[Clear-headed heroine | Cool, commanding CEO | Marriage first, love later | Angst and sweetness | Goes off the rails later | Bickering couple]
On the day she married Lu Yan, Shen Zhiyi brought a document to their new home: Twelve Rules for a Marriage of Convenience. Rule one: No sharing a bedroom. He signed it with an easy smile, quick and decisive.
Lu Yan chose her only because she had a clean private life and was suitable to be Mrs. Lu.
Her very first case after their wedding was against Lu Corporation's rival. He demanded, "Why did you take this case? You know he's our rival, and you still took it?"
She replied, "Mr. Lu, Rule Seven of our marriage agreement says we don't interfere in each other's work."
She won the case, but couldn't feel happy about it. He could have found a way to win, but he had held back.
Later, Lu Yan lost his temper. "What makes me angry is that you never treat me like your husband."
Half a year into their marriage, she never asked where he'd been, and never stopped him from coming home late. He thought she was just cold by nature.
Until he uncovered her past himself. She wasn't born into the Shen family; she'd nearly been abandoned at birth. She grew up starved of affection, always watching others' faces, and gritting her teeth as she made her own way through life. Her coldness was instinctive self-protection. When she said, "I'm not very good at loving people," it was proof that no one had ever loved her.
Boundaries had become a habit. She never dared ask for anything because no one had ever cared.
At last, he understood: the woman he'd married wasn't a wife without warmth, but a child who had long since given up expecting anything.
From conquest to compassion, from indifference to cherishing her, he made up his mind: whatever she didn't dare ask for, he would give her; whatever she couldn't bring herself to say, he would make up for.
He taught her how to conduct herself, how to do business, and helped her reach the very top of her career.
She was one of the little joys in his life.
One went from conquest to compassion, the other from self-protection to acceptance.
They had both thought they no longer needed love, but in each other's presence, they learned to be tender again.
