Xu Baohan took a step forward, his tall body moving closer to her, his unfathomable eyes revealing a faint smile. “I never trick people into marrying me.”

His voice was like a subwoofer.

An Lan’s heart skipped a beat. She took a few steps back and warned him in a fluster, “If you want to talk, then talk. Don’t move so close to me.”

Xu Baohan acted as though he didn’t hear what she said. He bent down and continued, “I’m guessing you heard these words from someone from my dinner party tonight.”

“It doesn’t matter who said it.” An Lan never expose her source of information. “What matters is your view of marriage.”

Xu Baohan shook his head, his gaze on her getting deeper. “I said those words to those women so they wouldn’t have plans for me. My view of marriage is what I said to you just now.”

An Lan was stunned, but then she realized what he had said was probably true. After all, no man would have such weird thoughts about marriage.

“I think you did the same.” Xu Baohan suddenly raised his eyebrows. “You said those words in order to frighten away Chen Ke. An Lan, actually, our ways of doing things are quite similar. I think we’re suitable for each other.”

An Lan was quite surprised that they had used the same method to scare off their suitors. But his last sentence drew her attention. “How are we suitable?”

“We’re suitable in every way,” Xu Baohan said.

“…”

But she felt they were unsuitable in every way.

As she remained silent, he said in a low voice, “So… we’ve agreed upon the view on marriage, right? I think we can get married this year.”

An Lan was stunned. “Were we talking about our views on marriage? When did we agree upon it?”

“We talked about a lot about it just now.” Xu Baohan frowned and reminded her, “And don’t you think Fate brought us together?”

An Lan took a deep breath and smiled bitterly. She had indeed met Xu Baohan quite a number of times. “But what you said made me think that you are just looking for a suitable wife. I happen to be the one who has met your requirements in the past few years, but you are not suitable for me.”

Xu Baohan stared at her, his eyes filled with a trace of displeasure. “Explain yourself.”

An Lan continued, “What I mean is that even though you have good looks and a good job, and we both studied laws, I’ve met handsome men like you before and I didn’t go out with any of them. It’s not because they weren’t good, but because I…don’t want to find a suitable man to marry. I want a man who loves me and I love him, and we were willing to sacrifice ourselves for each other, and he is someone I can rely on. We didn’t reach a consensus on this, so how could I marry you?”

After a few seconds of silence, Xu Baohan said unhappily, “So… There were a lot of men like me in your life, right?”

An Lan was speechless. So this was he cared about?

“I’m very grateful for your help tonight,” An Lan continued. Actually, she had begun to like him for what he had done for her tonight. But when he couldn’t say whether he liked her or not, An Lan was disappointed.

“Chief Judge Xu, to be honest, I’ve seen many men and women who have chosen a suitable marriage partner because they want to get married. Actually, this is quite good, but I always wonder if they love each other and if they are passionate for each other. Do they want to spend every minute and every second of their life to be with each other? Perhaps you would think it’s ridiculous for me to talk about love at the age of almost 30, but I don’t think so. I have money, abilities, a house, a car, and a company. Why should I make do? Why can’t I wait for love?”