[Bookish and scheming VS strong but insecure]
1. When Jiang Xian traveled south to Jiangnan, she first saw Shen Qingsui sitting alone beside a temple pavilion. He wore a loose white robe, prayer beads wrapped around his wrist, and had a clean smile and gentle eyes. He was like a bright, clear moon, whose image burned into her heart and stayed with her.
When she saw him again, he was lounging in a carved armchair beneath the lamplight, his elegant features full of charm. She heard that he was the illustrious young master of the Shen family of Langhui, who had been running their family's antique auction house since the age of sixteen. He had countless business dealings and a face as handsome as jade. He rolled prayer beads in his right hand, yet his heart was that of a demon, full of schemes.
A marriage contract bound their fates together.
Jiang Xian thought he truly cared for her. She made him a string of prayer beads by hand as a birthday gift, only to discover after an auction that Shen Qingsui had paid an astronomical price for a string of jade beads and put them on the wrist of his unattainable first love.
Only then did she finally wake up to the truth: their marriage was nothing but a sham, a performance put on for appearances.
She casually threw away the prayer beads she'd originally made for Shen Qingsui.
2. Shen Qingsui thought himself above everyone else. He could not abide women and had no interest in romance. He had always believed that marrying Jiang Xian and living together in mutual respect for the rest of their lives would be perfectly acceptable.
That was, until she left their marriage contract behind and walked away alone on a snowy night. He stood in the bitter wind all night, his eyes bloodshot, and only then realized he was the one who had fallen in love.
Later, at a gathering of friends, someone noticed the beads wrapped around Shen Qingsui's wrist. They weren't particularly fine, so the friend curiously asked what era the treasure was from, that he should be so reluctant to part with it.
Shen Qingsui smiled.
