Marry the Right Woman

Find the right woman and get married.

Xing Yue had drunk yesterday and slept badly. With an injury on her face, she would probably draw stares on the subway.

Bo Wuxue had been summoned to drive her. She parked outside the front gate instead of pulling in and shouted, "Xing—Yue—"

The little villa was only two stories high. Bo Wuxue looked up and spotted a flash of red. A closer look revealed two people by the floor-to-ceiling window: Xing Yue was crouched down, putting Bu Yao's shoes on for her. Only after she finished did she grab her bag and head out.

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

She had thought Xing Yue hated serving the Bu Family's eldest daughter with a passion. Who would have guessed she could pick up the habit again after so many years?

"Wasn't it your idea?" Xing Yue fastened her seat belt. She had brushed her bangs over her slightly swollen cheek and, unusually, put on a little blush to look more lively. Unless someone looked closely, they would not notice anything. "Sleep with the eldest daughter, get her to give birth to seven or eight little Snake Eggs for me, carve up the Bu Family fortune, and move two big baskets of snake lovers into the Bu estate. Swap out a basket every quarter."

Xing Yue had just given a rough outline of Bo Wuxue's scheme.

Hearing the teasing in Xing Yue's voice, Bo Wuxue breathed a sigh of relief. At least she was not doing anything foolish. Bo Wuxue had thought she was really about to make the same mistake all over again.

Being married to the Bu Family's eldest daughter had been unbearable. Even watching it 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 past few years. She had bought a house and a car, and bought her mother an apartment back in their hometown to rent out for retirement income. She might still have some savings, but nowhere near 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. Her cover videos were usually shot with lighting that showed only her silhouette, never a clear view of her features. Otherwise, she would record just the song and pair it with footage of herself playing piano.

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

Little Green Stone Snake was stunned. She could not quite figure out what Xing Yue was thinking. "So you're giving in? That's fine too. No one complains about making more money. I'm just worried you won't be happy doing it."

After all, Xing Yue had held firm for ten years, refusing the company all along. The sudden change of heart was surprising.

But then Bo Wuxue thought about how Xing Yue had no choice but to accept such a huge change to her career, and she felt bad for her again. Besides, Xing Yue had a medical condition. Having her identity exposed three times was hardly a good thing.

Xing Yue was no longer young. At twenty-five, she might still have acted on impulse and had enough time to pay for it. But at her age, she was more mature and rational in both her decisions and her thinking.

After getting drunk and making a scene yesterday, she felt a little better. She had thought it through calmly. "I'm not just going to accept Madam Bu's arrangements. I'm going to do the job well. The Bu Family has power, influence, and money. Making an artist famous is 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 I'm out of my contract, I'll be healthy and have plenty in the bank. I'll find the right woman, get married, and start a family. We don't necessarily need kids. As long as we're happy, we can do whatever we want and go wherever we like."

At most, she only had to endure another four years. After everything she had been through, wagering those years on the rest of her life did not seem so unreasonable.

She did not have much money now, work made her anxious, and she could neither change her situation nor escape the company. The only other way out was to pay an enormous penalty and end up right back where she had started. That would be worse than death.

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

Xing Yue considered her two failed relationships and came to a conclusion. "No class divide. An equal relationship. Mutual feelings. Physical compatibility."

The Bu Family really had hurt her badly, for her to put "no class divide" first.

"Oh. So you wouldn't consider Miss Bu?" Remembering what she had seen earlier, Bo Wuxue suddenly understood. "I get it. You're working her over so she'll find you a good doctor and get you better opportunities."

Xing Yue did not deny it at once. She only explained, "Her mother just wants to humiliate me. She has no intention of promoting me. She only wants me to show my face so I can make the others look good. Bu Yao's my only option."

Then she felt she had left something out and added, "I didn't say I wouldn't consider Bu Yao. Aren't we still figuring things out? If she didn't order me around like a dog, she wouldn't be so annoying."

Not annoying. She even liked her a little.

Bu Yao's personality really did make things hard for her. Even now, Xing Yue's conditioned response had not gone away. The slightest sign that Bu Yao wanted to control her could make her furious in an instant.

It was only because her plans now depended somewhat on Bu Yao that she had softened her approach and tried to make her happy. That was not really manipulation, was it? She had not lied to Bu Yao about anything...

By the end of that thought, even Xing Yue could not quite convince herself. She turned to look out the window, thoroughly unsettled.

Her plan was clear, yet having to deliberately show Bu Yao warmth to carry it out made her hesitate. But if she did not, she could only be a puppet, playing the clown on Madam Bu's strings, mocked and trampled underfoot.

What did it matter if she treated Bu Yao a little more gently? The woman burst into tears at the drop of a hat. If a few sweet words could coax her out of it, Xing Yue could say a few more.

Sometimes the eldest daughter was rather cute, too.

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 her help.

She had also worried that, if Xing Yue stayed, Madam Bu would have her under her thumb and force her into work she hated. Now that Xing Yue had made such a calm, rational choice, Bo Wuxue was quite happy.

She did not care what happened to anyone else. As long as Xing Yue was all right, that was enough.

The car pulled up outside the company building.

"Off you go, superstar."

Xing Yue planned to make up yesterday's missed recording for the short drama, though she had not discussed it with the studio staff yet.

When she walked in, she found a group seated in the conference room. Alongside the familiar faces were two she did not recognize.

"Hello, Ms. Xing. I'm Jiang Li's assistant. You can call me Xiao Tang." The first woman to stand 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 pouch when the woman beside her took it instead and explained to Xing Yue herself. "Ms. Xing, these are the papers from my younger sister's hospital admission yesterday. Please take a look. I truly didn't mean to miss our appointment. Please give me another chance."

Xing Yue took them without thinking. Her gaze fell on the page. The first line listed the patient's name and age, and below it were the words "food poisoning, convulsions."

It really had been serious. Xing Yue was not an unkind person and was about to agree when she happened to glance at the name in the accompanying relative field. Her chest tightened abruptly. She forgot to breathe; even her heart seemed to stop.

"He Zhiwen..." she murmured unconsciously, her lips trembling as she stared at the familiar name.

Jiang Li smiled and amiably introduced the member of her family. "She's my sister-in-law. Yesterday was her first time cooking. She didn't cook the green beans through, and my sister got food poisoning. My sister was still going on at the hospital about not letting her wife cook again. My sister's spoiled Zhiwen rotten. They've been married so long, and this was her first time learning to cook. She's rather pampered."

Though Jiang Li was smiling, as if showing off how loving her sister and sister-in-law were, she was really complaining that He Zhiwen never cooked and had given her sister food poisoning the first time she tried.

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

Xing Yue slipped the medical papers back into the pouch, her expression cooling. "Are you a good cook, Ms. Jiang? If you are, perhaps you could take on more of the cooking."

She went straight back to her Recording Studio. She did not let this little incident interfere with work or use her position to settle a personal score. She caught up on the short drama recording, barely interacted with Jiang Li throughout, and showed no expression on her face.

Work was not over yet. At exactly eight that evening, a voice-call notification popped up on Xing Yue's WeChat.

The phone's vibration startled her. It had been years since anyone had called her while she was working. Seeing Bu Yao's name left her dazed for a moment, as though she had slipped back ten years in a heartbeat.

She sighed and declined the call.

Another call came through the next second. Xing Yue was a little angry, and when she answered, her tone was far from gentle. "I'm working. Didn't I tell you I had to record the drama this afternoon? Her flight's tomorrow. We're pressed for time."

The person on the other end went quiet for a moment, then said softly, "I wasn't calling to make you come home..."

It was already evening.

"Then why call me at this hour?"

The impatience in her voice hurt Bu Yao. Out of Xing Yue's sight, she had nearly picked the leaves off the Red Camellia in the courtyard.

"Can't I ask what time you're coming home?" Bu Yao could not hide the sadness in her voice. "I'm not asking you to come home now. I just wanted to know when you'd be back. I'm waiting up for you. If there's anything you want to eat, I can go buy it and have it ready when you get home. Is that not okay? Am I not allowed to call you, or am I not allowed to wait for you?"