No Longer any Different

Feng Mian didn't know how long the silence lasted until Zhang Liang opened his mouth and replied, "Fine."

Internally, she sighed in relief for she understood that she was betting with her life whenever she asked something from this president. He was someone who was capable of disposing her with just a thought because his background and power allowed him to do so, yet she didn't want to give up on this point. She needed a future for herself.

Once the contract time limit was over, she would return back to her ordinary life. At that time, she certainly needed the work experience and good resume or no company would hire her. She didn't want to die on the street after she had concluded the deal with him.

At this time, she had completely forgotten that she could just ask money from him. A million dollars would be more than enough to keep her alive for more than a decade and that amount was nothing more than a drop in the bucket of water for Zhang Liang.

"Anything else you want to ask?" Lawyer Zhao asked again.

Feng Mian tilted her head. "Will there be any wedding ceremony?"

"No."

"Just signing the certificate and taking a picture?"

"Yes."

"Also, can you keep it a secret from my mother?" Feng Mian recalled her mother. She knew that her mother wouldn't want to see her daughter got married for the sake of money. Even if it was just a fake marriage that has a time limit, it would be better for her to not mention it to her mother.

Zhang Liang arched his eyebrows. "And what do you want to tell her about the money you get?"

"I'll just say that I have advance payment from my new job," Feng Mian replied hurriedly. She had no choice but to keep the detail about her new job a secret from her mother, though.

"Fine."

"Anything else to ask?" Lawyer Zhao asked. He felt weird when he heard Feng Mian's question. Everything she asked seemed to be so trivial and not of that much of importance.

Feng Mian asked a few more questions about her schedule and so on. They also arranged for her to move to Zhang Mansion next week after Zhang Liang announced it to his family. Afterwards, she signed the paper and Lawyer Zhao took it to keep with him.

"Here's the marriage certificate."

"What?"

Seeing the two red books on the table, Feng Mian was utterly speechless. Did he.... forge them?

"It's legal and I already have your signature. All that's left is just the picture," Zhang Liang explained calmly. For him, handling that was simple because he just needed to make a call.

Feng Mian stood up. "Now?"

"Are you sure you want to look like that in the picture?" Zhang Liang shook his head.

Eh?

Touching her face, Feng Mian just recalled that she didn't have the time to prepare herself this morning, so she just did whatever she could to fix her appearance in the bathroom. Ah, she must be looking like a mess in his opinion.

"Fine, we'll take a pic later."

Zhang Liang stood up and walked in her direction. He stopped right before the woman. "Before that, can you act?"

"What?" Feng Mian blinked.

Not saying anything else, Zhang Liang leaned in. His handsome face was dangerously close to her face. She could clearly see his brown pupil as he looked into her eyes. In the next moment, she felt something cold touch her lips for a brief moment.

"Even if I don't have any plan to sleep with you, you need to get used to a kiss because I need to convince my father," Zhang Liang said calmly as he pulled his body away. His eyes watched Feng Mian's expression. "I can see that you don't like the kiss, but you need to control your expression. I hope you can do better next time."

"I… understand," Feng Mian struggled to squeeze out the two words from her mouth.

"You can leave."

Feng Mian nodded and turned around. She walked unhurriedly to the door, opened it, walked out, and slammed the door as she got out.

Lawyer Zhao looked at Zhang Liang in bewilderment. "Miss Feng… is really peculiar."

"She's coming from a normal family and taught to be a law abiding citizen." Zhang Liang returned back to his seat. "No words about this to my family. If they're asking why I never told them, just say that I don't want them to pry into my business."

"Yes." Lawyer Zhao had worked with Zhang Liang for years, so he understood his boss's thought. Internally, he wondered if the excuse will work for Zhang Family. After all, everyone there was very cunning.

Shaking his head, Lawyer Zhao erased the thoughts from his mind. Whatever happened, it was not his business.

On the other hand, Feng Mian looked at Secretary He and asked. Her head looked slightly down. "Secretary He, is there any women's restroom on this floor?"

The people close to Zhang Liang were mostly men, so Feng Mian was not sure that there was any women's restroom on this floor. Sometimes, a guest would come, but she needed to make sure.

"Yes. It's near the lift."

"Ok."

Secretary He was surprised to see Feng Mian kept on lowering her head. He thought that the president must have rebuked her. This was not the first time he saw an employee feeling down after meeting the scary president, so he didn't think it was weird.

Kreet!

Feng Mian pushed the door open and put the cleaning sign at the front. She closed the door and walked to the sink and turned the tap open.

Splash!

Water poured to her hand. Feng Mian lowered her head and splashed it to her face. Afterwards, her right arm was raised as she rubbed her lips. It was just a brief moment, but she didn't like it at all.

As she raised her head and looked at her expression, Feng Mian knew that she must have let her true thoughts show in front of Zhang Liang. Her eyes were red while her cheek contorted.

She hated it.

He might not think too much about it as it was nothing but a test for acting, but she couldn't help but felt bothered by that.

It was her first kiss.

She never had a boyfriend before because she was too busy with her study, work, and taking care of her family. As a maiden, she had a dream of having her first kiss romantically with the man she loved.

Not like this.

Feng Mian stayed there for a few seconds, looking at her own expression. After a while, a bitter laugh escaped her lips as she lowered her hand. "What do you expect, Feng Mian? From the moment you signed the contract, you're no longer any different than those bitches who leech off their men's money."

Her hand wiped her tears. "Wake up, Feng Mian. Real life is not a fairytale. You already learned that a long time ago…."

Feng Mian no longer said anything as she washed her hand for a few more seconds. Afterwards, she took the tissue to wipe her face and hand then rearranged her appearance before walking out of the restroom.