Clear Skies in the Long Night [Marriage Before Love]

[Complete] The full story is finished. The later chapters were frequently revised, so pirated versions differ greatly. Dear readers, please leave Lulu a good review! My next novel, "Longing for Spring on Hong Kong Island" [Marriage Before Love], features a top Hong Kong tycoon heir and a lowly maid. Please add it to your reading list!

An ordinary administrative clerk from a modest family × an aloof group CEO

Secret office marriage / bittersweet push and pull / her longtime crush comes true / the powerful lower their heads / the powerful lose control / class difference / strangers in public, passionate kisses in private / workplace growth

Lin Zhixia always knew this was a marriage that required no love.

Shen Yanzhou needed a suitable, quiet wife who would not cause trouble.

She needed money to get herself out of a real-life predicament.

They married by agreement, each getting what they needed.

After the wedding, they kept clear boundaries.

No public announcements, no intimacy, no interfering in each other's lives.

Except he never knew that back in their obscure high school days, she had secretly admired him from afar and harbored a crush on him for three years.

At the company, she was an ordinary little clerk in the administration department.

He was the lofty, impossibly busy CEO of the group.

They seemed to have nothing to do with each other.

Until one day, in the CEO's office.

Shen Yanzhou: "You don't need to accompany me on these trips anymore."

Lin Zhixia: "Should I hand them over to someone else?"

He frowned. "That's not what I mean."

She thought for a moment, then asked very seriously, "Then... do you just want me to go home and wait for you?"

The office fell silent for a second.

He looked at her, his voice a little lower than before.

"Don't say things like that during work hours."

She nodded and replied dutifully, "Understood, Mr. Shen."

Shen Yanzhou's tone remained calm, but his gaze paused briefly at the side of her neck.

It was far too pale,

with a faint trace of red still lingering there.

His eyes suddenly darkened, and he added:

"At night, you can be a little less restrained."

P.S. The male lead has never been with anyone else. Please read the author's note at the end of Chapter One for content warnings. Comments that make personal attacks will be reported and deleted. Different people like different things. If this isn't for you, you don't have to read it, but please don't ruin other people's reading experience or attack anyone. The world doesn't revolve around you, just so you know.

The blurb was screenshotted on December 19, 2025. Any copying will be pursued.

Please add my next novel, "Longing for Spring on Hong Kong Island" [Marriage Before Love], to your reading list!

[Hong Kong Tycoon Romance | Secret Marriage | Class Difference | Status Difference | Bittersweet Push and Pull | The Powerful Lower Their Heads | The Powerful Fall]

Everyone on Hong Kong Island knew that Ying Yuan and his fiancee, Maggie (Su Manqi), were childhood sweethearts from well-matched families.

He was the sole heir to the Ying family, the foremost of the Four Great Families, born at the pinnacle of Hong Kong's power.

She was the Chief Executive's daughter, of mixed Chinese and Portuguese heritage, dazzling and proud. The Hong Kong media praised her as "the most beautiful woman on the island."

They grew up together, attending the Jockey Club, yacht outings, and Mid-Levels parties side by side. The Hong Kong media had followed them for over a decade, and even rumors of their wedding sounded convincing.

Gu Panchun thought so too.

After all, ever since she could remember, she had been the one standing behind them, ready to serve.

They discussed business in London, property prices on Hong Kong Island, and which horse at the Jockey Club was worth betting on. She poured their drinks, fetched their coats, and remembered every little habit of theirs.

Everyone knew Su Manqi loved Ying Yuan.

And Gu Panchun was merely a maid in the Ying household, always standing somewhere inconspicuous.

No one would ever pair a lowly girl like her with Ying Yuan, who stood high above the clouds.

No one, that is, except for the marriage certificate locked away in the safe in the Mid-Levels study, unknown to anyone else.

The yacht docked.

Su Manqi was waiting up ahead, smiling as she reached to take Ying Yuan's arm and head with him to their appointment at the Jockey Club.

Gu Panchun lowered her eyes, straightened his cufflinks, and was about to step away.

But as the man passed her, he did not break stride. He murmured:

"Come to the study tonight."

Only she could hear those few words.

Gu Panchun's fingertips curled slightly, and her pale earlobes slowly turned red.

The Ying family's Mid-Levels mansion had been rich for a hundred years, like a grand garden that would never fall into ruin.

Some people were born among the clouds, while others bowed their heads in service, generation after generation.

Gu's mother had been a servant all her life, and had taught her the rules for over twenty years:

Accept your lot, obey, and find a good family to serve.

Better yet, marry well.

But no one knew that every night, after she had seen her employers to bed, Gu Panchun would return to the cramped servants' quarters and pore over finance books, page by page, accompanied by the distant sound of foghorns drifting across Victoria Harbour.

She had a talent for numbers.

So much so that the first time she truly understood the games of capital those men discussed over dinner, she suddenly realized:

What you weren't born with, you could earn for yourself.

There was no spring on Hong Kong Island, but she was determined to earn one for herself.

Later, storms swept across Hong Kong Island.

At last, Gu Panchun took off the maid's uniform she had worn for so many years.

And placed a divorce agreement before Ying Yuan.

She wanted none of the Ying family's money, none of the status of Mrs. Ying.

She didn't want him, either.

Everyone thought Ying Yuan could finally marry the Chief Executive's daughter as he wished.

But the young master of the Ying family, who had always kept his emotions hidden, only lowered his eyes and read through the divorce agreement page by page.

After a long while, he looked up, his eyes terrifyingly dark.

"Gu Panchun."

"When did I ever say I'd let you go?"

She had always thought this marriage began as a matter of convenience.

But she had never known that ten years earlier, when she wore a white dress and followed behind him, calling him Young Master again and again,

he had already developed feelings he should not have had.

The nights on Hong Kong Island were long, and the lights were countless.

But the spring he had longed for over ten years

was never in the dazzling light that everyone looked toward.

It was only ever in Gu Panchun.

Theme: Through the long night, at last comes the sunshine...