Newlywed, but Not Close

[Li Youyou and Shen Zhouxing, from the Book of Songs: “The deer call out, yoyo, eating the duckweed in the fields. A man delights in me and shows me the great road.”]

[Marriage alliance between wealthy families | Married first, love later | A powerful man bends for love | Mutual salvation across a rift in time]

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When her cousin runs away from her wedding, the marriage alliance with the Shen family falls to Li Youyou.

She assumes the young master of the Shen family will look down on her and call off the engagement, allowing her to regain her freedom.

Unexpectedly, the Shen family changes the groom, too.

Her new fiancé is a rising star in the capital, said to be taciturn and aloof after suffering heartbreak years ago.

On the afternoon they register their marriage, the man leaves on a business trip for over a month. Li Youyou is more than pleased.

As for her friend’s question, “How are things with Shen Zhouxing?”

Getting along?

Li Youyou thinks of the man she has met only twice. “We’re not close.”

She agrees to the marriage only to escape her uncle’s control.

She doesn’t care that Shen Zhouxing has been heartbroken, or whether he has another woman on the side.

Li Youyou is an illegitimate daughter whose father is unknown, and she is also lame.

People in their circle think Shen Zhouxing married her for a bit of novelty.

They are sure he will divorce her within three months.

Li Youyou thinks so, too.

But the man keeps domineeringly taking control of her every thought and desire.

Again and again, he asks her, “Now that we’re this close, are we still strangers?”

Close?

Very close.

Close enough to be ripe.

Li Youyou’s skin flushes pink, like a ripe peach.

Only Shen Zhouxing gets to pluck her.

Li Youyou once believed that marrying Shen Zhouxing on an inauspicious day meant their marriage was doomed to end in chaos from the start.

But the man tells her, “On an inauspicious day, I met Shen. From now on, may you know joy and peace.”