After Marrying My Cool-Headed Rival in Love

Qi Tang is famous in her circle for being flamboyant, free-spirited, and willful.

She has been openly in love with someone for a long time, fluttering around them like a butterfly and showing off for years, but getting nowhere.

And then there's her rival in love, Pei Zhaowei, watching like a hawk.

Everyone says her rival is a refined, noble beauty, as pure and serene as a mountaintop flower. But Qi Tang is thoroughly sick of her.

Only Qi Tang knows how impossible Pei Zhaowei is to shake off.

Qi Tang will be having dinner with the person she likes at a Western restaurant, and Pei Zhaowei will show up. They'll go for a walk along a path on an estate, and Pei Zhaowei will appear again. Even when they take a boat out on a quiet lake, their boats will somehow collide.

Every date for two ends up as an awkward outing for three. Don't think Qi Tang hasn't figured it out: Pei Zhaowei is doing it on purpose!

For years, Qi Tang has kept a close eye on Pei Zhaowei, afraid she'll snatch the person Qi Tang likes right out from under her nose.

She never expected Pei Zhaowei to make no move at all, while the person Qi Tang liked turned around and got married in a flash, leaving her face-to-face with her rival.

Qi Tang feels like the sky has fallen.

To make matters worse, word comes from her family that she's going to marry her rival.

Qi Tang: ... The powers that be set me up.

*

On the first day after they register their marriage, Qi Tang is dumped at Pei Zhaowei's villa, luggage and all.

She starts unpacking, intending to find a guest room, when she sees Pei Zhaowei leaning against a doorway in a burgundy silk nightgown, her gaze cool.

"Coming in?"

No one's watching, and she's still putting on an act.

Qi Tang inwardly despises Pei Zhaowei, that hypocrite, and takes the initiative to lay down three rules.

"In public, we'll play the perfect married couple. In private, we stay out of each other's business."

"I won't cause you trouble. You don't need to fulfill any spousal duties, and you don't get to interfere with what I do. Got it?"

Pei Zhaowei stands there, her expression as cool as ever.

*

Qi Tang is convinced that she and Pei Zhaowei can't stand each other, so she makes a point of avoiding her.

She stays out until Pei Zhaowei has gone to bed, gets up after Pei Zhaowei has left for work, and sometimes doesn't come home at all.

She thinks she's being sensible and assumes Pei Zhaowei must be pretty happy with the arrangement too.

Until one time...

Qi Tang parties at a bar late into the night. When she gets back to the villa, she sees Pei Zhaowei drinking alone in the living room, looking rather pitiful.

Qi Tang takes pity on her and asks what she's so upset about, telling her to say it so Qi Tang can enjoy herself.

Pei Zhaowei looks at her with deep eyes. "The person I like got married. She doesn't seem to like me."

Qi Tang is too drunk to care about propriety. "Then seduce her! Weren't you always great at seducing people?"

Though Pei Zhaowei never seduced Qi Tang, Qi Tang considers her seduction skills top-notch.

"I'm good at it?" Pei Zhaowei lays a slender hand on Qi Tang's shoulder, her breath as fragrant as an orchid. Her clear, cool eyes seem to hold a hook.

"Then do you want to do it with me now?"

Theme: Turning enemies into friends