“She’s not even worthy.”
Song Yu’s voice, speaking up on behalf of Lou Jingyi, echoed through the study.
Yan Hao, who had just been about to knock, froze mid-air and slowly lowered her hand.
Through the half-open door, Song Yu’s voice drifted out again: “Jingyi, are you seriously going to marry her?”
“Just because of an engagement?”
Song Yu grew more indignant the more he talked, looking far more agitated than the person actually involved, Lou Jingyi.
“What century is this, and they’re still forcing you to marry someone you don’t like?”
Lacking the courage to keep listening, Yan Hao turned around and walked downstairs.
A year ago, Yan Hao had just graduated from university when her parents were killed in a car accident, passing away one after the other shortly after.
Afterward, her uncle, Tang Hao, moved into the Yan family home with his wife, Li, under the guise of taking care of her.
A month ago, Fei Meng—the lawyer her late father had retained—finally tracked her down.
He told her that before his death, her father, Yan Hui, had left strict instructions: Yan Hao must marry Lou Jingyi, the eldest son of the Lou family.
Yan Hao had known about her engagement to Lou Jingyi. It was an arrangement made by the elders of both families back when they were young.
What she couldn’t understand was why she was only being told about it now.
Fei Meng had explained to her: “During the time Mr. Yan was in the car accident, knowing his time was running out, he drew up this will. He told me not to reveal its existence until Lou Jingyi had fully established himself and come into his own within the Lou family. Mr. Yan did this to ensure you would have a powerful backer, so that no one could take advantage of you or leave you defenseless.”
That was when Yan Hao remembered: not long ago, Lou Jingyi had officially taken over as the head of the Lou family.
Now that the timing was right, Fei Meng had finally stepped forward.
She chose an appropriate moment to inform her uncle, Tang Hao, about Fei Meng’s visit. Because it was her father’s dying wish, Yan Hao thought long and hard before finally deciding to fulfill it.
She made a call to the Lou residence.
It wasn’t long before someone from the Lou family came to pick her up and bring her to Capital City.
The Lou family welcomed her warmly, especially Lou Jingyi’s grandmother, Zhao Laifang, who felt a deep sense of pity for her.
“Yan, my child, don’t you worry. The engagement still stands. You’ve suffered so much these past few months.”
Back when Yan Hao’s parents passed away, the Lou family had originally wanted to bring her to Capital City to look after her, only for Tang Hao to refuse the offer to her face. Tang Hao had argued that he could take good care of his own niece, and furthermore, since Yan Hao and Lou Jingyi were not yet married, it would be entirely improper for her to live long-term at her fiancé’s home. Besides, Yan Hao was already an adult and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Since the Lou family only had an engagement with the Yan family and no legal right to forcefully take away another person’s niece, they had no choice but to let the matter drop.
“Grandmother, I haven’t suffered,” Yan Hao had replied. After her parents passed away, life at home had continued much as before. The domestic staff had been with the Yan family for a long time, and she trusted them completely. Although her aunt and uncle felt a little different now compared to before, they were still decent to her. Her cousin, Tang Shanshan, went to a university nearby. Allowing them to stay a bit longer until her cousin graduated seemed fine.
Being her uncle’s family, Yan Hao welcomed them into her home. After all, having a few more people around just meant a couple of extra pairs of chopsticks at the dinner table. Moreover, her aunt and uncle had always treated her quite well in the past—she just couldn’t understand why, recently, she had suddenly discovered that they had designs on the inheritance her parents had left behind.
Her aunt and uncle didn’t seem like that kind of people…
After staying at the Lou family’s old residence for a period of time, Zhao Laifang sent Yan Hao to Jing Garden, the private residence where Lou Jingyi lived alone, so that the two of them could build a proper rapport and make the wedding ceremony go more smoothly.
“Miss Yan?”
“Hmm?” Yan Hao snapped out of her thoughts in the living room.
“Weren’t you going upstairs to call the young master down for dinner?”
“Oh…” Yan Hao told a small white lie. “Chen Yi, I’m not sure which room is the study…”
“It’s all my fault. You’ve only been here a few days, so it’s completely normal that you aren’t familiar with the layout yet. I’ll go call him instead.”
Chen Yi had received instructions from the old matriarch to create more opportunities for the couple to spend time together, which was why she had sent Yan Hao to fetch Lou Jingyi.
Yan Hao nodded. “Okay.”
She offered a faint smile. How could she not know where it was? There were only three rooms on the second floor: a master bedroom, a guest room, and a study.
Just as Chen Yi was about to head upstairs, Lou Jingyi and Song Yu came down together.
Seeing this, Yan Hao quickly walked over to the dining table and sat down.
“Young master, dinner is ready.”
“Mm.” Lou Jingyi glanced toward the dining table. “Chen Yi, I’m going out to eat tonight.”
“This…” Chen Yi looked at Yan Hao, who was already seated. “Understood, young master.”
Hearing this, Yan Hao had no choice but to start eating by herself.
Song Yu glared at Yan Hao with obvious displeasure. “Hmph.”
Yan Hao’s hand holding the chopsticks froze. She could clearly feel Song Yu’s hostility.
And naturally so—who could accept seeing his own brother being forced into marrying a woman he didn’t like?
As Lou Jingyi and Song Yu walked out the door, Chen Yi stepped up beside Yan Hao. “Miss Yan, the young master had some matters to attend to tonight…”
Yan Hao looked up and smiled. “It’s fine, Chen Yi. I’ll just eat by myself.”
Chen Yi looked at her with sympathy. “Miss Yan, the young master is just not used to your presence yet. Once you get to know each other, he’ll treat you well.”
“I know, Chen Yi.”
At Morning Dew Bar.
Unlike its usual rowdiness, the VIP booth was unusually quiet tonight.
Looking at how subdued his friends were, Song Yu felt his anger flare up again. “Will you guys say something?!”
“Don’t tell me Jingyi is actually going to be forced into marrying that woman?!”
Ren Mingchao sighed helplessly. “What else can he do? Jingyi only became the head of the family recently; marrying into the Yan family is the only way forward.”
Pressured by the elders of the Lou family, he had no choice but to comply. On top of that, there was a multi-year engagement hanging over his head. To call off the marriage abruptly would make outsiders accuse the Lou family of abandoning the Yan family’s eldest daughter just because her parents passed away. Such an immoral reputation could never be allowed to stick to the Lou family.
Lou Jingyi calmly swirled the red wine in his goblet.
An alliance through marriage? Fine. Then he would give them what they wanted.
“No wedding ceremony,” Lou Jingyi stated.
That was his absolute bottom line. What was the point of holding a wedding with a woman he didn’t love?
He had originally planned to wait until Yan Hao went to university and started dating someone before casually bringing up breaking off the engagement. That way, it wouldn’t put her on the spot. Who could have predicted that even after graduating, Yan Hao wouldn’t have been in a relationship?
And right on the heels of that came the news of her parents’ tragic deaths.
Lou Jingyi simply couldn’t bring himself to talk about dissolving the engagement right in the middle of such a tragedy.
“What…!” Song Yu gasped. “Does your side of the family at the old residence… agree to that?”
“They’ll have to agree whether they like it or not.”
Why bother throwing a wedding for a woman he didn’t care about? They didn’t love each other. There were some things he couldn’t give her, and had no way of giving her.
Lou Jingyi drained his glass in one gulp and grabbed the car keys off the glass table. “I’m heading back.”
Otherwise, his grandfather would start nagging him again about not spending time with his fiancée.
Li Sicheng, who had been silent the whole time, also stood up. “I have a night shift, so I’m leaving too.”
“Looks like it’s just the two of us left. Let’s keep drinking,” Ren Mingchao said, refilling Song Yu’s glass.
Song Yu muttered bitterly, “If you ask me, Jingyi should still marry someone he actually loves.”
Ren Mingchao chuckled. “And what else can be done? Why don’t you go down to the Lou family estate and tell them that?”
Song Yu fell silent: “…I wouldn’t dare.”
The lingering childhood trauma of Lou Jingyi’s grandfather chasing him around with a wooden stick was still too fresh in his mind.
Lou Jingyi called a designated driver and rode back to Jing Garden.
The living room was dark and pitch-black. He flipped the light switch, changed his shoes, and headed upstairs.
Right next to the master bedroom was the guest room where Yan Hao was currently staying, but the guest room didn’t have an en-suite bathroom. The hallway bathroom was located near the top of the stairs.
Yan Hao had just finished taking a shower and was looking down, wiping her hair with a towel, when she bumped right into Lou Jingyi, who had just come up the stairs.
Embarrassed, Yan Hao took a few steps back to put some distance between them. “You… you’re back.”
“…Mm.” Lou Jingyi took a step back, walked around her, and headed into the master bedroom.
Once inside, Lou Jingyi took off his jacket and suddenly caught a whiff of a scent that didn’t belong to him.
He picked up his jacket and sniffed it. It was the fragrance of Yan Hao’s body wash.
Irritated, he tossed the jacket onto the sofa.
Did women’s body wash really have to be that fragrant?
They had merely brushed against each other for a split second, yet his jacket had already picked up her scent.