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Find a suitable woman to marry.

Xing Yue had been drinking yesterday, hadn't slept well, and had an injury on her face. She would probably draw stares if she took the subway looking like that.

Bo Wuxue had been called in to drive. She parked at the front gate instead of pulling in and shouted, "Xing—Yue!"

The little villa had only two floors. Bo Wuxue looked up and caught sight of a figure in red. Looking closer, she saw two people by the floor-to-ceiling window: Xing Yue was crouching to put Bu Yao's shoes on for her. Only when she was done did she pick up her bag and leave.

The sight made Bo Wuxue grit her teeth. As soon as Xing Yue got in the car, she shook her head. "Tsk, tsk. You've fallen far, Xing Yue."

She had thought Xing Yue hated waiting on Miss Bu with a passion. She hadn't expected her to pick it up again after all these years.

"Wasn't it your idea?" Xing Yue fastened her seat belt. She had brushed her bangs across the slightly swollen side of her face and, for once, put on a little blush to look livelier. Unless someone looked closely, they wouldn't notice anything. "Sleep with the young lady, have her lay seven or eight little snake eggs for me, carve up the Bu family fortune, and bring two big baskets of little snake lovers into the Bu mansion. Swap out one basket every quarter."

Xing Yue had more or less recited the plan Bo Wuxue had concocted.

Hearing the teasing in Xing Yue's voice, Bo Wuxue breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't doing anything desperate. Bo Wuxue had thought she was really about to repeat her old mistakes.

Being married to Miss Bu had been agony. Even watching from the sidelines had been painful.

"What are you thinking now?" Bo Wuxue drove with one hand and passed Xing Yue the breakfast she had brought with the other. "If you want to terminate your contract and can't cover the penalty, I'll lend you the money."

Xing Yue had made a little money over the years. She had bought a house and a car, and had bought her mother an apartment back home to rent out for her retirement. She might still have some savings, but certainly not enough to pay the penalty.

Terminating the contract was the only solution Bo Wuxue could think of.

No one knew better than she did how much Xing Yue hated showing her face. In her cover-song videos, Xing Yue usually used lighting to leave herself in silhouette, never showing her features clearly. Otherwise, she recorded only the song and paired it with footage of herself playing piano.

"Who said I wanted to terminate it?" Xing Yue opened the box. Inside were her favorite shrimp wontons. She speared one with a pick and offered it to Bo Wuxue. "The penalty's so high. If I terminate the contract, won't all those years of work leave me with nothing?"

Bo Wuxue was stunned. She couldn't quite figure out what Xing Yue was thinking. "So you've decided to go along with it? That's fine, too. It's money, after all. No one complains about having too much. I just worry you won't be happy earning it."

After all, Xing Yue had stood firm for ten years, refusing the company every time. Her sudden change of mind came as a surprise.

But then Bo Wuxue remembered that Xing Yue had no choice but to accept a major change in her career, and she felt bad for her again. Besides, Xing Yue had a medical condition. Having her identity exposed a third time couldn't be good.

Xing Yue wasn't young anymore. If she were twenty-five, she could afford to act on impulse and pay the price for it. But at her age, she approached things with more maturity and reason.

She had gotten drunk and made a scene yesterday, and afterward she had felt a little better. She had thought it through calmly. "I'll accept Madam Bu's arrangements, and I'll do a good job. The Bu Family has power, influence, and money. Making an entertainer famous would be easy for them, so why shouldn't I take the chance to make a fortune? I can use their connections to get my tail treated, too. Once my contract's up, I'll have my health and a hefty nest egg. I'll find a suitable woman to marry and start a family. We don't have to have children, as long as we're happy. Then I can do whatever I want and go wherever I want."

At most, she would have to endure another four years. After all the hardship she had already been through, betting those years on the rest of her life didn't seem entirely unacceptable.

She didn't have much money now, and work was a constant source of anxiety. She couldn't change her situation or get free of the company. Her only other option was to pay an enormous penalty and lose everything she had built. That would be a fate worse than death.

Bo Wuxue immediately caught one phrase. "Marry a suitable woman... What makes a woman suitable?"

Xing Yue summed up what she had learned from two failed relationships. "No class divide. An equal relationship. Mutual love. Physical compatibility."

The Bu Family really had hurt her badly. She had put "no class divide" first.

"Oh. So you're not considering Miss Bu?" Bo Wuxue thought of what she had seen earlier, and understanding dawned. "I get it. You're manipulating her, coaxing her into finding you a good doctor and getting you good opportunities."

Xing Yue didn't deny it right away. She only explained, "Her mother just wants to humiliate me. She has no intention of promoting me. She only wants to put me out there as a token, just to make up the numbers. Bu Yao's the only person I can turn to."

Then she felt that wasn't quite enough and added, "I didn't say I wasn't considering Bu Yao. Aren't we still figuring out how to get along? If she didn't treat me like a dog and order me around, she wouldn't be so annoying."

Not annoying. She even liked her a little.

Bu Yao's personality really was hard for her to handle. Even now, Xing Yue's conditioned response hadn't gone away. The slightest hint that Bu Yao wanted to control her could make her furious in an instant.

It was only because some of her plans depended on Bu Yao that she was willing to lower her guard and coax her into a good mood. That wasn't scheming, was it? She hadn't lied to Bu Yao about anything...

By the time she reached that point, even Xing Yue couldn't quite defend herself. She turned to look out the window, her thoughts in turmoil.

She had a clear plan, yet having to deliberately show Bu Yao some warmth to carry it out made her hesitate. But if she didn't, she could only be a puppet, playing the clown on Madam Bu's strings while people mocked and trampled her.

What was wrong with being a little gentler to Bu Yao? That woman burst into tears at the drop of a hat. If a few sweet words would soothe her, Xing Yue could say a few more.

The young lady was even rather cute sometimes.

Bo Wuxue had no particular opinion about Xing Yue's plan. Before, she had worried about how Xing Yue would live if she terminated her contract, knowing Xing Yue would never accept financial help from her.

She had also worried that if Xing Yue stayed, Madam Bu would have her under her thumb, pushing her down and forcing her to do things she hated. Seeing Xing Yue make such a calm, rational choice now actually made her happy.

She didn't care what happened to anyone else, as long as Xing Yue was all right.

The car pulled up outside the company building.

"Off you go, superstar."

Xing Yue intended to make up the short-script recording from yesterday. She hadn't discussed it with the studio staff yet.

When she walked in, she found a group of people sitting in the conference room. Alongside the familiar faces were two she didn't recognize.

"Hello, Ms. Xing. I'm Jiang Li's assistant. You can call me Xiao Tang." The first woman to rise wore an ingratiating smile and eagerly shook Xing Yue's hand.

Xing Yue nodded. Now she knew who the other woman was.

Xiao Tang was about to take something from a document envelope when the woman beside her took it instead and explained to Xing Yue herself. "Senior Yue, this is the paperwork from my younger sister's hospital visit yesterday. Please take a look. I truly didn't mean to miss our appointment. Please give me another chance."

Xing Yue took it without thinking. Her gaze fell on the form. The patient's name and age were on the first line, and beneath them it clearly read: "Convulsions due to food poisoning."

It was a fairly serious situation. Xing Yue wasn't a harsh person and was about to agree when she happened to glance at the name in the accompanying family member field. Her chest tightened sharply. She forgot to breathe, as though even her heart had stopped.

"He Zhiwen..." she murmured without realizing it. Her lips trembled as she stared at the familiar name.

Jiang Li smiled and amiably introduced a member of her family to Xing Yue. "She's my younger sister's wife. Yesterday was her first time in the kitchen. She didn't cook the green beans through, and my sister got sick. On the way to the hospital, my sister kept saying she wouldn't let her wife cook again. My sister has spoiled Zhiwen rotten. They've been married so long, and this was her first time cooking. She's rather delicate."

Though Jiang Li was smiling, making it sound as if she were showing off how loving her sister and sister-in-law were, she was actually complaining that He Zhiwen never cooked—and that her first attempt had given Jiang Li's sister food poisoning.

They probably didn't get along, and Jiang Li likely meddled in her sister's household all the time.

Xing Yue put the medical records back in the envelope, her expression cooling. "Are you a good cook, Ms. Jiang? If you are, you could take on more of the cooking."

She went straight back to her recording studio. She didn't let that little incident interfere with work, and she got the short-script recording back on schedule. She barely interacted with Jiang Li throughout and showed no expression.

Work still wasn't finished at eight that evening when a voice-call notification appeared on Xing Yue's WeChat, right on time.

The phone's vibration startled Xing Yue. It had been many years since anyone had called her while she was working. Seeing that it was Bu Yao left her dazed for a moment, as if she had slipped back into a dream of ten years ago.

She sighed and declined the call.

Another voice call came through the next second. Xing Yue was a little angry, and her tone was less than gentle when she answered. "I'm working. Didn't I tell you I had a script to record this afternoon? They're flying out tomorrow. We're pressed for time."

The person on the other end fell silent for a beat, then said hesitantly, "I wasn't calling to rush you home..."

It was already evening, after all.

"Then why are you calling at this hour?"

The impatience in Xing Yue's voice hurt Bu Yao. Out of Xing Yue's sight, Bu Yao had nearly stripped the leaves from the Red Camellia tree in the yard.

"Can't I ask what time you'll be home?" Bu Yao couldn't hide the sadness in her voice. "I'm not asking you to come home now. I just want to know when you'll be back. I'll wait up for you, and if there's anything you want to eat, I can buy it so it's here when you get home. Can't I do that? Am I not allowed to call you, or am I not allowed to wait for you?"