To save my family, I became the contract wife of Lu Jinzhou, a powerful man in Beijing’s elite circle. In public, he doted on me endlessly; in private, he was cold as ice. Then his first love returned from abroad. He moved her into our marital home and warned me, “Know your place.” I lowered my head to hide my smile. Just yesterday, half his fortune had quietly landed in my overseas account. Later, I handed him the divorce papers, but he turned red-eyed on a livestream watched by the whole internet. “Please, don’t go.” I tilted my phone, and the crisp chime of a bank deposit rang out. “Mr. Lu, you still haven’t saved up enough for your ransom.”
