Chapter 5: A Scheme from the Shadows

Just as things between them were beginning to warm, another undercurrent rose from inside the Baishun Group itself.

Xie Yushen’s uncle, Xie Yongkang, the group’s vice chairman, had long been plotting to seize power. Now he used his nephew’s “mismatched” marriage to spread vicious rumors that Yirou was an opportunist who had used her position as the older sister to grab the title of the group’s first lady.

Baishun’s stock wobbled. Reporters swarmed the gate of the accounting firm where Yirou worked, cameras aimed straight at her every time she stepped out of the elevator.

“Did you really only go after Mr. Xie for his money?”

“Do you know you’ve wrecked your sister’s three-year engagement?”

Yirou stood rooted in the middle of the ring of lenses, unable to say a word in her own defense, because part of it was true. She had entered this marriage for the money to pay her mother’s hospital bills.

Just when she thought she would break, an arm came around her shoulders and pulled her against a familiar chest. Xie Yushen stood between her and the reporters, his gaze sweeping over them, cold as ice.

“I, Xie Yushen, declare before all of the press: this marriage was my own choice. No one forced it, and there’s no conspiracy behind it.” He held Yirou’s hand tightly, his voice ringing out word by word. “As for whether my wife did it for money, yes. At first it was for the money to treat her mother. But if you ask why she’s still here now, there’s only one answer: because I don’t want to let her go.”

The crowd went silent for a moment, then scrambled to capture the moment when the coldest CEO in the business world openly confessed his feelings in broad daylight.

Yirou looked up at him, her eyes stinging. “Aren’t you afraid of what this will do to the company’s stock?”

“Stock you can earn back.” He bent down, his forehead touching hers. “But if I lose you, I’m afraid I’d never find you again in this lifetime.”