Gilded Gold on a Rainy Night

On a neon-lit night five years ago, as rain poured down, Qiu Ting threw her engagement ring onto the wet ground and turned away without looking back, vanishing from the life of her first love, Shen Que. She took with her a broken heart and a huge misunderstanding. The intimate photo she had seen with her own eyes was actually a carefully orchestrated trap set by her jealous best friend, Lin Weiwei. Shen Que, the proud young man who never explained himself, picked up the ring in the rain but could never win back the woman he loved. All he had left were countless love letters he never sent and five years of insomnia.

Five years later, Qiu Ting had become a well-regarded independent consultant in the art auction world. Cool-headed and professional, she buried the past beneath a busy schedule. To lay the foundation for her career, she spent six months pursuing a nineteenth-century antique jewel called "Tears of the Stars," soon to be auctioned. She was determined to win it. But at the last moment, a mysterious buyer seated in the shadows outbid her decisively. Under the gilded lights, a man rose and walked toward her, his immaculate suit wrapped around an aura both familiar and dangerous. It was Shen Que.

He leaned down and whispered terms in her ear, his breath burning against her skin: "I'll pay double the penalty for breaking the contract. In return, be my private art consultant for three months. You'll be at my side, ready whenever I call." To keep her career from falling apart, and because of the feelings she couldn't quite name, Qiu Ting gritted her teeth and accepted this humiliating yet ambiguous agreement.