You Are the Master [Marriage Before Love]

[The blurb has been taken down~ The story is almost complete, so don't let it pile up unread!]

■Barely know each other before marriage / living together from the start / mutual devotion / intense push and pull

■Gentle, sincere sweetheart × calculating, scheming faux gentleman

Not long after moving in with the older guy next door, Yu Shuangtai moved into her marital home.

She got her marriage certificate with someone she'd met only twice.

It was only at the service counter that she learned his name: Xu Junxian.

The first time they met, he saved her by chance.

He was standing in the hallway of her old apartment complex, with rows of air-conditioning units behind him. His exquisitely tailored clothes made him seem out of place, like a magazine photo with its colors adjusted separately.

Yu Shuangtai thought he was gentle and kind, with a strong sense of boundaries. He even declined to come inside and sit for a while.

But it was too dark to send him back out, and she felt bad, so she gave him the only bed.

When it was time to sleep, he pulled her into his arms from the bed and said gently, "You're the host. How could I let you sleep on the floor? I'd feel terrible."

Yu Shuangtai: Huh?

-

Yu Shuangtai knew his motives weren't entirely innocent, but she owed him her life, and that was reason enough to repay him a hundredfold.

After they married, Xu Junxian remained gentle and easygoing. He was considerate about the house, the car, and the bank cards, with nothing to fault.

Yu Shuangtai reminded herself not to read too much into things. She assumed he was simply showing off the manners of a wealthy family, and never wanted to cause him trouble.

Only her nightmares each night exposed a trace of vulnerability.

Whenever they came, a gentle voice would soothe her awake.

When she opened her eyes, he would be drenched in sweat, his voice always carrying a barely perceptible note of agitation.

-

A few months later, at a banquet, she unexpectedly ran into the older guy next door.

What a small world. He was none other than the second son of the Xu family, Xu Junxian's younger brother, who had volunteered to gain experience working at the grassroots level.

Now dressed in a suit with every hair in place, he didn't so much as flinch when she spilled red wine on him. But when he saw the wedding ring on her left ring finger, he crushed the glass in his hand.

He wasn't the only one looking displeased. There was also the figure watching from the second floor.

He had seen everything: how tense she was when waking from her nightmares, and how relaxed she seemed around his younger brother.

That night, he deliberately left marks where they would be seen, then leaned over to tell her about his upcoming trip a few days later.

His teasing threw Shuangtai's breathing off, and though her mind was hazy, she murmured in reply, "I don't care anyway..."

Before she could finish, his heated lips sealed hers. The man's hoarse voice sounded in her ear:

"From now on, you care."

# If love is a sufficiently complicated undertaking, then his motives really are far from innocent.

P.S.:

1. The male lead is sexually inexperienced; first-time couple; happy ending.

2. Different characters have different perspectives, so consider the full picture.

3. None of the characters are perfect.

4. They're preparing to marry in Chapter 5, but I strongly recommend not skipping the earlier story!

Here's another upcoming story to sample~

The one good thing that happened after the Shi family fell into decline was that Shi Wen Ye finally got together with the man she'd spent half her life pursuing.

Who knew even that bit of good fortune was only the best of a bad lot? After she won him over, she discovered he wasn't what she'd bargained for.

Boring, stuffy, and possessive. Why did he have to say good morning and good night over and over every day? There was no reasoning with him, and she couldn't break up with him either.

By a twist of fate, she transmigrated back to the day she confessed to him.

At this point, Shen Lin was still as aloof and proud as ever, rejecting the young woman without a shred of mercy.

Shi Wen Ye was delighted.

Well, well. This time, she was going to make money and build a career, then end up in the arms of a handsome young man. Only an idiot goes back to an old flame.

-

Shen Lin transmigrated too.

He clearly remembered every step of Shi Wen Ye's strategy to win him over. Today, she would pretend to have forgotten her notes, borrow his, then check in on him afterward and bring him a little drink.

He waited for her to come. And waited, and waited, until she used the same strategy on someone else!

...What a fickle woman.

Too bad she'd picked the wrong person to provoke.

-

Shi Wen Ye finally made it through the doors and into the halls she'd once admired from afar.

Now, she didn't have to ask for a drink when she was thirsty or find a chair herself when her legs got tired. She could make requests without having to argue her case, and even when she acted up in public, people praised her for being true to herself.

Unfortunately, someone else was the one going crazy.

Shi Wen Ye thought Shen Lin was the one who'd truly lost his mind. She used to go a whole month without seeing him, but now, every time she turned around, he was there.

And he kept talking about fate, how coincidental it was, how they kept bumping into each other... What a load of nonsense!

He still looked as serious and composed as ever, making her worry that she'd misread things. After all, she could still vividly remember how sternly he'd rejected her the first time she confessed.

She didn't want things to turn ugly, so at a ball she hinted as tactfully as she could that they weren't meant to be and shouldn't force it.

He stared at the dance partner's hand resting on her waist. After a long silence, he suddenly reached out and drew her into his arms before everyone's eyes.

"As long as I don't let go, then it's fate."

P.S.: The male lead is sexually inexperienced.

Theme: Pursuing freedom