A Beijing socialite stole my boyfriend; she went crazy after I got married.

Xie Jing's eyes turned somewhat dangerous.

"Cough cough cough," Jiang Chu quickly tried to salvage the situation, reaching out to soothe him. "Think of it positively, I have a super cool boyfriend!"

Xie Jing was just teasing her and wasn't really angry, so he felt helpless upon hearing this.

But he maintained a straight face. "Is that all?"

Jiang Chu leaned in and kissed him, "...and your super cool husband?"

Xie Jing chuckled, raised his hand to press down on the back of her neck, and kissed her fiercely until the girl, blushing, nestled against his chest.

"Alright!" Jiang Chu gently nudged him. "Let's get down to business! Um, is it really just because you... are a slightly different kind of parent?"

Xie Jing grabbed her hand. "There's a concept in psychology called peer pressure. In the semi-closed micro-societies of kindergarten and primary school, many people are eager to fit in. If your parents are much taller than others, that's a visual pollution point, especially if they are also obviously younger than others."

Jiang Chu blinked. "I understand what you mean. Although if it were me, I would still think it's really cool. When my grandparents came to my parent-teacher conferences, they stood out among a bunch of middle-aged people, but I was very happy and couldn't wait to let them see my dance performance."

The original owner had this experience, and she herself had it too, so she wasn't afraid of being exposed if she talked about it.

"...People with a high degree of self-differentiation are less likely to be swayed by the external environment. Some people feel particularly uncomfortable when they receive excessive attention, and their subjective conclusion is, 'He is too tall and too young, it's embarrassing, I don't want him to come.'"

Jiang Chu seemed to be deep in thought.

"These are only one aspect," Xie Jing said calmly. "After all, we weren't close to begin with. On one hand, even if I tried my best to be kind back then, I always seemed a bit too harsh. On the other hand, she may have been influenced by her mother."

"Hmm? You and Miss Qiu don't get along?"

"I spent very little time in China when I was a child, so I didn't have much contact with Ms. Qiu. On the surface, she was very polite and even gave me gifts."

Xie Jing didn't even remember what the other person looked like.

"...When I was fourteen, I went back to the old house for vacation. When I got to the corner of the main building's corridor, I overheard Miss Qiu chatting with my older brother's caregivers. She was over there saying that I was ugly and fierce, and questioned whether I was the old man's biological son. There was some other talk, but that was the core idea."

Jiang Chu was full of questions.

She suddenly jumped up, cupped her boyfriend's face in her hands, and examined him carefully.

With high, prominent brow bones and a well-defined outline, the lines are sharp and clean, and the curve from the root of the nose to the tip is smooth and upright, exuding a sculpted, cool beauty.

His eye sockets were a bit deep, his eyelashes were long and thick, and his irises were a deep color. When he looked at people quietly, it was as if he was hiding an entire calm night sky.

The bone structure subtly reveals a deeper sense of three-dimensionality; the transition of the cheekbones and the narrowing of the jaw are all perfectly proportioned, exuding a cool and hard yet not rugged feel.

Even though he was expressionless at the moment, his face was still captivating.

Jiang Chu: "Have you had any plastic surgery? Or your teeth?"

Xie Jing: "...None of them."

Jiang Chu: "Then she might be blind—"

Jiang Chucai remembered that Miss Qiu had passed away. "I don't want to make fun of the dead, but I really can't understand all of this."

Xie Jing smiled and asked, "Would you like to see a photo? One of me when I was little?"

Jiang Chu's eyes lit up. "Is it okay!"

Xie Jing picked her up and stood up. "Okay, I'll show you when we go to sleep. I really have to go to a meeting now."

Jiang Chu endured several very difficult hours.

She longed to see photos of her boyfriend when he was a child, but at the same time, she was also thinking about the strange relationships among the Xie family members.

Jiang Chu leaned back on the sofa in the master bedroom, where the warm underfloor heating kept out all the cold air.

She looked at the books spread out on her lap.

The above is filled with dense technical terms and macro-level curves.

But when she thought about the smile in someone's eyes when she talked about making money from houses today, she bit her lower lip, a little defiant, and forced herself to keep eating.

When she got tired of reading, she picked up her phone from the coffee table and skillfully started browsing political and economic reports about Tianyu Group.

As an unshakeable behemoth in Beijing's elite circles, Tianyu Group's every move is considered a trendsetter.

The media coverage was extensive.

In addition to a strategic analysis of Tianyu's recent sweeping restructuring of the clean energy supply chain in Southeast Asia, there is also a white paper submitted by Tianyu Financial Research Institute under the new regulatory framework for cross-border capital flows, which is regarded as the gold standard in the industry.

Even in an overseas financial news flash published just half an hour ago—

Jiang Chu astutely caught the news brief about the two startup tech companies undergoing a major restructuring in their Series B funding rounds due to changes in compliance and background checks.

Is this the company Xie Qingyang wants to invest in?

Looking at the cold, hard text, she couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.

Xie Jing's methods have always been swift and decisive, leaving no room for compromise.

"Click".

The heavy door to the master bedroom was gently pushed open.

Jiang Chu looked in the direction of the noise.

Xie Jing had finished the meeting and gone upstairs.

He took off the tight, sharp suit he wore during the day and put on a dark gray bathrobe, the collar slightly open, revealing a large expanse of his strong, imposing chest.

What caught Jiang Chu's eye the most was that he was holding a black leather photo album that looked quite old.

"!"

Jiang Chu jumped up in a flash, not even bothering to put on her shoes, and like a little fox that had smelled the aroma of meat, she happily pounced on him.

"Slower."

Xie Jing scooped up the girl who had thrown herself into his arms with practiced ease and brought her to the bedside.

He casually grabbed a silk quilt from the side and wrapped her smooth, white, tender little feet tightly inside.

A soft rustling sound came from outside the window.

Jiang Chu turned her head to look at the huge floor-to-ceiling window.

In the boundless darkness of the winter solstice night, fine snowflakes began to fall without anyone noticing.

Under the glow of the courtyard streetlights, it looked like scattered silver pieces dancing in the sky, or like a white veil covering the lake, like smoke and mist.

"It's snowing."

Jiang Chu tugged at his sleeve, her voice soft and sweet.

"Hmm." Xie Jing sat down on the edge of the bed, pulled her into his arms, and placed the heavy photo album on his lap. "Didn't you want to see my childhood photos? Here they are."

"Open it quickly! Open it quickly!"

Jiang Chu urged him on with great enthusiasm.

The photo album was opened.

The boy in the photo on the first page is about twelve or thirteen years old, and the background is a lawn of a manor.

Jiang Chu stared at the photo for a few seconds, "...Huh?"

She knew her boyfriend was very tall, almost two meters.

and so--

For someone this tall, at the age of twelve or thirteen, when they are just beginning to grow rapidly, the development of their limbs may precede the development of their muscles and fat.

While some people do gain weight, he is clearly not one of them.

The boy in the photo has an extremely large frame and incredibly broad shoulders, but he doesn't have much flesh on his body.

He has large joints, thick bones, and looks very thin, even somewhat strange, with long arms and legs.

Wearing a somewhat oversized school uniform suit, he didn't look like a pampered young master from a wealthy family, but rather like a scrawny wolf cub that had just been thrown into the wilderness and hadn't even grown its full fur yet.

and……

Because his facial soft tissue—that is, baby fat—lost too quickly and he lacked collagen, his deep brow bones, slightly sunken eye sockets, high nose bridge, and sharp jawline appeared somewhat abrupt and sharp without any flesh covering them.

"Damn," Jiang Chu touched the photo, "I think he's so handsome. If we were classmates, I would definitely pursue you."

Xie Jing glanced sideways.

Jiang Chu poked the photo. "Of course, you... you don't seem too keen on dating either."

Xie Jing raised an eyebrow. "So, what do I look like I want to do?"

Jiang Chu coughed lightly. "I mean, the feeling of a superstar in troubled times?"

Xie Jing: "?"

Jiang Chu whispered, "I'll roam freely, commanding respect and admiration from all."

Xie Jing: "Why are you suddenly speaking Cantonese—oh."

Xie Jing: "…………"