1.
Everyone thought Xie Xingyun would marry Li Jingqiu.
Li Jingqiu included.
Everyone knew how indulgent Xie Xingyun had been toward Li Jingqiu over the five years since taking the helm.
She was Xie Xingyun's most capable right hand in the world of wealth and fame. She had helped Xie Xingyun establish a foothold in the once chaotic Xie Group, and then rise to the top of the country's business world.
She was Xie Xingyun's partner, and, in everyone's eyes, already Mrs. Xie.
2.
"Do you think Li Jingqiu will become Mrs. Xie?"
"Unlikely. If President Xie really wanted to marry her, he would have done it already. He placates her while she's useful, then trades her in once he finds someone new."
Useful. Leaning against the flower-covered wall, Li Jingqiu rolled the cruel word around in her mind. It seemed almost too apt a description of her relationship with Xie Xingyun.
The next moment, someone laid a hand on her bare shoulder. Before he could speak, she gestured for him to be quiet, signaling that he should listen carefully.
"...President Xie is already stripping Li Jingqiu of her power. He's gotten all the use he can out of her, and the Li family has fallen, too. President Xie should marry a wife who can help him more."
Before Xie Xingyun could rush out and interrupt their speculation, Li Jingqiu stopped him. She wasn't some helpless innocent waiting for Xie Xingyun to swoop in and teach them a lesson. Besides, they weren't wrong.
After waiting day after day, she no longer had any expectations of Xie Xingyun.
3.
The day she left the Xie Group, Li Jingqiu's luck turned around. At a bar, she met a handsome man who was exactly her type.
Refined and elegant, with a full set of abs and a V-line.
The bar was dimly lit that night, and Li Jingqiu was tipsy. In her haze, she still thought the man looked a little like Xie Xingyun.
With the alcohol talking and her hormones running high, she wrapped her arms around his slim waist and fell sound asleep.
By the next day, fully sober, Li Jingqiu realized she might have slept with someone she shouldn't have.
Xia Chulin, who could loosely be called one of Xie Xingyun's childhood friends.
They'd met five years ago, perhaps even earlier. And on the very first night after he'd returned to the country, she'd used him as a body pillow...
"Um, I, you, Xie Xingyun..."
"When I'm with you, I don't want to talk about him." Xia Chulin buttoned his shirt one button at a time. "But I've heard what happened between you two."
"If Xie Xingyun isn't good enough, why not consider me?"
Li Jingqiu, instantly jolted awake: What the hell?
Theme: Love yourself
