Xia Qianqian wondered, Was she really the kind of shallow, money-grubbing woman who cared only about cash?
The very next second, she answered without hesitation. “I’ll marry you!”
She absolutely had to marry him!
Hesitating for even one second would be disrespectful to money!
Fu Beichen nodded, seeming quite pleased with her response.
“Did you bring your household register?”
“I did,” Xia Qianqian replied.
Half an hour later,
Xia Qianqian and Fu Beichen walked out of the Civil Affairs Bureau together.
She held the freshly issued red marriage certificate in her hands, still feeling dazed.
Had she really just gotten married, just like that?!
And to the most powerful, influential man in the entire capital!
This was so unreal!
It felt like a dream.
Xia Qianqian glanced at the man beside her. He was tall and handsome, with a great physique and seemingly endless stamina.
On top of that, he was rich and powerful. He’d give her five million a month in spending money, and having his child would be worth extra.
So marrying him under an agreement was a guaranteed win for her.
But when was she going to get that five million in spending money?
Xia Qianqian was too embarrassed to ask. A man as powerful and wealthy as Fu Beichen surely wouldn’t begrudge her five million, would he?
Suddenly, the man snatched the marriage certificate from her hands and closed his fist around it.
Xia Qianqian looked at the handsome man, utterly confused.
Fu Beichen calmly tucked the certificate into his pocket. “I’ll hold on to the marriage certificate for you.”
“From now on, you’re Mrs. Fu.”
Xia Qianqian paused, then nodded. “All right, Mr. Fu.”
Mr. Fu?
Fu Beichen’s brow furrowed slightly.
Since he called her Mrs. Fu, it was only reasonable for her to call him Mr. Fu.
Still, she should really be calling him Hubby.
Just then, he heard a very untimely sound.
Grrr…
Fu Beichen lowered his gaze and saw Xia Qianqian, her face bright red, clutching her stomach.
“Are you hungry?”
Her cheeks burning with embarrassment, Xia Qianqian silently nodded.
Of course she was hungry!
She hadn’t eaten a single bite since this morning, or even had a sip of water. By now she was ravenous, her stomach practically sticking to her back.
Fu Beichen slid a long-fingered hand into his pocket and glanced at her nonchalantly, a faint, inscrutable smile flickering in his eyes.
“Let’s get something in your stomach first.”
Xia Qianqian gave an awkward smile.
Fu Beichen took Xia Qianqian to a private restaurant and booked a private room.
With his legs crossed, the man handed her the menu with practiced courtesy, his every movement exuding confidence and wealth.
“Order whatever you like.”
Xia Qianqian blinked, then took the menu and opened it.
Good grief!
Were these dishes plated with gold or something?!
A plate of vegetables cost over a thousand?!
And wasn’t this just an ordinary cabbage carved into the shape of a rose?
It cost a few cents to make, they dressed it up all fancy, then sold it for over a thousand!
Well, rich people really were easy to fool.
The more Xia Qianqian looked, the more ridiculous it seemed. She couldn’t help muttering, “We’d be better off eating at a street-side food stall.”
Fu Beichen frowned. “Hm?”
What was a street-side food stall?
Xia Qianqian guessed at once that this haughty young master from a wealthy family had never experienced anything so down-to-earth, so she kindly explained.
“They’re places to eat, too—little restaurants with simple storefronts. They serve things like stir-fried vegetables and pork, and it’s all cheap. Ten or twenty yuan, and even the most expensive dishes are under a hundred. Cheap and delicious.”
Fu Beichen glanced at her. “I told you to order food, not cheap stuff.”
Xia Qianqian fell silent.
Right. She shouldn’t have said anything.
A domineering CEO born with a silver spoon in his mouth wouldn’t be interested in the street-side food she liked to eat.
That was the difference in their status, wasn’t it? They really did come from different worlds.
Hungry as she was, Xia Qianqian reluctantly ordered a few meat dishes.
She wouldn’t order vegetables. A few leaves cost over a thousand yuan?!
Whoever ordered that was an idiot!
But when she didn’t order it, Fu Beichen did.
And the dish he chose was the rose made from cabbage leaves.
Xia Qianqian looked at Fu Beichen, wanting to say something but stopping herself.
In the end, she decided to let it go.
After ordering, Fu Beichen slowly closed the menu.
He glanced at Xia Qianqian, who looked as though she wanted to speak but didn’t dare. “You can’t just eat meat. Make sure you have a balance of meat and vegetables.”
Xia Qianqian couldn’t help coughing, then nodded. “All right, I understand.”
Fine. You’re the big shot, you’re rich, so you’re right!
The food arrived—more than twenty dishes in all.
Xia Qianqian reckoned the meal would cost tens of thousands.
Even eating gold wouldn’t be that expensive.
Fu Beichen served Xia Qianqian some food.
She was so flattered she hardly knew what to say. “I can serve myself.”
Fu Beichen’s gaze drifted over to her, firm and impossible to resist.
Xia Qianqian immediately backed down and didn’t dare say another word.
Fu Beichen kept putting food on her plate until it was piled up into a little mountain. Only then did he stop.
“Eat.”
Again, his tone left no room for argument.
“All right,” Xia Qianqian replied.
After they’d eaten their fill, Fu Beichen took Xia Qianqian to the car.
Fu instructed the driver, “Back to Senyuan Manor.”
Senyuan Manor?
Xia Qianqian’s eyelid twitched. “Are we going to your house?”
Fu Beichen sat with his legs crossed, his handsome face as cool and unreadable as ever. “You’re mistaken. It’s our home.”
A strange feeling stirred in Xia Qianqian’s heart.
Our home…
A home made up of her and Fu Beichen together. It was such a strange feeling…
Suddenly, her phone rang, breaking into her thoughts.
Xia Qianqian pulled out her phone. “Sorry, I need to take this.”
Fu Beichen glanced at her beat-up white phone, his brow creasing again.
He’d replace that shabby phone for her one of these days. It was an eyesore.
With Fu Beichen beside her, Xia Qianqian answered without checking the caller ID.
As soon as she picked up, Xia Ming’s furious voice came through. “Xia Qianqian, where the hell have you been?”
“I told you to keep Boss Wang company. Why is he in the hospital again? Did you beat him up and send him there?!”
He’d just heard that Boss Wang was back in the hospital. They said he’d been beaten even worse than last time—he was paralyzed on one side, and had nearly died.
Terrified, he’d hurriedly called Xia Qianqian to demand an explanation.
Xia Qianqian frowned. “He still hasn’t been beaten to death?”
Thinking of the disgusting things Boss Wang had done to her, she wouldn’t have felt sorry even if he’d been beaten to death. She might even have clapped in delight.
Xia Ming’s eyes widened in fury. “You want Boss Wang dead?! If he dies, who are you going to marry?!”
Xia Qianqian glanced at the dignified, handsome man beside her. “You don’t need to worry about that. I already have a man I want to marry.”
Fu Beichen cast her a careless glance, a hint of meaning in his eyes.
Meeting his gaze, Xia Qianqian felt her cheeks grow a little warm.
Xia Ming laughed in anger. “Xia Qianqian, you think you can marry some great man?!”
“Marrying Boss Wang would be a huge step up for you!”
“Don’t turn down a good match with Boss Wang just to marry some riffraff—some random man with no decent job who can’t even show his face in public. Marrying someone like that would be the beginning of your nightmare!”
Xia Qianqian sneered. “Sorry to disappoint you, but the man I married is a thousand times better than Boss Wang. Believe it or not.”
“You’re dreaming!” Xia Ming said.
“Get home right now. We’ll figure out together what to tell Boss Wang!”
“I’m not coming back. I’m already married. I have a home of my own now, and I won’t be going back to yours.”
Xia Ming’s eyes bulged. “Y-you’d better not go marrying some trashy stranger off the street without my permission!”
He was her father. She hadn’t even asked for his permission to get married!
How dare she marry herself off?!
Fu Beichen’s brow furrowed.
Was he the “trashy stranger off the street”?!
Xia Qianqian didn’t want to waste another word on Xia Ming. She hung up and blocked him.
She turned to Fu Beichen and bit her lip. “Sorry you had to hear that.”
In a deep voice, Fu Beichen asked, “Was that your biological father?”
“Yes.”
Xia Qianqian nodded.
Fu Beichen frowned. “Was he the one who sent you to Boss Wang’s bed?”
A look of humiliation crossed Xia Qianqian’s face. “Yes.”
“He wanted me to marry Boss Wang. I refused, so Boss Wang drugged me and tried to force things between us.”
“If you hadn’t saved me, I probably would’ve been…”
Fu Beichen’s eyes narrowed, a flash of fury passing through them.
He sat with his legs crossed, his low voice cold and menacing.
“Don’t worry. Boss Wang won’t have another chance to trouble you. He’s already been ruined.”
Xia Qianqian blinked.
Ruined?
What did that mean?!
Meanwhile,
Xia Ming saw that she’d hung up on him and was so furious he wanted to smash his phone.
“She actually dared to hang up on me?! The nerve!”
“This ungrateful daughter has completely rebelled!”
Xia Xue put on an act of soothing him. “Dad, don’t be angry. Sister’s just being unreasonable for the moment, so she’s defying you. Once she comes to her senses, she’ll come back and beg you.”
“Grandma’s still lying in the hospital and needs five hundred thousand for surgery. She can’t just abandon her grandmother.”
Xia Ming’s anger eased somewhat at that.
That was right. Xia Qianqian still needed five hundred thousand for the surgery. As long as she couldn’t come up with it, she’d have to come back and beg him.
When she did, he’d knock her out and send her to Boss Wang’s house. Then he’d see how she could escape.
Just then, Xia Ming’s phone rang.
He took it out and saw that it was his assistant calling.
“What is it?”
“President, something terrible has happened. Boss Wang’s company has gone bankrupt!”
Xia Ming’s expression changed. “What? It went bankrupt?”
“Not only that, Boss Wang was arrested and sent to prison for sexual assault.”
“…”
Boss Wang had gone bankrupt and ended up in prison. Didn’t that mean the investment he’d promised Xia Ming’s company had gone down the drain?
Xia Xue frowned. “Dad, Xia Qianqian must have reported him to the police!”
Xia Ming clutched his chest, which ached with anger. “Is this ungrateful daughter trying to make me die of rage?!”