Chapter 1

On our first day together, Wen Songyi laid down the rules.

Eight thousand yuan a minute.

She said she owned seven companies. Every morning, the moment she opened her eyes, they were burning money.

“So, Pei Yan, you can have your romance. Just don’t get in the way of me making money.”

Dinner took forty minutes. A movie took a hundred and twenty. Coming home with me for the Lunar New Year cost triple—the holiday rate.

Sex was the most expensive. I asked why.

She pressed the timer against my chest, her smile wicked and beautiful.

“I’m supplying the time, and you expect me to do the work too? Even a capitalist wouldn’t squeeze me that hard.”

I never complained about the price.

One year, for her birthday, I booked an entire island so we could spend a day together. She stayed thirteen minutes. She had an international conference call in fifteen.

Back then, I actually thought she was so fucking attractive.

Then the male university student she’d been sponsoring graduated and came back.

Wen Songyi canceled three meetings and turned off her phone. She sat with him at a Chinese chess stall in the old part of the city, where a game cost two yuan, from one in the afternoon until nine at night.

They did nothing. Just sat in the sun, watching old men and women argue.

When her assistant found her, she was nearly in tears.

“Ms. Wen, today’s losses are at least ninety million.”

Wen Songyi didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow.

“I can make the money back. He’s having a bad day.”

All at once, I couldn’t see the point anymore. That night, I stopped every transfer to her.

She called the next day, sounding as infuriating as ever. “What happened? Bankrupt?”

I smiled. “No. I just realized being with you is the least worthwhile thing I’ve ever paid for.”

……

There were two seconds of silence on the other end. Then Wen Songyi laughed.

“Pei Yan, what’s this tantrum about now?”

Her voice was lazy, rising slightly at the end—the same tone she’d always used to coax me back.

I leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window and watched the traffic below.

“There is no tantrum.”

“Then you stopped the transfers?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You said time was the most expensive thing you had. I’ve decided to stop buying it.”

A lighter clicked on her end. She rarely smoked, only when she was annoyed. I used to back down as soon as I heard that sound.

“Pei Yan, do you have any idea how busy I am?”

She waited a few seconds. Her voice cooled.

“Eight tonight. Yunlan Restaurant. I’ll give you twenty minutes.”

Once, an offer of twenty minutes would have made me happy all day. I’d have started choosing clothes three hours early, afraid she wouldn’t think I looked presentable enough.

This time, I only asked, “Are you charging?”

She sounded as though I’d told a joke. “Since when have you been short of a little money?”

“Since now.”

Her patience finally ran out. “Pei Yan, what exactly do you want?”

I looked down at the contract on my desk: the relationship service agreement she’d drafted herself five years ago. Every item was spelled out, right down to the penalty for keeping her one minute past the allotted time.

I’d thought it was romantic. A woman like her agreeing to sell me her time—that alone had seemed proof I was special.

“I’ll be there tonight.”

At eight, I arrived at Yunlan on time. The waiter recognized me and led me to our usual private dining room.

I’d bought that room. Wen Songyi hated waiting for a table, and she didn’t like strangers walking past.

Every dish on the table was one of her favorites.

At eight twenty, she still hadn’t come.

At eight forty, her assistant messaged me.

“Mr. Pei, something has come up for Ms. Wen. She probably won’t be able to make it tonight.”

I replied, “All right.”

At nine oh three, I saw Xu Zhinan’s post on WeChat Moments.

In the photograph, Wen Songyi sat at a street stall in the black trench coat I’d bought her. In front of her was a twelve-yuan bowl of wontons.

Xu Zhinan had captioned it: “Someone told me the expensive part isn’t dinner. It’s the person willing to eat it with you.”

Wen Songyi had liked it.

When the door opened, I thought it was the waiter. It was her instead, the chill from outside still clinging to her coat.

“What are you looking at?” She glanced at the untouched dishes. “You haven’t eaten?”

I put my phone facedown. “I was waiting for you.”

She frowned. “Didn’t my assistant let you know?”

She sat down, as though doing me a favor.

“Zhinan just got back from abroad. He doesn’t have any friends in Jingshi. All I did was have dinner with him.”

I nodded. “That’s nice.”

Wen Songyi looked at me, then laughed.

“Pei Yan, when did you get so good at being passive-aggressive?”

I said nothing. She picked up a piece of fish with her chopsticks, then put it down.

“It’s cold. I’ll have them make it again,” I said.

“Don’t bother.” She checked her watch. “I have a meeting in ten minutes.”

I looked up. “Then why are you here?”

She paused, as if the question had never occurred to her.

“Weren’t you the one who wanted to see me?”

I smiled a little. I had been, once. If she showed up at all, I was supposed to be grateful.

Now I looked at her, and the whole table of food seemed so greasy it turned my stomach.

When I didn’t answer, she took the silver timer out of her bag and set it on the table.

“Ten minutes. I’ll charge you half.”

She said it casually. I watched the red numbers change, reached over, and stopped the timer.

“You don’t need to give me any more discounts.”

I pushed the relationship service agreement across to her.

“I’m canceling my order.”