The car had been driving for a while when Guiying noticed the city changing around them.
The streets grew quieter. The buildings grew fewer and further apart, set back behind high walls and heavy gates. The greenery visible beyond them was the kind that did not exist by accident, carefully maintained, deliberate, expensive. The houses themselves were not houses in any ordinary sense of the word.
Guiying looked at all of it and came to a quiet conclusion. This was where the rich of the rich lived.
He turned away from the window. "Were we not going shopping?"
"You will do that from home," Liuxian said. He had his phone out and was scrolling through something. "I am rather busy. I need to drop you off and head back to the office."
Guiying opened his mouth.
"The butler will give you my tablet when you arrive," Liuxian continued, preempting him. "You can shop at whichever mall you prefer. I own most of them. My card is already linked. Get whatever you need, clothes, shoes, whatever else." He paused, his eyes still on his phone. "Pick out furniture as well, anything you want to customize your room. Get a new phone if yours needs replacing. Laptop, tablet, whatever you require." Another pause. "If you want a Patek, get that too."
Guiying stared at the side of his face.
"Am I your husband or your sugar baby?" he asked.
Liuxian looked up from his phone. He turned to regard Guiying with an expression of complete reasonableness.
"Technically," he said, "you are my wife. And it is bare minimum to provide whatever your partner lacks when you are financially able to do so." He held Guiying's gaze for a moment, then looked back down at his phone. "So get the Patek."
Guiying looked at him for a long moment.
Then he turned back to the window and watched the gates of the reclusive district slide past in silence.
Liu Liuxian, he decided, was going to be a very specific kind of problem.
The pleasant kind.
The car turned through a set of gates and rolled up a long driveway before coming to a stop.
Guiying looked up through the window.
It was a mansion.
Not in the vague, exaggerated way people used the word to describe any large house.
It was a mansion in the precise and literal sense, the kind of building that had wings and grounds and probably a name.
The kind of building that made a person instinctively straighten their posture just by looking at it.
The driver opened the door.
Guiying stepped out onto the driveway and stood very still for a moment, taking it in.
A man was already waiting at the entrance. He was older, impeccably dressed, with the particular bearing of someone who had spent decades being the most organized person in any room he walked into.
He bowed slightly when Liuxian approached.
"Young master," he said.
"This is Xue Guiying," Liuxian said, without preamble. "My wife. He will be living here from today." He turned briefly to Guiying, then back to the butler. "His room is to be prepared immediately. He will be doing some shopping this afternoon so have the tablet ready for him. Make sure the card is accessible and that he has everything he needs." He paused, as though running through a mental checklist. "He has not eaten since this morning. Have the kitchen prepare something."
The butler nodded. "Of course, Young Master. Will there be anything else?"
"See to it that my wife is comfortable." Liuxian glanced at Guiying one more time. Something in his expression was unhurried and steady, not warm exactly, but not indifferent either. "Have fun," he said simply.
Then he got back into the car.
Guiying stood on the driveway and watched the car roll back down toward the gates. He stayed there until it disappeared through them entirely.
The butler appeared quietly at his side. "If you'll follow me, Master Xue, I will show you to your room."
Guiying picked up his bag and followed without a word.
He had left the Xue family house that morning with nothing but a bag of documents and the memory of a life he had died to escape. He was ending the same day standing in front of a mansion with a husband, a butler, and an unlimited card.
He followed the butler inside and decided, privately, that things were already going considerably better than last time.
Wang Chengli led him through the entrance and into the house.
Guiying followed quietly, taking in his surroundings without making it obvious that he was doing so. The interior was exactly what the exterior had promised. High ceilings, clean lines, the kind of understated elegance that did not need to announce itself.
Everything was in its place, maintained with a precision that spoke of a household that ran like clockwork.
Several staff members were assembled in the main corridor. Wang Chengli stopped in front of them and turned to Guiying first.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly, Master Xue. I am Wang Chengli, the head butler of this household. Please do not hesitate to come to me directly for anything you need." He gestured toward the assembled staff. "This is Master Xue, the Young Master's wife. He will be residing here permanently from today. You will treat him with the same respect afforded to the Young Master himself. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Mr. Wang," they answered in unison.
He gestured toward the straight-backed woman at the front. "This is Mrs. Chen, the head housekeeper. She oversees the day to day running of the household." He gestured to the older man beside her. "This is Old Li, our cook. If you have any dietary preferences or requirements, please let him know directly."
Old Li nodded, warm and uncomplicated. "Welcome, Master Xue. I will have something prepared for you shortly."
Mrs. Chen stepped forward and bowed precisely. "Welcome to the household, Master Xue. If anything is not to your satisfaction, please inform me directly."
"Thank you, Mrs. Chen."
The four maids stepped forward together and bowed. "Welcome, Master Xue," they said in unison.