(Currently drafting, expected to launch in early December this year)
A true marriage-first, love-later romance | Two pure-hearted first loves | Period setting in China | A spoiled troublemaker vs. a carefree rogue
The companion novel, Yuanzhou Ratio, is complete. It's a marriage-first, love-later story with a modern woman transported into the past.
"What do you do when your wife is too much of a handful? Spoil her, of course!"
*
To put it simply, Cheng Angran and Zhao Jue's marriage was an arrangement between two people with no other choice.
*
Cheng Angran had been doted on by her family ever since she was little. At home, she was pampered and protected, and everyone was afraid she might suffer the slightest grievance.
Then an unexpected incident caught the whole family off guard.
The family came under close investigation, so they found Cheng Angran a blind date to keep her from being implicated.
Zhao Jue's family had paved the way for him early on, and he was sharp and capable in his own right. His career was flourishing.
Before he was even twenty-three, he'd become a team leader at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
The only thing missing was a marriage.
The sentence his mother said most often was, "You're already a twenty-three-year-old old man. You're officially an older bachelor."
"Look at your classmate Zhou. He's been married for two years, and you're still tying your shoes at the starting line!"
Zhao Jue, the so-called Old Bachelor, was sick of his family hounding him to get married. He let out a long sigh.
He agreed to go on one last blind date at the state-run restaurant.
Inside the restaurant, Cheng Angran sat at the table they'd agreed on, dressed in a yellow bulaji dress, her two braids hanging over her shoulders. When she looked up at him, the corners of her peach-blossom eyes lifted ever so slightly.
In an instant, Zhao Jue's previously casual gaze fixed on her and never moved again.
And so, on an otherwise unremarkable day in the spring of 1976, the two of them got married.
*
The night before the wedding, Cheng Angran's parents reminded Zhao Jue again and again that she'd been spoiled rotten since childhood and asked him to be patient with her.
Zhao Jue thought, With a face that pretty, how much trouble could she possibly cause?
As it turned out, he was being naive.
One day, Zhao Jue came home three minutes late, and Cheng Angran stood in the living room with her hands on her hips, scolding him for a full hour without stopping.
She berated him for not wanting to come home and asked if he was trying to end their marriage.
"Let's get divorced!"
Then she suddenly crouched down and burst into tears.
"Waaah, you really don't want to be with me anymore. We haven't even been married long, and you've already changed your mind."
Zhao Jue pinched the bridge of his nose, then slowly came over and crouched beside her, gently rubbing her back.
"Don't cry. Your eyes will be swollen and sore tomorrow."
Hearing that, the spoiled little troublemaker Cheng Angran cried even louder, then looked at him through teary eyes and demanded, "Then whose fault is it?"
Zhao Jue couldn't help patting her head, his voice patient and soothing. "It's my fault. My attitude needs work."
Seeing that Zhao Jue's attitude was acceptable,
Cheng Angran sniffed and pushed her luck. "Then you have to be good to me and do whatever I say."
"Okay."
"So, will you stop crying now?"
"W-well... all right."
For years, Zhao Jue had imagined what his other half would be like.
Maybe gentle and virtuous, or someone who could match him step for step, or perhaps someone cool and distant, with a relationship built on mutual respect.
He never expected her to be such a beautiful "handful."
And yet Zhao Jue really had fallen for this beautiful handful.
["Are you just taking advantage of the fact that I like you? You push your luck with me every day."
"So what if I am?"
"Fine. Go ahead."]
The blurb has been screenshotted and screen-recorded for safekeeping.
Reader tips:
1. The female lead really is a spoiled troublemaker, the kind who makes unreasonable demands. She causes trouble, and he spoils her.
It's just a sweet little story about a spoiled troublemaker. Hope you enjoy it^^
2. Angran is 18, Zhao Jue is 23. The story takes place in Huashi in the spring of 1976.
3. They truly are a marriage-first, love-later couple. Naturally, their first impression of each other is based on the overall feeling they get. They both like how the other looks, and they both have good prospects, so they get together.
Cheng Angran really is beautiful, and exactly Zhao Jue's type. But Zhao Jue doesn't fall for every pretty face. Angran simply happens to catch his eye. Zhao Jue is very handsome too!
The idea is that even if it starts with attraction and an unwilling marriage, in the end, they stay true to their love.
Theme: Stay true to love, and to the person I love most.
