After Dumping the Male Lead, I Rose to the Top

[Strong female lead + groveling chase + tragic ending for the male lead, happy ending for the female lead] [This is an imagined Republican-era setting. Please don't associate it with real history.] “You're nothing but a relic of feudalism, shut away in your home, never even setting foot beyond its gates. I'm not marrying you,” Ye Shen said disdainfully, looking at Wanwan in her Manchu princess attire. “Then, Young Master Ye, please go and break off our engagement. Just looking at you disgusts me, too.” After returning from his studies abroad, Ye Shen learns that his parents arranged a childhood betrothal between him and Wanwan to repay a debt of gratitude. He is mortified, while Wanwan has no fondness for the conceited Ye Shen either. But in the end, they are forced together because of her father's shameless pleas and schemes… Content warning: This is a fictional setting! She ultimately ends up with the second male lead. The heroine grows over the course of the story, so if you want her to be strong from the start, this may not be for you. The leads dislike each other at first. Later, the male lead falls for her and starts trying to win her back, but she never turns back.