After signing the contract, Chen Die was finally much more at ease.

She carefully hid that contract in the innermost layer of her bookshelf, flattening it under a heavy dictionary, while Wen Liang’s copy had been carelessly discarded somewhere by him.

Chen Die wanted to remind him several times to keep it safe but worried that he would discover her secret little thoughts. She would always need to build up to the main topic, making her reminders very subtle.

But since Wen Liang had stopped being decent, he was well-versed in these matters. Every time he returned home before Chen Die could even set up her preamble, he would bend down to kiss her and start getting handsy, beginning his main course.

Afterward, Chen Die would be too exhausted to care about any contract matters. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she would fall asleep.

During the most carefree summer vacation after the college entrance exam, her friends would stay up all night playing, while she, thanks to Wen Liang, maintained a very regular routine.

After half a month like this, Wen Liang temporarily settled the company affairs, leaving the minor details to Zhu Qicong to handle, and then took Chen Die on a trip.

It was said to be a reward for her good performance in the college entrance exam, but it was also for himself to relax on vacation.

The farthest place Chen Die had been to in her life was the distance from Wuxi to Yancheng. She didn’t know where was good to visit, so the destination was chosen by Wen Liang.

A slow-paced coastal city in the south.

She was extremely excited, both because it was her first trip and because it was her first trip with Wen Liang.

She had even planned early on which outfits to bring and what kind of photos to take at the seaside.

The night before departure, Chen Die excitedly pushed her suitcase into the bedroom, sitting cross-legged on the plush carpet to organize her clothes.

Wen Liang had just finished his shower and came out. Chen Die asked him, “Do you have anything you want to bring?”

“Just grab a few changes of clothes from my wardrobe, that’s fine.”

Wen Liang didn’t have many casual clothes, just a few sets in total. Summer clothes didn’t take up much space, so Chen Die folded them neatly and placed them in the suitcase. “I’ve packed all the toiletries and charging cables. Do you have anything else?”

“That’s it.”

Chen Die then focused on organizing her things.

After graduation, she bought several new outfits. She was a clothes hanger—everything looked good on her.

But when it came to actually choosing, she became hesitant. She held a stack of clothes in front of the full-length mirror, comparing them one by one against herself, taking quite a while before finally selecting a few.

Time passed minute by minute.

Wen Liang looked at her and couldn’t help but frown: “You’re making such a fuss just packing a suitcase.”

Chen Die gave him a sidelong glance but didn’t argue with him. She held a dress against herself and tugged at the hem, asking, “Does this look good?”

The young woman stood barefoot on the carpet, holding the hem of the dress, with one foot tapping the ground behind her, making a curtseying pose. Her black hair fell smoothly over her chest, her eyes sparkled, and her face showed more childlike innocence due to her excitement.

Wen Liang looked at her for a while, then beckoned to her: “Come here.”

Chen Die put down the dress and walked over unsuspectingly: “What?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she was pulled down by Wen Liang and pinned beneath him. He lowered his head to touch her lips, saying shamelessly: “You look better without anything on.”

Chen Die’s face instantly turned red and hot.

Being so young, she still found such talk quite embarrassing. She looked away and complained softly: “How can you be like this.”

“This is how I am,” Wen Liang stayed very close to her, their noses almost touching. His voice was somewhat deep, revealing the possessiveness hidden beneath, “And only I can say such things to you, understand?”

Chen Die snorted: “You shouldn’t say it either.”

There was no way to continue organizing clothes.

Chen Die was bullied for a while, so much so that they almost missed their flight the next day.

Although her personality changed quite a bit later on, she was still somewhat slow and hesitant in her actions, unlike Wen Liang who was decisive and efficient.

Even though time was tight in the morning, she still had to organize the clothes she hadn’t finished organizing the night before, folding them neatly one by one and placing them in the suitcase. She was anxious inside, but her movements remained unhurried.

Later, Wen Liang grew irritated and scolded her a few times, telling her to hurry up.

So, for the entire flight, Chen Die was not very happy and didn’t interact much with him. The excitement and enthusiasm from the night before were gone, and she silently gazed at the white clouds outside the window.

Wen Liang felt as though he was raising a daughter.

He had a bad temper and didn’t bother to coax her, letting Chen Die sulk while he closed his eyes and dozed off for a while.

Finally, the plane reached its destination. They collected their luggage and exited the airport, first heading to drop off their belongings at their accommodations.

The hotel Wen Liang had booked was right by the sea. Their suite had the best view—the floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the blue sea and sky, and stepping onto the balcony led directly to an outdoor pool.

Wen Liang looked around, opened the windows for ventilation, and then took Chen Die down to stroll along the beach.

He bought a coconut, inserted a straw, and handed it to Chen Die: “Here.”

Chen Die glanced at him. Now that they were at the seaside, she wasn’t unhappy anymore, but from start to finish, Wen Liang hadn’t coaxed her once. She had no way to gracefully end her sulking, so she continued to remain silent as she accepted it, even very politely saying “Thank you.”

Wen Liang was amused by her anger and gave a cold laugh, almost letting unpleasant words slip out.

But when Chen Die looked up at him, he paused, thinking that the young woman rarely got to go on a trip like this, and decided not to make her unhappy. He swallowed back those words.

Chen Die knew him well and asked, biting her straw: “What were you going to say?”

Wen Liang pushed her shoulder: “Go over there, I’ll take a photo of you.”

“…”

Chen Die still obediently followed his words and stepped back a few paces. She held the green coconut in her hands, wearing a white dress and white shoes, with the beach beneath her feet and the azure sea surging behind her.

Wen Liang took out his phone, opened the camera, and zoomed in.

However, after zooming in, he could see that Chen Die was still pouting, and though she was posing for the photo, she was glaring angrily at his lens.

Wen Liang strode over to her, using two fingers to push up the corners of her mouth, forcibly making her smile. He looked down with furrowed brows: “Who are you making that face for?”

Chen Die dodged backward, swatting his hand away: “Then don’t look.”

Wen Liang clicked his tongue, and lazily pulled her in by the waist, his expression darkening further: “You’re spoiled, your temper gets bigger day by day.”

“Not bigger than yours,” Chen Die immediately retorted.

Wen Liang was tired of listening to her talk and raised her chin to bite her lips.

He didn’t hold back, causing Chen Die to hiss in pain. On one hand, she widened her eyes in shock at Wen Liang’s intimate gesture in such a public place, and on the other hand, she was in considerable pain. Tears instantly welled up in her eyes.

But he wasn’t sympathetic. His fingertips roughly brushed over her lips, warning: “Try pouting and throwing a tantrum again.”

Chen Die’s temper, which she had just managed to suppress, was ignited again by his words. She was furious and particularly aggrieved. She didn’t want him touching her, but with the disparity in strength, no matter how she struggled, she couldn’t break free. Instead, she was held even tighter by Wen Liang.

She could only accuse him: “Who’s throwing a tantrum!”

She brought up old grievances: “Last night when I was halfway through packing, you pulled me over and started getting frisky, making me run out of time this morning. It was your fault, yet you yelled at me so harshly for being slow, ignored me, and now you’re biting me.”

The more she spoke, the more aggrieved she felt. Her fists pounded on his body as she continued to struggle: “Let me go, I don’t want to be this close to you.”

Wen Liang finally realized why she had been unhappy all morning.

“Alright,” Wen Liang finally softened his voice, one arm around her waist, the other gently touching her lips, “Still hurts?”

Chen Die climbed up the ladder he offered, glaring at him: “Why don’t you try it and see if it hurts!”

He laughed: “Then bite me back.”

“…”

Chen Die fell silent, looking at his lips. The man’s lips were on the thin side, a typical shape for someone fickle. After a long while, she muttered: “I don’t want to.”

Wen Liang’s earlier oppressive aura finally subsided, and he relaxed, smiling a bit roguishly. He moved in close, their noses touching, and slowly kissed her, patiently kissing and licking her lips.

It was the summer vacation, and there were many tourists at the destination. Some were groups of people around Chen Die’s age who had come out to play together, and others were families of three or four.

The sun blazed fiercely, and the air carried the unique scent of sunshine and seawater.

And yet, she was standing on the beach kissing Wen Liang.

This was the first time Wen Liang had kissed her without those colored intentions.

They had just had an argument, and Chen Die had been furious with him, yet shamefully, this kiss quickly dissipated her anger.

Wen Liang’s hand rested on her back, patting and stroking, smoothing down all of Chen Die’s bristling emotions.

After a while, he finally pulled back a bit and asked in a low voice, with a smile: “Still hurts?”

“…”

Chen Die’s black lashes fluttered quickly, momentarily unable to remember what pain he was referring to. Her grip loosened, and the coconut she had only taken a few sips from fell onto the beach.

The coconut water gushed out and quickly seeped into the sand.

She had been kissed into a daze, licking her moistened lips as she looked at the coconut by her feet: “Ah.”

Wen Liang’s temper had now become exceptionally good: “Want another one? If you want one, I’ll buy another.”

She shook her head: “I don’t want one now.”

Seeing that he had finally coaxed the young woman back into a good mood, Wen Liang raised his phone: “Still want to take pictures?”

“Yes,” Chen Die liked taking photos.

Wen Liang stepped back, preparing to take photos of her, but was pulled by his sleeve by Chen Die. He looked down: “Hmm?”

“Take one with me,” Chen Die said.

Wen Liang: “I don’t want to be in photos.”

“Why not?”

“…”

Wen Liang looked at her clear, bright eyes and finally couldn’t resist. He took a photo together with Chen Die.

After taking it, Chen Die looked at the photo and couldn’t help but criticize him: “Look at you, and you had the nerve to tell me not to smile earlier.”

Wen Liang snorted lightly, not bothering to argue with her, simply raising his hand to ruffle her hair.

After the argument on the first day of their trip, the following days were relatively peaceful, except for some bickering when Wen Liang’s method of teaching Chen Die to swim was too rough.

The rest of the time, they were just like other couples who had come here for vacation.

They even attracted quite a bit of attention due to their outstanding appearances.

They stayed at the location for a week before returning to Yancheng.

After staying at home for just a few days, it was time for university military training.

On the day of enrollment, Wen Liang had an urgent business, so he sent a driver to take her to school and help bring her luggage to the dormitory—though she wouldn’t often stay in the dorm. When there was nothing going on, she would still return to the West Suburb villa, but she paid the dormitory fee according to regulations to avoid drawing attention.

The driver carried her luggage up to the sixth-floor dormitory: “Then, Miss Chen, I’ll be leaving now. When does your military training end? I’ll come pick you up then.”

“Isn’t Wen Liang coming?” Chen Die asked.

“Mr. Wen said he would come if he finishes his work.”

Chen Die knew that Wen Liang had been particularly busy lately.

She had also heard some rumors from Mrs. Zhang and Zhu Qicong that the Wen Yuan Group had stabilized under Wen Liang’s leadership. He had even made several large-scale reforms and subsequently injected new blood into the company, making it truly belong to Wen Liang both in name and essence.

Chen Die didn’t understand the conflicts of interest involved; she only knew that Wen Liang was much more capable than she had originally thought.

Going forward, although there might no longer be any necessity for so-called business marriages, once Wen Liang secured his position, he would meet many, many excellent women.

While she was just a student…

Chen Die felt somewhat worried.

Morning military training ended, and the counselor came over to say that the school needed to take a set of new student military training photos, requiring those with proper and outstanding appearances. Naturally, they focused their search on the performance arts major.

The counselor walked through rows of military formations and finally called Chen Die over.

“Are you interested in being in that photo set?”

Chen Die asked: “Will those photos be seen by many people?”

The counselor thought she was being modest, nodded and said “Yes,” thinking they would have to find someone else, but was surprised when Chen Die quickly nodded and agreed: “I want to do it.”

She wanted to have a bit more radiance, enough for Wen Liang to see her.

She also wanted that in the future, when standing beside him, she could proudly and confidently state her name, rather than just being his insignificant “hidden treasure.”

Chen Die was very photogenic, and the shooting went smoothly.

The photographer wanted youth, vitality, and spirit—all of which she possessed.

Soon, Chen Die’s set of twenty-some portraits in military training clothes was published in the first issue of the new semester’s school newspaper under the theme “Welcome New Students,” occupying the entire page.

She was beautiful and photographed extremely well. First, she caused a small wave of attention within the school, then began appearing in schoolmates’ social media posts and even on the school forum.

Later, she even became temporarily popular online. Even Chen Die hadn’t expected that this set of photos would cause such a big reaction.

During that period, she became known throughout the school at an extremely fast pace, even being crowned with the title of school beauty. After spreading online, despite never having had any formal voting, she somehow became the school’s recognized beauty.

Many upperclassmen were curious and would specifically detour to the military training grounds after class to see her.

Wen Liang naturally knew about what had happened these days.

That day, after finishing a meeting at five in the afternoon—Chen Die’s military training ended every day at five-thirty—he quickly packed up his things and headed to the school.

Zhu Qicong drove the car directly to the outside of the training grounds, separated by a wire fence. Inside was a sea of freshmen wearing dark green camouflage uniforms, still practicing their goose-step marches.

Due to that set of photos, Chen Die had been picked out by the instructor to serve as the team leader.

Wen Liang effortlessly spotted her in the crowd.

The young woman had her hair in a high ponytail, her face slightly reddened from the sun. As the team leader, she needed to wear a belt buckle at her waist, outlining her slender waist that could be encircled by one hand. She was leading a group in a goose-step march, walking quite standardly.

Wen Liang rolled down the window and watched quietly.

About ten minutes later, the head instructor blew a whistle, and everyone cheered as they finally dispersed.

Chen Die hadn’t noticed the car outside. She was laughing and talking with her new friends as she walked to the shade to pick up her bag and water bottle before heading out.

However, after just a few steps, she was stopped by a young man.

This scene was all too familiar. Wen Liang had encountered it before and didn’t need to guess what this young man would say to Chen Die next.

Her new friend beside her was quite perceptive. With a teasing smile, she waved goodbye to Chen Die and ran off ahead.

Wen Liang took out his phone and called Chen Die directly.

Sitting in the car, he watched as Chen Die interrupted the young man, took out her phone from her bag, and answered: “Hello?”

“It’s over,” Wen Liang’s voice was indifferent. “I’m already at your school. Come out.”

Chen Die immediately looked up, saw his car, and her eyes brightened.

Wen Liang had been so busy these days; this was the first time he had come to the school since military training began.

“Okay, right away,” she couldn’t help but smile.

After hanging up, the young man who had just confessed asked: “What’s wrong? Do you have something to do in a bit?”

“Mm,” Chen Die, relying on the fact that Wen Liang couldn’t hear at this distance, let her thoughts run free and said, “My boyfriend came to pick me up.”

“You have a boyfriend?” the young man was surprised.

Chen Die smiled sweetly, giving him another heavy blow: “Mm.”

Wen Liang watched her talking to that young man with an extremely sweet smile and immediately felt irritated again.

Just as his brows began to furrow, he saw Chen Die bypass the young man and run straight toward him. Her backpack bounced at her side, and her ponytail traced an arc through the dim golden sunset light. She was still smiling broadly.

Wen Liang’s irritation was smoothed away once more.

She ran too fast, and her camouflage cap almost blew off in the wind. She clumsily raised her hands to press down on the brim that was about to flip up, running toward him with both hands on top of her head.

She looked somewhat comical.

Wen Liang laughed out loud.

At this moment, he thought, continuing like this would be quite nice.

Chen Die finally ran to the car, catching her breath, smiling with curved eyes and brows: “Why did you come today?”

The weather was beautiful that day. The evening glow spilled down like ink, falling on Chen Die, and coating her in a layer of golden light. Her entire being was radiant.

When they first met at the station, Wen Liang had felt a very subtle sensation of being burned by her brilliance the moment she looked up.

Now, this brilliance was enough to keep him from looking away.

Seeing that he wasn’t speaking, Chen Die was about to throw another tantrum, saying coquettishly: “Why aren’t you talking to me?”

Wen Liang thought again, if they could truly continue like this, he would probably be the one who gained.