Marrying Up

[The print edition has been retitled Looking Up at You. Preorders open on the evening of October 28. Follow Weibo @Mu Tianw for details.]

Three years into her marriage, Xi Ran finally realized that some people were simply beyond her reach.

The He family had a distinguished lineage, and naturally looked down on a daughter-in-law like her, whose family background was obscure.

Most importantly, even after all these years of marriage, He Mingyao still didn't love her.

To set He Mingyao free and herself as well, Xi Ran quietly packed her bags and couriered the divorce papers to his office.

That evening, He Mingyao came home.

His features were handsome, and he still looked as elegant as ever, but his expression turned cold as he warned her sternly, "Divorce is not happening. Don't even think about it."

Xi Ran sighed. "He Mingyao, didn't we agree before we got married? If either of us fell in love with someone else, we'd end the marriage immediately."

"Have you fallen in love with someone else?"

"...Yes."

Night after night, He Mingyao woke from his drunken stupor, eyes bloodshot, choking back sobs as he gritted his teeth. "Ranran, who did you fall in love with?"

No one would ever answer him again.

The person she once could never hope to reach had been cast aside by her like garbage.

Content warnings:

* A groveling-after-the-divorce story. As the blurb suggests, it has an old-school, melodramatic feel. Happy ending.

* The whole story is full of tropes from eight hundred years ago. If it's not your thing, just click X to close it. No need to tell me you're dropping it.

* [Purity readers, stay away.]

The next book is a campus story, Everyone's Favorite Is You:

At the start of the semester, Xie Caizhou stood beneath the women's dormitory with a huge bouquet of roses, but no one came down.

He smiled, his eyes sparkling and his looks striking, and said to the girls watching, "Could you help me call Ying Xi? She might be too shy to come down."

His words left everyone stunned.

At S University, Ying Xi was an unknown nobody, but her older sister was a famous beauty with admirers lined up all the way from campus to France. With a sister like that, who would notice an ordinary younger sibling? And yet somehow, without anyone noticing, she had managed to win over Xie Caizhou!

A month later.

Drunk, Xie Caizhou finally let the truth slip. "I made a bet with someone that I'd get Ying Xi to date me within a month. How could I be interested in a bland little girl like her? If it were her sister, I might've lasted a few more days, tsk."

When the words reached Ying Xi, all she said was, "Got it."

After that, no matter what Xie Caizhou did, he couldn't get so much as a glance from her.

At last, he forcefully held her in his arms and gritted his teeth. "Xixi, do I have to die for you to forgive me?"

Theme: What is the meaning of marriage?