One stormy night, Su Man collapsed from working overtime and crashed headfirst through the window of a Maybach belonging to Gu Chengzhou, CEO of one of Shanghai’s top investment banks.
Rainwater and shards of glass streaked across the man’s reddened eyes. The suited brute dubbed a “cold-blooded capitalist machine” in the financial headlines was now curled up in the back seat, clutching his asthma medication. His wet hair stuck to his pale face, making him look like an abandoned, expensive stray cat.
The CEO’s office’s star secretary, renowned for her “zero mistakes,” was forced to sign a “repay your debt by staying at my side” agreement. She shielded him from a drinks party where someone had spiked the alcohol, and he let her wipe coffee stains on his designer suit. She mocked him as “an AI that’s gained sentience,” yet when he saw her feeding stray cats on the security footage, he secretly saved the 0.01 seconds when she smiled and showed her little canine teeth.
Only when Su Man discovered the yellowed diary Gu Chengzhou had locked in his safe did she learn that every year, on typhoon days, he went to the ATM vestibule. It was a refuge for a ten-year-old boy, the only shelter he could find on the rainy night his mother died by suicide.
And Gu Chengzhou gripped her trembling shoulder blades and exposed the secret behind her ever-present turtlenecks: “In the chain-reaction car crash in the financial district three years ago, you were the girl in the passenger seat.”
The scumbag ex returned with contracts worth tens of billions, while invitations to marry into wealthy families filled the air.
Gu Chengzhou smashed his family’s heirloom jade ring in front of everyone and hung Su Man’s coffee-stained ID badge on the auction block. “I’m wagering everything I own on you seeing what comes after the storm...”
“At five in the morning, the light over Lujiazui only wakes the wounded beasts licking each other’s wounds.”
