(Business marriage x married first, love later x high-powered political family romance)
(Lu Jibai, a top-ranking power broker VS Su Xu, a sacrifice for her family)
When the Lu family of Beijing's elite circle signed a marriage alliance with the nearly bankrupt Su family, no one had faith in this transaction of mutual convenience. Lu Jibai was a top-ranking power broker with military, political, and business connections. Rumor had it he was cold and ruthless, with not a trace of warmth in his eyes. Su Xu, meanwhile, was the sacrifice her family had put forward, as quiet as an old painting that could not speak.
On their wedding night, Lu Jibai slapped a prepared “contract” down in front of her. “Play the part of Mrs. Lu. Don't overstep.” Su Xu lowered her eyes and signed, hiding her feelings in every bowl of hangover soup she brought him. He defended her dignity in public, but when she happened to see him laughing with an old acquaintance, he turned around and coldly warned her to “remember your place.”
Lu Xingmian's provocations and the Su family's schemes came one after another. As Su Xu struggled in the mire, Lu Jibai quietly cleared the obstacles in her way: destroying forged evidence and defending her shares at a board meeting. But when she summoned the courage to test his feelings, all he left her with was his cold, retreating figure.
Only when the Su family had completely collapsed and she came to him with divorce papers did Lu Jibai cast off his disguise and pull her into his arms. His fingertip brushed her reddened eyes. “The contract never said you could divorce me.” The portraits of Su Xu hidden in his study, painted late at night, finally revealed the deep, possessive love he had never spoken of in this “contract marriage.”
