When the manager was called, the little waitress was scared into tears.

But when they spoke about compensation, Eldest Miss Han waved her hand indifferently. "Forget it. Just be more careful next time." Both the manager and the waitress bowed and thanked her repeatedly, flattering her a good deal before leaving.

Although the handbag had been cleaned with paper towels and a damp cloth, it could no longer be used as it was. Instead, Han Yanyan called Uncle Chen and had him send a new one. When she hung the phone back up and looked up, Qiao Chengyu was gazing at her, a gentle smile in his eyes.

"What's up?" Han Yanyan asked.

"I just suddenly wanted those people who talk about how arrogant and proud the Han family's Eldest Miss is to see how easygoing our Eldest Miss really is."

Han Yanyan rolled her eyes at him.

Ever since this man had proposed to her and she had accepted, it seemed as though some layer of ice inside him had been broken. Before her, he no longer looked solemn, though of course in public he was still that cold-as-ice Qiao family elite, the current favourite to succeed the family.

She liked it. His gentle, smiling appearance belonged only to her, and how he looked when he was wild and unbridled, only she knew.

She liked him the most when he was sweating on top of her, riding the ups and downs together.

Uncle Chen soon sent her another handbag, exactly the same as the first but in a different colour. The original was sent to a shop specialized in cleaning.

When the two of them got back into the car, Qiao Chengyu looked at the handbag on her lap and asked casually, "Why do women love this brand?"

Han Yanyan stroked the metal buckle with her fingers. "Because it's classic."

The topic passed in one sentence, but at the traffic intersection, Qiao Chengyu inadvertently caught a glimpse of her downcast eyes and fingers still unconsciously still running over the metal buckle, as if in a trance.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "You seem out of it."

"Oh," Han Yanyan said, coming back to her senses. After a while, she asked, "Do you know the history of these brands?"

Qiao Chengyu followed her gaze. The street they were on was a prosperous one, both sides of the road lined with famous shops, each enormous sign shining out the name of their brand. "I don't really follow this sort of thing."

"Each one has a long history, and each brand has its own story," Han Yanyan sighed softly. "And I'm familiar with every one..."

Han Yanyan came from a wealthy family. Though such branded goods might be expensive luxuries for ordinary women, they were just everyday items for her. Of course she would be familiar with them. Qiao Chengyu scratched his head in puzzlement at this baffling speech.

At the next red light, he glanced at her again to find her hand still gently stroking the metal buckle of her handbag. The buckle was in the shade of the brand logo.

Qiao Chengyu's eyes drifted to Han Yanyan's face. In the dim car, her eyes were unfocused and her mouth unsmiling. She gazed at the enormous logos of those branded stores with an incomprehensible isolation and indifference.

He somehow felt that she was very alien to him at that moment, as if she was no longer the Eldest Miss Han that he knew well and loved deeply, but another, completely different woman.

It must be an illusion.

Bai Yue was pregnant.

This could actually be traced back to Han Yanyan.

Bai Yue and Qiao Wenxing were still unmarried, and it was impossible for them to plan to have a child. The most important thing right now was for Qiao Wenxing to make his own independent achievements and prove himself to Father and Mother Qiao.

Han Yanyan had had someone strike up a conversation with Brother Bai in the Internet café where he spent his days. They became video game buddies, and one day, he had casually pointed at the page of an entertainment news website and said to Brother Bai, "Shit, if we could live like this, then life wouldn't have been a waste of time."

The article covered Han Yanyan's engagement to Qiao Chengyu. At first, Brother Bai had just been looking at the picture of the pretty lady, but who would have thought? As he scrolled down, what appeared were the photos of his "brother-in-law". Once Qiao Wenxing's family history was known to the Bai family, Father and Mother Bai immediately called Bai Yue and questioned her. She confirmed the truth.

"He fell out with his parents because of me," she said, downcast. "He can't go home anymore." 

Father and Mother Bai suddenly changed their attitudes. Although they had mentioned marriage in the past, they had only gone so far as berating Bai Yue, and had not actually forced her to do so. Qiao Wenxing was still an entrepreneur just starting out. Afraid that he might fail and go bankrupt, they wanted him to expand before they were willing to allow their daughter to marry him.

But now that he had turned out to be the young master of a rich family, Father and Mother Bai wanted Bai Yue to marry him as quickly as possible. Wasn't he just a kid having a fight with his parents? He would have to go home sooner or later, and when he did, who would care about this current tiny company? The Bai parents and Brother Bai had already looked the Qiao family up on the Internet. The Qiao family group was enormous! Oh my goodness, more money than anyone could spend in a lifetime!

Mother Bai had chanted incessantly in Bai Yue's ear ever since.

"If you wait too long he won't want to get married! The novelty will wear off!"

"Who cares about a wedding ceremony! Get the certificate first!"

"He doesn't want to? That's no good! Then first have a baby! Even if you're not married, so long as you have a child the family will have to contribute child support to a grandson! Then you'll at least have money!"

Ever since she had 'sacrificed' herself, resulting in Qiao Wenxing beating up a customer and losing a big order, Qiao Wenxing had been much colder to her. For the last half-month, Bai Yue had been on tenterhooks. She had never really been a very strong-willed woman, and coming in a state where she was confused, panicked and scared about her future with Qiao Wenxing, Mother Bai's 'persuasion' eventually brainwashed her.

"I'll... I'll try," she said.

Two months later, she saw two red lines show up on a pregnancy test.

At a time when Qiao Wenxing was burning the candle at both ends for work, he suddenly found out that Bai Yue had became pregnant. It was not good news for him. He wondered how she had gotten pregnant when they had used birth control every time. It was said that condoms had a 3% probability of failure, but no man ever thought that he would be part of the unlucky 3%.

It never once crossed his mind that Bai Yue might have sabotaged the condoms. But in short, she was now pregnant. Qiao Wenxing was both caught off guard and annoyed.

But since Bai Yue assured him repeatedly that she didn't care about having a formal wedding, they got a marriage certificate together quietly. When she compared it to with Han Yanyan and Qiao Chengyu's grand engagement ceremony, Bai Yue felt inside as though she had swallowed some bitter fruit. But she had planted that bitter fruit herself, so she could only swallow it silently and let it rot in her stomach.