The Third-Person Perspective

Cold, calculating schemer x willful, carefree cutie

Blurb:

When Yun Min opened the bright red engagement invitation, two names she knew all too well were in the starring roles: Lin Zhixu and Xu Jialin.

One was her closest friend, the other her childhood sweetheart.

Yun Min remembered a line she'd once seen online:

"The ending isn't what I wanted, but the story is over."

Wen Cixu was a top student everyone at No. 1 High School knew. No matter whether it was a major exam or a minor one, his name always held the top spot. His looks were as impeccable as his grades. Despite his prominent family background, he was low-key and reserved, gentle yet distant. Still, everyone ranked him fourth on No. 1 High School's list of most talked-about students.

The top three were the heiress Lin Zhixu, the school heartthrob Xu Jialin, and the flawless slacker Yun Min.

If Yun Min hadn't been good friends with Lin Zhixu and Xu Jialin, she would have been practically invisible at No. 1 High School. Her name was always mentioned alongside theirs, which earned her the honorary third spot on the list.

Wen Cixu became the honorary third-place student's deskmate after the classes were reshuffled in their second year of high school.

Yun Min was full of life. In the water, she was a free fish; in the sky, a soaring bird. She was as carefree as the wind.

He was a silent tree, trapped in a small patch of land, forced to keep growing upward as expected just to taste a little sunshine.

They belonged to different worlds.

Yun Min knew she had never paid Wen Cixu any mind. There were just moments when his looks made her lose focus.

Wen Cixu knew it too. He simply added one more item to his ironclad ten-year plan:

Marry Yun Min.

In the eleventh year after he met her, they got married.

He knew his wife didn't love him. So what?

On the first day of their marriage, Yun Min questioned her life choices. She remembered that on the first day she sat beside Wen Cixu in high school, she'd already realized there was something wrong with him.

He had both mysophobia and obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and both controlling and possessive streaks.

She'd known it even then.

She hadn't expected that ten years later, Wen Cixu would seem like a complete lunatic to her.

His appetite in one particular area was excessive. Like a mad dog, he loved marking her from head to toe.

On the second day of their marriage, she was scared. She wanted a divorce, and she meant it.

By day N of their marriage, she still hadn't managed to get divorced.

"Their story began with them, and ours ends with us."

Tropes: wealthy families, misunderstandings, missed connections, angsty melodrama, marriage before love

1. Both leads have no prior sexual partners, 1v1, happy ending. The male lead spent ten years trying to steal her away, and the female lead married him for work. She likes him a little, but not much.

2. A little ensemble cast. The story opens in the city, with school scenes interspersed, split about evenly.

Theme: Keep striving every day.