"Mayor Sheng, I hope you could mind your public image. Intimately interacting with a woman in the middle of the street does not seem quite appropriate, does it?" Bai Yunwei stared at the man's large hand grasping her wrist, a frown spreading across her face, her voice subdued due to his stature.

Bai Yunwei, who uses her weekends to provide mental guidance to children voluntarily, had never anticipated that she would suddenly attract the attention of Sheng Mingzhe, becoming the center of his fixation. As the only daughter of Bai Corporation in City A, she had a comprehensive understanding of the undercurrents and upheavals within the city. The man who had abruptly parked his car in front of her, attempting to drag her into the car, was none other than Sheng Mingzhe, the new mayor who had assumed office in City A three months ago. 27 years old, and strikingly handsome - it turns out those words weren’t without merit.

"Is there really anything unseemly with me holding my fiancée in public?"

The firmness in his voice sent shivers down Bai Yunwei's spine. Fixing her gaze on his earnestly handsome face, she asked more perplexively, "Fiancée? Mayor Sheng, I am already engaged to someone else."

"None of that matters, Bai Yunwei. What matters is that I want you to marry me."

Hearing his proclamation made Bai Yunwei laugh out loud, "Mayor Sheng, you must be confused. What makes you think that I would marry you?"

Breaking free from his grasp, she started to walk away, only to hear Sheng Mingzhe's cold voice echoing behind her, "Bai Yunwei, very soon, you'll come begging for me to marry you."

"That’s impossible! Sheng Mingzhe, I will absolutely not marry you!" she countered, turning to emphasize her resolve, but found herself looking into his arrogantly impenetrable eyes. His ink-like pupils were filled with an unfathomable depth.

"Well, we shall wait and see." He responded with a subtle smile, then got into his car, and drove away. His seemingly sudden advance was executed so flawlessly that Bai Yunwei felt a shiver in her heart. Sheng Mingzhe’s words kept echoing in her mind like a spell, “Bai Yunwei, very soon, you'll come begging for me to marry you..."

Before long, Bai Yunwei found herself at the doorstep of her estate. Upon entering, she saw bank appraisal officials evaluating the worth of the Bai family’s assets. Seeing her feeble grandmother steadying herself on the staircase rail, she hurried forward to help, "Grandmother, what has happened?"

"Yunwei, ever since your parents passed away, our Bai family has been deteriorating. The bank now thinks our assets are too low and wants to re-value it. If we fail this appraisal, we won't be able to obtain the city project. If our bid fails, it would be the end of the Bai family..."

Hearing her grandmother's words, Bai Yunwei was on the verge of losing her emotions, her voice trembling, "Grandmother, should I ask Qi Rui for help? We are already engaged, they wouldn't simply stand by and let our family suffer…"

“No! I heard the Qi family is also bidding for this project. If you ask them for help now, it would be like giving away our lifeline to get back on our feet. It’s completely inappropriate.”

“Then, what should we do?” Bai Yunwei felt panicked. She took the appraisal report from the bank employee shakily, “Didn’t we pass the audit before? Why is there a sudden reappraisal? Why didn’t they approve us?”

“Miss Bai, the city hall suddenly issued a document asking us to reevaluate the Bai family’s assets. There was no problem originally, but this time the documents regarding the Bai family’s operating deficits released from above...”

Bai Yunwei no longer paid attention to what the employee was saying. She had heard enough—the paperwork from city hall, coinciding with Sheng Mingzhe's visit earlier. The bank reappraisal now couldn’t possibly be just a coincidence. This was Sheng Mingzhe forcing her into a corner!