Broken Engagement in the 1980s: The Cold-Faced Test Pilot Is Panicking

[1980s + military marriage + genuine marriage first, love later + sweet romance + devoted 1v1 + family life + heroine’s career + ensemble cast + hero falls first + utterly devoted love + happy ending]

A quick heads-up: They go from strangers to familiar with each other, so there won’t be anything physical right from the start, but there will be later.

In 1988, Su Mingsui arrives at an aviation base after a two-day, one-night train ride, carrying the old marriage contract her father left behind.

She hasn’t come to get married. She’s come to break off the engagement.

Her family wants to give her permanent job to her stepbrother, then marry her off to a factory manager’s nephew. This is the first time she refuses to be obedient, but her mother follows her all the way to the base entrance, calling her ungrateful.

Everyone thinks they’ll manage to take her away.

But Pei Zheng, fresh from a test flight, walks through the crowd and stops beside her.

“She’s the one I came to meet.”

Su Mingsui hurriedly explains, “Comrade Pei, I came to break off the engagement.”

After reading the old marriage contract, the man asks her just one question.

“Can we get our marriage license today?”

After the wedding, she lays down the rules: separate bedrooms, no interfering in each other’s affairs, and a divorce after one year.

Pei Zheng agrees to every one of them.

Later, Su Mingsui gets into the aviation instrument workshop, clears her father’s name after years of disgrace, and really does put a divorce application in front of Pei Zheng.

The usually composed man doesn’t tear it up or force her to stay.

He simply lays his wage booklet, the house key, and the medals he’s collected over the years on the table, then asks quietly:

“The agreement has an expiry date, but my feelings for you never will.”

“Su Mingsui, I can’t bear to let you go.”