◎ End of Main Story ◎

Xu Tiancheng didn’t even bother dodging my “long-distance weapon.” The moment he saw my tears, his eyes lit up. He grabbed my wrist, his voice trembling with excitement.

“With this reaction, I’ll take it as a yes.”

The tissue landed on his chest. I picked it up and threw it at him again.

“You’re sick.”

He wasn’t even angry after being scolded. Instead, he smiled and nodded, “That’s right, I’m sick.”

Xu Tiancheng might be sick, but my colleagues were even crazier. It was one thing for them to start cheering without knowing the situation, but some of them actually clapped and chanted, “Marry him!” What on earth?

When I turned around, I saw the colleague who had shared a hotel room with me during our last business trip. She was waving her arms excitedly, shouting “Marry him!” with a look of pure satisfaction, as if she had just witnessed her favorite couple become real.

Once someone took the lead, others quickly followed. Before long, the entire office echoed with an endless chorus of “Marry him! Marry him! Marry him!”

My face burned with embarrassment as I forcibly dragged Xu Tiancheng out of the office and all the way to the emergency stairwell.

“You’re insane!” I cried, laughing in frustration. “How am I supposed to show my face at work after this?”

“At least now, everyone in your company knows you’re not single,” he said smugly. “No matter how you look at it, I win.”

I scoffed and brought up an old grievance. “You’re acting like you’re so into me, but how come you ignored me for days?”

That got him flustered. His usual nonchalant attitude disappeared instantly. Afraid I was truly upset, he quickly grabbed my hand and launched into an explanation—something about being extremely busy.

I actually understood. Relocating his entire life to a new city in such a short time wasn’t easy. On top of that, he was dealing with the opening of a new store and a messy transition filled with unexpected problems. Just hearing about it sounded exhausting.

We locked eyes, both feeling the overwhelming urge to embrace.

Just looking at him made my throat go dry. Embarrassed, I licked my lips, smiled shyly, and shook my head. “Not the right time.”

His gaze was so intense it felt like he wanted to devour me. “I know. I’m holding back.”

I had to get back to work, and he had a lot to handle at the store. We agreed to meet later that night and hurried off in separate directions.

But once again, Xu Tiancheng demonstrated just how fragile trust between people could be. He actually waited for me downstairs at my office, timing it perfectly with my off-duty hours. No wonder he had asked what time I was getting off work on WeChat.

As my colleagues teased and whispered, I blushed and hurried toward him. For the first time in a long while, I felt the shy thrill of a schoolgirl whose crush was waiting outside her classroom.

He told me he had parked in the mall’s underground lot, so I followed him in that direction while asking where he was staying.

He sighed, “Still haven’t decided. I’ve been so busy, I’ve just been staying at a hotel.”

“Are you planning to rent a place first?” I guessed.

“No choice but to rent.”

He nodded, opened the car door for me, then rested his head on my shoulder, whining pitifully.

“I’m just an outsider. I don’t even qualify to buy a house here.”

His dejected tone instantly made me picture him as a lonely soul drifting helplessly in this vast, international metropolis. My heart almost softened.

Then he lifted his head, raised an eyebrow, and smirked mischievously. “How about this? Marry me, and I’ll be able to buy one.”

I chucked my bag at him. “Dream on!”

Laughing, we got into the car. He said he had to pick up some things from his hotel room and asked me to come along.

I glanced at him, knowing full well he was up to no good.

But who was I to judge? I wasn’t exactly innocent myself. Just a long-overdue kiss in the car had my body instinctively reacting, my senses flooded with heat.

Even as we entered the hotel room, I found myself staring at our interlocked hands in a daze. It was real. The hand holding mine belonged to Xu Tiancheng.

Still feeling a little incredulous, I tiptoed closer and asked, “So… you’re really going to live here from now on?”

He smirked. “What? You don’t want me here?”

Before I could answer, he lifted his chin and scoffed playfully. “Doesn’t matter. Even if you don’t want me, I’m not leaving.”

“You’re so domineering. Have you been reading too many CEO romance novels?”

I playfully smacked him.

He took the opportunity to pull me into his arms. We barely exchanged a few more words before we tumbled onto the bed. It was as if he was determined to make up for the past few days of separation. He was especially dedicated, putting in more effort than ever. My body jolted so violently that I swore my waist was about to break.

“Say it. Do you love me?” He hovered above me, his gaze so deep it felt like it could swallow me whole.

Dizzy from the movement, I mindlessly echoed whatever he wanted to hear. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes!”

“Who loves me?”

“I-I do! I love you!”

Oh my god. What kind of childish game was this?

After an exhausting, color-filled shower, we were finally about to sleep when I casually joked, “You’re not getting any younger. Use your energy wisely.”

It was meant to be a lighthearted truce, but he deliberately twisted my words into a challenge. As a result, I suffered even more that night. We didn’t stop until the sky started to brighten, leaving me with dark circles so thick that even concealer couldn’t cover them. The next day at work, I had to endure endless teasing.

Ever since Xu Tiancheng’s dramatic “Marry him!” stunt, my colleagues had been teasing me non-stop for an entire week. From then on, no one called me by my actual name anymore. At some point, everyone just started referring to me as “Boss Lady.”

It got to the point where a new intern mistakenly believed I was the actual wife of our company’s owner and started treating me with admiration and respect. That was a whole other frustrating situation because, funnily enough, my boss was also a woman.

Every time a new batch of interns arrived, I had to explain the truth all over again. It was exhausting.

The most ridiculous part? My boss—an elegant, middle-aged woman who rarely gossiped about her employees’ personal lives—casually brought it up during a business trip. She looked at me kindly and asked, “I heard Xiao You is dating someone?”

I nearly choked on my own breath. I didn’t even wait to get home. After work, I stormed straight into the gym and went to beat Xu Tiancheng up.

“This is all your fault! All your fault!”

I looked like a scene straight out of a melodramatic romance drama as I pounded my fists against him.

Xu Tiancheng didn’t fight back. He just laughed and effortlessly lifted me with one arm, placing me onto his desk. Then, with a completely serious face, he asked, “Should I kiss you now, or wait until we get home?”

I don’t understand.

I was utterly shocked.

This man is truly something else… I don’t even know how to describe him. He’s a master of deception. At first, he would only stay with me until bedtime, no matter how late it got, he would insist on leaving, giving me the illusion that he was a true gentleman. Then, little by little, he started staying over occasionally. One day, he’d hang a few of his clothes in my closet. The next, he’d quietly place a couple of pants in my drawer. Bit by bit, like an ant moving house, he gradually took over my home, until one day, he shamelessly moved in for good.

By the time I realized what had happened, we had already stepped into the new stage of living together, and it had only been a month.

In the second month of our cohabitation, after what felt like forever, I finally got my well-earned vacation—something I traded my sweat and blood for through countless overtime hours.

As a true Minion at heart, I wanted to admire Xu Tiancheng’s chest, abs, and every other muscle in a setting that made sense. So, I chose a tropical island in Southeast Asia as our travel destination.

At the time, I wondered why he had no opinion on the destination. Turns out, the man had seen it coming—because, to him, it didn’t matter where we went.

Except for the first and last day spent traveling, the remaining five days… I barely got out of bed. His stamina was amazing, and my mind was bursting with wild ideas. The moment we got into bed together, we fit perfectly—like a turtle and a mung bean.

On our last night before heading back, I sprawled out in his arms, clutching the blanket, and sighed, “If I had known this trip was just for this, I wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble traveling so far. We didn’t even visit a single tourist attraction. What a waste of money.”

Under the covers, his fingers kept wandering, setting fires all over my body. His words weren’t any more proper than his actions, “Doesn’t it feel better doing it in such a scenic place?”

I grinned mischievously. “Did I seem bolder these past few days?”

Some things just have to be said, and some ears just have to turn red. He blushed slightly and nodded. “I like this side of you. You could be even more proactive.”

I set him up. Grabbing a pillow, I threw it at him. “Aha! I knew you weren’t a decent guy!”

That said, I knew he was always respectful of me in this regard. Every single time, he would use protection. Even if we ran out at home, I could tell how desperate he was, nearly bursting into flames, yet he would still insist on getting dressed and going out in the middle of the night to buy some.

As his sister’s belly grew larger in the videos she sent, I started wondering—our relationship was so stable, would Xu Tiancheng ever want to get married and have kids too?

I spent some time reflecting and realized that, for now, I wasn’t quite ready to be a mother. It’s not that I’m some kind of workaholic who refuses to take maternity leave; I just wasn’t prepared to take on a role that required such a high level of responsibility.

Xu Tiancheng had never mentioned it, and his parents had never pressured me either. In the end, I was the one who couldn’t hold back and asked him, “Do your parents ever urge you to carry on the family name?”

I deliberately emphasized the phrase “carry on the family name,” my eyes full of teasing.

His reaction was pure shock, as if his soul had been sucked out of him. Then, as if suddenly enlightened, he looked at me with lifeless eyes. “My sister has already completed the ‘carry on the family name’ mission for our family. As far as my parents are concerned, as long as I have a proper partner in this life, they’d be thanking the heavens.”

His eyes gleamed with understanding as he scanned me up and down. “I know you’re testing me. It’s okay, you can ask directly. You’re in the prime of your career, so whatever you want comes first.”

Hearing this, I was a little touched. I thought to myself—what did I do to deserve this? To have met such an open-minded family and such a gentle, kind, and understanding partner who truly loved me.

It wasn’t until two years later that I found out this cunning bastard had been unbelievably sneaky when he pursued me.

He confessed it himself.

I was absolutely stunned, feeling utterly deceived.

“I must have been blind! Back then, I actually thought you were a refined and cultured person!”

“I even felt guilty toward you sometimes! I was so kind, yet you were plotting against me all along!”

“You little rascal! You actually pulled so many tricks on me!”

With three consecutive “actually”s, I fully expressed my shock and condemnation.

Xu Tiancheng called me “wife” while wrapping me up in his arms. With a surprisingly serious tone, he tried to console me,

“What happened so long ago doesn’t matter anymore. Isn’t what comes next the most important thing?”

Absolutely shameless.

This scheming bastard had already embedded the word “wife” into every aspect of our daily lives. By the time he proposed, I had completely fallen into his trap. It just felt so natural—like we were already meant to be husband and wife. Before I knew it, I let him slip that engagement ring onto my finger.

°.✩┈┈∘*┈˃̶୨୧˂̶┈*∘┈┈✩.°

📢 Author’s Note:

That’s the end of the main story! Thank you all for reading!

I felt that writing from the female lead’s first-person perspective left some parts of the story untold. So next, I’ll be writing the male lead’s point of view in third person to fill in the gaps. Just a heads-up—he might not seem like the same person as he did in the main story. After all, in this game, no one’s a beginner.