Chapter 7

Things were moving much faster than I’d expected.

Zhang Yong’s next message was about how her “male god” had apparently made friends with another girl. The man who normally played it so cool that it took him hours to reply with a single word was now checking his phone every few minutes like he’d been possessed.

I snorted.

“I actually feel bad for you. I get emotionally tortured by a marriage of convenience with Lu Mingqi, but at least I get a monthly allowance to make up for it. Your male god, on the other hand, gives you anything besides an occasional contemptuous glance?”

Zhang Yong was the kind of person who could take things in stride.

“Haha! Who’d want to like a blind idiot like that?”

But the moment she finished trashing him, she turned around and called me out.

“Don’t pretend. I know you’re secretly hurting.”

Then she bombarded me with a series of high-definition headshots.

“Look. My new target. Fresh-faced rookie who just debuted and is looking for a ‘sponsor.’ Cheap and adorable, hehe.”

I glanced at them.

Well… he was pretty good-looking.

“How much a month?” I asked casually.

Zhang Yong immediately sent me a sticker of a woman standing with her hands on her hips, looking ridiculously confident.

“Not expensive. He’s a rookie, so he hasn’t dared to name a high price yet. This one’s about ten thousand yuan a month. The others in his group are around the same. Very affordable.”

Then she helpfully tried to recruit me.

“So? Want me to hook you up?”

“No thanks. I’m a married woman,” I replied curtly. “Besides… my husband’s looks and body are already top-tier.”

Zhang Yong immediately turned sour with jealousy.

“Must be nice. Even a marriage of convenience landed you a premium specimen like Lu Mingqi. Meanwhile, my parents are already nagging me to go on blind dates. Don’t even get me started. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.”

Then, as usual, the conversation somehow circled back around.

“So what’s really going on between your husband and that spoiled rich kid? Did they seriously fight over some Cinderella?”

Family matters obviously couldn’t be discussed freely, especially with Zhang Yong’s lightning-fast mouth.

I made something up on the spot.

“Lu Mingxing was being disrespectful. My husband was just teaching him some manners.”

She immediately called bullshit.

“Yeah, right.”

“You wouldn’t understand. I’m married now. You have no idea how happy it is to have a husband who protects you.”

Zhang Yong gave a half-amused, half-suspicious laugh.

“Very nice. I screenshotted that. If Lu Mingqi ever screws up, I’m posting this to my feed so I can publicly embarrass you.”

I didn’t care in the slightest.

“Go ahead. If he dares cheat on me, he can consider half his fortune as already gone. I’ll take the money and go raise some obedient young men. Then you can turn green with envy.”

Zhang Yong and I were very different people, but when it came to treating money like our lives depended on it, we were practically cut from the same cloth.

At that, she immediately changed her tune.

“Okay, okay. When you’re rich and successful, don’t forget your friends.”

A few days later, exactly as if he were trying to compete with me in a battle of stubbornness, Lu Mingqi camped out in the company’s lounge for an entire week.

No calls.

No texts.

It was as though he’d decided to see who could hold out longer.

I didn’t care either.

I stayed home and enjoyed my newfound freedom—eating whenever I wanted, sleeping whenever I wanted.

Sometimes when he was home, I complained that being held while sleeping was uncomfortable.

But when he wasn’t home, I found myself missing having someone to hold onto, and I couldn’t sleep as well.

Humans really could find something to complain about no matter what.

At our next afternoon tea gathering, Zhang Yong brought her “latest model” with her.

He didn’t look quite as dazzling in person as he had in the edited photos, but he was pleasant to talk to and spent the entire afternoon keeping her laughing.

Before we left, she secretly slipped a card into my bag and told me not to open it until I got home.

I barely paid attention and just nodded.

When I got home, I spotted Lu Mingqi’s shoes the moment I stepped into the foyer.

Oh.

So he finally decided to come home?

I wondered how far things had progressed between him and Lian Rong over the past few days.

Lu Mingxing and I weren’t close, but we still had each other on WeChat. Lately, I’d noticed that he was posting about working overtime every single day.

That was completely unlike his usual playboy lifestyle.

He must really be pursuing her this time.

From the outside, it looked like everything was lining up perfectly.

Perfect timing.

Perfect circumstances.

Perfect people.

I guessed that something must have happened on their end. Perhaps Lu Mingqi had finally “realized” that I was an exceptionally cooperative business partner in this marriage and decided to come back to restore our peaceful “partnership.”

Mm…

And of course, I was wrong from the very beginning.

I went into my room and carelessly dropped my bag.

Everything inside spilled across the floor.

The “card” Zhang Yong had given me slid out and rolled straight toward the bathroom door.

The door opened.

Lu Mingqi had just finished showering.

His upper body was still wet, and he was wearing loose sweatpants with a towel draped casually around his neck.

He bent down and picked up the “card.”

His expression immediately darkened.

“Du Yun?” he called coldly, then looked at me.

I snatched it back to take a look.

Oh, God.

It wasn’t a card at all.

It was one of those shameless promotional photos—barely dressed, accompanied by contact information and an extremely suggestive message:

“Miss Jiang, I’ve admired you for a long time. I hope to hear from you.”

Zhang Yong.

I was going to kill her.

I was so furious I spun around twice in the room, my fingers tightening until my knuckles cracked.

Lu Mingqi leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, his voice icy.

“Not going to explain?”

“This isn’t mine!” I threw the photo onto the floor. “I’m not interested in this kind of thing. Besides, do I look like the type to sneak around behind someone’s back? If I do something, I do it openly.”

One corner of his mouth lifted.

“So you’re saying that if you ever go out looking for someone else, you’ll report it to me first?”

“If that’s what you want, I can cooperate.”

The moment I said it, I realized…

That sounded a little wrong.

But honestly, it wasn’t as though I was lacking anything.

One husband was already more than enough trouble.

Clearly, that answer did not please him.

And this time, he didn’t bother hiding it.

Lu Mingqi had always been exceptionally good at controlling his emotions. No matter what happened outside, he remained calm once he came home.

In the three years we’d been married, he had almost never let me see him in a bad mood.

Not because he never had one.

He simply never wanted me to see it.

So the fact that his displeasure was now so obvious that he wasn’t even trying to hide it could only mean one thing.

He wanted me to see it.

I suddenly felt a little guilty and quickly changed my tone.

“How could I possibly go looking for someone else? Do you really think I’m that kind of woman? Don’t go imagining the worst about your wife.”

Lu Mingqi stared at me silently for a few seconds.

He didn’t argue.

Instead, he merely nodded toward the photo on the floor.

“Where did this come from?”

“A friend gave it to me.”

“Which friend?”

I shook my head.

“Don’t want to say?”

“Why are you asking?”

He didn’t answer.

Instead, he changed the subject completely.

“Where did you go today?”

“Afternoon tea with my friends.”

“Your little ‘plastic sisterhood’?” He raised an eyebrow. “Zhang Yong?”

I instinctively shook my head.

“Stop guessing. You don’t even know them.”

He was silent for a moment before asking,

“Were there any men?”

“Yes. A few of them came with their girlfriends.”

“Boyfriends…” he repeated, his tone faintly mocking. “The kind who get paid by the month?”

I nudged the photo aside with my foot.

“Oh, come on. There are plenty of arrangements like that in our circle. It’s nothing unusual.”

“Was that guy named Du Yun there?”

“No. Why would he be there? It was someone else from the group.”

I emphasized,

“I don’t like that type anyway. Those pictures had been run through God knows how many filters. I doubt he’s nearly that good-looking in person.”

Lu Mingqi immediately zeroed in on the important part.

“So if he were good-looking in person, you’d like him?”

Seven days apart, and my husband had apparently evolved into a professional nitpicker.

If I kept talking, this was only going to get more complicated.

So I took the initiative and grabbed his hand.

“How long have you been home? Have you eaten?”

He didn’t resist as I pulled him toward the study.

“You probably still have a lot of work, right? Finish it so you can be done with it. Don’t stay up late tonight. I’ll order some food. What do you want?”

“…Whatever you want.”

“Okay. I’ll pick.”

I turned around, intending to take a shower.

But the moment I stepped out, he followed right behind me.

I turned around and pushed him back inside.

“Okay, okay. You stay here. I’ll have them leave the food at the door.”

“I want to shower too.”

“You already showered.”

“No. I only took my shirt off. I heard a noise, so I came out.”

I had no choice but to give in.

“Fine. You take the master bathroom. I’ll go to the living room.”

Lu Mingqi shook his head.

“No.”

“Then what do you want?”

He looked straight at me.

“Shower together.”

“…What?”

“Together.”

Right.

I’d been played.