On the day of her arranged marriage, I mistook my husband for a research subject.
Su Nian is a graduate student in archaeology who specializes in broken antiquities. As a side project, she analyzes her contract husband, Gu Yanshen, who suffers from a severe "touch allergy."
None of the eligible young ladies in Jiangcheng can get near him. But whenever she touches him, the chill in his eyes melts away a little. So she starts taking notes: his microexpressions, his behavior patterns, and his physical reactions every time she touches him. Her journal is titled: "Subject A Observation Log."
She thinks this is a transaction that benefits them both. When the one-year term is up, she'll take the money and leave.
Until one night, with the first snow falling, he pins her against the car door and says in a husky voice, "We need to add a clause to our agreement: you can't treat me like a research subject."
He has read her journal.
"Then what should I treat you as?" she asks.
"The cure."
When the truth about her arranged marriage is revealed, everyone expects her to be thrown out. But the man as cold as a river in midwinter takes her hand in front of them all and says, "She's the one I want. She always has been."
Nine months remain on the contract.
Everything proceeds according to plan, until Su Nian finds another handwritten file deep in his study: "Phase One Conclusion: She's the only solution. Do not let her go." Signed: Gu Yanshen.
It turns out it's not so clear who is whose research subject.
After reading the first few chapters, I was honestly quite surprised. Marriage first, love later, contract marriage, overlord, the labels all look familiar. But at the beginning, the heroine got married for her younger sister. She didn't cry or make a fuss on the wedding night. She opened her notebook and wrote "Subject A: Gu Yanshen" - she is a graduate student in the Department of Archeology, and she really regarded her husband as a research subject. This setting instantly stuck with me. The male protagonist is not a traditional hegemon either. He has a contact allergy and keeps scratches on his wrists. He keeps his distance from everyone except touching the heroine. But he didn't come up and say "You are my antidote", it should be cold or cold. The most amazing thing was that I later discovered that he also had a notebook, secretly writing: "I touched her, why didn't she react?" Both men were studying each other. This two-way undercurrent looks better than sprinkling sugar directly. The pace is slow, the emotional line is very restrained, and I haven't held hands seriously yet. But there is a reason for every step of warming up. It's not like you fall in love out of nowhere. If you like stories where both the male and female protagonists are thoughtful and detailed, you can give this book a try. It may not be appropriate to kiss and hold someone when you like them.