[A "Real" Marriage Before Love + Both Leads Are Chaste + Slow-Burning Romance + The Push and Pull Between Adults, with a Service-Oriented Male Lead]
When Cen Xiao agreed to marry Shen Youqing, she wanted just two things: for him to leave her alone, and for him to be busy.
Shen Youqing didn't want to waste time on anything outside work, while Cen Xiao knew her place. She wouldn't make a fuss, argue, or check up on him, perfectly matching all his requirements for a "wife."
On the third day after their wedding, he flew to the United States. He came back fewer than ten times in three years.
They each went about their own lives. On holidays, they put on a loving show over video calls to appease their elders, then hung up without even bothering to remember what the other looked like.
Until Shen Youqing returned to China to take over the family business, and the two officially began living together.
One night, after an accidental drunken encounter, they spent the whole night together again.
"We're both adults. It was just a drunken mistake, so don't take it seriously."
Somehow, Shen Youqing heard that Cen Xiao's unrequited college crush had returned to China.
That night, he came home drunk and blocked her at the bathroom door, his eyes shadowed in a way Cen Xiao had never seen before.
He gripped her wrist. "Cen Xiaoxiao, are you going to divorce me and be with him?"
Before Cen Xiao could answer, his lips came down on hers, carrying the scent of alcohol and a panic held in check to the very limit.
It was the wildest night of Shen Youqing's married life, which had seen only a handful of such nights.
"Xiaoxiao, don't leave me."
"I can't live without you."
