1 Forlorn, Shattered Hearts

"You stay standing right there, and you owe me an explanation!"

Under the distant moon hovering over the city of Jiangbei, a young couple argued with passionate and inflamed hearts. The cars on the night streets raced by as their ferried passengers began their nightly journey back home. Lights flickered from within the multiple buildings as they fought away the dark, and the room of the young couple shone brightly amongst the earthly stars.

"Xi Chen, you explain to this lady this instant!"

"What is there to explain!?"

Stranded within the expansive living room of a high-elevation villa, a young man fervently parried off a young woman's verbal assaults. With each spar of words, the couple approached, defended, and retreated from the other.

"What is there to explain!? Explain to this lady about that affair of yours, with that pretty woman with the surname of Fan!"

"Who had the affair!? What did Xiu-er do to trigger your wrath? Why are you even angry – when you brought this entire fiasco upon yourself!?"

There was no exchange of sentiments, nor a shared plateau of common understanding. Though the young couple remained physically civil and argued from opposite ends of the living room, all pretense of kindness had been shorn away by a vicious pair of shears.

"How did this lady bring this onto myself!? You were the adulterer, how do you dare place the blame onto my head!?"

Zhang Liuxian shouted as she pointed a staggering finger towards the equally enraged Xi Chen, her expression warped into one of utter disdain and disgust. The young man crossed his arms to control his temper, though his brows knit strongly in expression of his discontent.

"I'm an adulterer?" Xi Chen repeated in a disbelieving tone.

"You call me an adulterer, Zhang Liuxian? I, this honorable man, am an adulterer to you?"

"If you are not an adulterer, then who is?" Zhang Liuxian retorted with a strong and frenzied voice.

"Who was the man who got drunk on his birthday in some unknown, decrepit bar, hooked up with some ugly vixen from the slums, and stayed with her for an entire week!? Who was the man who dared do such atrocities behind their wife's back!?"

Chen Xi visibly recoiled at the stream of words blasting around the sides of his head, and took a step backwards whilst shaking his head to his left and right. The young man stared at the young woman standing across from him with her astonishing beauty distorted by cold disgust, and stood in silent.

Silence didn't mean acceptance, nor did it signify that the storm had ceased to vent its rage.

"You… called yourself my wife? You also insinuated that I put a green hat on your head, since I slept with Xiu-er?"

Chen Xi's lips drew into a cold smile as he stared into the pair of white-hot eyes blazing with fury, and his heart chilled even further upon observing the absence of affection. The young man relaxed his arms and lowered them to his sides, suddenly finding the entire matter pointless.

Those eyes never held any affection for him, not once in the three years that she stayed with him.

Why was he so naïve to expect them to hold any fragment of warmth now, when they had always been directed towards another?

"Zhang Liuxian, did you forget our status, and how it came to be?" Xi Chen scoffed with a quiet voice.

"I forgot our status!? How dare you even raise that up – who was the one to commit adultery –"

"We were bound by a marriage contract. I would serve as your fake husband for you to use as a shield to ward off those pesky flies, and you would help save my hospitalized sister."

The words were devoid of emotion, but their destructiveness was the same. Zhang Liuxian wished that she could tear the despicable man standing across from her into shreds, but didn't raise her voice.

"For these three years, I fought with my life to secure your Zhang Family's corporation from ruin. You wanted a shield to ward off those jackals wearing the suits of prospective husbands, hence I warded them off with faithfulness. You wanted someone capable of raising a toppled business empire into a newfound glory, hence I raised it from its own ashes into an unstoppable behemoth of China – no, the entire world."

"I don't have the family background of your Zhang Family. It's natural that once those suitors became disgusted by my presence, they would vent it out on a pitiful Xi Family from who-knows-where rather than the Zhang Family whose roots lie deep within Beijing," Xi Chen stared into his thin and slender fingers, a thread of emotion racing through his heart.

"My single mother unexpectedly passed away in an unforeseen car accident, and the doctors at Jiangbei's provincial hospital somehow forgot to give my little sister her medication until she passed away in extreme pain. But what did your Zhang Family do? What did you do – as my contractual wife? Nothing - am I right?"

"It was a crucial period for the company! You know yourself – do you really think that the company could have survived if there were any mishaps during that phase!?"

Zhang Liuxian snorted as she stared down towards the young man with his head lowered. The young woman abruptly turned away to face the platinum-grade glass windows overseeing the entirety of Jiangbei City from its vantage point, her splayed fingers stretching towards the outskirts.

"And don't ask that of our Zhang Family. We did our utmost to uphold our side of the contract –"

"Do you really think that I don't know?"

The young man interrupted with a grim sneer. Through the distorted reflection presented by the luxurious glass windows, Zhang Liuxian watched the previously peaceful and refined man transform into an angered devil.

"On the day that my mother died, the person responsible for driving the aggressor's car was a subordinate of the Zhang Family. On the day my little sister was killed by those scum of the Liu Family of Shanghai, your Zhang Family were still the principle owners of the hospital, and the director was under Zhang Fenglin's thumb. Do you really think that I don't know what your Zhang Family was thinking during that time?"

"We were just –"

"Yes, everything was for the company. Everything was for the Zhang Family," Xi Chen breathed.

"My poor and hardworking single mother was disposable, my genius yet unfortunate little sister was disposable, and I myself was slated to be mysteriously executed after the Zhang corporation rose to prominence once again. Wasn't that what your Zhang Family was planning – that you placed before me such a contract in the first place?"

Walking towards a leather-bound futon standing against a wall, Xi Chen opened the prepared briefcase with steady fingers. Then, before the cold countenance of Zhang Liuxian, he rummaged through the neatly organized folders inside, until his fingertips chanced upon a certain folder.

It contained a marriage certificate and a red book issued by the government bureau, as well as an expansive contract.

"While we were bound together as a legal husband and wife, I was forbidden from physically touching you. We slept in different rooms wherever we were, and in the company, I was nothing more than a talented employee indebted to your family. I couldn't call you my wife, and you certainly didn't address me as a husband."

The quiet and reserved man took a deep breath, before a roar erupted from his throat. Fueled by bitter emotions, Xi Chen's voice swallowed the entire villa whole in his rage.

"You even labeled me as a fake husband before all of those scions during the banquets, causing their rage and actions to become even more intolerable. Do you really think that I didn't know your secret discussions with that Fang Xuan!?" the man shouted, and his hands fervently waved the folder.

"The fake marriage plan was schemed by the two of you – to allow the Zhang Family to regain its footing in the social world, and for you to gain the qualifications to marry into the Fang Family! To that end, you and your Zhang Family were willing to put me into such miserable states, only to maximize your gains – why else would you hand me a marriage book but not host a wedding!?"

"As my lawfully wedded wife, you don't even pay attention to your husband but to another man! And you have the audacity to label me as an adulterer, even after all of the blood that I have shed for your Zhang Family!?"

I've had enough!

"Everything I own in this house was earned with my own money. None of your Zhang Family's wealth was touched in these three years – nothing!"

Enough humiliation that transcends the limit of any man's dignity!

Xi Chen took a staggering breath, and hurled the folder – marriage certificate, red booklet, and marriage contract and all – into the crackling fireplace. There, before Zhang Liuxian's utterly disconsolate and now indifferent gaze, the young man slung the briefcase over his shoulder, and left the villa with mighty steps.