Temptation After Marriage [Marriage Before Love]

Her Is a Bird has begun. Its blurb is at the bottom.

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Marriage first, love later | Strangers | Flirtatious tension | Seductive pursuit

Proud, scatterbrained rabbit * cunning, flirtatious fox

Dancer * powerful heir to a wealthy family

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Tan Muen gave herself three reasons to agree to marry Shen Zeli.

1. Handsome and wealthy, a perfect match

2. A gentleman with good manners who knows his boundaries

3. Busy with work and hardly ever around

But not long after the wedding, Tan Muen realized that aside from the first point, the others didn't really hold true.

1.

The first time she met Shen Zeli, her grandfather dragged her by the collar to a matchmaking dinner. At the time, Tan Muen was still wearing half of her exaggerated stage makeup.

Shen Zeli wore a linen shirt tucked into dark brown casual suit trousers. He had an air of relaxed, polished elegance.

He tilted his head slightly and stopped turning the menu. His calm, indifferent eyes swept over her thoughtfully.

A few seconds later, Tan Muen caught the fleeting hint of amusement in his eyes.

She named it: mockery.

2.

After they reached an agreement to marry, they got along fairly well.

That is... the kind of well where they didn't see each other.

As a result, Tan Muen often forgot she was married.

After the celebratory banquet, Tan Muen and her dance troupe colleagues went to a bar for the next round. They were egged on to perform their award-winning routine in the dance floor with her partner.

"Look at that couple. They dance so well together. Are they professionals?"

From a booth on the second floor, Shen Zeli glanced over at the sound. A pretty, fair face wore a radiant, confident smile.

He took a sip of his drink, set it down unhurriedly, and got up to head downstairs.

"That's my wife."

3.

Shen Zeli started spending more time at home, and Tan Muen worried that something might be wrong with his company.

Even picking her up from work, a small thing, became a daily certainty, rain or shine.

One day, sitting in the car, Tan Muen took out the black card he'd given her on their wedding day and returned it.

"If you're having trouble, just tell me. After all, our families joined together through marriage. The Tan family won't sit by and do nothing."

Shen Zeli's brows twitched sharply twice. He said nothing, then laughed.

To cheer him up, Tan Muen invited him to the premiere of her performance.

When they got home afterward, still caught up in the joy of a successful show, Tan Muen took out a bottle of red wine to celebrate with him and cheer him up.

After a few rounds of drinks, she somehow ended up sitting on Shen Zeli's lap.

The strings of crystal pendants on the chandelier overhead swayed, casting a dizzying light. When he tilted his head back, their breaths tangled together.

"Shen Zeli, do you want to kiss me?"

Tan Muen traced the outline of his brows with a finger, then shook her head. "No, we got married for the sake of our families."

As she rose to leave, he caught her by the shoulder and pulled her back down, then gripped her chin firmly.

"Who says people married for their families can't kiss?"

Reader's guide:

1. Both are each other's only partner, a sweet little romance

2. Six-year age gap

Coming soon: Her Bird

"I love horses, I love mountains, and I love the barren, grassless Northwest."

1.

When she first met Li Xi, she was riding a spirited horse across the desolate desert. She leapt down from the saddle in the glow of the setting sun and offered her hand with an open, hearty smile.

"Mr. Duan, welcome to the Northwest!"

She was warm, fearless, and innocent.

Like a blooming rose, a bird soaring free.

Duan Yujing, on the other hand, was stiff, taciturn, and rational.

Even when he came out to clear his head, he couldn't keep work out of his thoughts.

Then Li Xi's eyes reddened at the sight of a sapling crushed beneath a car wheel. She crouched down and looked up at him.

"Mr. Duan, is there a saxaul tree here that belongs to you?"

He wasn't good at communicating.

And he disdained wasting time on anything useless.

Yet, for once, he left the tearful Li Xi a phone number.

"If you ever come to Beian, feel free to look me up."

2.

When Li Xi was little, her family had her fortune told.

They said she was blessed and lucky, and that a benefactor would help her in the future.

Li Xi never believed in such things, but at that moment she thought...

Perhaps Duan Yujing was the benefactor fate had destined for her.

He never made promises lightly, yet he became Li Xi's personal teacher.

He opened her eyes to the possibility of studying in a prosperous city, told her that blindly working hard was pointless, and taught her how to navigate society and build connections.

But he also watched her grow quiet and despondent, watched the Northwest rose she once was turn into a withered leaf.

From the respectful "Mr. Duan" at the beginning, to "Yujing" when love was at its peak, and finally to the distant "Aron" when they parted.

She said:

"I belong to the Northwest, not to you alone."

Only then did he realize that perhaps it wasn't Li Xi who needed to change, but him.

3.

Li Xi returned to the Northwest, bringing all the sincerity Duan Yujing had taught her and scattering it across this land of endless yellow sand.

But she never contacted him again.

Now and then, she glimpsed news about him online, but only briefly, until he appeared right in front of her.

"Hello, Mr. Duan."

Duan Yujing took the hand she held out and clasped it gently.

Everything seemed to return to where it had first begun.

As if they had never loved each other.

Li Xi didn't know that while deliberately avoiding news about him, she had also missed the words he said.

"I want to go to the Northwest to find someone."

"I want to tell her..."

"You belong to the Northwest, and I belong only to you."

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"I want her to be radiant and free. I don't want her to wither and be confined."

Blazing Northwest rose * composed, steady older man

Theme: Happiness comes knocking