Chapter 5 — Passionate About A Twisted Love

The introduction party took place at a high-class restaurant on the rooftop of a five-star hotel, where shimmering lights reflected on the surface of the Saigon River at night. Nha Dan stood next to Thien Lam, wearing a tailored navy blue evening gown, elaborately styled hair, gentle but delicate makeup, she looked completely different from her usual simple image.

"Smile a little." Thien Lam leaned close to her ear, his voice was soft but powerful. "You're playing the role of a happy fiancée, not an escorted prisoner."

Nha Dan forced a smile, her hand shaking slightly as Thien Lam took it and led her to greet each important guest. He introduced her as "Nha Dan, my future fiancee", his tone was so natural that even she sometimes forgot this was just a staged play.

"Congratulations you two, what a well-matched couple." An older partner laughed and raised a glass of wine to congratulate. "Mr. Lam has finally settled down. For the past few years, I thought he was planning to stay single for the rest of his life."

"It's truly fate." Thien Lam replied, his arm naturally wrapped around Nha Dan's waist, making her startled but still trying to keep a smile on her lips.

Throughout the party, Nha Dan had to continuously strive to play the role of a happy, confident woman familiar with this upper-class world, even though inside her heart was trembling every moment, afraid of making any mistake that could reveal the truth.

Near the end of the party, an elegant middle-aged woman walked up, her sharp eyes scanning Nha Dan from head to toe with undisguised scrutiny. "Is this the girl you intend to marry, Thien Lam?"

"Yes, Miss Tuyet Mai." Thien Lam nodded, his voice a bit more reserved than usual. "This is Nha Dan."

Cao Tuyet Mai, Thien Lam's aunt, looked at Nha Dan with cold eyes filled with suspicion, but did not say anything more at this crowded party, just nodded slightly in greeting and turned away. Nha Dan clearly felt the dissatisfaction hidden in those eyes, a bad premonition signaling the upcoming troubles.

When the party ended, on the way home, Nha Dan sat quietly in the car, looking out the window at the city lights passing by. She felt exhausted, not only physically but also mentally, after many hours of straining to play an unfamiliar role.

"You did well." Thien Lam suddenly spoke, startling her and turning to look at him.

"Thank you." Nha Dan replied softly, not expecting him to praise her.

"But more practice is needed." He continued, his voice returning to its usual coldness. "There will be a family meeting next weekend, much more important than today's party. You need to prepare more carefully."

Nha Dan nodded, didn't say anything more, just quietly turned his head to look out the window, feeling more and more tired.

In the following days, Nha Dan's life in the Thao Dien villa gradually fell into a certain framework, although it was still full of stifling distance from Thien Lam. He set many harsh rules: living hours must be fixed, friends cannot be invited to the house arbitrarily, all outing schedules must be arranged by Phan Dinh Long and have someone closely guard them.

Nha Dan felt like she was living in a cage, beautiful and luxurious but suffocating. She misses her previous free life. Even though she was poor, she could move freely, meet friends, and live as she wished.

One morning, she tried to rebel against one of those rules. She wanted to go to the market herself to buy a few ingredients to cook a hometown dish so she wouldn't miss her mother, instead of letting a personal chef prepare the entire menu according to a predetermined nutritional plan. But as soon as she got to the gate, the security guard politely but firmly stopped her, explaining that all trips out must be escorted and informed Phan Dinh Long at least one hour in advance.

"I just want to go to the market nearby, do I need to go to all this trouble?" Nha Dan asked angrily, feeling like he was being kept under house arrest.

"I understand. This is the master's instructions to ensure your safety." The guard replied, his voice still polite but definitely not giving in.

That evening, when Thien Lam returned, Nha Dan could not hide her resentment and frankly asked him about this matter. "Do you have to control me every step like that? I'm not a prisoner."

"You don't understand." Thien Lam replied, his voice serious. "There are many opponents in the business world ready to take advantage of any loophole to harm me, and you, as my fiancee, will also become their target. Those rules are not to imprison you, but to protect you."

Nha Dan remained silent, not knowing how much to believe that explanation, but she could not deny that his argument was not unfounded. She gradually learned to accept it, although she still couldn't help but feel suffocated every time she thought about the lost time of freedom.

But gradually, she also began to realize strange things, inexplicable contradictions in Thien Lam's personality.

One evening, Nha Dan had a mild fever and was tired and did not want to eat or drink anything. She lay in her room, thinking that no one would pay attention to this, because Thien Lam always came home very late and rarely asked about her. But at around nine o'clock in the evening, Ms. Xuan Lan knocked on the door, bringing a bowl of hot onion porridge and a blister of fever-reducing medicine.

"Master called and asked me to cook porridge for you, saying you had a fever." Mrs. Xuan Lan said, placing the tray of food on the table next to the bed.

"How did he know I had a fever?" Nha Dan asked in surprise, she had never told anyone about her unwellness.

"It's probably because the security cameras in the house saw that you didn't come down to eat all day. The boss monitors the camera system from the office." Ms. Xuan Lan smiled softly, her eyes were kind. "Even though he looks cold on the outside, he actually pays attention to everything in the house."

Nha Dan was silent, her fingers unconsciously circling the rim of the steaming bowl of porridge. A man who claims to hate her family to the core can pay attention to whether she eats well or not, whether she is sick or not, even though he himself does not directly appear to care for her.

A few days later, another incident happened that made Nha Dan even more confused. She was sitting in the reading room when she heard a loud argument from Thien Lam's office downstairs. Curious, she quietly walked down, stood behind the wall, and heard a strange man's voice arguing fiercely with Thien Lam.

"You have to solve this problem, the Vu family owes us not only money but also honor! How can you let his daughter live in your house like that?"

"This is my problem, I know how to handle it myself." Thien Lam's voice rang out, cold but somewhat more tense than usual. "She's not guilty, she's just a victim dragged into this vortex like me."

Nha Dan was stunned when he heard that sentence. She did not expect that Thien Lam, who always expressed his hatred for her, could say such words in front of others, even if just to defend his position.

She quietly left before being discovered, her mind filled with hundreds of thoughts. What is Cao Thien Lam's real personality? A cruel man who only knows how to take advantage of others to satisfy his personal hatred, or a man trying to hide his complex emotions behind a cold shell?

That night, when Thien Lam returned, he found Nha Dan sitting alone on the balcony, her eyes looking far away at the city's sparkling lights.

"Not sleeping yet?" He asked, his voice calm as usual, but there was something strange in his eyes when he looked at her.

"I'm thinking about many things." Nha Dan replied, not daring to mention the conversation she accidentally overheard.

Thien Lam walked over, stood next to her, looking out at the city at night. There was a long silence between the two of them, no longer tense like before, but carrying a strange nuance that was hard to name.

"Is it okay to live here?" He asked suddenly, his voice softening a bit.

Nha Dan looked at him in surprise, not expecting him to care about her feelings. "It's okay, although a bit... stuffy."

"I know the rules I set are somewhat strict." Thien Lam said, his eyes looking far away towards the dark horizon. "But it's the only way I can protect both of us from the prying eyes of outsiders."

Nha Dan was silent, not knowing how to respond to this unexpected explanation. She looked at his profile under the night light, realizing for the first time that perhaps Cao Thien Lam was not simply a cold and cruel man like she once thought, but a man with too many burdens in his heart, too many wounds that had not yet healed, but he chose to hide them behind a solid wall of ice.

She did not know that, standing next to her right now, Thien Lam was also fighting the same chaotic emotions in his heart, emotions that twelve years of hatred could not explain, silently growing every day he was closer to her.