Married A Man I Hate - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Happy Wedding

“Subjectively develop into a lover relationship.”

“Happy wedding.”

The city hall staff member handed the stamped registration certificate in front of the two of them.

Fu Li held a bouquet of white roses, expressed his thanks, but was a step slower when reaching out his hand; Yue Qingfei took it over.

Hmm, if it gets torn up here, reapplying for it will also be more smooth.

Fu Li thought.

Unexpectedly, Yue Qingfei shielded the certificate tightly in his arms with both hands and asked him: “This is the proof of our marriage, right?”

Fu Li nodded.

Yue Qingfei: “Now that you have me, you can’t marry anyone else, right?”

After receiving another nod from Fu Li, Yue Qingfei said: “Then make it so Yue Wangzong cannot lie to my sister anymore, don’t let her return to the country.”

Fu Li’s brow stirred slightly. Looking at Yue Qingfei’s eyes, which had finally stopped crying with great difficulty, he promised: “Okay, I promise you.”

“Thank you…”

Yue Qingfei thanked him in a soft voice, squatted down, and placed that piece of paper certifying that he was Fu Li’s sole legal partner into the compartment of the suitcase, acting extraordinarily careful.

Fu Li swept a glance over the tightly stuffed suitcase:

Tightly and neatly folded clothing, a small amount of daily necessities inside food-sealing bags, a notebook, two books, a photo album, a strawberry plush toy……

Closing it, Yue Qingfei pressed his entire upper body onto it, pinched the worn-white zipper, and pulled with force—

“Careful with your fingers.” Fu Li squatted down.

Yue Qingfei raised his eyes to look at Fu Li’s profile, falling into a momentary daze. His cold finger pads brushed past the man’s palm; feeling a sudden emptiness, the zipper was taken over by Fu Li.

Watching Fu Li naturally lift the suitcase up as he stood up, Yue Qingfei hurriedly got up: “I’ll carry it myself.”

Inside the box were all of his treasures; he felt uneasy handing it over to someone else.

Fu Li did not force the issue and returned the suitcase to him. Putting on his gloves, he suggested going to sit at the coffee shop across the street: “After all, if you propose going home right now, it might not be a suitable time.”

Yue Qingfei thought about it and nodded in agreement.

Some words indeed needed to be made clear first, but—

“The way you speak is so strange, can you not talk like this?”

“After all,” “if,” “might”…… Yue Qingfei felt as if there were bilingual subtitles in front of his eyes.

Fu Li smiled softly and took it in stride: “Sorry, a language habit.”

Yue Qingfei didn’t say anything further. Fu Li had lived abroad for twenty years; it wasn’t strange for him to be like an AI robot.

Thinking this, he leaped down the city hall steps. It wasn’t until he stood firmly by the roadside that he realized something was missing from his hand.

“Where is my box?”

Fu Li put the box down, his expression calm and indifferent, as if he had done nothing.

Inside the coffee shop, Yue Qingfei called his sister, saying he had merely had a fight with their uncle and hadn’t run away from home, telling her not to worry. Returning to the booth, he saw a table full of desserts.

“I didn’t know your taste, so I ordered a bit more.”

Fu Li thanked the waiter, looking at Yue Qingfei who was staring blankly: “Please do not feel pressured. Packing it up to go will not waste any food.”

Yue Qingfei pursed his lips, staring intently at the little cakes, nodded, and sat down opposite him.

“We haven’t formally introduced ourselves yet. My name is…”

Is this a strawberry Napoleon?

“If I had a choice…”

The matcha cheese mousse is really beautiful.

“Feifei, I’m sorry…”

The figs on the éclair look so delicious too.

Fu Li stopped talking, let out a laugh, and placed the coffee in front of Yue Qingfei: “Sorry for making you feel bored. We can eat while we talk.”

“No need,” Yue Qingfei swallowed his saliva, trying hard to pull his eyes away from the raspberry cake. “We have official business to talk about. As a person, I am very serious.”

He had checked it online: the highest-level negotiation technique was being serious; only by being expressionless could one deter and convince an opponent.

Yue Qingfei rested both hands on his gathered thighs, his waist and back completely straight, the corners of his mouth tightly tensed, his eyes staring unblinkingly at Fu Li.

He was not suited to making such an expression.

He was young, his oval face shape was soft and thin, his brow color was light, his eyelids were thin, and the outer corners of his eyes drooped slightly downward. His eyelashes cast faint shadows on his porcelain-white face, looking fragile and at a loss. Like a Maltese dog that had wandered into a police squad by mistake, stubbornly forcing itself to sit upright in the middle of a bunch of German Shepherds, tensing its tiny face, attempting to clear the hurdle by deception.

Very cute.

Fu Li picked up his coffee cup, took a sip, and raised his hand: “Please.”

Yue Qingfei cleared his throat and went straight to the point.

“First, I don’t like you, there’s no need for you to pretend to be nice to me; second, although we are married, we are still strangers, so keep your distance and do not interfere with each other; third, the matter of our marriage must be kept secret, I don’t want other people to know.”

Yue Qingfei secretly glanced down at his phone,

“Oh, and also, we cannot have any intimate behaviors, including holding hands, hugging, kissing, and…” scrolling the phone screen, “going to bed.”

Across the booth, Fu Li took another sip of coffee, not answering for a moment.

Yue Qingfei frowned slightly: “Did you hear me or not?”

“Yes, very clearly, it’s just that I have a question,” Fu Li set down the coffee cup, “Why should I agree?”

What?

Yue Qingfei froze.

“I checked it online. For two people who don’t know each other to get married, this is the best solution for both sides.” As if afraid he wouldn’t believe it, Yue Qingfei even handed his phone over. “Look.”

Fu Li glanced at the phone, which had a shattered corner on its screen, then looked at Yue Qingfei: “This is not the best solution.”

“What do you mean?”

“We are already married. I need to fulfill my responsibilities as a partner to you. Food, clothing, housing, transportation, and all matching matters should be handled by me. For this reason, you need to move in and live with me. We can discuss the details after going home.”

Yue Qingfei widened his eyes: “Who wants you to be responsible?”

“Sorry, I may have worded that poorly and caused you some pressure. Let me phrase it a different way—”

“Right, don’t just talk nonsense…”

“I like you.”

Fu Li: “I had a good impression of you from the very first glance. You are very cute. I hope that under the objective condition of being married, we can gradually become familiar with each other, and subjectively develop into a lover relationship.”

“……”

Yue Qingfei was petrified on the spot.

With a “snap” sound, someone nearby knocked over a coffee cup, and only then did Yue Qingfei snap out of his shock.

“What… what kind of strange words are you saying?”

“Is it very strange?” Fu Li raised an eyebrow. “Do you not consider yourself very cute?”

“I am very cute, that’s true, but you can’t like me because I don’t like you,” Yue Qingfei said, afraid he wouldn’t give up. “I have someone I like.”

A subtle curve hooked on the corner of Fu Li’s mouth: “Is that so? That man you mentioned last night?”

Yue Qingfei crossed his arms and did not answer: “In any case, do not like me. Don’t think that just because we are married, I won’t hate you.”

Fu Li: “Why do you hate me?”

Yue Qingfei thought of those “capitalist demon” rumors, how he forced him to fulfill the marriage contract, and even made his uncle trick his sister into returning to the country just because he escaped the wedding…… and that face that looked exactly like Yan Song’s.

The better his Yan Song was, the more he hated Fu Li.

“Do you not know that you are very bad?” Yue Qingfei asked back.

Fu Li froze, a smile playing on his lips as he nodded and accepted it: “That makes sense.”

Yue Qingfei had finished saying everything he wanted to say. He cast a final look at the table full of desserts, rising with lingering reluctance.

Fu Li: “It will be a waste. Stay and eat a bit with me before leaving, okay?”

Yue Qingfei sat back down with great reluctance: “Well, alright then.”

During the process of Yue Qingfei devouring all the desserts like a cloud blown by a remnant wind, Fu Li did not speak again. He leaned back against the sofa with his legs crossed, his right hand holding his coffee cup and his left hand supporting his face, his eyes behind the lenses watching him with great interest.

“What are you looking at me for?”

“Come home with me,” Fu Li said. “I’ll take you to eat delicious food every day.”

A passerby in the coffee shop: “Do human traffickers not even put on an act nowadays?”

Yue Qingfei pulled up his suitcase and ran away.

Inside the coffee shop, Fu Li withdrew his gaze from the silhouette that had successfully caught up to the bus, picking up the bouquet that he had once again failed to give out: “Does he not like roses either?”

“This Fu Li is truly annoying.”

Yue Qingfei found an empty seat and sat down. Before he could even warm the seat, at the next stop, he gave up the seat to an old grandmother.

He leaned against his suitcase, holding his phone, continuing to reject Fu Li, who had somehow gotten hold of his phone number.

[Unknown Number]: [Image] [Unknown Number]: This is our kitchen. The oven works very well; it can make a lot of cakes. [This Device]: There is no “our”! [Unknown Number]: [Image] [Unknown Number]: This is the house’s second kitchen.

Yue Qingfei closed his eyes and chose to block the number.

The bus rocked rhythmically, and the people on the bus were either dozing off or looking down at their phones.

Yue Qingfei confirmed the time for next week’s final exams, put away his phone, and caught sight of a coffee stain on the jeans of the man diagonally opposite him—it was the man who had accidentally knocked over the coffee cup back at the coffee shop.

The man moved his phone away from the face of the sleeping woman opposite him, hit send, typed, and got off the bus.

Yue Qingfei was stunned for a moment, then chased after him.

A few seconds later, the people on the bus altogether looked out the window—at a pink figure pulling a suitcase, running as fast as the wind.

“You secret-photographing maniac, stand still…!”

After catching the person and deleting the photos, Yue Qingfei went home happily, not even noticing that his student ID had fallen out. The moment he opened the door, however, he ran straight into Yue Wangzong.

Very strange—Yue Wangzong didn’t say anything, didn’t ask why he had come back home to live, and didn’t even scold him about his escape last night; he even had the servant change him to a different bedroom.

Stepping into the new bedroom, Yue Qingfei’s confusion was answered.

The table was covered with the exact same desserts he had eaten at the coffee shop just now, along with that bouquet of roses he hadn’t accepted—sent over by people Fu Li dispatched.

His uncle hadn’t suddenly changed his nature; he was giving face to Fu Li.

Yue Qingfei disdainfully took the flowers to an out-of-sight corner. With a casual placement, a black card fell from the bouquet into the crevice of the cabinet.

[SugarCube]: I can’t possibly finish eating them at all, it’s a waste, so I’ve already distributed them to other people.

Fu Li raised his hand, and the conference room that had been in a heated discussion instantly fell silent.

[This Device]: Good, they already belong to you, it should be decided by you. [This Device]: But if you kept that bouquet of roses, I would be very happy. [SugarCube]: [Image] [SugarCube]: Don’t celebrate too early!

In the photo, the bouquet of roses was sitting properly right inside an empty trash can.

[This Device]: sad face [Sending Failed]

Fu Li smiled, put down his phone, and gestured for the meeting to continue.

Returning to his office, Fu Li met Shang Rong, who had been waiting for a long time.

“Uncle.” Fu Li had the assistant step down first.

Shang Rong leaned against the edge of the desk, setting down a photo of Fu Li and his mother: “Just finished the board of directors meeting, came to see you.”

Fu Shi’s predecessor was the Hengyao Group, created by Fu Li’s maternal grandfather. Back then, Fu Chen married into the Shang family. Utilizing his father-in-law’s resources and platform, he built Hengyao into its current scale. After the father-in-law passed away, Fu Chen, who already held tight control of the group, rapidly changed the group’s name, divorced his original wife Shang Fu, and turned around to marry a young wife from a real estate background, giving birth to a younger son.

The Shang family now only had one board seat left in Fu Shi, which was Vice Chairman Shang Rong.

Shang Rong patted Fu Li’s shoulder, sat down on the sofa, and let out a deep sigh.

“If we want to stand firmly in Fu Shi, we must first win over those Hengyao veterans in the group. Zou Ying used the childhood arranged marriage set by your grandfather to make a point, saying that if you truly are the eldest son, you should fulfill the marriage contract. Regarding the marriage matter, you’ve been wronged.”

Fu Li’s expression was calm: “Not at all.”

Shang Rong comforted him with a couple more words, saying that once things were concluded he would arrange for them to divorce as quickly as possible. Fu Li remained noncommittal, speaking instead about the proposal to split his stepmother’s Zou family real estate company into an independent subsidiary and carry out financing and share expansion.

After seeing Shang Rong off, Fu Li called his assistant in.

“Continue. He has an exam tomorrow, and then?”

The assistant reported on Yue Qingfei’s final exam week situation, and under Fu Li’s further questioning, spoke with difficulty: “According to feedback from the university professors, the exams will probably not go very well.”

Fu Li flipped through Yue Qingfei’s attendance and quiz situations, nodding: “As expected, he doesn’t like economics after all.”

As expected? The assistant was dumbfounded.

After finishing the report, the assistant exited the office. In accordance with Fu Li’s requirements, he modified all of Yue Qingfei’s family contact information.

Only, even Fu Li did not expect the first phone call to come so quickly.

“Hello, this is the Jinggang University Student Code of Conduct Office. May I ask if this is the parent of Yue Qingfei?”