A Slow-Burning Winter Romance

(They reunite in Chapter 84. You can skip straight to the reunion without missing anything.) Arranged marriage + five-year age gap + both leads' first love + mistaken identity involving an uncle and nephew who are both fiances + bittersweet reunion after a long separation - Wen Busui of Huai City is stopped as she tries to escape and forcibly sent to the Xie family in North City for an arranged marriage. He promises to let her go after they live together for four months. Rumor has it that the Xie family's fiance is a womanizer who squanders his days and has achieved nothing. The marriage her older sister rejected has fallen to her. But Xie Si is twenty-seven, serious and old-fashioned, unfailingly polite, and impeccably mannered. As they spend time together, they gradually fall for each other, and their romance becomes the talk of the town. When the Xie elders return home, she discovers she has been with the wrong man: she is actually engaged to his nephew. The nephew has feelings for her, but the elders refuse to approve of them and forcibly separate the couple. Two years pass. He raises the kitten they adopted together until it is plump and healthy, then carries it onto a twelve-hour flight, traveling 9,600 kilometers just to secretly see her. When they meet again, he is nearly thirty, while she is in the prime of her youth and has become a renowned illustrator at home and abroad. At the airport, he sees a ring on her finger and assumes she has a new love. No longer tied to the Xie family, he goes wild with jealousy and tries desperately to get her attention. He openly admits to the media that he is pursuing his ex-girlfriend. Someone spots the technology mogul from Shangcheng Group kneeling at a banquet to change his ex-girlfriend's shoes. Even when she kicks him in the face, he doesn't get angry. He cages the pretty girl between his arms and humbly begs her to forgive him. The osmanthus blossoms in Nanxi Ancient Town have fallen for two years. At last, their owner has come home. Sweet at the beginning and end, with a little angst in the middle, and a striking contrast between his past and present. At first, the male lead is gentle, mild-mannered, almost robotically stiff, and utterly humble. Later, he becomes possessive and wildly jealous, constantly afraid of losing her: an older, doting boyfriend with a fatherly streak. Later, the female lead is physically frail, a stubborn and beautiful sickly beauty, while the male lead tries to control every aspect of her life.