Qinghu City, Blazing Hue Café.
Night had just settled in, and the café was washed in soft, warm light. In the booth by the window, Adelaide Sinclair narrowed her eyes and stared lazily at the neon-lit street outside, clearly bored out of her mind.
On the glass, her reflection looked almost aggressive: heavy makeup, overdrawn brows, dark shadow around the eyes, lips painted a vivid blood-red, plus a pair of absurdly huge earrings hanging off her ears. The woman in the reflection looked like the kind of person nobody would naturally warm up to.
And that was exactly the point.
Because tonight, under direct orders from her mother, Adelaide was here on a blind date.
Sure enough, she had barely zoned out for two minutes before a hoarse voice scraped past her ear.
"Miss Sinclair, are you even listening to me?"
Adelaide snapped back from her thoughts, turned her head, and saw the man across from her frowning at her with obvious displeasure written all over his face.
He looked to be around thirty-five. Very average features. If he lost another sixty pounds and his hairline came down a couple of inches, maybe he'd look a little better.
Only a little.
At the very least, he might stop looking quite so sleazy.
"Mm." Adelaide lifted a brow and answered flatly, more out of courtesy than interest.
This was already the seventh blind date she'd had this month. Honestly, saying it out loud sounded ridiculous. She was only twenty-six, yet her mother acted like if she didn't get married immediately, the sky would fall. The next several weeks of her schedule had already been packed out for her, like this year wouldn't end until she was successfully shipped off into marriage.
But Frederick Aldridge was clearly not happy with her reaction.
He looked like he wanted to lose his temper, but held it back. After a brief pause, he adjusted himself and said, "Miss Sinclair, to be honest, I'm barely satisfied with your looks. So how about this—we skip the wasting time and settle the marriage first?"
Adelaide had just lifted her glass and taken a sip of water. The second she heard that, she nearly sprayed it out. She raised her brows high and looked at him like he'd just said the dumbest thing on earth.
"Mr. Aldridge, right? If I remember correctly, this is the first time we've ever met?"
"That's right, first time," Frederick said confidently, flashing a mouthful of nicotine-stained dark teeth. He even gave her a smug little grin. "But the matchmaker already told me about your situation. You're not exactly young anymore, and you're in a hurry to get married. Me agreeing to this is already me accommodating you."
He paused, then kept going like he was reading terms off a contract.
"But let me be upfront first. I just started my business, so money's tight right now. If we get married, your family needs to provide a house as dowry. No less than one hundred thirty square meters, and it has to be within the third ring. The deed should have both our names on it. As for the car, I've already bought one, but it's financed. After marriage, my salary will go toward the loan, and your salary can handle the household expenses."
Adelaide was so mad she almost laughed. Her eyes narrowed, hiding the cold mockery underneath.
"Oh? So should my family also throw in two million in cash while we're at it?"
"Two million?" Frederick's eyes lit up on the spot.
Even though he tried hard to act calm, his voice still trembled with excitement. "Well... it's not exactly a lot of money, but something is better than nothing. In that case, we can hold the wedding next month."
As he spoke, he actually reached across the table, trying to grab the hand Adelaide had resting there.
"Hold your head." Adelaide yanked her hand back at lightning speed, snatched up her bag, and stood up to leave.
She genuinely had no idea where this guy got his confidence from.
He was so gross it was making her skin crawl.
"Miss Sinclair?" Frederick saw her getting ready to leave and hurriedly stood up too, stepping in front of her to block her way. He looked baffled, as if he couldn't process what was happening. "What exactly are you dissatisfied with about me?"
The moment he stood up, Adelaide Sinclair realized he was actually shorter than she was. And she was only 165 centimeters, plus she was wearing flats today.
Shorter than her, yet somehow twice as wide. She seriously had no clue how her mom’s old bestie had managed to look at this guy and decide he was tall, handsome, well-built, and basically some Song Joong-ki-level dream man.
"Mr. Aldridge, I don’t think we’re a good match." Seeing quite a few people already glancing their way, Adelaide really didn’t want to keep wasting energy on this creep. She moved to go around him and leave.