She Marries a Lawyer, and the Capital’s Devout Gentleman Turns Clingy

[Marriage First, Love Later + A Contrastingly Tender Tycoon of Beijing’s Elite Circles + Clear-Headed, Career-Driven Lawyer + Pure Sweetness, No Angst]

Everyone says Yan Jibai is the Buddhist type: detached, desireless, and indifferent to everything. Only Xi Lingzhao knows that in private, he’s an clingy pest she can’t shake off.

He had a crush on her for three whole years. Their impulsive marriage was what finally let him get his wish.

Their wedding rings are engraved with their names inside. Even when she has an international conference call at nine, he clings to her and shamelessly begs for five more minutes in her arms. He even makes a rule that they have to kiss three times before she leaves. He secretly fills 365 notes with love confessions and hides them around the house. Even if he’s attending an all-night meeting with the international board, he’ll change his flight at the last minute and wait outside her law firm until she finishes work, eyes red from exhaustion.

Four years into their marriage, thirty-one-year-old Xi Lingzhao is busy tackling a major antitrust case. She keeps feeling tired and nauseous, and develops a craving for sweets.

He immediately turns down every industry summit, stays home to make sweet, stomach-friendly porridge for her each day, and hides a nursery plan in his study, with two little beds drawn on it. He pours all his unspoken hopes into the time they spend together, day in and day out.

A little scene:

“President Yan, why have you been glued to me every second lately?”

He tightens his arms around her and buries his face in her neck, the tips of his ears turning bright red as his fingers rub her wedding ring again and again. “Every minute apart from you drains my battery.”

The couple remain faithful to each other throughout, with no first loves or melodramatic misunderstandings. It’s a gentle, healing romance that unfolds at an unhurried pace, from the first light of dawn to the golden ginkgo leaves of late autumn. For the rest of their lives, he only wants to hold her close, year after year.