps five minutes, perhaps ten—the door opened.
Fu Linfeng walked in.
He had already changed clothes. He now wore a black dress shirt, the cuffs casually rolled up twice to reveal a clean, sharply defined forearm.
He closed the door and turned around, his gaze landing on her.
That look instinctively reminded Wen Xi of something.
When she had been a child in the countryside, the neighbor used to slaughter chickens. Right before the butcher grabbed the chicken by the neck, he would look at it with that same expression.
Unhurried.
Calm.
Silent.
Like he was assessing something that already belonged to him.
Wen Xi subconsciously lifted her head and met his eyes.
His features were too perfect. High brow bones, a straight nose, and a sharp, smooth jawline—he looked unreal, like one of those magazine photos that had been edited to perfection.
She quickly lowered her head again. The tips of her ears were already red as she silently scolded herself.
Wen Xi, wake up. You’re here to sell yourself, not to go on a blind date.
“What’s your name?”
He walked behind the desk and sat down, his deep voice carrying no unnecessary emotion.
“Wen Xi.”
She kept her head lowered, speaking so softly it sounded as though she feared disturbing something.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-one.”
Fu Linfeng leaned back in his chair. His fingers tapped lightly against the desk in a lazy rhythm.
After several seconds of silence, he spoke. His tone was calm, as though he were reading contract terms aloud.
“I need a wife. Someone to bear and raise children for me. But I will not invest feelings into this marriage. Every month, you’ll receive more than enough living expenses. All you need to do is behave yourself. Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask. Don’t interfere where you shouldn’t interfere. And don’t appear when you shouldn’t appear. If you can do that, we’ll get the marriage certificate today. If you can’t, leave now.”
Wen Xi barely had time to think.
“I agree.”
The three words left her mouth instantly, as though she had grabbed hold of the last life-saving straw.
She had not even fully processed what she was saying.
Her mind contained only one thought—
One million.
Her mother’s safety.
The man guarding the door.
The sound of shattered glass.
Besides, who was Fu Linfeng?
The president of Fu Group Corporation. A man standing at the very top of the city’s social pyramid.
And who was she?
A poor girl who had dropped out after high school and did not even own a decent set of clothes.
No matter how she looked at it, she was the one benefiting from this deal.
Those glamorous women outside would have fought desperately for this position and still never gotten the chance.
Yet somehow, it had fallen into her hands.
What reason did she have to hesitate?
Fu Linfeng did not seem surprised by her straightforward answer. He merely narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment.
“Do you know why, out of all those women today, I chose you?”
Wen Xi froze.
She had indeed wondered about that.
Those women had everything—curves, beauty, exquisite makeup, daring outfits. Their entire appearance screamed ambition.
And her?
A faded white dress, old sneakers, and a bare face. Standing in the corner like an unnoticed weed.
There was nothing remarkable about her.
Honestly, she shook her head.
Fu Linfeng stood up, walked around the desk, and stopped in front of her.
He was nearly a head taller than her. Looking down at her from above, he carried an oppressive presence that seemed ingrained in his very bones.
“Because your eyes are clean.”
Wen Xi stared blankly.
“Their eyes were full of desire, calculation, and ambition.”
His voice was not loud, yet every word struck down like a nail.
“But you were like a blank sheet of paper.”
He lowered his gaze to her, the corner of his lips curving slightly in something that was almost a smile.
“A blank sheet is easiest to write on.”
Only then did Wen Xi understand.
So that was the reason.
Not because she was beautiful.
Not because she had a good figure.
Not even because of the white dress.
It was because she had nothing.
No ambition.
No background.
No schemes.
A clean, harmless person like her was exactly what he needed most.
All she wanted was money.
And money was the one thing he lacked least.
A transaction where both sides got what they wanted.
Simple and efficient.
“Let’s go.”
Fu Linfeng picked up the car keys from the desk.
“We’ll get the marriage certificate this afternoon.”
Wen Xi had not expected things to move so quickly.
What she especially had not expected was that even registering a marriage could involve “clearing the place out.”
The Civil Affairs Bureau lobby was completely empty. There was not a single ordinary citizen waiting in line.
Several staff members stood neatly behind the counters with standard professional smiles, as though they had specifically stayed behind to receive them.
The entire process took less than twenty minutes.
When the red marriage certificate was handed to her, Wen Xi lowered her head and stared at it for a very long time.
The two people in the photograph—
One cold and distant.
One stiff and bewildered.
No matter how she looked at it, they did not resemble husband and wife.
But the official seal had already been stamped onto it.
Black words on white paper.
Legally binding.
When they stepped out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, Fu Linfeng’s car was already waiting outside.
Chen Mo—Fu Linfeng’s personal secretary—opened the passenger-side door for her.
“Miss Wen, please.”
Wen Xi froze briefly before instinctively glancing toward Fu Linfeng.
He was already seated in the back, looking down at his phone without even lifting his eyelids.
“Sit in the front.”
His voice came lazily from the backseat.
Wen Xi bent down and climbed into the passenger seat, clutching the little red booklet tightly in her hands.
When the car started moving, she secretly checked her phone.
A bank notification had already popped up.
She counted the zeros twice.
One million.
Not a cent short.
She asked Chen Mo to stop at the nearest bank so she could withdraw part of the money in cash.
Then she did something immediately—
She paid off the debt.
When the loan sharks received the money, they looked somewhat surprised, apparently not expecting her to actually gather the amount.
The leader counted the cash twice, looked her up and down, and said nothing more before leaving with his men.
Before departing, they also withdrew the thug guarding her mother outside the house.
Wen Xi stood inside the empty home, staring at the wreckage scattered everywhere.
She took a deep breath.
Then she transferred her mother to the best Rehabilitation & Wellness Center in the city.
A private room.
Twenty-four-hour care.
Doctors making scheduled rounds.
She paid six months’ worth of fees in one payment.
Lying in the clean hospital bed, her mother held her hand tightly, her eyes reddening.
“Xixi, where did you get so much money?”
“I’m going to work out of town,”
Wen Xi crouched beside the bed, holding her mother’s thin, frail hand as she smiled.
“The benefits are really good. The company provides food and accommodation. You just focus on recovering here. I’ll come visit whenever I have time.”
Her mother did not believe her, yet lacked the strength to question her further. She only kept repeating the same warnings.
“You’re a young girl… be careful outside… Don’t let people trick you…”
“Don’t worry.”
Wen Xi stood up and tucked the blanket around her more securely. She glanced out the window. The sky had already darkened.
She could not let her mother know the truth.
This marriage.
This money.
Everything from now on—
Her mother could never know.
At seven in the evening, Chen Mo appeared punctually at the entrance of the Rehabilitation & Wellness Center.
“Miss Wen, President Fu asked me to pick you up and take you to the villa.”
Wen Xi got into the car with only a small bag in her arms.
Inside it was everything she owned:
Two changes of clothes.
Her high school diploma.
And that little red marriage certificate.
The car drove out of the city and turned onto a quiet tree-lined road.
The shadows of the plane trees on both sides flickered under the headlights, retreating into the darkness like an endless tunnel.
Leaning against the seat, Wen Xi looked at the unfamiliar scenery outside the window. Suddenly, a strange feeling rose within her.
From this day forward, her world had completely changed.
As for what awaited her ahead—
She did not know.
And she did not dare imagine it.
The car stopped before a massive iron gate.
Without a sound, the gate slid open to both sides, revealing a gravel driveway lined with perfectly trimmed ornamental trees.
The car slowly drove inward, circling around a fountain before finally stopping in front of a three-story standalone villa.
The villa lights were on.
Warm yellow light spilled from the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking like an exquisite yet icy cage within the silent night.
Chen Mo opened the car door for her.
“Miss Wen, we’ve arrived.”
Standing outside the car, Wen Xi looked up at the house and tightened her grip on the bag in her arms.
Then she lifted her foot and walked inside.