Please Join Me This Winter

"Signed for publication. For updates, see @Chenglili."

"The full text has been revised several times and differs from pirated copies. Please support the official version."

At twenty-five, Xu Nianxi returned to her hometown of Xijin. Her savings were almost gone, she couldn't find a job, and her family constantly pressured her to get married.

With her life in dire straits, she was forced into a marriage of convenience with Cheng Xunye, a former high school classmate.

Cheng Xunye came from a privileged family, was strikingly handsome, and had an arrogant, carefree personality. Everyone knew he had a bright future ahead of him. Next to him, she looked utterly drab.

*

On their first night as a married couple, they tacitly agreed to sleep in separate rooms.

Xu Nianxi lay awake all night.

At five thirty in the morning, she left her bedroom for a drink of water and happened to run into Cheng Xunye.

He stared at her for two seconds, then drawled, "The chickens are about to start crowing, and you're still not asleep. What, are you going to crow for them?"

"..."

*

Xu Nianxi never expected her marriage to Cheng Xunye to be happy and blissful. All she wanted was for things to remain peaceful on the surface.

When her family pressured her to have a baby, Cheng Xunye said, "I'm socially anxious. I can't handle bringing a stranger into the world."

When she was feeling down, he said, "Cry if you want. Everyone cries. At worst, I'll pretend I didn't see."

When she was sick and craving candied hawthorn, Cheng Xunye got up and headed out, grumbling without a hint of sympathy, "It's just candied hawthorn. You asked so quietly, anyone would think you wanted a ginseng fruit."

Xu Nianxi didn't know why Cheng Xunye was so good to her.

While sorting through old things, she saw him in a high school group photo.

Everyone else was looking at the camera. He was the only one looking at her.

A gentle, melancholic girl x an arrogant, smug guy

[Cozy and heartwarming | Urban fairy tale | Slow burn]

[Finally filling in a story I accidentally started ages ago ✧]

My next book, The Fairy Tale Doesn't Hibernate in Winter. Please add it to your collection!

"Weibo: @Chenglili"

In high school, Ruan Chusui secretly liked someone. Like most unrequited love stories, hers never saw the light of day and went nowhere.

After all, the person she liked came from a privileged family and was fiercely untamed. He was a renowned, aristocratic young master, while she was an ordinary girl. Their lives ran on parallel lines.

She never expected to get another chance to see him, much less at a matchmaking banquet.

The man took a long time to respond to her request for a marriage of convenience. At last, he looked at her and said, "Have you thought this through? I'm not exactly husband material."

Ruan Chusui's voice trembled, but she still found the courage to say, "I have."

After all, she had never been able to refuse him.

Even knowing it was like a moth flying into a flame, she was willing to throw herself into the fire.

·

After they married, things were just as Ruan Chusui had expected: they were strangers living under the same roof.

Their only interaction was when she occasionally ran into him on his way out and stammered, "Good morning."

Zhao Mengdi would reply, but she never appeared in his eyes.

No one had any faith in their relationship. After all, how could a rich playboy like Zhao Mengdi ever be won over by someone as gentle and reserved as Ruan Chusui?

Ruan Chusui thought so too. Then one day, everything changed

She came home late. The living room lights were on, and the man was sitting on the sofa, cigarette pinched between his fingers as he stared at her. "Do you know what time it is?"

·

At first, Zhao Mengdi's hard-drinking friends simply couldn't get him to meet up, no matter how often they asked. Later, when they finally got through to him on the phone, they heard a young woman with a soft, delicate voice on the other end. "Hello, who is this?"

His drunken friends teased her in reply. "And who are you? Why do you have Young Master Zhao's phone? Do you get to make decisions for him?"

There was a brief silence on the other end. Then Zhao Mengdi's voice came through: "Obviously. She's my wife. If she can't make decisions for me, then can you?"

Themes: There is always someone in the world who loves you.