After Being Deceived, I Married Someone Else and Had Children Chapter 3

The newly-confirmed fiancée had just said she already had someone she liked.

Today was their first meeting, so clearly, that person wasn’t him. What was he supposed to do?

Zuo Shihuan slowly looked at his fiancée standing opposite him.

Yu Lizhu clenched her fists, still looking weak and fragile, her eyes rimmed red from tension. Those stubborn, defensive almond-shaped eyes seemed to be on guard against him.

Zuo Shihuan thought he would be angry—after all, what Alpha wouldn’t be furious at being “cuckolded”?

Yet, though he tried hard to make himself react like a normal Alpha, in the end he only furrowed his brow in puzzlement and remained calm.

In truth, he even felt a trace of relief.

Zuo Shihuan asked, “So who is it you like?”

Yu Lizhu grew wary: “Why are you asking that?”

Zuo Shihuan: “Since you like someone, you should want to be with him. But the fact that you’re here at a matchmaking event means your family and your father don’t approve of this person.”

Yu Lizhu gave a forced smile: “They’d never approve. I never thought about a future with him anyway. I just wanted to enjoy this period of freely liking someone.”

Hearing this, Zuo Shihuan assumed it was one of those clichéd stories where a rich heiress falls for a poor boy.

He’d never watched such dramas, but he’d overheard Beta coworkers talk about them—how the male and female leads struggle amidst a great disparity in family status.

Clearly, he had no role in that script.

Zuo Shihuan politely said his farewell: “I’ll be going now. I hope you two can end up together soon.”

Yu Lizhu watched as her matchmaking partner prepared to leave without the slightest concern—so unlike the arrogant, hot-tempered Alpha stereotype.

Inexplicably, Yu Lizhu laughed: “You’re a funny Alpha.”

Zuo Shihuan turned back. For the first time, someone had found the usually dull him amusing. He looked again at his fiancée—or perhaps it was better to call her his soon-to-be former fiancée.

Yu Lizhu lifted her small face, eyes both timid and determined: “I don’t want to marry. If possible, I don’t want to marry any Alpha. I want to escape the cage of the Yu family.”

But the next second, her resolve faltered.

Thinking of something, her smile turned bitter: “But I can’t do that.”

“That’s why I came to this matchmaking. I was destined to resign myself to marrying whatever Alpha benefits the family. No matter who he is, whether I’ve met him or not, or even if I hated him at first sight.”

To Zuo Shihuan, she really did look like a pearl bird at the edge of a cage, nearly driven mad—clearly wanting to spread her wings, yet tethered back by invisible strings.

Most people would feel pity.

But having seen too much, Zuo Shihuan felt nothing. All he could picture was that pearl bird, once it flew out, starving to death in the end.

Wasn’t a life of fine food and clothes in the cage better?

Zuo Shihuan felt annoyed at the evening wasted.

He might not expect affection toward his future wife, but he did hope for a peaceful life, something conventional: to marry a proper woman—not necessarily outstanding, but someone who could stand beside him with clear-headed sense.

Yu Lizhu clearly wasn’t that.

Yu Lizhu, too, knew this matchmaking was bound to fail. Yet she lifted her skirt lightly, her almond eyes shining with genuine brightness, and gave a ladylike farewell.

“Precisely because you’re a good Alpha—one of the few I don’t dislike—I must tell you the truth. That way you can marry a wife you truly like someday. Safe journey.”

Zuo Shihuan stopped in his steps, his gaze complex as he looked at this fiancée of his.

“I’ve changed my mind.”

“What?”

Zuo Shihuan said seriously: “I’ve changed my mind. I think you’re suitable to be my wife. The engagement continues.”

Now it was Yu Lizhu’s turn to be surprised. She froze for quite a while before reacting: “Wait—did I hear wrong? After knowing I already have someone I like, you still want me to be your fiancée?”

Zuo Shihuan: “Yes.”

Yu Lizhu crossed her arms in front of her chest, almond-shaped eyes sharp and wary: “Stop right there! I don’t agree. You don’t have some weird fetish, do you? Like NTR, liking someone else’s partner or something?”

Zuo Shihuan rubbed his brow in exasperation, his face cold: “No.”

Yu Lizhu didn’t believe him: “Then why are you doing this—”

Zuo Shihuan said coolly: “I need a fiancée, and you need a fiancé to deal with your family.”

Yu Lizhu pressed her lips together: “Are you pitying me? I don’t need your help, and I don’t want to drag you down either.”

Zuo Shihuan: “No. I would never stake my marriage on pity for anyone.”

Yu Lizhu: “Then why?”

Zuo Shihuan’s gaze deepened, the corners of his lips curling into a complicated smile: “Because you reminded me—I will never, as you wished, marry a wife I truly love. She doesn’t exist, and I could never make it so.”

“I need a temporary fiancée. Until I can firmly establish myself in the Zuo family, I won’t let my wife or child become tools for my father and the family to safeguard their power—just as I was used as a sacrifice since childhood. Perhaps I’ll even be in danger once a child is born. I hadn’t thought this way before, but then you appeared.”

Yu Lizhu nervously clutched her skirt.

Zuo Shihuan’s eyes were calm, hiding sharpness, as he showed the brightest and most genuine smile of the evening: “You are the perfect marriage partner. You’re not someone sent by my father, you harbor rebellion against your family, and you’ll stand on the same side as me.”

“So, what do you say?”

“No matter who you like, you’ll still be my fiancée, even my wife, until one day in the future when one of us decides to end this false engagement.”

It was, admittedly, a tempting offer. Better than being forced into another round of family-arranged matchmaking. Next time she might not be so lucky as to meet an Alpha like Zuo Shihuan.

Yu Lizhu hesitated, then lifted her gaze: “Am I supposed to trust an Alpha I just met?”

Zuo Shihuan’s eyes remained steady: “I could ask you the same thing. Compared to you, who was planning to casually marry some Alpha anyway, I’m taking the bigger risk here. Besides, it’s only an engagement. It can be canceled at any time.”

Yu Lizhu looked straight into his eyes.

As always, Zuo Shihuan was calm. Dressed in a black turtleneck under a finely tailored gray overcoat, his temperament appeared all the more refined and austere. His features were sharp and striking.

When he didn’t smile.

His light brown eyes were calm and veiled, like the placid surface of a dark forest lake, hiding turbulent undercurrents.

When he smiled…

Yu Lizhu had seen it too.

She had unexpectedly discovered that Zuo Shihuan had a single dimple. His bright, rippling light-brown eyes resembled the warm hues of the earth, or like dried sunflower-orange petals, carrying a hint of dawn’s orange glow.

Yu Lizhu had no choice but to gamble.

“Fine. I agree!”

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