Unwelcome and False Hope

Lily didn't get to enjoy the sight of the handsome man for more than a couple of breaths. When she locked gazes with him, Chan Hu furrowed his brows, the coldness emanating from his alluring eyes increasing by several folds.

She hesitated and even thought backing away but, in the end, she braced herself and followed secretary Ron.

"Who's she?"

Ron didn't get to say anything besides his casual greeting, his body twitched as he heard his boss question Lily's presence.

"B-boss… this is about the matter I talked to you about a few days ago…"

Chan Hu put down the papers in his hand, glanced at the restless Lily before focusing on his subordinate.

"The marriage?"

"Yes yes! I found the perfect candidate."

"Nonsense. I told you I'm not interested, get her out of here."

Chan Hu showed firm adamance, he waved his hands dismissively at Ron, who, surprisingly, didn't back off, even against his own boss.

"Boss! Hear me out first, 'kay?"

Ron pointed at Lily and continued, "She's the perfect woman. We already talked about the main points and she agreed on marrying you."

"Don't make me repeat myself, Ron!"

Chan Hu raised his voice, making his secretary sweat profusely and feel genuine dread. Were he not a long time 'friend' of Chan Hu, he'd have been fired after what he just did.

Seeing how his boss was refusing to cooperate or even listen to what he had to say, Ron had to use his trump card.

"But boss! This woman had to give up everything to be with you! If you kick her out now then she'll live in the streets! Look, she even brought her luggage."

Ron spoke with a sad tone and pointed at the luggage. As for Lily, she was about to step in and question him about all the lies he's spouting but was stopped when she saw him winking at her multiple times.

Chan Hu raised his head from the papers again, looking at Lily for a bit.

"I didn't ask her to give up everything."

"..."-Ron

The secretary had a complicated expression, his lips opening and closing but no words coming out.

Before he could come up with a more convincing lie, Lily, with an expressionless face, said,

"I'm sorry for my intrusion. Good bye."

She bowed her head and left shortly after, not even leaving Ron the time to stop her. When he was about to chase after her, Chan Hu said,

"Where do you think you're going? I've got work for you."

Ron's body stiffened, his steps halted and his neck robotically turned toward his boss.

"B-boss… she really has nowhere to go. You can't just kick her out like this. Here, these are all the information about her, read it and decide whether you want to marry her or not."

Without letting Chan Hu talk, Ron stuffed a bunch of papers in his hand and then backed away to a safe distance.

"I told you I'm not interested."

"But I've brought you the most beautiful and loyal of all women! You just need to pretend to be lovers."

"I don't want to hear another word about this."

Faced with Chan Hu's angered voice, Ron gulped some saliva and meekly nodded his head.

After a couple minutes of silence, he spoke with a barely audible voice

"Please give it a glance when you finish work."

With that, the secretary excused himself, still wanting to catch up to Lily.

****

"Ah! I was a fool to have expected something."

When she was about to kill herself, a golden and enticing opportunity had appeared but it was too unrealistic. She got her hopes up for nothing and here she is, homeless for the second time in just one day.

She dragged her luggage for a while and used the last bit of her money to travel to the Bell Bridge. It was almost midnight and though she was wearing warm clothes, the weather was still freezing.

When she got off the taxi, she didn't stop sneezing. Lily looked at the starry night sky and sighed, feeling disappointed. The excitement and nervousness calmed down, she was feeling inexplicably serene.

Witnessing the famous Chan Hu up close was a good thing but his cold attitude made it really hard for anyone, especially women, to talk to him, much less befriend.

"To begin with, what was I thinking? Marrying Chan Hu? Hah"

Lily mockingly laughed and then stomped the ground, disliking the way he kicked her out of the house like that. Even though her dignity was stomped a long time ago, it doesn't mean that she'll accept being treated like that. Though, it's not like she can do anything about it, after all, Chan Hu is not someone she can berate.

******

A little over an hour after kicking the unfamiliar woman out of the villa, Chan Hu finished his work. He leaned back and closed his eyes for a couple of minutes, feeling mentally and physically exhausted.

Time crept by and, at some point, he remembered the papers Ron stuffed in his hands. He sat up straight and stretched his hands toward those papers.

In total, he spent five minutes thoroughly reading them before putting them down and pondering, his expression, which rarely changes, was currently unreadable and that of slight confusion, his eyes glued onto Lily's picture.

"Ron."

He called out with a clarion voice, to which, his loyal secretary appeared in the living room.

"Yes!"

Earlier, when Ron was about to leave the Villa and go after Lily, he was stopped by Chan Hu, much to his disappointment.

"Where is she?"

Confused, Ron tilted his head and answered with a question

"Where is who?"

Chan Hu raised the paper containing Lily's picture and put his index on it.

"Ah! So you've read it! What do you think? Isn't she perfect?!"

"..."-Chan Hu

After rambling for close to one minute, Ron seemed to have remembered something, his expression saddening.

"Ah but it may be too late…"

"???" Chan Hu frowned and glared at his secretary, signaling for him to explain himself better.

"I told you that she's homeless… in fact, I barely managed to meet her. She was attempting to kill herself earlier."

"Kill herself?"

"Yes. I barely managed to stop her but now… I think it's too late."

Chan Hu thought for a brief moment before standing up, grabbing his coat, and throwing his car keys to Ron.