Stand-in lover + love grows over time + remorseful husband chasing his wife + reconciliation after heartbreak + domineering CEO’s exclusive devotion + healing romance
When Du Xingchen asks for a divorce, no one believes her. Gu Tingyao thinks she is just acting on impulse.
His childhood sweetheart asks him, “Are you reluctant to let her go?”
He lifts his chin. “How could I possibly fall in love with her? She’s just a stand-in.”
Gu Tingyao is a multimillionaire, one of the elite and far beyond Du Xingchen’s reach. And yet, somehow, the two of them are married.
In his eyes, she has always been nothing more than a stand-in for his childhood sweetheart, a tool to appease his parents, and a pawn in his career.
She once dared to hope that, perhaps, after spending every day together, his heart might waver just a little.
But the truth was that his childhood sweetheart could crush every hope she had with the lift of a finger.
He said, “She’s just a tool. I was only playing around.”
Du Xingchen once thought that perhaps one day a hero would come riding on a rainbow cloud and promise her a carefree life.
But after every hope had been dashed, Du Xingchen finally understood: she had always been the only one who could save herself.
She carved her way through every obstacle, with flowers blooming along the road.
After the divorce, Gu Tingyao is convinced that Du Xingchen, who walked away with nothing just to divorce him, will fall flat on her face. Then she’ll realize just how completely wrong she was.
He was always the one who left first. What gave her the right to just give up like this?
She walked away so decisively, as if all those times she said she loved him had been an act.
His childhood sweetheart wanting him back, her finding someone new… Those things could wait.
“I’m even richer now. Come back and take a look at my perfect body and eight-pack abs. What could that new guy possibly have that I don’t?”
He holds her drunken body close, and they lose themselves in a night of passion.
