*Chapter 31: The Weight of Ink*
The contract was more than paper — it was a cage dressed in ink. Zhao Liang tossed the document onto the glass table between them, his eyes cold as steel.
"You signed it, Li Xue. Every clause. Every rule. There's no room for emotions here. Just obligations."
Her fingers tightened around the edge of her chair. She wanted to scream that she had been cornered, that the choice had never been hers. But the contract lay there like a silent judge, its black letters binding her to him.
Clause 7: The wife must maintain loyalty, in public and private, or face penalty.
Clause 11: Any breach results in repayment of ten million yuan.
Ten million — a number larger than her entire life. For an orphan with no one to lean on, it was a wall she could never climb.
"You think money can measure a person's soul?" she asked, her voice barely steady.
Zhao Liang leaned back in his chair, lips curling into a half-smile that carried no warmth. "Money measures everything. Freedom, loyalty, even love."
The room fell quiet, but outside, laughter drifted faintly from the balcony where his two friends — Shen Wei and Han Qiang — were teasing each other over business strategies gone wrong. Their camaraderie was effortless, genuine. Li Xue listened, her chest tightening. They lived in a world of choices, while she lived in a cage of ink and signatures.
For the first time since their contract began, fear slipped into her heart — not of Zhao Liang's temper, but of the fact that she might never escape.