Chapter 23: Nice Scheming, Mr. Author

Translator: jonathanhus Editor: alteringviews

If it was about figuring out what Chen Xiao Yan was thinking, there is no one other than the author himself who knows better.

Maybe Chen Xiao Yan’s parents knew her well, but even that’s nothing compared to Song Shi Cheng with the author possessed inside his body.

Chen Xiao Yan ‘s most notable trait is her kind and intuitive personality. While she might seem passive on the outside, she could be very persistent once she made up her mind.

But now that Song Shi Cheng took her by surprise, there was a good chance that Chen Xiao Yan might agree to him for once.

Song Shi Cheng was still worried, though. What if Chen Xiao Yan calmed down and realized that the fake marriage plan was just a trick to trap her? Or even worse, what if Ye Tian suddenly jumped in and convinced her otherwise?

The whole point of having this conversation was that Song Shi Cheng could disrupt Chen Xiao Yan’s own thought process. Since Song Shi Cheng’s objective was to force Chen Xiao Yan into marriage, he needed to force her into a decision while she was still feeling doubtful.

It turned out Song Shi Cheng did take Chen Xiao Yan by surprise. Her face suddenly pale after Song Shi Cheng just reinforced the fact that the marriage couldn’t be cancelled. She even wobbled a bit when Song Shi Cheng said it.

“Either you betray the Chen Family or you make my mother take back her words. If you can’t either of these things, there is nothing you can do to stop this marriage!” Song Shi Cheng affirmed.

“Then how about you go…”Chen Xiao Yan paused before her mouth almost slipped. She was going to ask Song Shi Cheng to try convincing his mother to call off the marriage, but couldn’t stand the thought of asking favour from the person she despised so much.

Of course, Song Shi Cheng knew that. Before Chen Xiao Yan finished her sentence, Song Shi Cheng shook his head and proclaimed.

“I’m obviously going to accept the marriage because it’s right thing for my family. Sorry for not being sorry. My family will go down quicker if I don’t marry you, and how am I supposed to live a freeloaded life if my family isn’t there for me?”

“You shameless prick!” Chen Xiao Yan cursed at Song Shi Cheng. It turned out that he was still the same selfish scumbag she knew throughout her whole life.

“Guilty as charged,” Song Shi Cheng replied calmly. He might as well act like villain if that’s how Chen Xiao Yan was going to think of him anyways.

“Let me just ask you again to drop the attitude. We can’t talk about a win-win resolution for us unless we try to talk in a dignified manner. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“….what do you want?” Chen Xiao Yan asked helplessly. Now that she’s out of ideas, there wasn’t much choice for her but to ask for Song Shi Cheng’s advice.

“My solution is easy. We will get married, but just don’t touch each other at all after that. All we need to do is act like we are a real married couple.”

“What, are you seriously? You kidding me?” Chen Xiao Yan said as her eyes suddenly came back to life.

“Why would I joke about that? If you accept my solution, the only thing you need to worry about is to not expose the real relationship between us. Once we get married, you can do everything you want except cheating on me. Not that I will become jealous or anything, but I don’t want you ruining me and my family’s reputation if you go around committing infidelity.”

“What kind of person do you take me for? I’m not going to do that when I’m already married!” Chen Xiao Yan said angrily, but what she didn’t realize was that subconsciously, she was already considering to take Song Shi Cheng’s advice.

“I’m just saying. Anyhow, we can start talking about divorce after my family is in a better shape than it is now. As soon as that happens, I’ll just get a better wife with the money I have.”

Song Shi Cheng didn’t know if the system allows him to divorce Chen Xiao Yan, but it didn’t mattered anyways. He would say anything if it could persuade Chen Xiao Yan to marry him.

If Chen Xiao Yan’s situation was to be put into a metaphor, it would be like she was being chased to a cliff by a pride of lions. As she ran to the edge of the cliff, she noticed that there was a rope hanging down the cliff.

What would her do next? Climbing down the rope, of course! She couldn’t see where the rope lead to, but what other choice was there?

“Why should I trust you?” Chen Xiao Yan held onto her arm insecurely.

“You don’t have to trust me, but what other choices do you have?” Song Shi Cheng replied coldly, but then thought that it would be better if he could clear Chen Xiao Yan’s suspicion of him.

“If I honestly wanted to lie to you, why am I wasting my time trying to talk to you here? I could’ve had any women I wanted if I didn’t have to save my family’s business. And what about you? You just have to tell your family that you didn’t give them any trouble! Once we get divorced, you can still try to be in a good relationship with someone you like. Society’s quite accepting of divorcees these days, and how hard is it for you anyways? You’ve got the looks, did well in school and have a well paid job. Why wouldn’t you want to marry me and then divorce?”

Instead of feeling so despaired like at the start of the conversation, Chen Xiao Yan was now in a much calmer mood. After all, Song Shi Cheng’s plan did make a lot of sense.

If this fake marriage would work, she didn’t even have to be worried about being defiled by this filthy man in front her.

After Chen Xiao Yan gets her divorce, her life would be liberated once and for all.

“How are you so nice all of a sudden now?” Chen Xiao Yan asked in confusion , “Why are you helping me when you were harassing me just a couple days? Actually, why are you even giving me the freedom to not sleep with you?”

“What if I told you that I turned gay recently?” Song Shi Cheng smiled bitterly. It wasn’t like he had no interest in taking advantage over Chen Xiao Yan, but there was no way he could tell her about his erectile dysfunction.

“Yeah right. Not even a five year old would believe that!” Chen Xiao Yan sneered.

And that’s what this whole story is about, Dear readers! Instead of being so genuine in front of others, a lie is much more believable than the truth.

Song Shi Cheng said brashly, “I don’t want to spend my days with a boring girl that hates me. Honestly, if I get to choose at all, I would much prefer living my life with a pet bird than being with you!”

“What did you just say about me?” Chen Xiao Yan asked furiously.

“Alright, stop acting so jumpy towards me. We have to get back inside the building now,” Song Shi Cheng quickly said as he turned away and headed back into the building.

If Song Shi Cheng had to guess, there was probably a ninety percent chance that Chen Xiao Yan would agree to fake the marriage. He didn’t want any unwanted factors from changing Chen Xiao Yan’s mind, though. Yes, especially not that guy by the name of Ye Tian.

If possible, Song Shi Cheng wanted to get Chen Xiao Yan to accept the marriage as possible. If she started taking her time and started thinking more rationally, all the effort Song Shi Cheng put in to trick her would be for nothing.

How did Song Shi Cheng come up with the idea of faking marriage, anyways? Well, it turns out that fake marriage is a pretty clichéd element in writing urban romance novels.

There are literally thousands of stories like this: two people who didn’t like each other end up getting married because of some sort of unfortunate accidents. And guess what? There is always a happy ending where the two main characters fall in love for real! (Translator’s note: that means the author’s mocking you for reading this lol)

So no matter how much Chen Xiao Yan despises Song Shi Cheng right now, Song Shi Cheng wasn’t worried at all. He wasn’t even thinking about making Chen Xiao Yan like him at this stage. What’s more important for him was to survive by completing his mission.

Song Shi Cheng thought to himself, ‘After the mission is complete, I’ll just make a harem with as many girls I want in it! Wait, am I starting to think like a real villain too now?’