“TAN, your necklace is ready.”
The shopkeeper placed a necklace set with aquamarines in a velvet box and handed it to Young Master.
The teardrop-shaped aquamarine was crystal clear, like a mermaid’s tear in the light.
When Young Master had come to Rio for a holiday at seventeen, he’d noticed the aquamarines here.
Beautiful without being showy.
They’d definitely suit the girl who’d danced as a mermaid at the New Year’s Eve party.
She really was a mermaid.
He wanted so badly to keep her.
He wanted to marry her.
Their baby would surely be as beautiful as she was.
What should they name the baby?
He’d discuss it with her.
The baby could take her surname.
He wanted to take her surname, too.
Their whole family could bear her surname.
The Third Young Master was simply that far ahead of his time. He didn’t even know the girl’s name, yet he was already thinking about what to name the children he’d have with her.
“As for the ring, you can pick it up next time you come with your new bride.”
“Thanks.”
Young Master took the items, left the shopkeeper a blank check, then hurried to buy a ticket and fly back to Sunan.
If he got back any later, his wife might be stolen away by a counterfeit.
**
“Qiao Ning: “Sweetie, you’re not home. Where are you?”
“At a law firm.”
“Hm? What are you doing at a law firm? Is Qiao Ning thinking of changing careers and trying it out?”
Qiao Ning told her young boyfriend to turn the car around. “Which firm? Send me the location.”
“Don’t come. I’m heading back soon.”
Tang Li turned and made an OK sign to the lawyer. “I’m just here to have a divorce agreement drafted.”
“…”
With a smack, the phone slipped from Qiao Ning’s hand and landed on her thigh. “Ah—damn!”
Tears sprang to her eyes from the pain. Her young boyfriend immediately covered the reddened spot and gently blew on it.
Qiao Ning picked up her phone. “You’re getting a divorce?”
She wedged the phone between her shoulder and ear and counted on her fingers. “It hasn’t even been seven days, has it? I’ve heard of a seven-day relationship, but never a seven-day marriage. Starting a whole new trend?”
“No, Qiao Ning.” Tang Li slung her bag over her shoulder, ready to leave the law firm. “I’ve been thinking, and I realized you were right. He and I aren’t suited for each other. It’d be better to get divorced.”
She couldn’t explain what she felt for Young Master now. Maybe this sudden marriage had rekindled her feelings for him.
After all, she’d had a crush on Young Master for three years back then. If she hadn’t gone abroad to study and been too busy to think about him, perhaps she would have kept liking him.
But after she returned home and found the endless rumors about the Young Master’s love life, she’d been genuinely glad she’d forgotten him.
Still, judging by their brief marriage, she might not be Young Master’s type.
First, after they met again following years apart, Young Master had run off.
Then, the day after their whirlwind wedding, the Young Master had flown to Rio to watch a match.
Rather than live like a widow, she’d rather give up the position of Madam Tan. It wasn’t as though she cared about it anyway.
Qiao Ning tried to reason with her. “Sweetie, don’t do anything rash. The two families have only just formed this alliance. If you divorce him out of the blue, there could be negative repercussions. And even putting that aside, would your parents agree?”
“…”
Tang Li sighed helplessly.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t considered all that.
She deeply regretted it now. How had she let her mother talk her into marrying him?
If she didn’t have any feelings for Tan Siyu, perhaps that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing.
But unfortunately…
Tang Li was furious with herself for being so hopeless.
“What am I supposed to do now?”
“Sweetie, you’re sure you don’t like him, right?” Qiao Ning asked, still uneasy.
Tang Li gave a decisive snort. “I don’t. If my phone didn’t keep pushing his gossip at me, I wouldn’t even remember he existed.”
“Good. If neither of you likes the other, you can each do your own thing. Just put on a show for the media. You’re an arranged-marriage couple, after all—married in name only.”
“…Yeah.” Tang Li answered glumly. After a few seconds, she rallied and agreed, “That’s right, Qiao Ning. You’re right.”
She didn’t like Tan Siyu.
If Tan Siyu could play around, so could she.
She could even have more fun than Siyu did!
Qiao Ning said, “Exactly, girl! I’m glad you’ve come to your senses. Come on, let’s get massages. The masseurs are all guaranteed to be handsome.”
**
Tan Siyu had just gotten off the plane when Jiang Ji called.
He glanced at the screen. It wasn’t his wife, so he wanted to hang up.
But Jiang Ji’s calls always felt like a death sentence, so he answered. “What is it?”
“Brother Yu, brace yourself.” Jiang Ji held his breath for a moment, then blurted it all out in one go. “I heard from a friend that your Fairy Girl is probably going to divorce you.”
“…?”
Had the counterfeit stolen his home?
“Probably, probably,” Jiang Ji emphasized again and again.
Tan Siyu only registered the words “divorce.”
Divorce.
A divorce.
“Where’s Lin Youqi?” Tan Siyu looked around.
He’d been fighting to come pick him up, and now that the time had come, he was nowhere to be seen. He was worse than Li Rui.
If Li Rui had come instead, Tan Siyu would already be on his way to find his wife and beg forgiveness.
Siyu didn’t spot Lin Youqi, but his gaze met that of a beautiful woman.
“Third Young Master, what a coincidence.”
The woman took off her sunglasses, tossed her wavy hair, and waved at him.
With her sunglasses hanging from her neckline, she smiled until her eyes narrowed to slits. As soon as she reached Tan Siyu, she tried to put an arm around him. “I heard Third Young Master just flew back from Rio today.” “I heard Third Young Master just flew back from Rio today.”
Tan Siyu subtly stepped away from her familiar gesture and asked with a mocking laugh, “You heard I flew back from Rio, but didn’t hear I got married?”
The smile on the woman’s face froze, but she quickly recovered. “Third Young Master, surely your marriage is just for show. The two families have joined forces for mutual benefit. Everyone does their own thing and keeps up appearances—that’s the way things work in our circle, isn’t it?”
Her peripheral vision caught the bulge in his bag. She quickly reached out and pulled it out, feigning surprise. “A ring? A necklace?”
A flicker of impatience crossed Tan Siyu’s eyes. “Give it back.”
“What for? Aren’t they for someone?” The woman fluttered her eyelashes at him. “You didn’t bring them back from Rio specially to surprise her, did you?”
“That slutty act of yours was caught on camera by the paparazzi over there. I’ve got the footage saved. How about I release it the next time you beg another man to sleep with you?”
His lips curled in a smile, but his phoenix eyes were cold and unfeeling, like a still well, not a trace of amusement in them.
“Third Young Master, what a joke,” the woman said with an awkward laugh.
Tan Siyu snatched the velvet box back from her. “Weren’t you the one who started joking?”
He made a call. Within minutes, someone brought the Third Young Master a packet of disinfectant wipes.
Even the way those long, pale fingers, pink at the joints, tore open the wipe packet was so sexually charged that it was no wonder countless admirers flocked to the Third Young Master.
And yet he had no idea how seductive he was.
As he leisurely wiped down the velvet box, he drawled, “Or do you just like throwing yourself at married men?”