From Fake to Forever

deliberately made your aunt get into an accident right before her wedding, to make your grandmother and I live a lifetime of self-reproach. And now Heaven has remembered me..."

"Grandfather, these are all coincidences. Don't overthink it," Fu Mingshi, who didn't believe in fate or retribution, stood up to console him and reason with him. "Every year tens of thousands of people nationwide die from drunk driving. Aunt's accident was nothing but an accident. You getting liver cancer is from smoking too much..."

"I don't care, I say it's retribution so it's retribution. I shouldn't have made a promise I couldn't keep. Unable to fulfill it while alive, how will I face Lt. Zhen after I die, how will I face the brothers from our platoon!" Fu Mingshi's grandfather wiped his tears, gaze resolute on his grandson.

Fu Mingshi's eyebrows were knitted in concern. "But..."

Fu Mingshi's grandfather interrupted him again, grabbing his grandson's hand eagerly, eyes bright. "Mingshi, I've looked into it. Lt. Zhen's son passed away but he still has a granddaughter, 20 this year, perfect for you. Your aunt's matter was your grandfather's fault, and now his granddaughter lives alone in a ravine. If you marry her and take care of her, Lt. Zhen will know even in the afterlife and likely forgive me."

Marry a woman from a ravine?

Fu Mingshi gaped in shock. This was the first time he had lost composure since becoming Shengshi Group's CEO.

But Fu Mingshi's grandfather thought of his grandson's scandal in Paris, and his expression darkened. "What's the story with that Xia Ying?"

"The reporters fabricated it. We went to the same university but I didn't know her at all when we were students," Fu Mingshi truthfully answered. They didn't know each other as students. Later when Xia Ying became famous in the entertainment industry he had heard of her, but only to the extent that he knew her name. At the banquet in Paris he wouldn't have recognized her if she hadn't introduced herself. His assistant reminded him Xia Ying was the lead actress of a drama his company invested in. Out of courtesy he exchanged a few pleasantries with Xia Ying, and didn't expect the paparazzi to photograph them and create an eye-catching bogus headline.

His grandson had shown no interest in women over the years, devoted only to his work, so Fu Mingshi's grandfather believed him. Immediately he steered the conversation back to Lt. Zhen's granddaughter, "That girl is especially spirited. Dress her up and she'd be no worse than those actress on TV. Oh right, her photo is on my desk, wait here!"

Impatient for his grandson to fulfill his wish, Fu Mingshi's grandfather briskly headed inside.

Fu Mingshi watched his grandfather go in, completely at a loss. If not for his father having come back too, if not for Lt. Zhen's granddaughter's lowly background that didn't fit his grandfather's normal criteria for a grandson's wife, he really would suspect his grandfather was faking the cancer just to trick him into getting married.

"Found it, Mingshi come in!" His grandfather's loud voice called from inside the room. Fu Mingshi rubbed between his brows and went in.

Fu Mingshi's grandfather immediately handed him a passport-sized photo, deliberately holding it facing away, an air of mystery about him.

Fu Mingshi expressionlessly flipped over the photo.

The backdrop of the photo was a stream, with a young woman holding a basin of laundry and walking back. Her bottom half was wearing grey pants and her top a white shirt with some wrinkles in it. Together with the shabby wooden basin around her waist, she looked dressed for the part of an impoverished student in the rural mountains in need of aid. To her left was a small black dog, and to her right... geese.

How attractive could someone look dressed like that in such surroundings?

Fu Mingshi finally glanced at the face of the fiancee arranged for him by his grandfather.

The woman in the photo had a long braid draped over her right shoulder. Despite the very rustic look, she was smiling - a smile of pure joy, like a wildflower on the roadside content that a butterfly had come to rest on her petals.

Seeing this smiling face, Fu Mingshi was completely transfixed.

She was beautiful, naturally beautiful in a way that could make one ignore her lack of sophistication. But most breathtaking to him was...

Fu Mingshi couldn't describe it. If forced to express it:

Seeing her was like seeing the spring - warm, radiant, vibrant.

In the rented black Volkswagen sedan, Fu Mingshi looked at the small road ahead through his sunglasses.

It was a cement road that could barely accommodate half a sedan, winding ahead in an endless hilly basin. The reform and opening up had brought earth-shattering changes to most cities in China, but for these hilly areas, the biggest improvement was probably this narrow cement road.

Old Master had said that Zhen's family lived in a remote mountain valley. Fu Mingshi had imagined some deep mountainous area where villagers would have to climb over mountains and cross rivers or take boats to get there. But now that they were here, he realized the situation was better than he had expected. Judging from the number of bread trucks that passed by occasionally, the local residents here at least had no issues with food and clothing.

Now the car drove into a small village. A group of ducks was waddling across the road ahead of them, so they had to wait.

As his gaze swept past several local onlookers nearby, Fu Mingshi closed his eyes again.

He felt a little tired. They had set off in the morning, flown for three hours, then driven by car for five hours after getting off the plane. He was told there was still half an hour's drive to the destination. It was already past three o'clock in the afternoon. If he could not persuade Zhen Bao to return with him to the capital today, he would have to stay overnight here and continue persuading tomorrow.

His body was tired, and so was his heart.

Zhen Bao was indeed very beautiful, but she had dropped out of school after finishing junior high. What common topics could he, a woman with only a junior high education, have with him? For his marriage partner, Fu Mingshi did not have high standards, but she should at least have gone to college, right?

Speaking rationally, Fu Mingshi did not have any hope for his marriage with Zhen Bao. But Old Master's illness was urgent, and Fu Mingshi did not dare to defy him. He had to fulfill Old Master's long cherished wish. However, Fu Mingshi did not want to make a hasty decision about his own marriage...

He tapped the briefcase on his lap and slowly opened his eyes. Behind the sunglasses, the man's dark eyes were deep and calm.

Because of similar congestion caused by "ducks" on the road, it was past four o'clock in the afternoon when the black Volkswagen finally drove into an even smaller village. The village was surrounded by rolling hills, high and low. The dozen or so families were sparsely scattered about. There were some small two-story tiled houses, as well as some two-story brick houses. The local climate was damp and hot, so most residents lived on the second floor.

"President Fu, that is Zhen's house"