Abstinence Pei, don't be too sweet when chasing your wife

On the night when the crystal chandelier at the dinner party shattered into stars, Long Weiwei locked herself in the room.

Her dark green fishtail skirt had become heavy from being soaked in red wine. Her bare feet stepped on broken glass, and drops of blood seeped into the carpet like rotting poppies. While Special Assistant Wang was reporting on Gu Fanxing outside, she grabbed the perfume bottle on the dressing table and slammed it against the door.

"Archaeological researcher? Digging mud?"

She laughed so hard that tears came out, and her nails dug into the edge of the gilded frame, leaving deep scratches on Pei Luonan's photo.

"Why? Why should she stand by him?"

At three o'clock in the morning, the light in Long Zhenbang's study was still on.

Two documents were spread out on the rosewood table. On the left was the notice of approval obstruction for the East Coast Wind Power Project, with a glaring red seal; on the right was the quarterly financial report of the Long Group, with three question marks circled in red in the cash flow column.

He pinched his brows and was about to get up when the door was pushed open. Long Weiwei was standing at the door in her nightgown, with traces of tears on her face, but her eyes were frighteningly bright.

"Dad, you have to help me."

She walked over with bloody footprints and threw a stack of photos on the table - it was a photo of Pei Luonan and Gu Fanxing at the Huacheng archaeological site. The two of them were squatting in front of a pile of pottery shards, their heads close together, and the sunlight cast a golden edge on the tips of their hair.

"I want Pei Luonan, he must be mine"

Long Zhenbang looked at his daughter's distorted face in the photo and his Adam's apple rolled.

He hadn't expected his daughter to be so obsessed with Pei Luonan. The eighteen years of debt were like a thorn that pierced his heart and hurt him: "Weiwei, how about..."

"No, no!"

Long Weiwei grabbed his wrist fiercely, her nails almost digging into his skin covered with age spots.

"I want Pei Luonan! Didn't you say that the Long family needs strong support now? Pei's new energy technology can save our geothermal project. As long as I marry him, the markets of Fengcheng and Huacheng will be ours! Dad, you said you would compensate me!"

The word "compensation" was like sulfuric acid, splashing on Long Zhenbang's most vulnerable spot.

He remembered what Old Master Long had said: "Zhenbang, Weiwei... let her live a more respectable life than anyone else."

At that time, he was only concerned with fighting for inheritance rights with his brothers, and he didn't even accompany his daughter to the first family dinner after she was found.

"I understand." He withdrew his hand and pulled out a faded brocade box from the bottom shelf of the mahogany bookcase.

Wrapped in the satin was a brass longevity lock with the word "Nan" engraved on it, and the edges and corners were rubbed to a shine.

"Do you remember this?"

Long Weiwei frowned. She had seen this lock in the attic of the old house when she was a child, and always thought it was left by an unrelated distant relative.

When she was five years old, she was taken back to the Long family to live temporarily for half a year. She vaguely remembered that an old man in a Zhongshan suit gave her a gift, but she could not remember his specific appearance.

"This was personally given to you by the old man of the Pei family when you were five years old."

Long Zhenbang's fingertips stroked the lines on the lock, and his voice was as deep as if it was soaked in water.

"You were still young then, as timid as a frightened deer, hiding when you saw strangers. Mr. Pei came to see you and brought this longevity lock, saying it would calm you down."

He paused, his gaze drifting toward the snow-covered courtyard outside the window, as if lost in distant memories. "That day, in the warm room of the Long family's old house, the charcoal fire was burning brightly, and your grandfather poured Old Master Pei a glass of thirty-year-old daughter's red wine. They were both slightly tipsy, and seeing you squatting on the carpet playing with the lock, he made a joke - he said that if you and Luo Nan grew up and fell in love with each other, they should get married so that the friendship between the two families could continue."

Long Weiwei's eyes suddenly lit up: "Marriage? Did they really say that?"

She grabbed the longevity lock, and the cool touch of the metal suddenly reminded her of some fragmented fragments - the scent of sandalwood in the warm room, the old man's rough palms, and a boy in a small suit standing at the door, with his hands behind his back watching her play with the lock, his eyebrows and eyes looked very much like Pei Luonan today.

"It was all just a joke." Long Zhenbang sighed and put the longevity lock back into the box. "Mr. Pei passed away eight years ago. He might not have mentioned this. Besides..."

"How is this a joke?" Long Weiwei snatched the brocade box, and the longevity lock felt heavy in her palm.

"Dad, think about it. If the two old men really had this intention and said this, even if they didn't mention it, it is real. After all, a word is as good as gold. Even if Pei Luonan is cold, he has to consider the face of the Pei family, right?"

She suddenly grabbed Long Zhenbang's arm, with a desperate look in her eyes.

"I can't tell him this directly! I need the media to help me!"

Long Zhenbang was stunned: "What do you want to do?"

"Isn't there a charity dinner in Fengcheng next week?"

Long Weiwei smiled, the light in her eyes like tempered steel.

"But relying solely on the testimony of the elderly is not enough. We need something more substantial."

She walked to the French window, looked at the snow-covered garden downstairs, and drew an arc on the glass with her fingertips.

"I'm going to find an opportunity to take some 'intimate photos' with Pei Luonan. It doesn't have to be too deliberate, just a chance shot together - like him shielding me from the wind and snow, or our fingertips touching when I hand over a document. Let a photographer we know 'happen' to take the photo, and share it in a small circle first. Once everyone feels that we have a 'special relationship', I'll show off this lock at the charity dinner."

Long Zhenbang's brows furrowed tighter and tighter: "This is too deliberate, if Pei Luonan finds out..."

"So what if I find out?"

Long Weiwei turned around, holding the longevity lock in her hand.

"The photos are real, the elders' testimonies are real, and the agreement between the two elders is real. He could at most say it was a 'misunderstanding,' but when everyone thinks this is a natural occurrence, his excuses only seem more obvious."

She walked to the dressing table and opened the jewelry box. Inside was a men's cufflink - the one she had pulled off Pei Luonan's cuff during the scuffle at the wind farm last time.

She held up her cufflinks and looked at them in the light, a calculating smile appearing on the corner of her mouth.

"Tomorrow I'll go deliver project materials to Pei Luonan and say I found his things. He can't kick me out, right? Then find an angle and have the photographer or camera hidden in the car take a few intimate photos of us to prove the marriage is a real deal. Wouldn't that be better?"

"Weiwei, this..." Long Zhenbang wanted to say something, but was blocked by his daughter's paranoia.

"Dad, this is our last chance."

She put the cufflinks back into the box, her voice firm and undeniable.

"Once the photos spread, coupled with the hype from the charity dinner, even if he has feelings for that mud digger, he'll have to consider the Pei family's reputation. Then I can back off and say, 'I just want to follow the elders' wishes and try to get along.' How can he refuse?"

She picked up the brocade box and held it in her arms, as if she was holding the chances of success for the whole world.

"I want everyone to think that he and I were meant to be together. Once everything is settled, will that unfortunate Gu Fanxing still give up?"

Long Zhenbang looked at the fire in his daughter's eyes and finally fell silent.

The snow outside the window was falling heavier and heavier, as if it was going to bury the entire Fengcheng in this silent game.

He knew that this move was risky, but in the end he couldn't say the word "no".

The eighteen years of debt were like an invisible rope, which was now being held in the daughter's hand, dragging her step by step towards an unpredictable future.

On the other side, in a hotel in Fengcheng, Pei Luonan had just hung up the phone with Gu Fanxing.

She said excitedly on the other end, "Luonan, I'm going to Fengcheng in a couple of days! There's a new discovery of pottery fragments at a site that has led to a major breakthrough. Maybe we can solve the mystery of the pottery kiln's age ahead of time! When I'm done, I'll come find you, okay?"

Pei Luonan held the phone and typed "Number, contact me when you land", his eyes fixed on the darkening sky outside the window.

The wind in Fengcheng was rushing towards him silently with some kind of omen, but he didn't know that a carefully planned storm was waiting for him not far away.