Xu Mey followed Ye Jie to a Presidential Suite on the 25th floor of the Star Night Hotel. The moment she entered the room behind him, she closed the door with a thud halting Ye Jie. She locked the door securely before she turned around to face Ye Jie with a scowl etched on her face.
"Why is it you?" How she managed to use her calm and gentle voice in this situation was out of his knowledge. Since her guise was anything but serene.
"Huh?" He gave her a questioning look.
"I can't believe my so-called father is actually giving me a second-hand product. I really didn't expect him to disregard me this much," She was walking in circles in her frustration without noticing that she was saying her thoughts out loud.
When Ye Jie heard the word 'second-hand product' he was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that someone actually dared to call him that. He was still known as the most eligible bachelor and now someone was calling him a used product.
"Ms. Cherry, I'm not a second-hand product you know," Ye Jie gnashed his teeth, he was seething with rage but he could only restraint himself for the moment.
Xu Mey stopped her walking parade and stood before him raising her head to look straight at him. "Are you trying to tell me that you didn't have a girlfriend?" She challenged him with her chin pointing at him.
She was about a head shorter than him but she still felt really short in front of him. 'He's just abnormally tall.' She inwardly calmed her inferior complex about height. Even though she was taller than most girls but she still didn't like seeing boys who were taller than her.
"Yes, I had a girlfriend but that doesn't make me a used product," He defied her with a confident look on his face.
"Says the guy who got himself drunk to the point of collapsing just for the sake of one girl," Xu Mey retorted sarcastically making him close his eyes and bit his lower lip.
"That's not related to this conversation," He replied after thinking for a while.
"Of course, it is. The person who had that much control over your life that her absence made you lose yourself, that person would definitely won't be a fling."
Hearing her reply, Ye Jie didn't know what else to say. He didn't have the answer to her question. She was right, he did give Lu Yuhan a lot of rights in his life and in his heart. Randomly a thought crossed his mind. "Why did you agree to this arranged marriage?"
"Because my family asked me to," She replied but her words couldn't even assure herself much less the keen person before her.
"Hahaha!" He laughed heartily for a while before taking a seat at the couch. "You want me to believe that a girl who hides behind a million faces is actually such an obedient little girl that her family asked her to marry a stranger and she happily agreed."
Looking at his handsome laughing face, she took a seat at the nearby couch and asked, "Million faces?"
Ye Jie looked at her serious face. It felt weird. There was no calm or gentleness. There was only a silent storm hidden behind her serious look.
"When I first saw you at my friend's wedding, you gave me the impression of a gentle fairy." He started in a soft voice. "At his reception, I took you for a bewitching fairy. On the dance floor, you looked like a carefree and playful kind of person with a hint of wildness. The very next morning, your serene impression seemed like a storm was brewing on an ocean and it actually scared me." He sighed audibly before continuing.
"And today, your whole persona was like a pitiful damsel in distress. You fooled me so much that even I wanted to go up to you to ask how can I possibly save you. Look at your self now, in a matter of minutes, you turned feisty. I don't even know what's hiding behind all those faces?"
Listening to his words, Xu Mey kept looking in his eyes. His brown eyes were asking her a million questions and she didn't know how to answer any of them. Her perplexed mind kept thinking for an answer but in the end, she knew, he'll figure out whether she was lying or not.
"A devil!" She said in a low murmur but he heard it. Before he could say anything, she started, "I'm marrying you because I'm gonna use you." She continued in her soft voice, "I'm gonna use you as my shield and my getaway."
Ye Jie thought about what she just said for a while before saying, "You're gonna use me to deal with the Xu family." He wasn't asking that question, he was stating a fact. "Why are you telling me the truth?"
"Because if we're going to spend our life together then we need to be honest with each other. If it was someone else, I'd have naturally not told the truth but because it's you, I wanted you to know. I wanted to give you a way and reason to back out." She explained her words and silence engulfed them.
To break the awkward silence, Ye Jie asked, "What are you planning on doing? And how are you going to challenge the power of the Xu family?" He was genuinely very curious about her course of action. He knew to fight with Xu's was not easy, they had a history of a century old.
"How I do it is my problem. You don't have to concern yourself with that. I'm ready for the battle. Also, you don't have to worry about spending the rest of your life with me. I won't put shackles on you. It's just a matter of time, I'll walk out of your life." She wanted him to know all his options. It wasn't like she was planning on spending the rest of her life with him. He was just a stepping stone, she needed that stone to reach the battlefield.
Spending another moment in silence, Ye Jie said, "Your appearance really can fool someone. I really took you for a fairy. Gentle and Kind." He had a hint of a smile on his lips.
"'Man cannot be judged by looks; seas cannot be measured by a cup.'* This phrase is for people like me."
*Don't judge a person from their appearance.