Chapter One: The Contract on a Rainy Night

Neon lights flowed like a river across the glass curtain wall. In the signing room on the 79th floor of the Jin Mao Tower, crystal chandeliers illuminated thirty-seven gold-embossed contracts. Gu Chenzhou's fountain pen twirled gracefully at his fingertips, the nib hovering over the "Party A Representative" section, ink droplets spreading out tiny creases on the rice paper.

"Mr. Gu, there are forty minutes left before the board vote." Assistant Chen Li's voice trembled almost imperceptibly. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the torrential rain was turning the night view of the Huangpu River into fragments of gold, just like the Gu Group's stock price, which was teetering on the brink of collapse—three days ago, the old chairman suffered a sudden heart attack, and now the entire board of directors was waiting for this playboy to use this marriage contract to reverse the decline in the acquisition battle.

The pen finally fell, its powerful strokes etching a sharp signature onto the contract. When Gu Chenzhou looked up, the woman opposite him was staring intently at the stamped seal on the last page of the contract. Chu Yu, his fiancée, listed in the documents as "the only daughter of Yi'an Building Materials," was currently stroking the engraving on the inside of her wedding ring with her ring finger, a faint red mark gleaming on her fingertip beneath the pearl-white nail polish.

"Miss Chu, do you have any objections to the contract terms?" His voice carried the chill of the rainy night, and his peripheral vision swept over the jade bracelet that was faintly visible on her wrist—a trophy that the Gu family had seized from the old chairman's office twenty years ago when they acquired Yi'an.

Chu Yu raised her eyes, her eyelashes casting butterfly-wing-like shadows beneath them: "President Gu is joking. The marriage agreement is merely an appendage to the business terms." Her fingertips traced the twelfth supplementary agreement: "Separate rooms after marriage, no interference in each other's private lives—this clause sounds more like a VIP agreement for business partners."

The atmosphere in the conference room suddenly dropped a notch. Chen Li quietly loosened his tie, recalling the fierce look in Gu Chenzhou's eyes three days ago at the hospital when he was staring at Chu Yu's file, his fingertips grinding over the words "daughter of Chu Mingxiu"—everyone knew that Gu's Group was able to rise to the top of the East China building materials industry precisely because of that bloody acquisition case twenty years ago, and Chu Mingxiu was the founder of Yi'an Building Materials, the man who fell to his death after the acquisition failed.

The pen tapped crisply on the desk again. Gu Chenzhou suddenly smiled, his fingertips tracing the confidentiality clause on page ten of the contract: "Miss Chu should know that Gu's Group agreed to this marriage only because they needed a figurehead to stabilize the board of directors." He suddenly leaned closer, the scent of cedarwood perfume mixed with the chill of rain filling Chu Yu's nostrils. "Just like Miss Chu needs Gu's Group's resources to restart Yi'an—oh no, it should be called 'Mingzhu Building Materials' now, right?"

Chu Yu's pupils suddenly contracted. The man, known in the business world as a "playboy," now had a glint in his eyes that was sharper than the stamp on a contract. She suddenly remembered the yellowed photograph her father had given her the night before he fell to his death—a young Gu Chenzhou standing at the entrance of Yi'an Building Materials, a cold smile on his lips that was exactly the same as it was now.

"Mr. Gu is joking," she said, steadying her trembling fingers as she signed her name in the "Party B" section. The pen tip scratched the paper, leaving ink spots. "I'm just an orphan raised by my uncle. Where would I get any business ambitions?" The engraving on the inside of her wedding ring pressed against her palm. It was the seal script of the Gu family's ancestral motto, "When profits run out, all is lost," but now it felt like a fine needle piercing her flesh.

The signing ceremony ended in silence. As Chu Yu turned around, the diamond ring on her ring finger suddenly caught on the tassel of the table corner, causing the entire crystal chandelier to shake violently. The refracted light shattered into a network of light and shadow on Gu Chenzhou's face. He reached out and supported her waist, the touch soft yet stiff, like the thin sheet of paper separating them—everyone knew that this marriage was nothing more than a game between two business empires, but no one spoke of it. The jade on Chu Yu's wrist was the very token of love that Gu Chenzhou's father had snatched from Chu Mingxiu years ago.

The downpour peaked at midnight. Gu Chenzhou stood before the floor-to-ceiling window on the 28th floor, watching the black sedan carrying Chu Yu drive away. His phone vibrated; Chen Li had sent an encrypted email: "Chu Yu has been frequently in contact with former employees of Mingzhu Building Materials for the past three months. Her assistant, Qin Man, filed a trade secret lawsuit when Yi'an went bankrupt."

The blue light from the screen reflected the wedding ring on his finger, the inside of which was also engraved with "When profits run out, all is lost." Remembering the red mark on Chu Yu's fingertip when she signed, he suddenly chuckled—this marriage, which began with a conspiracy, was far more interesting than the boardroom games. At least, he finally had the chance to ask her face-to-face why Chu Mingxiu had kept a handwritten copy of the Gu family's core formula in his safe during the fire at the Yi'an warehouse.

Meanwhile, Chu Yu was curled up in the back seat of the car, letting the rain pound against the window. She had taken off her wedding ring and was clutching it in her palm, the metal edge stinging her skin. Remembering the look in Gu Chenzhou's eyes as he signed the document, she suddenly touched the engraving on the inside of the ring. The cold metal seemed to transform into the raindrops from when her father fell—that stormy night, his words as he handed her the photo still echoed in her ears: "Go find Gu Chenzhou. He will be the key to your revenge."

The car stopped in the villa area. Chu Yu looked at the brightly lit Gu residence and suddenly recalled Gu Chenzhou's resume in the documents: a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with minors in law and chemistry, who led three cross-border mergers and acquisitions by the age of twenty-three. That cynical playboy image in front of the media was nothing more than a sheep's clothing disguised as a business genius.

In the entryway, Gu Chenzhou's suit jacket was casually draped over the back of a chair, revealing a tattoo on half of his collarbone—a nearly withered rose, with the pinyin for "Yi'an" wrapped around its stem. Chu Yu's breath caught in her throat. She finally understood why her father had asked her to wear her mother's jade bracelet before he died, and why Gu's acquisition had precisely avoided Yi'an's core R&D department.

Night rain washed over the city's neon lights. Two people, each harboring their own secrets, opened their notebooks in their respective rooms. On Gu Chenzhou's page, under the title "Chu Yu = Mingzhu Building Materials Revival Plan," her activities over the past six months were meticulously recorded. In Chu Yu's notebook, there was a yellowed photograph, with Gu Chenzhou's school badge circled in red on the back—the former logo of Yi'an Building Materials, which was completely destroyed after the Gu family's acquisition.

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