Chapter 1

Summer was coming on, the heat thickening by the day.
Lu Yi stepped into the hotel ballroom, heel straps clicking, closing her sun umbrella and slipping it into her bag.
“I swear, I’m about to melt out there,” her coworker complained, walking in right behind her. Lu Yi, ever thoughtful, handed her a tissue, along with a cool, easy smile.
“Thanks.”
Yu Qian dabbed at the sweat on her face, careful not to smudge her makeup.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Lu Yi, gentle, elegant, not a hint of shine on her face let alone a visible pore or blemish.
Lu Yi’s beauty was direct, no frills.
She’d stunned everyone on her very first day at the company.
Fair skin, soft features, that whole sweet and delicate vibe, you could just tell from her clothes and mannerisms she came from a good family. She’d majored in Western Art History in London, was a local girl, but that’s all anyone really knew. She kept to herself, didn’t talk much, and rarely mentioned her own life.
At first, people assumed she was standoffish, a bit of an ice queen.
But once you got to know her, she was nothing like that: friendly, competent, easy to work with, super approachable. Everyone at the office loved her.
“Working overtime on a Saturday... I’ve got enough resentment to haunt this place.”
The room’s AC was blasting, finally driving off the muggy heat. Her coworker scrunched the used tissue into a ball and tossed it into the trash.
The client had suddenly bumped the project launch up an entire week to the first of the month.
As the design and construction team, they had no choice but to comply. The entire crew, content, design, construction, were running themselves ragged just to deliver on time.
Today, they were here for the final confirmation.
But at the very last step, the client’s rep, the person responsible for final checks, still hadn’t bothered to show.
Her coworker called again and again, but every call went unanswered. When someone finally picked up, they claimed the two sides hadn’t communicated at all, said they were busy and couldn’t come over anytime soon.
She tried to ask when they’d be free, call ended, line dead.
They were getting stonewalled. On purpose.
Yu Qian swore under her breath. Working overtime was hellish enough, dealing with a troublesome client made her want to quit on the spot.
And it really was on purpose.
Everything had gone smoothly when they first took on the project, until the client’s rep fell head over heels for Lu Yi. After repeatedly hitting on her and getting rejected (hard), the guy switched tactics and started sabotaging them throughout the project, both overtly and behind the scenes.
Last time they’d tried to finalize the exhibition script, he nitpicked every little thing.
Lu Yi had done nothing wrong, but the whole team suffered for it.
“Is he out of his mind? We laid everything out clearly, how are we the ones at fault? Drag, drag, drag, as if our time isn’t worth anything.” Yu Qian hurled her phone across the table, her brows furrowed in frustration as it skidded to a stop.
“If they won’t come, I’ll keep calling all day.”
Lu Yi calmly retrieved her phone and set it back in front of her. Her gaze, soft under long lashes, stayed steady: “If they’re ignoring us on purpose, it doesn’t matter how many times you call.”
“So what, just sit here and wait? We can’t even complain to President Fang. They told us to stay put, but it’s not like they said they’re not coming.”
“How about this: You’ve got plans this weekend, right? You go ahead. I’ll wait for them here,” Lu Yi suggested.
“I can’t just leave you alone, no telling how Li Chengming will try to make trouble for you when he shows up.”
“I’ll be fine. Honestly, there’s nothing pressing for me. When there’s news, I’ll let you know.”
No one wanted to work overtime on a weekend. Yu Qian felt a little guilty leaving it all to Lu Yi, but since Lu Yi didn't mind, she finally relented.
“Alright, babe, you’re a lifesaver.”
Her coworker had already skipped a date for this meeting, and there was still time to catch a movie before it started.
Lu Yi smiled. “Go enjoy your date. If they call, just send them my way.”
“Love you, babe!”
Yu Qian headed out, and Lu Yi found herself a seat in the hotel café.
Lu Yi called the client’s side. The assistant picked up first, giving her the usual brush-off routine. Before she finished, the call was handed over, and Li Chengming’s voice came through, laced with sarcasm: “Miss Lu?”
“President Li, when would it be convenient for you to come by?”
“Getting impatient already? I figured someone like you, Miss Lu, would have endless patience, or is it just that you’re patient with everyone except me?”
Lu Yi replied evenly, “Let’s not make things difficult for each other, President Li.”
“This counts as difficult? Lu Yi, you didn’t seem to care about that when you turned me down. Let me tell you, this isn’t even close to difficult.” Li Chengming’s tone dropped, “Tell you what. Have dinner with me after the meeting, might even motivate me to move things along a little faster.”
The waiter brought over her coffee.
Lu Yi looked up and smiled at him, but her voice was cool when she returned to the call: “That’s fine, President Li. You handle your business first.”
“Stubborn, aren’t you.”
Li Chengming let out a mocking laugh and hung up.
That day, she was double-checking documents with the client. It was raining, and her car was at the shop for maintenance. Li Chengming had insisted on giving her a ride back to the office, refusing to take no for an answer.
On the way, right outside the office, Li Chengming confessed to her. He said he’d felt something from the moment they met, and asked her to be his girlfriend.
Lu Yi had a headache just thinking of it. She always tried not to let her work get tangled up in personal matters, so she turned him down as gently as possible, striving to leave his pride intact.
“Why?” Li Chengming was baffled. He listed all his assets, an apartment in the suburbs, a car, decent income. He hadn’t anticipated her refusal at all.
“I’m just not considering this right now,” Lu Yi told him honestly. She truly had no intention of dating; she was ready to follow her family’s wishes and marry when the time was right.
Back then, Li Chengming could still keep up appearances. He thought she was simply playing hard to get. But after a few days of rejection, refusing every invitation for dinner, coffee, anything, he started feeling insulted, bruised ego and all.
Who did she think she was? Just because she was pretty, she thought she could act like she was above everyone else?
After that, Li Chengming began to throw obstacles in her way, both overt and subtle, waiting for Lu Yi to eventually cave and apologize. But with the project nearly finishing, she never backed down, instead, she just kept her distance, turning cold.
Lu Yi held her phone for a moment, thinking, before calmly opening a chat and typing out a message.
Her best friend Yu Yin called right after. “Where are you?” she asked. Lu Yi gave her the address, and Yu Yin replied, “Give me fifteen minutes. I’m nearby.”
Yu Yin showed up just as Lu Yi was halfway through her coffee.
She was tall and striking, a former model who’d turned her attention to running a lifestyle blog, just for fun, really. She sat, crossed her long legs, and slid off her sunglasses.
The two had grown up together, attended the same middle and high schools, both went on to study in the UK. Their bond was so close, people joked they were sisters in everything but blood.
“What’s up with your company, dragging you in on a weekend?”
“Just something that came up.”
After hearing the situation, Yu Yin frowned. “Honestly, I don’t get it. You want a job? Why not work at your own family’s firm, instead of putting up with crap like this at Yixing?”
With their backgrounds, money was never an issue, unless they randomly decided to launch a startup, neither of them would worry about cash for several lifetimes. Whatever salary they earned wouldn't even cover the monthly management fees for their apartments.
Yu Yin saw things differently; she ditched the desk job in favor of hobbies, killing time with things she actually enjoyed.
“I don’t hate working.” What she hated was everything outside the job itself.
Lu Yi couldn’t claim she was ambitious, but she genuinely loved what she did. She just wanted to do her best and see her work through perfectly.
“So what are you going to do about this?”
“Wait it out.” Lu Yi stood and smiled warmly. “Come on, there’s a spa nearby, my treat.”
“How do you stay so calm?” Yu Yin had always admired Lu Yi’s steady demeanor. She grabbed her bag and followed her out.
The spa, Yun Yin, was a members-only place with a Thai-inspired design. Their room came with a small private garden and a central fountain, perfect for unwinding and soaking up the sun during a bath.
Work drama meant nothing here. If you were miserable, you just quit.
Yu Yin had just learned that Lu Yi had agreed to her family's arranged marriage, and not just with anyone. Her fiancé was Lin Jinshen.
Strictly speaking, there was nothing to nitpick about Lin Jinshen’s credentials: elite education, Ivy League for college, and now running the Lin Group’s crown jewel, Huayu Hotel Group, a global hospitality empire with over 5,000 hotels in China alone.
Unlike today’s flashy tech tycoons, the Lin family was old money, low-key, discreet, rarely seen in public.
Against that family background, the Lu family was, frankly, marrying up.
But all the glamour faded in marriage. Day in and day out, it was about the person, not just the pedigree.
Yu Yin had seen Lin Jinshen once, and the impression stuck with her.
She’d gone to find her cousin that day, catching the end of a business chat between him and Lin Jinshen. At first, she hadn’t seen Lin Jinshen, just overheard her cousin’s voice, taut and formal, like he was facing a strict elder, carefully weighing each word. It didn’t sound like a chat between peers at all.
Then she saw him, and got it immediately.
He had a face made for stillness: deep-set eyes, composed, unsmiling, severe. Had he not looked so young, she’d have thought he was someone’s father, not a peer.
As the meeting wrapped up, her cousin brought out a few bottles of rare wine and invited him to taste. Lin Jinshen checked his watch and declined, he had to be in bed by eleven.
“Even my dad doesn’t go to bed that early,” Yu Yin commented, rolling her eyes.
Lu Yi laughed softly, closing her eyes as the masseuse’s hands expertly lulled her into drowsy contentment.
“Rigid, dull, and utterly boring, that’s my first impression.” Yu Yin sniffed. “You can’t seriously want to spend the rest of your life with a guy like that. And tell me, what kind of man hits thirty without a single girlfriend? There’s gotta be something wrong with him.”
Lu Yi replied, “Funny, I thought those were all pluses.”
Her reasons for picking Lin Jinshen were simple: he was clean, had zero romantic history, and came with both looks and pedigree to spare.
“Plus points? He’s not even a normal guy. You’re looking for a husband, not some walking, talking discipline manual. He’s an adult, he’s got needs, so why are there no women around him? Maybe you should really think about that.”
Yu Yin made the call for her: "If it's not that there's something wrong with his body, it's that he's just not into women."
Lu Yi couldn't help but laugh.
"I'm telling you, I'm serious. My cousin does business with him and says he barely seems human. No feelings, zero emotion. Back when he was studying in the States, he was already running the overseas branch; after coming back, he took over the group. Now he’s getting married, straight-up arranged by his family. Does the guy even have normal human desires?"
After listening, Lu Yi remarked, "Sounds pretty accomplished to me."
"That’s not the point! The issue isn’t whether he’s accomplished, it’s whether someone like that is cut out to be a husband."
Lu Yi only replied, "Got it. Besides, nothing’s set in stone yet, right?"
When she'd picked Lin Jinshen, her parents had hesitated too, even tried lining up another candidate for her, putting two choices in front of her.
They hadn’t even met in person.
"But once it’s set, it’s too late! I can’t just watch you dive headfirst into a dumpster fire," Yu Yin said, dead serious. "I know you couldn’t care less about getting married, but come on, at least don’t be so careless about it."
Lu Yi nodded with a smile. "Okay."
While they were chatting, her phone rang. Lu Yi glanced at the caller ID and ignored it. Before she could set her phone down, it rang again. This time, she just switched it to silent.
Yu Yin heard the vibrations and asked, "Not picking up?"
"Work call."
"From the client?"
"Mhm."
"And you’re still not answering?"
"Suddenly doesn’t feel that urgent."
She wasn’t in a rush, it was the other side who’d be sweating.
Yu Yin remembered that their client for this project was from the Cui family, and their youngest heir was a schoolmate, a familiar face since they were kids.
She knew how Lu Yi rolled. So long as you didn’t cross her line, she’d always be polite and easygoing, able to put up with almost anything. Cross it, though, and she wasn’t some clay Buddha for you to push around.
Yu Yin grinned, closing her eyes. "You’re doing them a favor even picking up."
After her facial and a leisurely afternoon tea, Lu Yi finally picked up at six on the dot.
The voice on the other end was all nervously polite, too anxious to risk getting angry. They asked where she was, they were already at the hotel and ready for the handover.
Lu Yi replied, "Alright, give me a minute."
"Let’s go."
"I’ll come with you," Yu Yin said, happy for the distraction. "Curious to see which hotshot we’re dealing with today."
Lu Yi glanced at her.
Yu Yin raised her hand, swearing, "I promise I’ll behave."
"Come on then." Lu Yi had just finished a deep cleanse. She didn’t bother with makeup except to brush on some nude lipstick to brighten her look. With skin so pale and clear, she looked even more composed than when all made up.
At the hotel lobby, several people were already waiting. Li Chengming kept glancing at the time, his expression tense. When he spotted her, he forced out a stiff smile and hurried over to greet her.
"Sorry, something came up and delayed me," Lu Yi said breezily, her tone light as air.
"It’s fine. We can wait," he replied through gritted teeth.
Lu Yi flashed a gentle smile, that same non-threatening, soft grace.
The exhibition went off without a hitch. Li Chengming was unexpectedly agreeable, inspection done, project delivered right on time.
As he left, Li Chengming leaned in and muttered cryptically, "No wonder you turned me down, Miss Lu. Turns out you had your eye on someone higher up the ladder. Guess I underestimated you."
He'd been in this business forever, a near-veteran of the company. He’d never seen upper management so furious, cursing him out like there was no tomorrow, and all because Lu Yi apparently had some mysterious connection he couldn't suss out.
Lu Yi regarded him calmly, no anger, no mockery, just a soft, dismissive smile that seemed to breeze right past him. She might as well have been ignoring him altogether.
He was nothing to her.
She wasn’t even slightly fazed. Why bother?
Li Chengming’s face darkened, his pride absolutely crushed.
Yu Yin strutted over in her heels, arms folded, sleek finger pointing as her red lips curled. "President Li, right? I’m Lu Yi’s friend."
He offered his hand out of courtesy, but she snatched hers back with that cheeky grin. "Lu Yi’s too nice to say it, but I’m not. Politeness isn’t my strong suit, and my favorite hobby is roasting people."
"Mind sending me your address? No big deal, just want to order you a mirror online. Maybe next time you’ll realize the difference between you and actual humans before coming out thinking you’re hot stuff."
Li Chengming stormed off, face black with humiliation.
Yu Yin raised an eyebrow with a smug little tilt.
Lu Yi’s lips curved. "Looks like I owe you dinner now."
"You do indeed."
The exhibition hall was on the third floor; the two of them took the elevator down to the first.
Suddenly, a commotion erupted in the hotel.
All the lobby staff snapped to attention. Columns of people flowed out, lining up like it was a military drill, silent, tense. A moment later, a large group strode in, dozens of people in sharp business suits, faces tight and eyes fixed ahead. At the front was a tall, imposing figure, his stride sure and commanding.
Strikingly handsome, those features bold and distinct, the bridge of his nose almost severe. That instant of impact felt like a jolt of electricity.
But after that charge, all she sensed was cold, distant, untouchable, with zero warmth.
Not a trace of a smile. His face was pure poker, and the chill seemed contagious; everyone around him fell right in line.
Classic elite boss vibes. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him.
They were supposed to have nothing to do with each other. As they passed, brushing shoulders, their eyes met for a flash, calm, impassive, then both looked straight ahead, as if nothing had happened.
Lu Yi dropped her gaze.
Yu Yin let out a soft click of her tongue. "Strong-guy energy."
"You know him?" Lu Yi asked.
Yu Yin shot her a look of pure exasperation, like there was no saving her. Wrinkling her nose, she grinned wickedly, "Congrats. That’s your future husband."