The First public Fight
916 Words
_2:17 PM. Lu Corporation, CEO’s Office. 88th Floor._
The internet was on fire.
#LuTingxiaoDefendsHisWife — trending #1.
#SheRippedUp4Billion — trending #2.
#NotATransaction — trending #3.
Lu Corp stock climbed like it had something to prove. +12%. +14%. +16%.
Lu Zeyuan had gone silent. The board vote was delayed.
And Su Wan sat on the edge of the black leather couch, still in the qipao from this morning, still wearing a ring she didn’t think she deserved.
“You didn’t have to say that,” she said.
Lu Tingxiao was behind his desk. Signing, stamping, ending things with one stroke of his pen. He didn’t look up. “I did.”
“Why?”
“Because he used you.” He finally lifted his gaze. “He used your mother’s bills. Your brother. Your face. No one uses what belongs to me.”
There it was again. _Mine._
It should have made her furious. It did. And it didn’t.
“I’m not a possession, Tingxiao,” she said.
“I know.” He stood. Crossed the room in three steps. Stopped just outside the radius she’d been keeping between them for days. Contract radius. Safe radius. “But you’re in my world now. And in my world, people take. They take until you’re hollow. I don’t let them take.”
“So you lock me in a tower? Like a patent you’re afraid to lose?”
“If I have to.”
The anger came hot and fast. She stood. “I didn’t sign up to be a prisoner. I signed up to save my brother. He’s alive. Surgery worked. My part is done. Let me go.”
Lu Tingxiao went still.
“Let you go,” he repeated.
“Yes.” She gestured to the contract on the coffee table. “Two years. No love. You just told the entire world I’m your wife. That’s a breach. We’re done.”
She braced for relief. For him to say _good. Go._
He didn’t.
He opened the bottom drawer of his desk. Pulled out the contract. All 40 pages. Unburned. Untouched.
He set it on the table between them. Picked up a pen.
Clause 9.2. _No personal questions._ He drew a line through it.
Clause 12.1. _No touching._ Another line.
Clause 15.4. _No love._ He struck it out like he was erasing a debt.
He signed at the bottom. L.T.X.
“There,” he said. “No more rules. Except one.”
Su Wan couldn’t breathe.
“You stay,” he said. “Not for the money. Not for your brother. Because you choose to. Because yesterday you said ‘we.’ Because when I told the world you were mine, you didn’t run.”
“I should,” she whispered. “You’re dangerous. Your life is dangerous.”
“I know.” He stepped closer. One step. “But I’m also the man who moved a liver across the country for you. I’m the man who shut down the internet for you. I’m the man who ripped up ¥4 billion for you.”
Another step.
“And I’m the man who’s been in love with you since 3:01 AM, when you looked at me like I was a monster and signed anyway.”
Su Wan’s throat tightened.
“You—”
“Don’t say it back,” he cut in. Quick. Rough. “Don’t say it because you’re grateful. Don’t say it because you’re scared. Say it when you mean it. Or don’t say it at all.”
He turned away. Back to his desk. Dismissal. Closure.
Su Wan looked at the contract. At the lines through the rules. At his signature next to hers.
Then she looked at his back. At the scar under his shirt. The one her fingers had found last night.
She made a choice.
She walked to his desk. Picked up his pen.
Clause 1.1. _Duration: 2 years._ She crossed it out.
Underneath, she wrote: _Duration: Until you stop being an idiot._
She signed. Su Wan.
Lu Tingxiao turned. Saw it.
His face shifted. Something broke and rebuilt in the same second.
“Su Wan,” he said. Warning.
“Tingxiao,” she said. Answer.
She kissed him.
No war. No anger. No desperation. Just truth.
He kissed her back like she was the one thing he’d never thought he’d get to keep. Hands in her hair. Forehead against hers.
When they broke apart, he rested his forehead on hers.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he murmured.
“Good,” she said. “Then we’ll die even.”
---
_6:00 PM. Lu Mansion, Grandfather’s Suite._
Lu Qingshan was waiting.
He saw them come in. Together. Her hand in his. No contract between them. No space.
He saw the amended contract. Signed.
And he smiled. The same smile from day one.
“Took you long enough,” he said. “Now, Sun xifu. Do you know how to play chess?”
Su Wan blinked. “Chess?”
“My grandson cheats,” Lu Qingshan said. “Someone needs to keep him honest. And I’m dying. So it has to be you.”
Lu Tingxiao groaned. “Yeye.”
“Don’t Yeye me. Sit. Both of you. If you’re going to be married for real, you start by losing to an old man.”
Su Wan looked at Lu Tingxiao. He looked at her.
And for the first time since 3:01 AM, they both smiled. Real. Together.
Rule #8: Checkmate.
- Writer
