[A slow, steady romance + a slow burn + love growing over time + marriage before love + a husband who is her sworn enemy and has finally worked up the courage to act (Yue, fourth tone)]
Ye Tiancheng and I are sworn enemies. He’s nothing but a rotten little rascal…
When we were six, he lifted my skirt. At sixteen, he tore up my love letter. At twenty-six, he handed me a prenuptial agreement: we’d go our separate ways after three years.
I signed it.
We agreed to do our own thing and stay out of each other’s business. But after we married, things gradually went off script. I worked overtime until midnight, and he drove twenty kilometers to pick me up, claiming he was “in the area.” I tried to tough it out when I was sick, so he gruffly tossed some medicine onto my bed and left. Once, when I was drunk, I leaned on his back and said, “Your back is so warm.” He stopped in his tracks and carried me through the night for half an hour.
I thought it was just him honoring our agreement. I’d even fallen for him, until I found out his ex-girlfriend had come back.
He started coming home late and stopped being there for me. Then I saw him with my own eyes, helping his pregnant ex-girlfriend out of the obstetrics department. He chased after me, but never caught up to explain.
That night, I tore our marriage certificate to pieces and left a note: “The agreement is over early. Don’t look for me.”
Later, he searched for me like a madman and cornered me outside my best friend’s home, eyes bloodshot. “Hear me out.”
“I swear I didn’t touch her. The baby isn’t mine. I was just helping her fend off her scumbag ex-husband! Ask our grandfathers. Having family friends in common is a real pain.”
I said, “What does that have to do with me?”
He panicked and grabbed my wrist. “Chang Jiaruo, I spent all night putting that marriage certificate you tore back together with tape. Honey… I was wrong.”
Looking at him, I suddenly remembered the day he lifted my skirt when I was six.
In twenty years, that was the first time he’d ever said so much.
