Contract Over: Heiress Unmasked

Chapter 3 The Uninvited Guest and the Protector

The heavy silence in the VIP room was shattered by the buzzing of a phone. Ruan Chutang picked it up, her eyes narrowing as she scrolled through the images.

It was them. Chen Wan and Gu Zechuan, looking like a blissful couple against the breathtaking backdrop of Xinjiang. A follow-up text flashed across the screen: *“The place he refused to take you? I’m here instead. Xinjiang is beautiful—too bad you’ll never get to see it.”*

Chutang resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She wasn’t dead; she just wasn’t with a man who treated her like a backup plan anymore. Back then, she was a nine-to-five worker living for her few days of vacation, and she’d wanted Zechuan to go with her because she didn’t want to travel alone. Now? If she wanted to see Xinjiang, she could be on a private jet by sunset. She didn’t block Chen Wan yet. This was becoming too entertaining—like watching a desperate pet perform tricks for attention.

Across the city, Chen Wan was curled into Gu Zechuan’s arms, admiring the "perfect" photos she’d spent hours editing. Zechuan watched her hit send, his face a mask of cold anticipation. He wanted Chutang to see them. He wanted her to burn with jealousy, to break her silence, to call him screaming and crying so he could finally have the upper hand again.

But hours bled into the next evening, and the silence from Chutang was deafening. No calls. No angry texts. Nothing.

Zechuan’s patience snapped. The moment Chen Wan left the room, he pulled out his phone, his expression darkening as he dialed his assistant. "Trace Ruan Chutang’s hometown address. Now."

The address came back the next day—a mundane, middle-class neighborhood in Jiang City. Zechuan’s eyes turned predatory. *Jiang City.* Perfect. He already had a trip planned there to grovel for an investment from the Su Group. "Chutang," he whispered to the empty room, "if you won’t come to me, I’m coming for you."

***

While Zechuan plotted, Chutang was focused on her future. She had sent her resume to Shengke Law Firm, the most prestigious firm in Jiang City. Within days, she was stepping into the lobby for an interview.

What she didn't know was that in a private office upstairs, the firm's supervisor, Yang Xiaojing, was already on the phone.

"Miss Xu," Xiaojing said, her voice dripping with professional flattery. "Ruan Chutang has scheduled her interview for tomorrow."

"Good," Xu Jingxuan’s voice came through the line, sharp and laced with malice from her hospital bed. "Pay her whatever she wants. Keep her there. And once she’s in, make her life a living hell. Throw the messiest, most impossible cases at her. If you break her, the Jiang Group’s multi-million dollar contracts stay with your team."

Xiaojing’s eyes lit up. "Consider it done. I’ll give her my 'special' attention."

Jingxuan hung up, a twisted smile playing on her lips. She had overheard Chutang telling Jiang Shixu that she wanted to find a job on her own merit, without using her family name or her status as his fiancée. Chutang wanted to play the "independent girl"? Fine. Jingxuan would make sure she choked on that independence.

***

Chutang’s first day at Shengke started with a deceptive warmth. She was given a corner desk and an impressive salary, but the "special treatment" began almost immediately.

"Ruan, I’m so sorry," Supervisor Yang said, dropping a mountain of files onto her desk. "We’re short on interns, so you’ll be handling everything—from the litigation to the grunt work—entirely on your own. It shouldn't be a problem for someone with your... experience, right?"

Chutang didn't flinch. "I can handle it."

She worked until the lights in the office dimmed and the cleaning crew arrived. Her stomach was a hollow ache, but she’d finished the filings. As she walked out into the cool night air toward her apartment, her phone rang.

"Chutang? Did you make it home?" Shixu’s voice was like a warm hearth.

"Just leaving the office," she admitted, leaning into the sound of his voice.

"Have you eaten?"

"Not yet. I was thinking about ordering something."

"Well, your delivery driver is approximately fifteen minutes away," Shixu teased.

Chutang laughed, the tension leaving her shoulders. "Are you tracking me, Mr. Jiang? That’s a violation of privacy."

"Then arrest me, Counselor. I’m at your mercy." His voice dropped an octave, becoming a low, gravelly vibration that sent a flush creeping up her neck.

She was still smiling when she reached the gates of her apartment complex. But the smile died instantly. A shadow stepped out from beneath a tree, his silhouette unmistakable.

"Ruan Chutang," Gu Zechuan hissed, his eyes burning with a dark, dangerous intensity.

Chutang hung up on Shixu without a word, her blood turning to ice. "How did you find this place?"

"You thought you could just disappear?" Zechuan stepped into the light, his jaw tight. "You’re done throwing your little tantrum. Pack your things. We’re going back to Haicheng."

"We are over, Zechuan," she said, her voice flat and cold. "Go back to Chen Wan. Leave me alone."

"Chen Wan is a friend!" Zechuan roared, lunging forward to grab her wrist. "You’re mine, Chutang! You don't get to decide when this ends!"

"Let go of me!" She struggled, but Zechuan was fueled by a week of repressed rage and obsession. He pinned her against the gate, his face inches from hers, his breath smelling of expensive scotch and desperation.

"I’ve missed you," he groaned, his grip tightening until it bruised. "I’m not letting you go again."

He leaned in, intent on claiming her mouth in a forced reconciliation. Chutang was winding up for a strike when a streak of black blurred past her.

*THUD.*

The sound of a fist hitting flesh echoed through the quiet street. Zechuan was ripped away from her, stumbling back as a towering figure stepped between them.

Jiang Shixu didn't say a word. He didn't have to. The sheer, murderous aura radiating from him turned the humid night air into a glacier. He looked at Zechuan like he was something he’d stepped in—disgusting and meant to be crushed.

"Who the hell are you?" Zechuan spat, wiping blood from his split lip.

Shixu didn't answer with words. He lunged.

The two men collided with the force of two freight trains. It wasn't a clean fight. It was a brutal, bone-crunching brawl. Zechuan fought like a cornered animal, but Shixu fought with the cold, lethal precision of a man protecting his entire world.

"Stop it! Both of you!" Chutang screamed, but they were beyond hearing. They were rolling on the pavement, teeth bared, fists flying until the sirens began to wail in the distance.

Hours later, the two men sat on opposite sides of a shared hospital room, separated only by a thin curtain and a very tired police officer. Zechuan’s face was a map of bruises; Shixu had a bandage over his brow and a split knuckle.

Chutang walked in, ignoring the frantic way Zechuan’s eyes tracked her. She went straight to Shixu, her fingers trembling as she touched the edge of his bandage. "Does it hurt?"

"Only when I think about him touching you," Shixu murmured, his voice a low caress.

Zechuan’s heart shattered into a million jagged pieces. He watched them—the way she looked at Shixu with genuine fear for his safety, the way she hadn't looked at him once since the police arrived.

"Chutang," Zechuan rasped, his voice breaking. "Who is he? Tell me he’s just someone you hired to piss me off. I’ll pay him ten times whatever he’s charging. Just come back."

Chutang finally looked at him. There was no love left in her eyes. Only a profound, chilling pity.

"He’s my fiancé, Zechuan," she said, her voice echoing in the sterile room. "And unlike you, he actually knows how to keep his promises."

Zechuan recoiled as if she’d slapped him. The "fiancé" part was a lie, he told himself. It had to be. But as he watched Shixu pull her close, and saw the way Chutang didn't pull away, a terrifying realization began to take root.

He hadn't just lost a "substitute." He had lost the only woman who had ever truly loved him—and he had handed her over to a man who would never give her back.