Marriage first, love later + secret crush comes true + devastating romance
She thought marriage was just an arrangement between two adults.
He was impeccably dressed and considerate, and even the ring he proposed with fit her perfectly.
With one “I do,” she locked away the secret of her ten-year crush on him on her own ring finger.
But later, she found out…
That ring bore the “QS❤CQ” he had carved into his high school desk ten years ago.
The diary she had lost had been read to pieces by him, late at night when no one knew.
When she casually said she wanted to see the golden sunrise over the mountains, he went alone to a snow-covered peak, coughing up blood as he made sure to fulfill her wish.
She treated him like a “perfect husband robot.”
He kept all his burning passion hidden behind restrained good mornings and good nights.
Only when she fell for someone else and pushed divorce papers across the table did he say anything.
“Zhou Xubai, you’re too good. So good it doesn’t feel real.”
He smiled, his eyes reddening. “So my ten-year secret crush was worth only one ‘it doesn’t feel real’ from you.”
Later, as he lay critically ill at the foot of the snow-covered mountain, he wrote letter after letter he could never send.
“Lin Tingwan, I can’t give you the life you want. I can only give you freedom.”
At last she learned to make his favorite braised pork ribs, but all she could do was speak to the empty house.
“Zhou Xubai, I’ll give your freedom back. You give me your life back, okay?”
The most devastating heartbreak…
is when you mistake my devotion for an act,
and I mistake the act for a lifetime.
