Volume One, Chapter One: Astonishing! Am I to marry the wealthiest man in the city?

“Are you able to function normally?”
Gu Li sat on the edge of the hotel bed, her head bowed in dejection as she took the patient’s pulse.
The man leaned against the headboard, his dark eyes sharp and intense, fixed on her as if she were prey—cold and piercing.
“No,” he replied, his voice clear and pleasant to the ear.
Gu Li frowned impatiently, finding this case troublesome. It was all her friend Mu Li’s fault—of all days to come down with a fever, and then to beg her to make a house call. She’d planned to fly to Yunzhou today to escape her engagement, but now, thanks to this patient, she’d missed her flight and was in a foul mood.
“Take off your pants,” Gu Li said as she put on her gloves, hoping to get this over with quickly.
Take off his pants?
The man’s expression turned even colder. He had come here to rest because he was feeling unwell, only to be pinned to the bed by a woman who shamelessly asked such indiscreet questions.
How could she not be embarrassed? Was she even a woman?
As her hand reached for his belt, the man swiftly grabbed her wrist, glaring at her with furrowed brows. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Lifting her head, Gu Li finally realized how strikingly handsome the man before her was.
Pale skin, soft pink lips, and especially those eyes—long, upturned, and alluring. His simple white shirt had the first three buttons undone, revealing a tantalizing collarbone.
It was a face of almost otherworldly beauty, but now it was tinged with a sickly pallor, cold and strange.
Her wrist stung where he’d flung her hand away, snapping her back to her senses. She pointed solemnly at his black trousers and explained, “To me, all patients are the same—no distinction between men and women. I need to examine you properly to prescribe the right treatment.”
If he was so shy, why ask for a female doctor?
“There’s no one else here, just you and me.” Looking at his face, Gu Li decided to be patient and waited for him to unfasten his trousers.
But as he continued to glare at her without budging, Gu Li grew impatient. She forcefully pushed away his hand and unfastened his belt; the man, already weak, couldn’t resist, and with a ripping sound, the belt came undone.
He was furious, gritting his teeth as he roared, “You scoundrel, don’t touch me!”
Gu Li couldn’t help but find this patient amusing—such a fuss over a belt.
Just as she was about to unzip his trousers, her phone rang in her bag. Gu Li soothed him with a gentle tone, “Wait for me a moment, I’ll take this call and be right back.”
She let go of his belt, and the man hastily refastened it, his frantic hands almost making Gu Li laugh. This man was truly interesting.
Gu Li pulled out her phone. Seeing the caller ID, she feigned annoyance as she answered, “Mu Li, if you’re sick, rest properly. I’ll give you your patient’s diagnosis later.”

“Gu Li, I trust your medical ethics. I called to tell you that your family has officially announced Gu Mo’s engagement to Lu Zhaobei.”
Gu Li blurted out instinctively, “What about the Fu family?”
At the mention of the Fu family, the man on the bed shot a glance at the woman standing by.
“As for the Fu family, since Gu Mo is marrying Lu Zhaobei, you’ll be the one to replace her. Your parents have already released news of your engagement to the Fu family, and now it’s trending everywhere—it’s gone viral.”
Gu Li frowned, panic rising as she slumped into a chair, agitated. “I’m to marry Fu Yancheng?”
Hearing the name Fu Yancheng, the man pulling up his trousers suddenly froze, his gaze deepening as he stared at her.
“Your parents are truly ruthless. Fu Yancheng isn’t just a dying old man, he’s also sterile. In this day and age, how could they still arrange marriage swaps? I bet it was your sister’s scheme.”
Mu Li’s voice was earnest on the other end. “I heard from my brother that the Fu family is a den of trouble—you’ll be lucky to get out with your bones intact. Listen to me, don’t go through with it. While there’s still time, run away. Forget about the Gu family.”
After hanging up, Gu Li opened her trending topics app. To her dismay, news of her impending marriage to the Fu family had spread across the world, crashing the software with its popularity.
Was the Fu family really so captivating to outsiders?
Fu Yancheng.
Rumor had it that in Hanjing, he held immense power, the head of a financial empire, ruthless and merciless, said to have tormented eight wives to death, not only on the brink of death himself, but also sterile and elderly.
The headlines read: “Heiress of the Gu Family to Become the Ninth Wife of the Fu Family’s Crown Prince.”
All the comments below speculated on how she would be tormented to death, as if watching a spectacle.
She let out a long sigh and muttered to herself, “So what if I become the ninth wife of the Fu family’s crown prince?”
“They say Fu Yancheng tormented eight wives to death—what is he, a ghost?”
Gu Li didn’t believe the rumors, chuckling to herself. “All the better. The crown prince of the Fu family is said to be sterile, and I dislike children anyway. It’s just as well. As for this so-called demon, let him live—he can be as old as he wants.”
The man overheard her muttering, calling him a ghost, sterile, a demon, and old to boot?
How blind could she be!
He narrowed his eyes dangerously, finding it amusing that the gossip had come full circle to himself.
Gu Li thought to herself, her parents had always shown the most extreme favoritism.
She sat in the chair, her mind wandering, recalling how she’d woken up that morning to discover she’d been reborn, and that her engagement ceremony was only three days away.
Had it not been for her friend’s request to see this patient, she would have long since run far away.

In her last life, Gu Mo had stolen her place as the Fu family’s bride, while she herself had married Lu Zhaobei. In this life, it seemed the two were in love—only now did she realize that Gu Mo had also been reborn, and earlier than she had.
It was all part of her plan.
In her previous life, Gu Li had married her fiancé of eight years, a man from an ordinary family.
Gu Mo had wed the powerful, ruthless head of a financial empire.
Gu Li’s husband, a lawyer, had suddenly become a nationally renowned attorney with immense wealth—a true urban elite.
They were deeply in love, wealthy and carefree, the envy of all with three lovely children.
Gu Mo’s husband, the financial tycoon, was a dying, sterile old man with a peculiar penchant for tormenting women.
After three years of suffering, Gu Mo was tortured to death and left in the wilderness for the wolves.
The marriage alliance between the two families had originally been agreed upon by their grandmothers. Gu Li’s grandmother had saved the Fu family’s matriarch, and they were lifelong friends. In her previous life, when her grandmother suggested Gu Li marry into the Fu family, she believed, because of this connection, the Fu family would treat her kindly.
But Gu Mo, greedy for wealth, knelt and begged their parents to let Gu Li give up her spot, and Gu Li, whose heart belonged to someone else, thought it was for the best—never imagining things would end as they did.
She hadn’t expected that in this life, Gu Mo would choose her former fiancé.
Her grandmother had been a master of traditional medicine, skilled in both gynecology and andrology, and had loved Gu Li dearly, passing on her medical knowledge. Gu Li had always enjoyed following her grandmother up the mountains to gather herbs, reading medical texts, and studying traditional medicine.
Even now, the medical kit and acupuncture instruments she carried had been passed down from her grandmother.
Gu Mo, unwilling to learn, had never stepped into their grandmother’s courtyard, and their grandmother had refused to see her. Thus, Gu Li had become the only one in the Gu family proficient in traditional medicine, acupuncture, and pharmacology.
It was said that the Fu family suffered from many ailments, young and old alike, especially Fu Yancheng.
Rumor had it that, in his youth, he’d consumed something that left him infertile, and that now he was a dying old man—no one knew if he could even be saved.
She sighed heavily. There was no way to escape now; the all-powerful Fu family surely already knew about Gu Mo’s engagement to Lu Zhaobei.
If she disappeared, the Fu family would issue a warrant for her arrest. When she returned, she would be branded a criminal, and who knew what torments awaited her.
Lost in thought, Gu Li forgot all about the patient on the bed. The man stood, tidied his clothes, and looked every bit the proper gentleman. He gazed at the doctor’s badge on the table, picked it up, and slipped it into his pocket.
Gu Li?
His fiancée was proving to be quite interesting!