I Was Set Up at the Very Start and Ended Up With a CEO Wife! - Chapter 1:
Chapter 1: Set Up
“Who am I? Where am I? What exactly did I do last night?”
The room was a complete mess.
The man’s shirt had been torn into strips, and the woman’s dress lay crumpled at the foot of the bed, as if it had been handled roughly. A faint, ambiguous scent lingered in the air, thick with something unspoken.
Xia Feng had been awake for a while. Bare-chested, he held Liu Ruyan in his arms, who was just as unclothed, staring blankly at the ceiling. His mind felt like a paste, like a tangled tape that refused to rewind properly. Thoughts collided in his head like marbles, pounding against his temples.
“Mm…”
The woman in his arms stirred, letting out a soft, kitten-like murmur. Liu Ruyan’s smooth, silk-like body shifted slightly as she found a more comfortable position, pressing herself tightly against his chest before lazily opening her eyes.
Those eyes, usually cold and distant, were now soft and alluring, glistening as if they could steal a person’s soul away. She looked at Xia Feng’s stunned expression and suddenly laughed.
Her slender arm draped over his chest, her fingertips tracing slow circles over his firm muscles. Liu Ruyan’s voice carried a sleepy hoarseness, yet it was far more seductive than usual, “Did you turn stupid? Why are you staring at the ceiling so early in the morning? What, are you dissatisfied with my performance last night?”
Her words snapped Xia Feng back to reality.
He lowered his head and looked at the face in his arms, both familiar and strangely unfamiliar. Familiar, because this was Liu Ruyan, his childhood friend who had grown up with him. Unfamiliar, because before yesterday, they were still the kind of close buddies who could throw arms over each other’s shoulders and call each other brothers. But now… what exactly was this?
Xia Feng swallowed hard, his voice dry, “Ruyan… we…”
He wanted to ask, but didn’t know where to begin.
“Didn’t we sign that… that fake marriage agreement?”
“How did it…”
Even as he spoke, he felt no confidence in his own words.
Agreement? They had already ended up in bed together. What agreement was there left to talk about?
Scenes from yesterday flashed rapidly through his mind like a fast-forwarding film.
Yesterday morning, this Liu family young lady, the famous cold CEO of Jiang City, had burst into his cheap rental apartment, which only cost 1,000 yuan a month. Without a word, she threw a contract at him.
“Marriage Agreement.”
Party A: Liu Ruyan.
Party B: Xia Feng.
The terms were shockingly simple.
Xia Feng had to maintain a husband-and-wife relationship with Liu Ruyan for three years. It was a contract marriage. In public, they would act like a loving couple. In private, they would not interfere with each other.
After three years, they would part ways peacefully and divorce immediately.
As compensation, Liu Ruyan would pay Xia Feng 50,000 yuan per month as living expenses.
At the time, Xia Feng had been completely stunned.
He and Liu Ruyan were childhood friends, raised in the same compound, their bond as solid as it could be. Precisely because of that, there had never been even the slightest hint of romantic tension between them. Their interactions were no different from two grown men. They drank together, played games together, and she often mocked him for being a straight-laced idiot who deserved to stay single.
And now this “good brother” suddenly wanted to marry him? And even pay him to be her husband?
His first reaction had been, “Are you crazy? Has your family pressured you into marriage to this extent?”
Liu Ruyan’s expression had turned cold as she replied, “Cut the nonsense. Just tell me if you’re signing or not. Consider it helping me.”
What could Xia Feng say?
When a brother is in trouble, you help without hesitation. Besides, 50,000 yuan a month for doing nothing except carrying the title of a married man. Where could he find such a deal?
So he signed his name in one bold stroke.
Then the two of them rushed to the Civil Affairs Bureau and got that glaring red marriage certificate.
Even after walking out with it, Xia Feng still felt like he was floating.
Married… just like that?
Before he could process it, Liu Ruyan slapped his shoulder and said boldly, “This is a big deal. We have to celebrate with a few drinks!”
Xia Feng naturally agreed.
They went to a quiet bar that Liu Ruyan frequented. The environment was nice, peaceful.
Then…
Then things started to go wrong.
Xia Feng knew his own alcohol tolerance well. He could drink 500 milliliters of strong liquor with clients and still discuss contracts clearly. But last night, after just three glasses of fancy cocktails, he felt the world spinning, his head heavy like it was filled with lead. After that, everything became blurry.
He vaguely remembered Liu Ruyan supporting him into a luxurious hotel room. He even thought she was being considerate, booking him a room.
Then he took a shower, and a burning sensation rose inside him, making him restless and parched. He had intended to sleep it off.
But just as he was about to fall asleep, a warm, soft body pressed against him.
That touch… that scent…
Boom!
The suppressed fire within him ignited instantly, as if gasoline had been poured over it. All reason and restraint vanished in that moment, leaving only primal instinct.
When he regained consciousness, it was already this morning.
This was definitely a setup!
But the most pressing question in Xia Feng’s mind made his expression extremely complicated.
“Also… Ruyan, haven’t you always liked Lin Yu? Now that we’re like this… what about Lin Yu?”
That question pierced Liu Ruyan like a needle.
“What did you just say?!”
Her expression instantly darkened. The hand tracing circles on his chest suddenly twisted downward.
“Hiss—”
Xia Feng sucked in a cold breath, feeling like a chunk of his abdominal muscle was about to be torn off.
“You still dare mention Lin Yu?!”
Liu Ruyan sat up angrily, the blanket sliding off her body, revealing her smooth, fair skin. She didn’t care at all. Looking down at him, her eyes burned with fury.
“Xia Feng! You’re a blockhead! No, you’re a fossil! The kind that’s been around for hundreds of millions of years!”
She pointed at his nose, her chest heaving with anger.
“How have I treated you all these years? Don’t you have any awareness at all? Who brings you food first? Who stood up for you when you got bullied? Who secretly topped up your meal card when you didn’t have enough living expenses in university?”
“Wasn’t I obvious enough?!”
Xia Feng was stunned by her barrage of questions, unable to say a word.
Liu Ruyan grew even more frustrated seeing his clueless expression.
“Because of you, this unresponsive block of wood, I had no choice but to pretend I liked Lin Yu! I wanted to see if you’d get jealous, if you’d react at all!”
“And what happened?!”
Her eyes turned red.
“You actually came to congratulate us! Saying things like wishing us a happy marriage and early children?! Xia Feng, do you know how I felt at that moment? I wanted to strangle you!”
“And Lin Yu! Lin Yu was laughing so hard he almost passed out! He said he had never seen a man as clueless as you!”
Each of her words struck Xia Feng like a hammer.
Pretending to like Lin Yu… to provoke him?
Lin Yu… was cooperating?
His mind was in chaos as he stared at the trembling woman before him, speechless.
What could he say?
Was he supposed to tell her that it wasn’t because he was clueless, but because her name was Liu Ruyan?
There was no way he could explain that her name alone had left a deep psychological shadow in his past life.
That’s right, Xia Feng was a reincarnator.
In his previous life, he was just an ordinary office worker. His daily routine was work and exhaustion, with his only entertainment being scrolling through short videos in bed.
Back then, a ridiculous short drama called “Stop Hurting Me, CEO, the Empress Has Returned” had gone viral, and the algorithm kept pushing it to him.
The female lead’s name was Liu Ruyan.
The plot was absurdly dramatic.
So in this life, when he first heard a little girl in kindergarten introduce herself as “Liu Ruyan,” he was stunned. From that day on, he labeled the name as “extremely dangerous, do not approach.”
Despite fate making them best friends and later forming a trio with Lin Yu, that invisible line in his heart never disappeared.
Dating Liu Ruyan? What a joke.
Wasn’t that like asking for death?
So no matter how well she treated him, he forced himself to see her as just a “brother”.
When he heard she “liked” Lin Yu, instead of jealousy, he felt immense relief.
Finally, this terrifying existence had someone else. He was safe.
Who could have expected… it was all a trap?
Thinking this, Xia Feng’s gaze toward Liu Ruyan changed.
Seeing his shifting expression, Liu Ruyan calmed down slightly, but unease crept into her heart.
Had she gone too far? What if he got angry?
Xia Feng steadied himself and asked his final question, “Then… the marriage agreement…”
“Fake!”
Liu Ruyan answered instantly.
“Of course it’s fake! It was just a trick to get you to register the marriage!”
She spoke confidently at first, but under his gaze, her confidence weakened. She bit her lip and moved closer, her big eyes blinking nervously.
“I… I had no choice.”
“You… you’re not mad at me, right?”
Her voice became soft, almost inaudible, as her fingers nervously gripped the bedsheet like a girl awaiting judgment.
Seeing her like this, all of Xia Feng’s complicated emotions vanished.
Blame her? For what?
For being too beautiful? Or for setting up such a scheme just to get him?
A CEO worth billions, devoted to him since childhood, even going this far to trap him into marriage.
If others heard this, they’d die of envy.
Why was he still hesitating?
Looking at her nervous, pitiful expression, Xia Feng suddenly grinned.
Before she could react, he pulled her back into his arms tightly.
“Ah!”
Liu Ruyan cried out as she crashed into his chest.
“You… what are you doing?”
“Doing you.”
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