Chapter 6: Mangosteen

The family dispersed.

Sui Nuo went back to her room, shut the door, and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor with her back against it.

The room wasn't big, but it was cozy. Her favorite bunny plush sat on the bed, the succulent she'd been raising sat on the desk, and a string of little lights hung on the windowsill. The warm yellow glow made the whole room feel soft and peaceful.

She sat hugging her knees for a while, then pulled out her phone and opened that search page again.

Xie Jing.

She scrolled through more results, her alarm growing with every line—and so did her certainty about one thing: this man was absolutely not a good candidate for marriage.

He hadn't picked her because she was pretty, or accomplished, or because he liked her.

He'd picked her precisely because she looked easy to push around in the photos.

Sui Nuo bit her lip and pressed the phone face-down on the floor.

A sudden wave of self-pity washed over her.

She knew she was timid. Knew she wasn't assertive enough. Knew she looked easy to push around.

But that didn't mean she actually deserved to be pushed around.

She was a person of flesh and blood, with feelings—she got scared, she got sad, she too secretly cried alone late at night.

But, but.

Sui Nuo sniffled and buried her face in her knees.

What could she do? The Xie family wanted her. There was no running from this.

Those harebrained escape plans her dad had mentioned—everyone knew he was joking.

The Sui family's roots were here, their business was here, their whole life was here.

If she ran, the entire Sui family would bear the Xie family's wrath.

Sui Nuo lifted her head, eyes red-rimmed, and looked at the succulent on the windowsill.

It wasn't doing well—the leaf tips had turned yellow. She'd meant to repot it this weekend but never found the time.

She stared at it for a long while, then suddenly reached out and gently poked the yellowing leaf.

"If I don't go, who will?" she said softly, as if talking to herself.

"My sister's even more timid than me. If she went, she'd be scared to death.

And Mom and Dad—there's no way they'd actually go head-to-head with the Xie family."

Sui Nuo turned the pot around,

letting the sunlight reach the yellowing side, then wiped her eyes and stood up.

She walked to the desk, sat down, pulled open a drawer, and took out a new planner journal.

She'd bought it a few days ago. The cover was her favorite cherry-blossom pink, and inside were blank grid pages, not a single word written yet.

She opened to the first page, thought for a moment, picked up a pencil, and neatly wrote a few words:

"Xie Jing Observation Diary"

After writing it, she stared at the words for a bit, decided it felt inauspicious, and erased it. She changed it to:

"Xie Family Survival Guide"

Then decided that was too serious, erased it again, and finally wrote just two words:

"You can do it"

Followed by a tiny smiley face.

Sui Nuo looked at the smiley and somehow felt it was tragically heroic.

She patted her cheeks to shake off the weak emotions, then took a deep breath and said to the air:

"Sui Nuo, you can do this."

She paused, then added, her voice even smaller—so small only she could hear:

"Anyway... the worst that can happen is getting beaten up."

After saying it, even she felt that wasn't comforting at all. She pouted, buried her face in the bunny plush, and let out a muffled "wu."

Her phone suddenly buzzed.

Sui Nuo picked it up and saw a text from an unknown number, containing just one character:

"Mm."

Sui Nuo froze.

She stared at that character for ages, completely unable to figure out what it meant.

Who sent this?

Why send just an "Mm"?

Was it a wrong number or something?

She hesitated about whether to reply, but felt replying to a stranger was too weird. In the end she put the phone aside and decided to pretend she hadn't seen it.

What she didn't know was that at that very moment, at the other end of the Capital, in a top-floor apartment overlooking all of Chang'an Avenue, Xie Jing was leaning back on a sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window.

He'd just showered and changed into a dark gray loungewear shirt. His hair wasn't fully dry yet, a few strands falling over his forehead. It lacked the sharp, oppressive edge he had during the day, replaced by a loose, almost languid handsomeness.

The phone spun twice in his hand.

On the screen was a photo of Sui Nuo he'd had someone dig up—not the official one from her file, but a casual photo she'd recently posted on social media.

In the photo she was holding a succulent, flashing a peace sign at the camera, smiling so hard her eyes curved like two little crescent moons.

That smile was unguarded, unworldly—a completely relaxed, genuine happiness. She looked a bit silly, but very real.

Xie Jing stared at the photo for a few seconds, and the corner of his mouth slowly curved.

That curve wasn't quite a smile, but it wasn't not a smile either—somewhere in between, carrying the satisfaction of a hunter spotting his prey and... something even he himself hadn't noticed.

He exited the photo and scrolled to a contact labeled "Sui Nuo"—Uncle Zhao had sent him the number, saying it was the emergency contact registered on the Sui family's side.

He hadn't planned to save it, but somehow his fingers had typed those digits into the keypad anyway.

Then he sent one character.

After sending it, he felt inexplicably baffled. He tossed the phone aside, walked to the liquor cabinet, and poured himself a glass of whiskey.

The amber liquid left a pleasing arc on the glass wall. He raised it and took a sip—the cold liquid slid down his throat but did nothing to suppress that strange feeling in the pit of his chest.

That timid-eyed girl.

He'd chosen her.

Xie Jing set down the glass and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the brightly lit city outside.

The Capital's nightscape was prosperous yet cold and lonely. Ten thousand lights spread out beneath his feet like a massive carpet woven from light.

He thought of those eyes in her photo and suddenly let out a soft hum.

Not impatient, not contemptuous—more like an offhand, faintly amused murmur to himself.

"Sui Nuo."

He rolled the name twice on his tongue, then picked up the phone and sent two more characters.

This time after sending, he turned the phone off, too lazy to look again.

And on the other end, Sui Nuo had just lifted her face from the bunny plush when her phone buzzed again.

She picked it up—same number. This time, two characters:

"It's me."

Sui Nuo stared at the screen for ages, her brows knitting into a little knot. Finally she replied earnestly:

"May I ask who this is?"

Sent.

She waited two minutes. No reply.

Waited five more minutes. Still nothing.

Sui Nuo put the phone face-down on the desk, hugged the bunny plush, and rolled over.

She thought: This person is so weird.

Whatever, forget it. She had to get up early tomorrow to discuss countermeasures with Mom and Dad.

She closed her eyes. Her lashes trembled slightly, casting a small fan-shaped shadow in the dim yellow light.

Just before sleep, she thought hazily: Supporting this whole family... sounds so hard.

But—

But someone has to do it, right?

Sui Nuo hugged the bunny plush a little tighter and drifted into deep sleep.

Outside the window, the night was thick as ink.

Among the Capital's ten thousand lights, two lamps went dark at the same time, two utterly different states of mind sinking into their respective dreams.

One was a vast, formless fear and unease. The other was far more complex—wrapped in defiance and impatience, and beneath layers of arrogance and irritation, a subtle anticipation that even the person himself had yet to notice.

The bride the Xie family had chosen.

The lamb the Sui family had offered up.

The story had only just begun.