Title: Duke’s Affair [Extra: Dean’s Chapter – The Curse of Encounter]
I am the current head of the Fu Ken family, the supreme president of our family enterprise, the Imperial Group, by day. By night, I am the current leader of the ‘Gate of Fire.’ The ‘Gate of Fire’ has existed since the Fu Ken family began to thrive, tracing back at least two hundred years… It has always been the royalist faction of the Fu Ken family. From the moment I was born, my fate was sealed; as the eldest legitimate son of the family, I was destined to stand at the pinnacle of the family conglomerate. The family bestowed upon me supreme honor and rights, but it also predetermined my life; certain things had to be done step by step – I control the family business and the global economy, while the family controls certain phases of my life, including marriage… whether I like it or not… This proves the saying: everything in life is two-sided, gain comes with loss! I am 26 years old this year, and for nearly 26 years, every step of my life has been planned by my family. From the time I could understand things, I’ve been endlessly learning various subjects: management, finance, military strategy, politics, martial arts, and firearms… Given my cold personality, I wouldn’t be easily manipulated, but what controls my life is not just people; it’s the ingrained sense of responsibility instilled in me since childhood… Yes, I have responsibilities to my family… It’s my destiny to bear!
So, two years ago, following the family’s wishes, I got married just four months after graduating from university. My marriage inevitably had elements of a business merger. To be honest, I didn’t care much about getting married because I didn’t believe I could love. If there’s no love, then who I marry and when becomes even less significant to me. However, if marriage was inevitable, I at least wanted to choose a woman advantageous to me. Among the many candidates provided by the family, I chose her – Misha, because she was beautiful and well-mannered, from a good family. She was a docile girl, not pretentious, simple, and reserved. In short, she had little temper, even a bit timid, making her easy for me to control. Thus, we got married, without love, at least not from my side… At that time, she was still a senior in college… From then on, her life revolved around me, while my life just had an additional her!
But undeniably, just as I had planned, marriage allowed me to naturally avoid the family’s endless nagging about getting married, and her presence made me even freer… Misha never interfered in my private life; her silence was precisely why I married her. From the beginning, I saw and knew clearly that she wouldn’t, nor dare to, control me. So, after getting married, I became even freer, spared from the constant pressure of my elders to wed, and relieved from the entanglements of various socialites. I lived freely and indulged myself… If before marriage, I was still troubled by the family’s expectations for marriage, after marriage, I was completely liberated. From then on, the family had no control or demands over me…
I thought life would continue with a virtuous wife at home and a myriad of beauties outside, no need for so-called love, just freedom and career. But then, I met a girl I couldn’t let go of. Paris – the place where we first met… Due to a collision, we swapped phones – I initially thought it was just a woman’s ploy to get my attention. But the truth was, Ye Ye didn’t even know who I was. She was wearing a bathrobe, staring at me in her room with a look of surprise, water droplets still clinging to her elegant collarbone… Her eyes sparkled like the stars, her cherry lips slightly parted… I couldn’t help but kiss her… It was sweet, a sweetness that warmed my cold heart… I invited her to dinner right then, where a small incident occurred. Her reaction, however, was far beyond my expectations… A gentle Eastern girl could be so wild… She slapped the woman who was harassing her and then left the restaurant with grace… I did something I had never done in my 26 years – I chased after a woman…
Under the night sky, she stood in that phone booth, arms wrapped around herself, her nose red from the cold… Unlike the sharpness she showed earlier, she now looked silly yet adorable, making my heart ache… I hugged her, feeling a surge of tenderness, full to the brim… It felt as if holding her was like holding the entire world… In the nightclub, she danced with abandon, sweat flying, as if she was born to be a night elf, the perfect blend of enchantment and ethereal beauty… I don’t know if the night imbued her with mystery or if she naturally possessed a charm that captivated me, making me want to linger. Her multifaceted personality tugged at my heart, melting my usual cold and reserved nature… And so, I suddenly wanted to keep her forever, and thus – I devised a bet with her – that within seven days, I would find her in Italy, with the stake being – her! She didn’t know my identity, naively thinking she could easily disappear into the crowd, unnoticed by me. But she didn’t realize that on Earth, there’s nothing I can’t find if I want to, let alone in my territory – Europe! Thus began the hunt and the gamble for this magical girl!
[Prologue: A Mafia Family]
