Years of listening to reports in the workplace meant Lu Sili could summarize the pros and cons of Su Yuan’s proposal without even having to think.
Having a husband would get his family off his back, and having a doctor around would help him restore his health.
Once his physical condition met the requirements, Su Yuan could even sign the surgical consent form as his husband. There were benefits everywhere he looked.
“All right.”
Lu Sili agreed so readily that even Su Yuan, sitting across from him, looked a little surprised. Lu Sili straightened in his chair and placed both hands on the table. Now it was time to negotiate. “What do you want in return?”
“Huh?”
Su Yuan apparently had not expected that question and paused.
Lu Sili said, “Hm? I have no problem with your proposal, so what are your conditions? I need to know what I’m supposed to give in return.”
There was no such thing as a free lunch. Su Yuan was a doctor at Licheng Municipal Hospital, one of the country’s best Grade-A tertiary hospitals. Surely his only reason for marrying Lu Sili could not be to get his family off his back.
Besides, Lu Sili did not think he was particularly good at dealing with elders. It would suit him better to compensate Su Yuan in some other way.
Su Yuan could not come up with an answer right away. Tentatively, he asked, “Can I save it for later?”
Lu Sili said, “I’m not capable of everything. What if I can’t do whatever you ask?”
Su Yuan smiled. “Then I promise it’ll be something you can do.”
There was no way to put something like that into a contract, and Su Yuan was the one taking the risk, so Lu Sili did not dwell on it.
He had verbally agreed to marry and placate their families, but Lu Sili still had no real idea what getting married actually involved.
That evening, he returned to the office to work overtime. Once he finished what was in front of him, he had a little more than half an hour before a ten-twenty international meeting with headquarters. Lu Sili opened a search page and typed: What do you have to do to get married?
The results startled him.
Choose a date, decide what kind of wedding to have, have both families discuss how expenses would be divided, finalize the guest list, choose a wedding photography studio, prepare and furnish a new home, arrange premarital health examinations, register the marriage, buy an enormous pile of things, and after the wedding, go on a trip.
He even saw plenty of people saying their wedding preparations had taken half a year!!
“My God.”
Lu Sili stared at the huge computer monitor, his refined face full of shock. “Do people who get married not have jobs? Where do they find time for all this?”
He spent what had originally been thirty free minutes drafting a marriage plan.
The plan had only one guiding principle: eliminate every step that could possibly be eliminated and maximize efficiency.
Approaching it with the same energy he brought to work, Lu Sili weighed what the two of them actually needed. What remained was simple: the two families would meet, they would register the marriage, and both families would have a meal together. By his calculation, they could finish everything in three days. If they needed a trip, they could go to Japan, since Lu Sili happened to be traveling there for a meeting the following week.
After all, their main objective was to satisfy their families. Merely registering the marriage probably would not be enough to convince anyone, but they could explain that both of them were busy with work and did not like ceremonial fuss.
He sent his completed summary to Su Yuan on WeChat.
It was exactly time for his meeting with headquarters. Today’s meeting was the Asia-region report, and as the representative for China, Lu Sili presented first.
By the time the meeting ended, Lu Sili had received Su Yuan’s reply.
Su Yuan: [Works for me.]
Su Yuan: [We’ll need to live together after we get married. I’m currently living in the doctors’ dormitory and haven’t bought a place.]
So that meant he would move in here, Lu Sili thought. It made sense. Their families were all in the same city, so living apart would look strange, and Su Yuan also needed to help him improve his health.
He pictured his own home. It was huge anyway. Su Yuan could stay wherever he wanted.
F&A elio: [That’s fine. Live at my place.]
After sending it, Lu Sili inexplicably felt that he should make himself clearer, so he sent another message: [You can choose whichever room you like.]
Su Yuan: [Okay.]
F&A elio: [Then let’s pick a time to meet with a lawyer.]
Su Yuan, who had been replying almost immediately until now, took quite a while this time before saying okay.
The next day, Lu Sili wanted to tell his grandmother that he was getting married, but he lingered in the chat window for ages without knowing how to begin. Only then did it belatedly occur to him that entering a contract marriage with an old classmate really was rather outrageous.
“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.”
“What?”
Lu Sili came back to himself, set down the whiskey glass in his hand, leaned back on the sofa, and crossed one leg over the other. Although he was underweight and thin this year, the excellent frame he had grown into during adolescence had not changed. He stretched his arms slightly, folded them over his chest, and looked at his friend Li Ya sitting to one side. “I’m getting married.”
“What?!” Li Ya had just taken a sip and nearly choked. He grabbed a tissue to wipe his chin, convinced Lu Sili had to be joking.
“What, did Grandma finally set you up with Matt Damon? She’s got skills.”
Lu Sili laughed and cursed, “Idiot.”
Li Ya said, “Then what’s going on? Or have you finally decided to accept Situ He?”
“No.” Lu Sili smiled.
He thought of the kind of man Li Ya had named, then of Su Yuan. They could hardly have been more different. Everyone assumed Lu Sili would like the sort of exceptional Alpha who practically radiated masculine hormones.
Li Ya and Lu Sili had grown up together and had gone to school together, so he knew Su Yuan too. Lu Sili had not intended to keep him in suspense in the first place. Li Ya simply talked too much. Lu Sili explained, “It’s Su Yuan.”
“Who?” Li Ya looked confused.
Lu Sili lifted his eyes to him. “Su Yuan. Su Yuan from Class 2 at Yingnan No. 3 High School.”
Li Ya frowned slightly, pinching his wineglass as he thought and thought before asking tentatively, “The labor committee member?”
Lu Sili did not even remember that.
He smiled and nodded.
Li Ya said, “Him?! Have you lost your mind? He’s a Beta! And a very… ordinary Beta!”
“I know.” Lu Sili gave a faint smile.
Li Ya fell silent for a while, then asked, “What happened?”
Lu Sili told him about the contract marriage, but skimmed lightly over his plan to remove the gland, saying only that the arrangement was for his health.
Li Ya, like the people described in the survey data, strongly opposed Lu Sili removing his gland. The surgical risk was too high, and the prognosis was complicated.
After hearing the explanation, Li Ya said, “I can understand why you’re doing this, but I still don’t really understand why you chose this Su Yuan. I still can’t remember his face. I only remember…”
Lu Sili turned toward Li Ya with interest. When he had run into Su Yuan again, he too had been surprised by how much the man had changed.
Li Ya leaned back against the sofa as well. There was music playing in the club, so he raised his voice slightly. “He was… he wore glasses, he was skinny as a bamboo pole, his skin… God, I really don’t remember. Anyway, he was one of those four-eyed Betas.”
Only after saying it did Li Ya realize how rude it was to talk that way about his friend’s “fiancé.” He shrugged awkwardly and said, “Sorry.”
Lu Sili knew he meant no harm. Besides, Su Yuan really had possessed almost no presence as a student.
Even his grades had been thoroughly average.
“What’s wrong with ordinary?” Lu Sili asked.
Li Ya said, “You’re Lu Sili.”
“So what if I’m Lu Sili?” Lu Sili laughed twice. The motion tugged at something somewhere in his chest, and pain suddenly pulled through him. He instinctively covered his chest and frowned.
Li Ya, who had been joking around a moment before, fell silent too. He got up, sat beside Lu Sili, and quietly waited for him to recover.
It was as though he had grown used to this. Lu Sili’s health had been poor all year. He would be talking and laughing when his chest suddenly hurt or his head began aching, or he would be halfway through a meal and suddenly run to the bathroom to vomit.
Lu Sili closed his eyes and rested, waiting quietly for the discomfort in his chest to fade.
Once Lu Sili recovered, Li Ya no longer looked as shocked as before. He watched him, sighed, and asked, “Is he a good person?”
“I don’t know.” Lu Sili’s voice lacked strength. He reached for his whiskey, then put it back down and picked up the warm water beside it instead. After taking a sip, he said, “We’ve only met twice.”
Li Ya nodded slowly. “Mm… If someone could stay with you and help you take care of your health, we’d all worry less.”
Lu Sili turned to look at him. “Don’t put it that way. He’s not some poor sucker. He has no obligation to take care of me. I still have to manage myself. There is one convenient thing, though. He’s a doctor now.”
“A doctor?”
“Mm. An orthopedic doctor.”
“I can’t picture it. He seems more suited to teaching, and specifically at some little village elementary school.”
Lu Sili managed a weak smile.
“Bring him out to meet us sometime,” Li Ya said.
“All right.”
That “sometime” turned into an entire week. Year-end was simply too busy. There was the year-end gala, and this was also the first year Film&Age had established an Artist Management Division. It was currently under Lu Sili as well. They had signed very few artists and the department had barely any staff, yet somehow it added no shortage of work.
He did not even have time to go to his grandmother’s for dinner. She called and scolded him again, then hung up as soon as she was done. He still did not manage to tell her he was getting married.
In fact, being married was useful not only with family but in the workplace too. An Omega with Lu Sili’s family background and looks had never lacked pursuers.
But Lu Sili had no idea how to announce at work that he was getting married. It felt terribly deliberate. In internet terms, it was a little OOC.
He kept putting it off, and at this point Li Ya was still the only person around him who knew about the marriage.
It was only after he finished this stretch of work and held a meeting with the Asia-region offices that he finally had a moment to breathe. He was taking a sandwich from the refrigerator when he realized it was nearly ten at night.
“Damn.” Lu Sili suddenly remembered that he had arranged to meet Su Yuan and a lawyer at nine that evening to draft their prenuptial agreement.
He opened his phone and, sure enough, found a message from the lawyer saying he was waiting at the firm.
At six, Lu Sili had even told Su Yuan he would contact him as soon as the meeting ended.
With the sandwich clenched between his teeth, Lu Sili grabbed his coat, pulled it on, and prepared to leave.
Film&Age’s building stood in the heart of Licheng’s CBD, surrounded by office towers. Most nearby places where someone could sit and wait had already closed by this hour. The thought of Su Yuan having to wait in a twenty-four-hour convenience store or somewhere similar made Lu Sili feel guilty.
The company occupied seven floors of the building, from the thirteenth through the twentieth. Lu Sili’s office was on the twentieth floor, along with several other executives’ offices and meeting rooms, plus two core functional departments, Finance and Legal.
Working overtime was hardly unique to Lu Sili.
The lights were still on at the far end of the office. Reception had already gone home, but employees in Finance and Legal were still working. Lu Sili quickened his pace, chewing the sandwich to put something in his stomach while getting ready to call Su Yuan.
“Lu Sili.”
Passing reception, Lu Sili startled so badly that the sandwich dropped comically from his mouth to the floor. When he recovered, he realized Su Yuan was sitting in the reception area’s visitor seating.
“What are you doing here?”
Apparently amused by the way Lu Sili had just been frightened, Su Yuan had a smile at the corner of his mouth. He pulled a tissue from the low table and got to his feet. “You didn’t contact me, so I figured your meeting hadn’t ended. I came over to wait for you.”
As he spoke, he bent down and picked up the sandwich Lu Sili had dropped. The tissue felt cold where it touched the sandwich. Su Yuan judged that it had just come out of the refrigerator and frowned unconsciously.
“You haven’t eaten dinner?” Su Yuan asked as he came closer after throwing the sandwich away.
Lu Sili said, “No.”
He was still wondering how Su Yuan had managed to get up to the twentieth floor.
As he was puzzling over it, a young woman from Legal passed by on her way home and explained, “Director Lu, I ran into your fiancé when I went downstairs to pick up my takeout. He said he was here to wait for you to finish work, so I brought him up.”
With that, the young woman gave a mischievous little laugh, stepped into the elevator, and left first.
Lu Sili was slightly stunned. He turned to Su Yuan. “Huh?”
Su Yuan looked completely composed. “Mm. Am I not allowed to say that yet?”