Translator: Xena
Editor: CLYo
At noon that day, Jiang Yao took a short nap in the office. He opened his eyes on time, stretched his muscles, took a few sips of the mocha brought by his secretary, and then took out a small spray bottle to water the lush evergreen tree next to his desk.
The sun was shining brightly outside the window, and the leisurely and comfortable afternoon declared that his gloomy mood had mostly cleared up.
The phone on the table vibrated twice.
His childhood friend Chen Yiqi sent him a message, inviting him to go out and have fun on Saturday.
Jiang Yao: [I’m not free on Saturday. I have to meet someone.]
Chen Yiqi: [Who, another customer? You’ve been working overtime for over ten days, aren’t you afraid of sudden death?]
Jiang Yao: [To see my wife.]
The next second, Chen Yiqi threw dozens of question marks.
Jiang Yao stood up and put the spray bottle back into the cabinet. He waited until Chen Yiqi had finished his madness before he slowly typed: [My future wife, to be precise. I might get married.]
After sending the message, the name at the top of the chat box immediately turned to “typing” and remained like this for more than a minute.
The message that popped up afterward was just one word: [Congratulations.]
During that minute, Chen Yiqi did type a lot.
Things such as “Who is it?”, “Why is it so sudden?”, “Just blink if you’re forced”, “Do you need your brother to help you escape the marriage?”
But they were all deleted in the end.
He and Jiang Yao grew up together. Apart from Shen Tang, he had never seen Jiang Yao like anyone else. However, Shen Tang was already a married man.
Coming from families like theirs, few people could have complete control over their own marriage.
Two people were usually brought together by common interests. They could either come together politely as a formality or become a couple with resentment towards each other.
In a way, it was a good thing that Jiang Xin could think so openly. Why would he come up with some bad ideas that would affect his brothers’ mentality?
Besides, there have been many examples of people running away from marriage in the past. They ran away from home, had their financial support cut off, and after having to swallow coarse food for a few days, they all came back and got married obediently.
No one was willing to give up the immense wealth they were born with.
Chen Yiqi: [If it works, remember to help me say hi to my future sister-in-law.]
Jiang Yao leaned against the desk and lazily replied [OK~].
Chen Yiqi was a man who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Within a few minutes, several of his regular friends came to inquire about what happened.
To prevent others from lining up to ask, Jiang Yao simply sent a mass “blind date notice” to the group to notify everyone one by one.
When he said he might get married, he received a bunch of shocked “Congratulations”.
*
Perhaps it was some kind of escapist mentality at work, but over the next few days, Jiang Yao never asked who the man he was marrying was.
His parents seemed to be taking care of his feelings and never took the initiative to mention the other’s information.
In the blink of an eye, it was the afternoon of the day when he was going to meet his marriage partner.
Jiang Yao was sitting in the car, holding his cell phone and playing cards with Chen Yiqi and another friend. He won three consecutive wins.
Chen Yiqi commented on the public chat: [This luck is really awesome. Even if you step on dog poop, you will still smell good. It seems that our Brother Yao is going to marry a good wife.]
The Friend: [It would be best if she is someone who’s good at housework and is gentle, well-behaved and doesn’t cause trouble. Unlike the two from the Lu and Gu families, both of whom didn’t come home and divorced after a few months, causing such a big fuss.]
This friend was talking about the eldest grandson of a real estate tycoon and the youngest son of a private bank.
Rumor has it that the two have never met each other, and on the wedding day, the youngster from the Gu family even married the wrong person.
To this day, their failed marriage has become a laughing stock in the industry.
Jiang Yao had never worried about this situation.
After all, the chances of two people—brought together by interests—becoming lovers who support each other or becoming enemies who were extremely jealous of each other, were extremely slim. In a sense, the Lu and Gu children could be considered “chosen ones”.
Jiang Yao: [I’ll borrow your good words.]
He was in a good mood after winning the card games, smiling with the corners of his lips curled up, not at all like an unlucky guy who was forced into marriage.
The car entered the last section of the road.
Yuan Li nagged in Jiang Yao’s ear, “Yaoyao, he’s a serious boy who abides by his duties. Be polite when we get to the restaurant. Don’t scare him.”
Jiang Yao freed up one of his hands from playing cards and waved it impatiently. “I know, Mom. I’m already giving you face by dressing like this.”
At his mother’s urging, he deliberately set aside his usual flashy fashion style and only wore a thin ginger-yellow sweatshirt paired with casual pants. He didn’t even use hairspray to style his hair, letting his bangs fall on his eyebrows.
Except for the red highlights at the end of his hair, he looked like a student who had not yet entered society.
His mother always called his marriage partner “boy”, so he was probably young and easy to handle. It wasn’t a bad idea for him to follow suit.
The dining venue was a rather elegant Chinese restaurant.
The car slowly drove into the area for VIPs, and the valet came forward politely to help park the car.
After getting out of the car, Jiang Yao stood two meters behind Jiang Qingtian and Yuan Li as they walked towards the garden room on the first floor accompanied by the pleasant sound of pipa.
When they crossed the path and reached the door, he was just in time to get ten consecutive wins and end his last game of cards.
“Nice!”1Said in English
Jiang Yao raised his head proudly, his line of sight crossing overhead his parents.
Immediately after, that bright smile was as if sealed on his lips like cement.
Inside the room filled with lingering tea vapor, a man as conspicuous as jade sat upright.
Jiang Yao almost lost his grip on the phone. He stumbled two to three steps forward as if he had been kicked hard in the butt.
Looking at the elegant Duan Zhuxian in a suit and tie, Jiang Yao very articulately uttered a curse word in front of the whole room:
“Fuck, why are you my wife?”
【The author has something to say】
Seeing that some babies are interested in the Gu and Lu families, I also opened a pit for them, 你消停一点2Lit. translation is You Calm Down a Bit. I kept the orig Chinese characters so you guys can search it if you’re interested., which is also a marriage first, love later novel. You can see it in my column, you can also add it to your bookmarks first——2024.3.19
