The marriage is a deal to her, but something he’s been plotting for years. A gradual, tender romance, a five-year age gap, both virgins, happy ending.
Jiang Jianxi had known Ji Lin since she was nine, but they didn’t have their first proper conversation until she was twenty-four.
At the time, Jiang Jianxi had just been jilted and had no choice but to ask for help to save her family.
The man in a black suit sat by the floor-to-ceiling window, smoke veiling half of his handsome face. He replied casually:
“Marry me, and I’ll help you.”
“Don’t read too much into it. It’s just a business deal.”
No one knew that with her so close within reach, Ji Lin had to take several deep drags before the smoke could conceal the wild, surging love in his eyes.
…
The thing Ji Chengyan regretted most was breaking off his engagement to Jiang Jianxi.
He thought she would wait obediently, or become the woman he kept hidden behind the scenes for love. But she turned around and married his sworn enemy.
Ji Chengyan knelt and begged her. “Xiaoxi, I don’t care about what happened between you two. You can come back to me anytime.”
A tall figure stepped around the corner and wrapped a long arm around Jiang Jianxi’s waist. Looking down at him, he said, “If you don’t want to acknowledge her as your sister-in-law, the Ji family can do without you.”
Late at night, when no one else was around, Ji Lin braced himself beside her and tirelessly tested her again and again:
“Jiang Jianxi, who else is in your heart?”
“Just me, right?”
“Please, love me.”
…
Jiang Jianxi had always thought that her marriage alliance with Ji Lin was simply a matter of mutual benefit.
She had no idea that ever since he was nine, he had never once taken his eyes off her.
Marrying her was the one and only time in his life he had risked everything, making a calculated move without regard for the consequences.