Chapter 1: The Substitute Bride

Tang Yirou never imagined she would one day wear a wedding dress made for someone else.

Three days ago, her half-sister, Tang Xueyi, had run off to France with her boyfriend, leaving behind a mess: a signed marriage contract with the Baishun Group, invitations already sent all over the city, and a man named Xie Yushen sitting silently in the Tang family’s living room, tapping his fingers on the glass tabletop as if counting down what remained of his patience.

“All you have to do is stand there, smile, and sign. Think of it as paying off my debt,” Mr. Tang said, his voice trembling, avoiding his daughter’s eyes. “However you divorce later, I won’t interfere.”

Yirou looked at the white dress hanging on the rack, its lace as fine as mist, tailored to her sister’s slender waist. Yirou was half a head taller than Xueyi, and fuller at the waist. On her, the dress was tight at the shoulders and short at the hem, a reminder that she didn’t belong here. That she never had.

“I’ll do it,” she said. Not because she loved her father, but because the tiny house where her mother was being treated for heart disease needed hospital fees that she couldn’t earn as an office worker in a lifetime.

The ceremony was over quickly, to the guests’ bewilderment. No one called out the real bride’s name in protest, because most of them had come for the name “Baishun,” not for whoever the bride was.

Xie Yushen stood beside her on the stage, tall and cold, his black suit making him look carved from marble. He glanced at her exactly once, his razor-sharp gaze sweeping over a completely unfamiliar face.

“You’re not Xueyi,” he said softly, just loud enough for the two of them, his voice perfectly steady.

“No,” Yirou answered directly. “I’m her older sister. If you want to call off the marriage right now, I won’t hold it against you.”

He was silent for a long time, long enough for the band to finish an entire intro, long enough for two hundred pairs of eyes below to start whispering.

“Sign,” was all he finally said. Then he turned away, leaving Yirou standing dazed in the blinding lights, not understanding why a man known for being cold-blooded in business hadn’t overturned the table on the spot.

She didn’t know that three years ago, Xueyi had been the only one to make him question what “love” even was. And now her running away was the greatest gift fate had ever given him. He just hadn’t realized it yet.