Chapter 1: I’m Getting Married. Crash the Wedding

“I’m getting married in a few days. Bring some men and crash the wedding.”

A stack of cash was thrown onto the table.

With the music blasting around them, the woman leaned back slightly in her seat. Her loose wavy hair swayed  as she moved and her skintight black leather outfit hightlight her stunning body. Under the dim lights, her eyes were like cold stars, sharp and chilling.

The guard across from her froze for a moment, his eyes lingering greedily on the cash. “This…crashing a wedding like this isn’t really a good idea, is it?”

“Tsk. ” 

The woman remained silent, throwing down yet another stack of cash.

The guard gasped. He immediately gathered the money, grinning. “Consider it done. You won’t be disappointed.”

“Hah”

A faint mocking sound came from the booth beside them, nearly drown out by the music.

Xi Xingye sank into the leather sofa, looking lazy and unbothered. His messy short hair looking as though someone had casually run a hand through it. A few loose strands fell across his forehead while his deep, hooded eyes narrowed, unreadable and uninterested.

“She hired people to crash her own wedding?” His friend raised a brow. “Now that’s interesting.”

A red ember glowed at the tip of the cigarette near Xi Xingye’s hand but he didn’t seem to care. The alcohol went down his throat, leaving a sharp burn on his tongue.

The woman’s voice from the next booth continued to drift into his ears. Only this time, she was speaking to someone else.

“Lawyer Zhang, I need to get my assets sorted out before the wedding. I am marrying into a rich family. They have a professional legal team and I don’t want them screwing me over if we end up divorcing.”

“A rich family?” His friend chuckled. “Who’s the unlucky winner?”

As soon as he said it, the music in the bar suddenly changed, and the room fell quiet for a few seconds.

Her cold voice instantly become clear. “It’s the only son of the Xi family. He’s a reckless playboy. His mother died young and he doesn’t live with his father. The only family he has left is his grandfather. The Xi family will end up ruined by him sooner or later. If I marry him, how do I protect myself from taking a loss?”

The glass clinked against the table. Xi Xingye put down his drink and lifted his eyes sharply.

His friend’s face stiffened. “Wait…she couldn’t possible be talking about you, could she?”

“Are you kidding me?” Xi Xingye let out a cold laugh, pushing himself up in his leather booths and glancing toward the booth beside them.

The lights flickered over an empty black booth.

The woman  was gone, disappeared into the night as soon as she’d hung up.

He lowered his eyes, taking her for nothing more than a lunatic using his name to spread nonsense.

He stubbed out his cigarette, but his slender fingers fingers suddenly paused.

Out of nowhere, the conversation he’d had with his grandfather before the old man was hopitalized flashed through his head.

“I’m old now, and this body of mine isn’t what it used to be. There’s not much I can give you, so I’ll give you a wife. You’re getting married at the Panxing Hotel in a week. Don’t you dare miss it.”

Wait a second…he couldn’t seriously mean that, right?

“Damn it.” Xi Xingye muttered, grabbed his coat from the sofa, and headed out.

“Hey where are you going?”

His friend’s voice faded behind him. His tall figure cut through the crowd, attracting quite a few glances. He moved faster and walked out of the bar.

“Vroom”

The roar of the engine shattered the silence.

Xi Xingye turned his head.

A shining black motorcycle charged straight at him like a flash of black lightning.

Helmet on, the woman hunched low over the bike. Her black leather pants clung to her long, toned legs. Her slim waist carried a quiet strength. As she sped past him, Xi Xingye neither dodge nor moved aside; the motorcycle barely brushed past his feet before speeding away.

Leaving behind only a cool, lingering trace of fragrance.

Xi Xingye narrowed his eyes for a moment, then took out his phone. “ I’m at Blue Note Bar. Come pick me up and take me to the hospital.”

At the hospital – “Cough, cough, cough…”

The white-haired old man braced himself on the bed, bent over with a fit of coughing, while the butler beside him patted his back to help him breathe.

Xi Xingye stood by the wall, looking every bit the rebel. He leaned back, kept one hand in his pocket and raised an eyebrow. “That’s enough. Stop pretending. Your face hasn’t even changed color. Tell me, what is this really about?”

The old man sneaked a glance at him out of the corner of his eye, then immediate covered his chest and said in a weak voice, “A few days ago, I asked someone to read my fortune *cough, cough, cough*. The fortune teller said that I don’t have much time left. I need wedding luck to ward this off and extend my life.”

“That’s easy.” Xi Xingye played with his lighter. “Butler, put the old man’s information on a dating site and find him eight old ladies to properly counter his bad luck.”

“You brat!” The old man pointed at him, about to scold him, but suddenly stopped. His mouth moved as though he were chewing something.

The old man spat out a mouthful of blood all of sudden.

“Master!” the butler cried out in shock, rushing to press the emergency call button.

Xi Xingye frozed. “Old man, you…”

Doctors and nurses quickly arrived, but the old man stubbornly refused to let them examine him.

“If I can’t see you get married and settle down, I won’t be able to die in peace. I won’t be able to face your mom in the afterlife either. I’ve already had the fortune read, only Qingci is the best match for our family.”

“I dont care if it’s Qingci or Heici, just let the doctor check on you first!” Xi Xingye said, trembling, but trying his best to stay calm.

“I won’t let anyone touch me! If you refuse to get married, then there’s no point of me staying alive! This time next year, my grave will be covered in flowers *cough, cough, cough*…”

He suddenly coughed again, blood spilling down like rain.

“Old Xi!” Xi Xingye shouted, the veins at his temples bulging as he shouted as the old man.

The old man wheezed, glared at him for a moment, then turned as though he were about to spit up blood again.

Xi Xingye took a deep breath and finally gave in. “Fine. I’ll get married. Now let the doctors do their work.”

“You’re going to get the marriage certificate tomorrow. The appointment’s already been set!”

“Tomorrow? Are you crazy?”

“Pfft…” A spout of blood shot into the air.

Xi Xingye’s frustrated voice echoed through the whole hospital room. “Fine, I get it! I’ll go TOMORROW!”

The old man’s eyes lit up, then he pretended to faint while still clutching the unfinished blood in his hand.

A few minutes later, once the doctors confirmed the old man was fine, Xi Xingye was pushed out of the hospital.

Dark clouds loomed over his head. Xi Xingye stood beside the glowing electronic screen at the hospital entrance, the blue light shining over his cold face and deepening the darkness in his eyes.

The screen was showing the weather forecast, the map was full of white patches and falling snowflake icons. It was a sign that the first snow of the year would fall tonight.

“Huh. Shen Qingci, is it?” Xi Xingye smirked. “If  you’re so determined to get yourself killed, then bring it on.”

As expected, it started snowing that night.

By morning, the city seemed to change colour, covered in white. Only when the sunlight spread across the snow did that pure stillness begin to melt away.

A pair of black leather booths crunched into the snow.

Outside the Ministry of Civil Affair, Shen Qingci kicked a stone by her foot, shaking the snow off her boots. She then took off her helmet and shook out her long black hair, then suddenly froze.

She turned to look to the side. A flashy pink Rolls-Royce Phantom was parked nearby.

This colour was custom order. She had seen it in the news once before.

And when it came to this so-called custom order, there was only one brainless idiot in the world who would buy something like this – Xi Xingye.

Although she had never met this spoiled young master herself, his name and reputations were practically known by everyone in the city.

Rumor had it, he once managed to gamble away eighteen companies under Xi family in one night, and even mortgaged over a hundred of his old father’s properties across the country. He sent funeral wreaths to his stepmother and a memorial tablet to his father. He also kept fifteen dogs, each named after one of his enemies, and made a daily habit of taking the dog with the matching name to that enemy’s home for a walk.

When his private tutor scolded him for being an ignorant good-for-nothing, he chased the man from the east side of the city to the west with a whip.

When a psychiatrist told him he was a lost cause. He tied the man up on the spot, prepared to light him up like a sky lantern. He then set off eighty eight rounds of firecrackers to celebrate the fact that his condition was officially incurable.

When they told him to stand facing the wall and reflect on his mistakes, he blew the wall up. When they locked him in a room, he dug a tunnel to get out.

In the end, no one could keep this young master in check. All they could do was letting him provoke the family’s business rivals and setting up gravestones for his enemies. Just hearing his name was enough to make people grinding their teeth in hatred and trembling in fear.

Shen Qingci had once believed that, in this life, she would never possibly become entangled with someone like him. But now, not only had she gotten mixed up with him, she was about to get the marriage certificate with him.

She had originally though that Xi Xingye would need to be knocked out and dragged here today before he’d agree to register the marriage. But not only had he shown up, he’d arrived early?

The sun must have risen in the west.

She flicked her boots and walked inside. The first thing she saw was that good-for-nothing troublemaker sitting there in his usual careless way.

Sharp brows, star-like eyes, strong features. His sunglasses was worn backward on his head, and he has this easy, rich-boy confident look. Honestly, he looked way better than his photos online.