The Marriage Trap

Shen Chaoxi felt a sense of resignation and closed her eyes for a moment, removing her mask under someone's meaningful gaze.

"Mr. Shang, hear me out. it was just a coincidence!"

As the words fell, silence enveloped the room.

Shen Chaoxi turned her gaze, and the two people who had been joking around just moments before had clammed up, staring at her in disbelief.

It was no longer possible to pretend not to know each other.

"Hello, we meet again."

At ten o'clock in the evening, Shen Chaoxi walked out of the private room and was greeted by a manager with a beaming smile and a flattering expression.

"You did a good job. Since the word came from inside, you can go home early."

As he spoke, the manager reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope to hand over.

Shen Chaoxi didn't decline and took it, lightly pinching the thickness of the stack and slightly curling up the corners of her mouth.

Although the hint of a smile was hidden beneath the white cotton mask, her arched eyebrows and eyes became vivid and alluring.

The manager was momentarily stunned, but his professional instincts kicked in and he asked a question.

"Earning money here depends on luck, but mostly on one's own qualities," he said, seemingly confirming his own guess. His slender eyes narrowed as he looked up and down at the girl in front of him, truly a beauty, "Have you ever considered working here? The pay and treatment would be like today, based on your own abilities to earn!"

Without much thought, Shen Chaoxi clearly understood what the manager meant.

"I'm not considering it. I'm just filling in for someone. But thank you for your offer," Shen Chaoxi prepared to leave but then stopped as if she remembered something, "Manager, please don't tell Zheng Juanjuan about tonight's affair, please!"

Long accustomed to such environments, the manager was unfazed. Thinking about the phone call he had just received, he naturally had no reason to refuse and readily agreed.

Shen Chaoxi changed into her own clothes in the dressing room and walked out of the club's main entrance.

Outside the door, a black Maybach had been waiting for a while.

Yu Dong, in a white shirt and black trousers, stood upright, skillfully opening the rear door of the car with professional and fluid motions.

"I have arranged for someone to take you home. A student shouldn't stay out too late!"

Remembering Shang Jianghan's words, Shen Chaoxi's intention to refuse faded, and she got into the car and thanked him while giving him her address.

In the luxurious and well-appointed car, the air conditioning was set to 24 degrees, quiet and comfortable.

Shangjing, the city she was in, was a modern metropolis combining politics and economy, with towering modern skyscrapers as well as classical cultural landscapes, forming a dazzling and brilliant nightscape under the neon lights.

Half an hour later, the Maybach smoothly drove into a rundown neighborhood in the Eastern Suburb.

Shen Chaoxi asked to stop at the entrance.

Driving further in would only reveal more clutter and trash piled up, dirty and completely at odds with the luxurious car.

Shen Chaoxi thanked the driver politely, quickly got out of the car, and watched as the Maybach slowly drove off and blended back into the stream of traffic before she walked inside.

She was currently living with the Yao Family.

She walked past the gray-white wall covered in red paint spelling the word "demolition," through the rusty iron gate, and inside, the second building on the fifth floor was the Yao Family's home.

The old building had no elevator.

There were no lights in the stairwell, so she used her phone's faint illumination to climb the stairs.

But this was not difficult for Shen Chaoxi.

She soon reached the fifth floor, slightly out of breath, and took out her keys from her black shoulder bag to open the door.

She had thought that nobody would be home, but Yao Yuan and Zheng Juanjuan were both there.

The two of them had looks of concern on their faces, but they forced smiles when they saw Shen Chaoxi.

While changing her shoes, Shen Chaoxi greeted them:

"Uncle, Aunt!"

"Xixi's back. You must be tired. Have a seat, and have some water first."

Yao Yuan turned the fan in the living room towards Shen Chaoxi.

The air conditioner in the living room was broken and had not been repaired.

Even if it hadn't been broken, someone deliberately controlling the voltage would have prevented it from running.

By the time Shen Chaoxi had walked back from getting out of the car, her back was already soaked with sweat.

"It's a bit hot, I'm going to take a shower first."

Auntie Zheng Juanjuan had already entered the kitchen, but now she poked her head out.

"Ah! Go wash up, I'll cook you a bowl of noodles and let it cool down first."

"Okay, thank you, Auntie!"

During her shower, Shen Chaoxi remembered the reason Zheng Juanjuan hadn't gone to work at Bai Ye today, and she hastened her actions. After turning off the shower and hastily wiping herself down a bit, she put on a pair of quick-drying shorts and a T-shirt and came out.

Her right hand had just gripped the doorknob and was about to open just a crack when she heard a series of sighs coming from the two people one after another.

"The doctor says it's best for mom to transfer hospitals. Dragging this out isn't helping."

"Transfer to where? Where's the money?"

Zheng Juanjuan slammed the cloth in her hand onto the table with force.

Seeing his wife somewhat flustered, Yao Yuan's tone was not good either.

"What can I do if the doctor says so? Money can be re-earned, but if mom delays her treatment, it might be difficult for her to recover later! She has been strong her whole life, and now she ends up lying in bed unable to take care of herself. It'd be better to end her life directly!"

What followed was a silence punctuated with sighs.

"What if we sell the house? Dragging this out isn't solving anything either. I just went upstairs and saw Uncle Zheng on the second floor. His son got his head cracked open by some thugs during the day. He had to get stitches! How can they be so lawless!"

Women fear trouble, and Zheng Juanjuan is the typical example. The moment she hears about fights, she can't help but feel anxious.

Yao Yuan glanced at the fifty-square-meter house filled with belongings and couldn't help feeling reluctant to part with it.

"How to sell it? Going by relocation, we would need to shell out almost a million for the smallest new flat. If we take the cash directly, we can't even buy the worst toilet in the seediest location. Plus, the boy is grown up now, and he can't even find a partner because of the house situation!"

"We still have to deal with the immediate problems first. If there's really no other way, we just take it one step at a time!"

Shen Chaoxi opened the bathroom door, making a bit of noise and interrupting the conversation in the living room.

After finishing a bowl of egg noodles sprinkled with green onions and sesame oil, Shen Chaoxi thought about the afternoon trip to the bank. She took out a white bank card from her backpack.

"I only found this when I was sorting out my textbooks the day before yesterday. There's two hundred thousand in it, you can use it first for grandma's treatment."

"How can that be right, keep your own money, we'll find another way for your grandma." Yao Yuan refused without a second thought.

This was the only money the child had left after being driven out of the Shen Family; he couldn't possibly take it.

Zheng Juanjuan also nodded in agreement—although the two hundred thousand would temporarily solve the pressing problems, thinking about Shen Chaoxi's current situation, she couldn't bring herself to accept it either.

"Don't use your money; keep it for university later on! We have money prepared for your grandma's hospitalization."

Shen Chaoxi placed the bank card on the dining table and smiled.

"This is what my mom left for grandma before she passed. I'd forgotten about it for so long. I checked the balance today. Uncle, you take it first and use it for grandma's treatment."

After hesitating for a while, Yao Yuan accepted the bank card.

"Okay, we'll use it for now and pay you back later."

**

After breakfast in the morning, Shen Chaoxi went to school.

With the commuting permit, it was much easier for her to enter and exit the school gates.

The first class in the morning was the class meeting.

The homeroom teacher of Class 9 was a woman in her forties named Bai...

Known as "Director Bai."

Rumor had it, she had never dated or married at her age.

Bai Jinyuan, in a fitted black summer dress and three-inch black leather heels, stepped onto the podium. Her oversized black-rimmed glasses nearly covered half of her fair face.