[Love After Marriage + secret crush realized + sweet pampering] She was the mistaken daughter, a fake heiress. After the real daughters's returned, everyone despises her. "Please marry me." She had no choice but to beg the tyrant tycoon, "Even if it's just for one year." She had prepared herself to be rejected, yet he actually agreed. Married for a year, each for their own needs. A fake heiress actually married the famous bigshot! Everyone was waiting to watch her get dumped. But they only find out that the tycoon started pampering her without any limits. A year later, she proposed to divorce according to the contract. The tycoon pushed her against the wall and smirked. "Where do you want to go with my baby in your belly?"
"Ah Hen, do you have time to come back recently?"
"I'm busy."
At the Masquerade Ball, Chu Zhiyi, wearing a mask, stood in the shadows, watching the lovey-dovey couple not far away.
The man held a mobile phone, flirting with the woman by his side without forgetting.
"It's my birthday in a few days…" Chu Zhiyi continued, "Uncle and Aunt, along with my parents, want to throw a birthday party for me, to announce our wedding date at the party."
The man was silent for a moment before he chuckled, "Then just announce it, I'll come by on the day we register our marriage."
"Alright, then I'm hanging up."
Chu Zhiyi hung up the phone, her eyes resembling peach blossoms slightly squinting.
She observed leisurely for half a day at the two who seemed to be unable to control themselves.
One of them was Chu Zhiyi's fiancé, Zhou Hen, the man she was talking to.
Initially, in front of many elders, Zhou Hen joked, "I quite like Chu Zhiyi," which the elders took seriously.
To penetrate into the upper echelons of Jiang City, Chu Zhiyi's parents tirelessly engaged with the Zhou family parents, eager to peddle their daughter.
Not only was Chu Zhiyi at the top of her studies, but her conduct was also measured, and she was well-behaved and appropriate.
Although she was young, she already possessed a beauty that surpassed her parents, and the Zhou family was very pleased with her.
Soon, the two families engaged her to Zhou Hen when she was eighteen.
As years passed, Zhou Hen gradually became infamous for his womanizing, and having a fiancée did not stop his nightly revelries.
In the past, Chu Zhiyi would get angry at Zhou Hen for being intimate with other girls behind her back, and she told her mother about it.
But her mother just looked at her and said coldly, "It's not a big deal for boys to like to play. Zhizhi, our company still needs the Zhou family's investment, you can't ruin our family's business over your petty girlish whims, understand?"
When she delicately brought up this issue to Mother Zhou, Mother Zhou, with feigned gentleness but a hidden edge, told her, "In a while, your father's company will go public, and your uncle has prepared a gift to send over... As for Ah Hen's issue, it won't exist after you get married. He's still young, let him have his fun for a few more years. I know you, Zhizhi, are a good girl and won't hold it against Ah Hen, right?"
Chu Zhiyi understood.
To the Chu and Zhou families, she was merely a bridge for their partnership, a chess piece to be moved around as needed.
Chu Zhiyi learned to pretend she didn't notice Zhou Hen's dalliances with other women, playing the role of his obedient fiancée.
Just like now.
Zhou Hen had time to attend the Masquerade Ball with his girlfriend behind her back, yet couldn't even come to the birthday party to announce their wedding date.
She withdrew her gaze, catching sight of someone standing by her side from the corner of her eye.
Chu Zhiyi was startled and took two steps back.
The man was tall and wore the distinctive mask of the Masquerade Ball, revealing only his chin and thin lips.
He seemed to see through Chu Zhiyi's indifference, leisurely watching her fiancé flirt with another woman, and his exposed thin lips curled upwards.
Chu Zhiyi understood his smile and felt annoyed, "Were you eavesdropping?"
The man turned his head to look at her, unperturbed, his voice clear and mellow, "Aren't you also sneakily watching?"
Chu Zhiyi, having her actions directly pointed out, became even more irritated.
"Your fiancé?" He gestured with his chin towards the couple that had stood up and was walking in their direction, "Looks like they're coming over."
Chu Zhiyi looked and indeed saw Zhou Hen and that woman approaching.
Even with a mask on, Zhou Hen would surely recognize her!
Chu Zhiyi instinctively wanted to leave.
The man stepped forward to block her path, leaning slightly forward, and Chu Zhiyi couldn't discern his expression under the silver mask, only his dark pupils.
She heard his voice, slightly beguiling, "Haven't you ever thought about revenge for your fiancé messing around?"
Chu Zhiyi was smart and naturally understood the man's implication.
Indeed.
Just what she had seen was enough, Zhou Hen had not been with few women.
If she got angry, she probably would've been infuriated to death by now.
Chu Zhiyi stared intently at the man, her eyebrows lightly raised, "Have a girlfriend?"
"No."
"This Masquerade Ball is really fun, big brother, tomorrow I'll wear a mask that you definitely won't be able to recognize, and then you won't be able to find out which one is me."
The voice of Zhou Hen's companion was coquettish as she clung to his arm and acted spoiled.
Zhou Hen put on his mask, his carefree laugh followed, "I can tell at a glance which one is you."
The woman's laughter trembled more and more like blooming branches.
They had walked even closer now.
Chu Zhiyi stepped closer to him, her arm raised to hook around the man's neck, her voice soft and low, "Then, nobody should mind if I kiss you, right?"
The man's eyebrows lifted slightly, his bowing motion unchanged.
Chu Zhiyi stood on tiptoe and kissed his lips.
The man's breath deepened, and the next second, he had her entirely in his embrace.
His kiss was forceful.
Although it was just four lips touching, Chu Zhiyi had the illusion that he could swallow her whole in the next moment.
Chu Zhiyi panicked for no reason.
Zhou Hen and his companion passed by and saw the man and woman embracing and kissing; he scoffed.
"So thirsty…" his companion mocked in a hushed tone.
Chu Zhiyi heard her words, and her thoughts suddenly pulled away.
She almost couldn't resist going up and knocking her on the head with a club!
Damn it.
She hadn't yet settled the score with this dog man and woman, and they had the nerve to talk about others?
The man let go of her, his hand pinching her chin, his voice growing huskier, "Be more serious when we kiss next time."
Chu Zhiyi: "..."
This man she encountered seemed to have a bit of a flirtatious air about him.
Zhou Hen originally didn't want to pay attention to these two, but then he saw the ring on Chu Zhiyi's hand.
His pupils contracted, he suddenly stopped, and stared fixedly at Chu Zhiyi.
Seemingly aware of Zhou Hen's gaze, the man held Chu Zhiyi in his arms, his tone laced with impatience, "Is there a problem?"
Hidden in the man's embrace, Chu Zhiyi's heart beat thunderously, her eyes, masked by the masquerade, looking towards Zhou Hen.
"Chu Zhiyi?" Zhou Hen frowned and called her.
Chu Zhiyi: I knew that Zhou Hen, that dog, would definitely recognize me.
Even if recognized, Chu Zhiyi couldn't admit it was her.
Chu Zhiyi withdrew her hand and silently took off the ring, imitating the way Zhou Hen's companion had spoken earlier, she delicately said to the man, "Brother, let's go somewhere else~"
Having said that, Chu Zhiyi almost died of embarrassment, looking for a hole to crawl into!
The man: "..."
He couldn't resist and let out a low laugh, "Okay."
The man hugged her a bit tighter.
Chu Zhiyi could only bury her head and play dead in the man's embrace, the very picture of a woman reliant on a man.
The man carried her outside. Halfway there, he suddenly stopped, turned his head towards Zhou Hen, "She's with me."
Zhou Hen furrowed his brow, and when he looked once more at Chu Zhiyi's hand, he suddenly noticed the ring was gone.
Was it his imagination?
"Brother, shall we go too?"
"Mm."
Zhou Hen didn't dwell on it any longer.
The obedient and well-behaved Chu Zhiyi, in Zhou Hen's mind, was now being taken elsewhere by the man.
She noticed that the man walked very slowly and steadily.
After dealing with Zhou Hen, the covert excitement within Chu Zhiyi faded, and she felt embarrassment creeping up on her after the fact.
"Let me down."
But the man didn't release her, instead, he arched an eyebrow, holding her even tighter and drawing out his words, "It doesn't seem quite right to use and then discard, does it?"
Chu Zhiyi knew at once that she had entangled herself with someone not so easily shaken off.
In a little while, her parents would be looking for her, she couldn't keep entangled with him!