*Chapter 2: The Penthouse Cage*
The elevator ride to Zhao Liang's penthouse was silent. Li Xue stood beside him, her heart pounding louder than the hum of the lift. Her suitcase felt heavier with each floor — not because of the clothes inside, but the weight of memories she dared not let resurface.
Ding.
The doors slid open.
The penthouse was sleek, modern, cold. Marble floors. Steel fixtures. Glass walls. Nothing like the warm smile he used to give her, the one that used to light up the old apartment they once shared. That life was gone. Buried under a car crash and a wiped memory.
"This is your room," Zhao Liang said, pointing to the door on the left.
She blinked. "Not... not the master bedroom?"
He looked at her, unbothered. "I already told you. This is a contract marriage. We're not real."
Her heart cracked again.
She stepped into the room. It was beautiful — too beautiful. Cream curtains, soft lighting, queen-sized bed. But it didn't feel like home. Not without love. Not without him remembering.
Later that night, they sat across from each other at the dinner table. He ate in silence. She barely touched her food.
"Why did you agree to this?" he asked suddenly, not looking up.
Li Xue paused. "Because once, I loved you so much I would have married you without a ring... now I'm marrying you without a memory."
He froze, chopsticks mid-air. But said nothing.
And as silence fell again, Li Xue realized this was her life now — a stranger's wife, in a loveless mansion, waiting for a miracle... or for her heart to break completely.