Chapter 3: Blinded by His Golden Light

“My family asked me to come pick you up. They made it clear that our first meeting should be treated with proper formality, so I temporarily borrowed a motorcade. It’s not a large one, but it should do.”

Guan Xuxu looked at the line of cars packed so densely they nearly blocked the entire villa entrance and fell silent.

You call this… making do?

Then Jiang Huai raised a hand toward the people behind him and suddenly gave a signal. “Greet her.”

“Xiaojie!” ((Xiaojie = Young Miss/Lady)the drivers in uniform spoke out in perfect unison, their voices sharp and orderly like a military chant. “We respectfully welcome Xiaojie home!”

Guan Xuxu: …

Why did she feel this strange wave of shame and embarrassment?

Perhaps it was because she had been neglected too often since childhood in the Guan family, but Guan Xuxu had never been good at facing such enthusiastic scenes. She parted her lips, but after some effort, she only managed to squeeze out one line to Jiang Huai: “L-let’s go.”

Hurry and leave.

Couldn’t he see that even the villa’s security guards were watching?

Jiang Huai’s eyes curved as he smiled, watching her reaction. Then, as if something occurred to him, those peach blossom-shaped eyes narrowed slightly. His gaze swept over her, slowly and deliberately, before he asked,

“But why are you here alone?”

At this hour, appearing by herself at the villa gates—surely it wasn’t just to buy soy sauce, was it?

At his words, Guan Xuxu pressed her lips together. She had no desire to admit that the Guan family had driven her out early. While she was still trying to think of a way to gloss it over, another voice suddenly cut through the air.

It was cool, detached, like a spring running cold, deep and hoarse, carrying with it a faint trace of impatience.

“Not leaving yet?”

Following the sound, Guan Xuxu realized that someone else had been sitting in the back seat of the car Jiang Huai had stepped out of earlier.

Just a single glance, and it nearly blinded her eyes.

The man in the car sat with his long legs slightly bent. From her angle, she could only see half of his figure hidden in the shadows. His wrist rested loosely on the central armrest of the backseat. His posture carried an understated elegance and steadiness, and even the faint creases on his suit seemed to radiate a kind of inexplicable allure.

Compared to everything else, what truly dazzled Guan Xuxu was the golden light radiating from the man’s entire body.

Her eyes had always been able to see things ordinary people could not—the colors that represented a person’s fortune. Those colors varied, but gold was the rarest. She had only ever seen a faint trace of it on people who had made great contributions to the nation.

But this… this blinding brilliance before her, so dazzling it nearly hurt to look at—she had never seen anything like it.

Could it be that this man had stolen the very fortune of the nation itself?

The moment Jiang Huai heard the man’s voice, he didn’t dare linger with questions. He quickly answered with a smile, “We’re going, we’re going right now.”

As he spoke, he placed a hand on Guan Xuxu’s shoulder and steered her toward the car, muttering under his breath in a deliberately lowered tone, “Tsk, the Great Demon King really has no patience.”

A moment later, Guan Xuxu was brought before that so-called Great Demon King’s car. Jiang Huai promptly ushered her into the back seat, placing her right beside him.

At such close distance, the golden light around him only grew more intense.

Enduring the blinding force of that golden radiance, Guan Xuxu finally caught a clear glimpse of the man’s face.

Just like the cold, sharp edge carried in his voice, his features were as if carved by a blade—angles distinct and severe. His strikingly handsome face bore a beauty tempered with icy hardness. His thin, tightly pressed lips held a chill, as though carrying the frost of a mountain’s peak, while the depths of his obsidian-black eyes seemed vast enough to drown in.

As if sensing the weight of her gaze, the man turned his eyes slightly. With just that single glance, it was as though every trace of her probing and emotion had been drawn into his sight.

Torn between her curiosity about the golden light surrounding him and the fear he might think her a fool, Guan Xuxu hesitated for a moment before asking,

“You’re my Big Brother too?”

That single question made Jiang Huai, who had just settled into the front seat, burst out laughing.

The man in the back seat merely cast him a cold glance before withdrawing his deep gaze in silence.

“No.”

One word, nothing more.

And yet—there was still another Jiang Huai in the car.

“This is Chu Beihe, not your Brother. You only have me as your Brother,” Jiang Huai explained.

Hearing the name, Guan Xuxu felt a strange sense of familiarity, though she couldn’t recall where she had heard it before.

But among the four great families of Haicheng, two of them bore the surnames Chu and Jiang.

Coincidence?

Then Jiang Huai went on, “I came to pick you up today. He just hitched a ride.”

Guan Xuxu nodded in understanding, but before she could respond, the man—who had already turned his eyes away—suddenly shot a glance at Jiang Huai. His thin lips parted, and he spoke coldly,

“You’re using my motorcade.”

As the head of the Chu family, he certainly didn’t need to hitch a ride with anyone.

Jiang Huai, however, was utterly unfazed. He simply spread his hands with a shrug. “Can’t be helped. The company’s motorcade has already been sent out. And among everyone I know, you’re the only one who would equip your personal garage with an entire dedicated motorcade.”

Chu Beihe—an extreme perfectionist, the kind who even required all his subordinates’ socks to be the exact same color and style.

Not to mention his motorcade, where even the floor mats inside each car had to match identically.

As the three of them spoke, the fleet of jet-black Maybachs slowly started up, escorting the one in the center. Just like when they had arrived, the convoy departed in grand, imposing fashion.

Once the motorcade was gone, the security guards who had been staring after it exchanged glances and began to gossip.

“The one they just picked up—that was the Guan family’s eldest daughter, wasn’t it?”

“That’s her. I heard two days ago that she isn’t the Guan family’s biological daughter. Now look, they’ve already thrown her out. And I also heard her real Mother’s side is from the mountains.”

“The mountains? Just look at that lineup of cars—does she look like someone from the mountains? Who knows, maybe her biological Mother’s family is some kind of powerful background.”

“Ha, if that’s true, wouldn’t President Guan regret it to death?”

Even though the security office had strict rules, privately there was never any shortage of gossip about the wealthy residents of the villa district. But just as they were talking, one of the guards abruptly shut his mouth, turned around, and bent at the waist respectfully toward the gate.

Of course—it was the Guan family’s car.

In the back seat sat Bai Shuqin and Guan Ruirui. Neither of them spared even a glance at the security guards bowing respectfully toward them. As distinguished owners, they had never regarded these lowly guards from the bottom rungs of society as worth noticing.

“This time, although the final list of representatives for Haicheng has been decided, it hasn’t officially been submitted yet. I’ve already inquired—responsible for submitting the final list is a director from Jianghai Group.”

Bai Shuqin spoke to Guan Ruirui beside her, a faint smile playing at the corner of her lips. “And as it happens, your Father just signed a cooperation with Jianghai Group two days ago. That’s exactly where we can make a connection.”

At this, Guan Ruirui’s eyes lit up with surprise. “Jianghai Group? That’s backed by the Jiang family, one of the four great families! Father actually managed to secure a partnership with them—that’s incredible!”

Bai Shuqin’s face glowed with pride as she said this, though she deliberately affected a tone of indifference.

“Exactly, that Jiang family. Plenty of people carry bags of money to their door begging for cooperation, and they don’t even spare them a word. But they came to us on their own initiative. That just shows the standing of our family in Haicheng. In the future, families seeking us out for partnerships will only increase.”

Hearing this, Guan Ruirui’s expression visibly brightened with excitement. To collaborate with the Jiang family—didn’t that mean their family was about to step into Haicheng’s very top tier of wealth and influence?

And in that case, the circle from which she could choose her future husband would be on an entirely different level.

Sure enough, the moment Guan Xuxu left, the Guan family’s luck began to turn!

“Truly wonderful.” Guan Ruirui spoke, though she added a touch of feigned modesty. “But if we go to them for help directly, won’t they refuse?”

Bai Shuqin’s face brimmed with confidence. “They came to us first seeking cooperation. Now that we’re partners, helping with such a small matter is only natural, isn’t it?”

As she spoke, she took Guan Ruirui’s hand. “Don’t worry. Mother will definitely help you secure the spot as Haicheng’s image representative! This concerns the very image of our city. And that ungrateful wretch who dares try to snatch it from you—doesn’t she know her own place?”

Pride surged in Guan Ruirui’s heart. She was already certain that the position of city representative was as good as hers, yet on the surface she still forced herself to appear obedient and uncompetitive.

After a pause, she asked, “So are we going to the Jianghai Group headquarters now?”

“Not the headquarters,” Bai Shuqin replied. “We’re going straight to the Jiang family.”