Cassian opened the briefcase and extracted two brown paper envelopes. Cixi immediately sensed that each envelope contained a document inside. She took another sip of her coffee, which tasted good again.

Before choosing this brand, she had tasted many coffees before, and among them, this one still tasted the best to her.

Wealthy people would never understand the things that comforted those who came from a humble background, she mused.

To prove that point even further to herself, she took another sip. This time, she closed her eyes and let out a soft, satisfied moan, for the coffee tasted divine. Upon reopening her eyes, she noticed that Cassian was not focusing on her. He was busy setting the briefcase on the wooden floor beside the sofa, leaving it upright against it.

Then, he extended one of the brown envelopes to her while keeping the other in his possession.

Cixi placed the coffee on the table and took the envelope from him. She opened the long brown cover and pulled out the document inside, neatly printed on white paper.

But before she could read even a single line, Cassian’s voice made her lift her lashes and look at him. His deep eyes met hers, and as always, they held far too many mysteries.

"Aren’t you supposed to call your manager?" he reminded her of the most important thing she needed to do before they started their negotiation, "or should I send my men? I would be happy to do so."

As if only then realising the mistake she was about to make, Cixi rose from the sofa at once, still holding the papers, and walked quickly to her bedroom where she had left her phone.

She dashed towards it and grabbed it. The battery was at fifty percent. Good enough.

She unlocked the phone and dialled Amanda’s number.

After five rings, Amanda answered. "You are not getting the day off," she stated right away, not even allowing Cixi to explain.

"I am not requesting a day off," Cixi almost defended herself. "I am just informing you that I will be late. An urgent matter has come up."

A moment passed before Amanda responded. "Fine. Whatever hours you miss, you will have to make up for later."

To Cixi’s astonishment, Amanda agreed so readily.

She had prepared herself with excuses, counterarguments, and anything she might need to persuade her manager that she couldn’t arrive on time. And yet, Amanda acquiesced without hesitation.

"Thanks," Cixi almost sounded grateful.

"I know I am the best manager!" Amanda retorted before ending the call.

Cixi stared at the phone for a moment, then looked again at the name on the screen. It was truly Amanda with the same number. The same woman she always called whenever some emergency came up and fought before agreeing, and today, somehow, she agreed to in her first request.

How unusual it was, really unusual, what this morning brought her.

Still holding her phone, Cixi walked back to the living room, where Cassian was already waiting for her to return so they could speak about the contract.

She felt enthusiastic and anxious at the same time.

She sat back where she had been seated before, clutching the document, while Cassian remained entirely composed beside her, sitting in his usual posture without any trace of urgency.

He cast a single glance at Cixi before lowering his eyes to the paper in her hands, before speaking. "Read every point," he instructed. "Then let me know which ones you agree with and which ones you don’t." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Cixi nodded slightly, though her heart was already pounding against her chest. She looked down at the paper and began to read.

"Party A, Cixi McLore, wishes to enter into an agreement with Party B, Cassian Crown." Her voice hesitated for a brief moment before she continued. "And the first clause is that Party B cannot kiss anyone other than Party A for one year." She read it aloud and then lifted her gaze to Cassian, waiting for him to respond.

He offered a small nod. "I agree."

Cixi stared at him for a second longer before directing her attention back to the document and reading the next clause. "To fulfil the first clause, Party A must grant something to Party B, which consists of residing at Crown Residence Palace with the Crown family and adhering to and executing everything Party B instructs her to do." By the time she finished the sentence, Cixi looked up, with an expression that indicated confusion. She was uncertain whether that seemed too simple or overly dangerous.

"And what do I need to do?" Cixi asked.

Cassian glanced at her as though the answer was the simplest thing in the world.

"For now?" he said mildly. "Nothing at all. You only need to wait until the time comes. And when it does, I give you my word... I shall ask nothing unseemly of you."

Cixi showed a little trust in Cassian when the matter involved a third person. She narrowed her eyes at him at once. "I am not killing anyone." She declared.

A slow smile touched one corner of his mouth. It was not broad enough to be called warm, yet there was unmistakable amusement in it.

"How vicious of you," he murmured. "You say that as though I had already placed a knife in your hand."

"Were you planning to?" She pressed on.

He tipped his head, studying her as if she were unexpectedly entertaining. "Now I felt rather exposed. You had seen through me far too quickly, Little Lamb!"

"So you were!" Cixi’s jaw tightened at once. The frown pulling at her face grew deeper until even she felt the strain of it. Honestly, he existed only to test her patience. Cixi told herself.

On the other hand, Cassian watched every change in her expression with quiet interest. "It is truly alarming how easy it is to provoke you," he said, almost thoughtfully. "I began to understand why fate kept placing you in my path."

Cixi ignored that entirely. "Could you be serious here?"

"I am rather pleased!"

She rolled her eyes to make sure he knew what she thought of him, "So you were not going to ask me to kill anyone?" This time, she wanted the answer plainly.

"I was not," he said. Then, after a brief pause, his voice softened by the slightest degree. "I have no desire to place blood on your hands."

Only then did some of the tension leave her face.

Her eyes then moved at once in search of a pen. She noticed the one tucked neatly into his blazer pocket, leaned forward without asking, and took it from him.

Cassian did not stop her. His gaze merely followed the motion of her hand.

"I am writing this beside the second clause," she told him and then, in her careful, beautiful handwriting, she added: Party B cannot ask Party A to kill anyone.

Cassian glanced at what she had written and gave a small nod.

"A pragmatic addition," he murmured, looking almost wounded, though that only made him seem more handsome. "Though I must confess I am faintly wounded that you thought so little of me."

Cixi gave him a look. "You have not exactly behaved like a harmless man since I met you."

"No," he agreed softly. "Harmless was never my ambition."

That answer did not help her... At All....

She moved on to the third clause and read it aloud.

"During this one year, Party A cannot ask for more than what is written in Clause One. No love condition, or else the contract will be nullified and Party A must pay heavy emotional damage to Party B."

Cixi stopped right at that. Her eyes widened as if she misread something.

Then she read that part again. ’Heavy emotional damage?’

Slowly, she lifted her gaze to him. "What emotional damage?" She questioned him.

Cassian answered with the same composure, as though he had written nothing strange. "I had never given any woman more than a week of my time," he stated. "You, however, were asking for a year of my life, my loyalty, and the exclusive use of my mouth." His eyes rested on her lips. "That was already a generous disturbance to my natural habits."

Cixi gazed at him and then glared at him with a questionable stare.

"And in that year, it is entirely possible you might begin to expect more. Perhaps Affection! My Devotion... Conceivably, foolishly enough to hope for love... from Me!!!"

Her face changed at once, but before she could interrupt, he went on.

"If that happened, I would be forced to disappoint you. And if I disappointed you, you would feel wronged. If you felt wronged, you would call me cruel. If you called me cruel, I would be inconvenienced by guilt I never intended to earn." He paused only to add more with maddening seriousness. "That, Cixi damaged both parties."

For a moment, she could only stare at him before disbelief overtook everything else.

"You are insane..."

"Careful," he warned her gently. "You are speaking to a man who is currently trying to protect your future emotional stability."

"This from the man who created chaos in the club?"

A faint gleam entered his eyes. "That was not chaos." He responded cunningly. "That was simply a necessary intervention, delivered with more noise than I would have preferred. However, it was a welcoming gift to my fake fiancee."

Cixi couldn’t believe him. She fell out of words.... once more... How could he hold her responsible for his choices in deciding to massacre people?