When love has a price tag, sincerity is the only bargaining chip.
On the night her father fell ill and her company was besieged, bankrupt jewelry designer Shen Xingyue signed a marriage contract in her darkest hour: three years of marriage in exchange for 300 million in funding.
The buyer was Lu Jinshen, a ruthless, precise financial predator feared throughout the business world and notorious for casting love aside without a second thought.
The terms were clear: separate bedrooms, no public announcement, no interference in each other’s lives. They only had to play the part of a loving couple in front of others.
Shen Xingyue thought it was just a transaction in which each got what they needed. She moved into his mansion but lived at opposite ends of it, used the studio he provided to revive her family brand, teamed up with him to put their enemies in their place at business banquets, and was even protected by him at the cost of his own life when danger struck.
Little by little, she could no longer tell which moments were an act and which were sincere: the late-night vigils, the embraces in times of danger, the tenderness in his eyes when others were watching.
When the three years were up, she had finally gathered enough capital to rebuild Xingyun and placed a signed divorce agreement in front of him.
The man who had never wanted their marriage made public pinned her against the wall of the civil affairs bureau, his eyes bloodshot. “Who said the contract was over?”
He handed her a new document. Three years ago, he had already transferred all his Lu family shares, real estate, and investment funds into her name.
“Shen Xingyue.” He gripped her hand, his voice hoarse. “Now I’m staking everything I own on the rest of your life.”
“Marriage can be contractual, but love can’t. Lu Jinshen, I want you to love me willingly.”
“Three years of marriage taught you one thing: real jewels can withstand the flames, and so can real love.”
A marriage as the contract, love as the wager. In this high-stakes gamble, whoever falls first loses everything.
