"Miss Hartley, since we're here on a blind date, there’s something I should lay out first. I... have a bit of a special situation."

Inside the coffee shop, Sienna Hartley looked at the tall, ridiculously handsome man across from her and got caught off guard by that opening.

She blinked. "What kind of special situation?"

"Last month, I was in a car accident. A very important part got injured. The doctor said... it might never recover."

Sienna froze for a couple of seconds before it clicked. "Huh?"

The man opposite her was the polished, unfairly good-looking type, the kind with a sharp vibe and standout presence. Even the cool expression on his face carried a trace of impatience.

And what he had just said completely scrambled her brain.

Lucas Morrison assumed she hadn't picked up what he meant. "I mean that aspect. I may have lost function. If I get married, I probably won’t be able to have a normal married life with my wife."

Sienna nearly laughed on the spot. Oh my god, did blessings seriously just fall from the sky like this?

A rich, handsome husband, and no pressure to sleep together or have kids. Wasn’t this basically the dream setup she had always wanted?

Still, she had to act a little more considerate. "Don’t stress. Medical technology is super advanced now. For your condition, there should still be some hope, right?"

Lucas's brows drew together slightly. "...The doctor estimated the recovery rate at less than ten percent. Basically, there’s almost no hope."

"If it can’t be fixed, then it can’t be fixed. A marriage doesn’t have to rely on that stuff to work. We can just treat it like we skipped ahead into retirement mode."

Lucas: "..."

She really did not care at all? Or had she still not understood what he was trying to say?

Lucas frowned and shook his head. "Even though I work at the Morrison Group, I’m just an ordinary office worker. I only take home a little over twenty thousand a month."

"It’s fine. I’ve got a part-time job right now, and next year I’ll start looking for an internship. You don’t need to support me. If we’re together, at least we probably won’t hold each other back."

Lucas went on, "Also, the place I live in is rented."

"Do you want me to cover half the rent?"

Lucas lifted a hand and waved it off. "No need. The rent isn’t that bad. It’s a little over eight thousand a month. I can handle it on my own."

Sienna Hartley let out a quiet breath of relief and said softly, "If you don’t have any issue with me, then let’s just go get the marriage license today."

Lucas Morrison paused, clearly caught off guard. "...Today? Isn’t that a bit rushed?"

Sienna lightly bit her lip. "Rushed? But tomorrow’s Saturday, then Sunday right after. So what, you want to spend a couple more days getting to know each other?"

Lucas instantly thought of the other blind date his mother had lined up for him—the spoiled, overbearing eldest Miss of the Jordan family. He made up his mind on the spot.

"Better now than later. Let’s do it today."

Honestly, even if he took two more days to think, it probably wouldn’t change anything. Sienna had been introduced by his grandmother through an auntie. Turning her down would basically be slapping his grandmother in the face.

As for that Miss Jordan his mother had picked out... she was the definition of trouble. Once she latched on, there’d be no shaking her off.

Lucas called over the waiter and paid the bill. The two of them left Mingdao Coffee together, and only then did Sienna realize the BYD Tang parked outside was actually his car.

The Civil Affairs office wasn’t far away. They drove straight there, and by the time they stepped through the front doors, the clock had landed exactly on eleven in the morning.

The words "Civil Affairs Bureau" made Sienna zone out for a second. The last time she’d heard them had been ten years ago.

That was when her mother married her stepfather.

She had never imagined she’d ever walk into a place like this herself. After all, she had once straight-up written "no marriage, no kids" into her resume like it was some kind of workplace bonus.

But now... she had no choice. She had to get married.

When they walked back out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, each of them had an extra little red booklet in hand, and just like that, their relationship was officially tied together.

Lucas turned to her and said, "I’m renting a place in Songhu Garden. Yvette mentioned you teach at an institute near Xingcheng Plaza, right? The two places are actually pretty close. It’s only five or six metro stops.

"I’m usually slammed with work. I leave early, get back late, and sometimes I have to travel for business too. So you don’t need to worry about me—just take good care of yourself.

"For daily household expenses, I’ll transfer ten thousand to you every month after I get paid on the fifteenth.

"And one more thing. Work’s been crazy, and I really can’t make time for it, so for now, we won’t be doing a wedding."

Sienna figured Lucas was probably some lower-level manager at his company, the kind of guy who was used to giving instructions. He talked in one clean sweep and didn’t even leave her room to cut in.

Still, after hearing him out, she realized... she didn’t really have anything she especially wanted to say anyway.

She agreed to this whirlwind marriage for two reasons. One, she didn’t want to put her mother in a tough spot. Two, she needed a marriage certificate as a shield, something to finally cut off her stepfather and Shane Fletcher.

Only if she became a married woman would her mother feel safe letting her move out.

Only if she had a husband would her stepfather stop eyeing her like that.

As for this marriage itself, she had zero romantic expectations. She was crystal clear about it. At the end of the day, this was just two people teaming up to get through life, showing up together when family situations called for it, putting on a decent act when necessary.

"Alright then, I’ll move over today."

She paused, then looked at Lucas Morrison. "Oh, and Mr. Morrison, if we’re splitting household expenses fifty-fifty, can we split the chores fifty-fifty too?"

She could barely remember what things had been like between her own parents. But in her mother’s marriage to her stepfather, even though he never straight-up said they should go Dutch, everything in his tone, his attitude, the way he talked, screamed that her mother was somehow getting the better deal.

Her mother really did earn less than her stepfather. Especially these past few years, after getting pregnant with her little sister and staying home to take care of the baby instead of working, he had only grown more dismissive, more contemptuous.

But the truth was, a woman running around the house all day was never "doing nothing." Keeping a home in order, making sure everything stayed on track, took a crazy amount of time and energy. That was exactly why hiring a nanny or housekeeper cost so much these days.

The problem was, men who had never lived that life just didn’t get it. In their eyes, staying home with the kids, shopping for groceries, cooking, cleaning, all of it looked easy, like it was no big deal.

She didn’t want to walk straight into the same trap her mother had. That was why she leaned more toward keeping things separate and fair, whether it was household spending or dividing chores.

Lucas Morrison frowned a little. "Since I married you, then of course I can take responsibility for supporting the family. There’s no need to talk about splitting basic household expenses."

He paused, then added in a calm voice, "As for chores, I’ll handle the big cleaning every Saturday and Sunday."

Sienna Hartley lightly bit her lip. "Okay."

Even though he said there was no need to go fifty-fifty, she had already made up her mind. She wasn’t actually going to live there and spend nothing at all.

Once they started living together, if the house needed small things here and there, daily items, random supplies, whatever, as long as it wasn’t some huge expense, she would just quietly pay for it herself and keep it moving.

Lucas Morrison had originally planned to take Sienna Hartley to lunch, but just then, his phone started ringing.

"There’s an urgent issue at the office. I need to go back and deal with it right away, so I won’t be able to take you over," he said, already getting to his feet. "If you’ve got a lot of stuff, just book a moving service."

He pulled out a set of keys from his bag and handed them to her. Then he opened WeChat on his phone, brought up his QR code, and held it out in front of her. "Let’s add each other. Makes things easier if anything comes up."

Sienna Hartley took the keys, then lifted her phone and scanned the code. A second later, they had each other added as friends.

"If you’ve got something urgent, just go. I can get back by myself."

Lucas Morrison said, "Alright, then I’m heading out."

They had literally just gotten their marriage certificate, and this brand-new married couple didn’t even manage to have their first meal together before splitting up and rushing off to deal with their own stuff.

Sienna Hartley had originally planned to head home first, pack up her things, and move into Lucas Morrison’s place at Songhu Garden. But right then, she got a call from the department supervisor at the training center.

"Sienna Hartley, Ms. Watson is sick. Can you cover her one o’clock class this afternoon?"

"No problem."

Hope Watson was an English teacher at Xueeryou Education Center, and also Sienna Hartley’s senior from school. Back then, it was Hope Watson who had recommended her for this part-time English teaching job in the first place.

Sienna Hartley randomly picked a small restaurant nearby, hurriedly dealt with lunch, then rushed onto the subway and headed straight to the center.

She stayed busy the entire afternoon. At 5:50, after class ended, she was eating her takeout when a WeChat message suddenly popped up. The sender’s name was Yunzhou.

Yunzhou: "Did you go check out the apartment yet? Anything you’re not happy with?"

She was completely baffled. She hadn’t gone to see any apartment today at all.

Figuring she must’ve accidentally added some real estate agent, she deleted the contact on the spot without a second thought.

Meanwhile, Lucas Morrison had just finished typing his second message and hit send: "If you need anything, contact me anytime. I’ll have someone adjust it to your liking."

Only after sending it did he notice the little red exclamation mark in the chat box. The system prompt told him he was no longer the other party’s friend and had to add her again first.

His finger paused on the screen. A moment later, he actually laughed.

He’d been deleted?