Refusing the Marriage

Complete.

My new novel, Island Diary, is now available~~

Blurb:

Everyone knows that Duan Chengye has a one-of-a-kind first love.

The Shen family's daughter, Feng Nan, wears the same white dress and has the same long, straight black hair as that first love.

She stayed by Duan Chengye's side for a year without a name or status.

Feng Nan's father felt sorry for his daughter and proposed a marriage alliance to the Duan family.

The room was full of distinguished guests. Hidden behind a screen, Feng Nan heard Duan Chengye raise his brows and say flippantly:

"There's someone I love."

His first love went abroad to act, and Duan Chengye followed her to Europe with fireworks and a yacht.

When a power struggle shook the wealthy families, both Feng Nan and his first love were thrown at Duan Chengye's feet.

He was told to choose one of them.

He could save only one, using all of his shares.

Feng Nan heard Duan Chengye dismiss her lazily and carelessly: "The real thing is right here. Why would I need this substitute?"

Feng Nan understood. The light she had pursued for ten years still couldn't illuminate the road in her heart.

In a dark room, she held half a bloodied beer bottle in her left hand and stepped across the broken glass.

She emerged like a demon from hell.

She took off the white dress Duan Chengye loved and swept the heavy fringe from her forehead.

With cold resolve, she said, "Chengye, I owe you my life. I'm Feng Nan, and from now on, I'll be my own light."

At a party, Duan Chengye saw Feng Nan for the first time in ages.

She had a graceful figure, one shoulder peeking out. A rose tattoo, something even he had never seen during their once-intimate relationship, adorned her collarbone, bold and dazzling.

Men crowded around her, raising glasses and exchanging toasts. Everyone called her "Miss Shen."

When Feng Nan saw Duan Chengye, she smiled with dazzling charm, but kept her distance. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

Duan Chengye ran to her apartment and blocked her door. His voice was like a migratory bird that had failed to leave before winter and was now dying: "Feng Nan, are you really done with me?"

Feng Nan backed away apologetically. "Sorry, my name is Shen Nan. I'm that girl from the Shen family you rejected, the one you didn't think was good enough for you."

"I'm not waiting for you to love me. I'm waiting until I don't love you anymore."

[The notorious playboy Duan Chengye of Nancheng turned the city upside down, spending three years searching for a woman named Feng Nan.]

[People are haunted for life by what they couldn't have when they were young.]

Reader notes:

1. The male lead has no first love. He rejected the marriage for a reason. The replacement is a fake.

2. They are each other's first love. The male lead gets stabbed, and they grow and reunite before their happy ending.

---Coming soon---

The Green Tea's Guide to Crashing and Burning

Ruan Lianqin was engaged in childhood to the youngest daughter of the Nan family, a girl who had always had everything handed to her.

Ruan Lianqin had never given Nan Wan a second glance. He didn't care about the engagement either, and figured he'd just marry some pretty ornament to keep at home.

But Nan Wan seemed completely oblivious to his feelings. She approached him every day with gentle affection, hoping he'd grow fond of her.

One day, he couldn't take it anymore. He cruelly told the delicate girl to her face that they could never be together, then stormed off.

He walked alone into the rain under his umbrella, but couldn't stop thinking about the tear in Nan Wan's eye when he had just slammed the door behind him.

Ruan Lianqin rubbed his brow. Never mind. What had she done wrong? She was just too in love with him.

Ruan Lianqin hurried back through the rain. Just as he was about to push open Nan Wan's door, he saw through the window that the girl who'd had red eyes and seemed too fragile to withstand the wind was now lying in a down comforter, one leg crossed over the other, with half an apple in her mouth.

She looked pleased with herself as she bragged to someone on the phone:

"Your girl Wan never crashes and burns. Don't worry. I'll get out of this engagement in no time!"

Ruan Lianqin: ...

So she was putting on an act for me?

After turning eighteen, Nan Wan had only two goals:

First, get out of her engagement to Ruan Lianqin as soon as possible.

Second, if she couldn't get out of it, just hold on until she turned twenty-three.

Her uncles had put it in the inheritance agreement: once she graduated from university at twenty-three, all the Nan family's assets would belong to her.

She played the green tea girl Ruan Lianqin hated most while living at the Ruan residence. On the night of her twenty-third birthday, she finally packed her bags and tried to leave, only to be stopped by a shadow blocking the doorway.

"Are you sure you want to leave?" Ruan Lianqin leaned against the table with his arms crossed.

"Should I stay for the New Year?" Nan Wan chewed her gum and blew a bubble.

Ruan Lianqin tossed a stack of documents onto the table behind him. "Nan Wan graduates from university at twenty-three..."

"I know, I'll be rich beyond measure..." Nan Wan interrupted proudly. "I have nothing but beauty and wealth now."

Ruan Lianqin gave a faint smile and curled his lips. "Nan Wan can inherit the estate when she graduates from university at twenty-three and marries into the Ruan family. Are you sure you want to leave?"

Nan Wan: ...???

She picked up the agreement and checked it several times.

"Wait." She hurriedly called after him as he turned to leave. "I think there might still be room for us to work something out."

Ruan Lianqin put down the papers, leaned back lazily, and stretched out on the sofa.

"Fine. Call me 'hubby' first, and I'll see how much room there is."

Theme: Clear up misunderstandings and build a beautiful life together.