"How can we? I don't agree. A wedding only happens once in a lifetime, Qiqi. This is our dream, isn't it?"
Hearing Si Qinyu's anxious tone, Lu Qiqi's heart grew colder inch by inch. "The company has just been established. This is our chance to turn things around. It's better not to be too comfortable."
Si Qinyu glanced sideways. The woman's black hair was coiled up, and her veil draped down from her temples like morning mist, shrouding her delicate profile in a hazy glow. Her exquisite, oval face was etched with a deep frown, and just by her appearance, one could tell she was deeply troubled. "Qiqi, you're just too understanding. It makes me feel ashamed of myself. My dear wife, your words are my command. If you don't want to go, we won't go. I'll make it up to you many times over in the future."
Lu Qiqi's heart ached as she pressed her legs together. She, too, longed for a carefree life, but whose wedding could be as outrageous as hers?
Yun Jing Yuan was one of Si Qinyu's properties, a two-story villa nestled in a courtyard, standing silently in the summer evening breeze.
Lu Qiqi dragged herself inside, feeling as if her legs were filled with cement. In the living room, her mother-in-law was counting the wedding gift money with a cash-counting machine.
Stacks of red banknotes covered the two-meter-long and one-meter-wide coffee table.
The Si family was a century-old, well-established business family. Although Si Qinyu hadn't inherited the family fortune yet, the Si family's prestige, coupled with the wedding, could easily rake in a million in funds through this disguised form of fundraising.
"Qin'er, Qiqi, weren't you going on a trip?" Fang Lehong looked up in the midst of her 'busy schedule,' her surprise evident, though the wide grin that threatened to reach her ears was impossible to suppress.
"Qiqi said the company comes first. You're so lucky to have such a sensible daughter-in-law!" Si Qinyu sat down beside Fang Lehong, his tone sincere and proud, showing no sign that he had just slept with another woman not long ago.
Lu Qiqi felt utterly miserable. Exhausted, she went up to the second floor, to their meticulously decorated bridal chamber, filled with the fragrance of flowers and a dazzling, bright red.
The joy of the wedding was completely lost on her. Lu Qiqi immersed herself in the warm bathwater, her body, as white as sculpted snow, was covered in pinch marks.
That man... he was truly savage in that regard.
She scrubbed herself repeatedly, as if trying to peel off a layer of skin, before finally stopping.
She changed into a long-sleeved nightgown and picked up the hairdryer, starting to dry her towel-dried hair, when she suddenly froze.
There were bloodstains on the wedding dress; she had to get rid of it!
Forgetting about her hair, Lu Qiqi rolled up the discarded wedding dress, stuffed it into a garbage bag, and planned to sneak out the back door to dispose of it in the trash can at the corner of the wall, destroying the evidence.
However, just as she lifted her foot to go downstairs, she heard the blatant sarcasm from the living room, "A girl insisting on managing the company, clamoring about female independence after a few more years of schooling. Once the company goes public, you just hold a board meeting and seize control. Most of the money came from the Si family, the Lu family is all loans, don't think I don't know!"
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Lu Qiqi's steps came to an abrupt halt. The wooden steps seemed to turn into ice, placing her in the depths of a harsh winter.
"Mom, you handle these matters. When the time comes, let the Si family's directors make a fuss, and I'll play the good cop and smooth things over. Even if she's unwilling, she can't blame us. As long as we can make her stay home and be a good wife and mother, I'm willing to do anything."
"That's right. If she wants to be a strong woman, let her work for nothing first. When she's suffered enough, she'll obediently go home and be a leisurely wife, giving birth to at least two children for our Si family within three years. Does she really think it's so easy to climb the social ladder?"
The mother and son's words echoed in Lu Qiqi's mind like a curse. She threw away the wedding dress and lay restlessly in bed, already imagining the problems the company would face in the future.
Verbal attacks, a complete betrayal.
Her parents had envisioned it optimistically. She would use 30% of the funds to marry into the Si family and establish the 'Lingwei' company, focusing on overseas trade.
The Lu family would handle the suppliers, while the Si family would be responsible for the docks and cargo ships. With the Si family's network overseas, the capital would quickly circulate, and it would also boost the development of the Lu family's business.
What they saw as an unbreakable alliance, a friendship between families, the Si family's calculations were louder than thunder!
Not only would they get a daughter-in-law for free, but they would also firmly grasp the power.
And she, Lu Qiqi, would be reduced to a mere breeding tool!
No, she wouldn't even be a breeding tool. After all, Si Qinyu and Shen Manli were deeply involved. Perhaps the moment he secured control of the company, he would kick her out! Otherwise, wouldn't he be exhausted from all this acting?
The idea of this marriage alliance came from the Si family's old master, that elderly man. He probably never imagined that his grandson, Si Qinyu, would even use marriage as a calculation to obtain the Si family inheritance!
What to do...
Marriage is a gamble, and the future of the Lu family is at stake!
Lu Qiqi tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
The sky was already dark, and in the blink of an eye, it was the early hours of the morning. Just before drifting into a hazy slumber, a thought sparked in her mind.
She needed to take a different approach, to find other investors.
The Si family wanted to swallow up the funds they had worked so hard to secure. Why not take a gamble and knock Si Qinyu off the table first?
As the first light of dawn broke, a man's fingertips brushed across her cheek.
Lu Qiqi felt as though she had only just closed her eyes for a moment. Abruptly, she opened them to see Si Qinyu, propped up on one elbow, now wearing silk pajamas matching her own, gazing down at her with deep affection.
"Wifey, sleepyhead, it's nine-thirty already," Si Qinyu said, a smile playing on his lips. His soft features and flirtatious eyes made him look like a jade-faced young lord, captivating to anyone who beheld him.
Lu Qiqi's eyes were bloodshot, her body stiff and unmoving.
What was he playing at, pretending they had slept together all night? Did he think she was dead, unaware that he had only slipped into bed in the latter half of the night?
"Still not awake, are you?" Si Qinyu gently pinched her nose, his tone full of tender indulgence. "I made you some bird's nest soup. Drink it while it's hot, it'll nourish you."
Lu Qiqi remained motionless. Si Qinyu, fully embracing the persona of a devoted husband, sat up, picked up the bowl of bird's nest soup, scooped a spoonful, and blew on it with practiced ease.
"Come on, piggy, open wide, ah~"
He brought the spoon to her lips. The crystal-clear bird's nest soup, to Lu Qiqi, seemed no different from deadly poison.
"I can do it myself." Her frozen nerves began to thaw. She took the bowl. "I have a business meeting to attend, so I'll skip breakfast."
She casually placed the fine bone china bowl of bird's nest soup on the nightstand, treating Si Qinyu's affections with robotic indifference, offering no genuine response.
She entered the bathroom in her slippers. Frowning, Si Qinyu stared at the closed bathroom door, feeling that Lu Qiqi was somewhat different from before.
Even if eight out of ten sentences she spoke were about work in the past, she would still act a little coy, wrapping her arms around his neck, snuggling into his embrace, and whispering sweet nothings in a soft, melodious voice.
Could it be a post-wedding stress reaction?
The sound of running water echoed from the bathroom. Lu Qiqi washed her face, brushed her teeth, applied a facial mask, and moisturized, deliberately killing time. Only when she heard Si Qinyu say from the bedroom, 'Honey, I'm going downstairs,' did her eyes darken, and she stopped pampering her skin.
She hadn't understood the meaning of 'sharing the same bed but dreaming different dreams' before, but now she understood it all too well.