Mrs. Lu, Number 9527

At twenty-four, Shen Nian did the bravest thing she had ever done: she stood in the middle of the road and stopped Lu Yanshen's car with her bare hands.

It wasn't for love. It was for her father's architectural studio, which was on the verge of shutting down. She handed him a proposal for a "contract relationship": she would be his on-call human shield in exchange for the right to stay at the studio, and would repay its 3.72 million yuan debt over the next five years.

Lu Yanshen looked at her for three seconds, then signed.

"Number 9527," he said. "You're the seventh person to propose a deal."

The seventh. The only one who succeeded.

She thought this was just a transaction that suited them both: he needed a woman who wouldn't fall in love with him to deal with the world, and she needed a reason to stay close to her father's dream. But when her dress fit with terrifying precision, when he announced "This is my girlfriend" in front of everyone at a banquet, when she realized that the way he looked at her was becoming less and less like the way one looked at an "employee"...

Shen Nian began to feel afraid.

Not that he would cross the line.

But that she would be the first to lose hold of the heart she'd promised would stay untouched.

In the deepest drawer of Lu Yanshen's desk, a contract lay locked away. The one numbered 9527. He never remembered the first six people having numbers.

--

Three years later, when the contract expired, she wheeled her suitcase to the door.