After the Affair

When a married couple shares a table, whose cooking pot doesn't have a little soot at the bottom?

After seven years of marriage, Ming Chuan cheated.

When he returned from his lover's place, he learned that his husband had been in a car accident.

The good news: he wasn't dead.

The bad news: he was alive.

He pounded the table and yelled at the lawyer, "Tan Shan and I got married abroad and signed an advance healthcare directive here. How can I not inherit his estate?"

The lawyer broke out in a cold sweat. "Mr. Ming, your spouse has amnesia. He isn't dead."

Ming Chuan stayed by the hospital bed, tending to his husband hand and foot, hoping he would remember the property transfer agreement.

Tan Shan looked over the man claiming to be his "wife" and called out to his assistant in a booming voice, "Xiao Zhou, there's a con artist in here."

The doctor said there was a ninety percent chance Tan Shan would recover. Ming Chuan was overjoyed. He talked things over with his young boyfriend: they'd fake a breakup and let him play the devoted wife for a while. Once he'd gotten the old man's money, he'd divorce him and run away with his boyfriend.

But Tan Shan said, "You can have a divorce, but you'll leave with nothing."

"Why?" Ming Chuan fumed. What did seven years of his youth mean to Tan Shan?

Tan Shan remained calm. "Because you're missing a pair and have an extra one."

Fine, Tan Shan. So that's how you want to play.

Ming Chuan knew his way around the track. He resolved to take his husband for another ride.

Lost memories can be recovered, but can a heart whose fire has gone out beat again for the same person?

Do you love the person standing before you, or the original draft preserved in your memories?

[Obsessive top who would rather crush you than let you go x seemingly foolish, clever bottom who attracts admirers]

Content warnings: Older top, fourteen-year age gap, genuinely older top (Tan Shan is 43 at the start), actual cheating (physical, not emotional), no switching tops or bottoms, original couple stays together, they hurt each other, more pursuing the wife than the husband.

Premise: Repairing a marriage and finding common ground in love