Yesterday's Good Times

My next book, Zhaoyue, is a marriage-first, love-later story with a groveling-to-win-her-back arc. Here's the blurb. Please add it to your reading list~

[Zhaoyue blurb]

Cold and abstinent x bold and direct / private equity mogul x investment banking rookie

Marriage first, love later / fake relationship turns real / groveling to win her back

1

Liang Zhaoyue and Zhou Yunchuan are complete opposites.

She comes from an ordinary family and swallows her pride to get by, constantly struggling to make ends meet. Zhou Yunchuan, meanwhile, is a successful young man, a major player who can call the shots in the financial world.

They first meet by the roadside, when he glances at her from inside his car.

His gaze is sharp and cold, and in an instant it captures her heart.

Liang Zhaoyue knows the gulf between them and has never dared to dream of anything more. Unexpectedly, one day Zhou Yunchuan proposes a marriage of convenience.

She knows he's doing it to placate his elders, but she agrees anyway.

2

After they marry, their relationship gradually grows warmer thanks to her efforts.

At the height of their passion, Liang Zhaoyue starts to hope. She thinks Zhou Yunchuan might like her at least a little, and begins to look forward to a future beyond their short marriage. Then she accidentally hears him tell his friends, "There's nothing special about her. We're just getting what we each want."

Her heart sinks.

On the second New Year he spends with Liang Zhaoyue, Zhou Yunchuan pays a fortune to have a glass lily-of-the-valley made as a gift. On the day he plans to give it to her, she hands him a divorce agreement herself.

He is surprised, but remains calm. "Are you sure?"

She nods, more resolute than ever. "Let's part on good terms."

After a moment's thought, he signs.

3

Zhou Yunchuan is cold and restrained, decisive in his actions, and famous for his composure and self-control. Regret has no place in his dictionary.

He takes a rational view of this marriage, whose terms had been agreed upon from the start. He respects Liang Zhaoyue's choice to divorce and never considers asking her to stay.

Until one rainy night after their divorce, when he passes through the city where Liang Zhaoyue lives and sees a male coworker escorting her home under an umbrella. Zhou Yunchuan glances at the umbrella in his hand, which he never got the chance to use.

That look is bitterly cold.

After waiting all night, he blocks her way the next day.

Liang Zhaoyue treats him like a stranger. "Excuse me, sir."

Zhou Yunchuan stares at her for a long time, then says hoarsely, "I regret it."

·

Zhou Yunchuan never expected it.

He had planned for everything, but he had miscalculated when it came to Liang Zhaoyue.

[She was the one thing he never saw coming.]

*All financial cases in the story come from online searches.

*The heroine goes to graduate school before entering the workforce.

*Both leads are sexually inexperienced / happy ending / eight-year age gap.

[This story's blurb]

· A fake pursuit by the heroine, groveling to win her back, with the second male lead ending up with her.

After losing her memory for two years, Wen Nianchu has been living a peaceful life. Then one day, she receives a contract worth five million. The other party wants her to seduce a man.

The man's name is Zhou Xushen. He is cold, unfeeling, and leads a private life that is almost unbearably dull.

Wen Nianchu tries all kinds of ways to get close to him, but fails again and again.

One day, she goes to an art exhibition with her male friend He Ming. Unlike Zhou Xushen, He Ming is warm and considerate, and knows how to care for people. Wen Nianchu enjoys spending time with him immensely.

They happen to run into Zhou Xushen. She only wants to say hello, but he stops her in the hallway.

He says coolly, "A one-year dating contract. Ten million after tax."

Wen Nianchu is stunned. What? What a deal!

Only later does she learn that she looks exactly like the woman Zhou Xushen has kept in his heart.

-

Wen Nianchu has loved Zhou Xushen for six years. On their wedding day, she learns that he was with her only to take revenge. At that moment, she is consumed by despair.

A car accident makes her briefly forget everything from her past. When her memories return, she realizes that everyone around her has been placed there by Zhou Xushen. She has been living inside a massive deception.

She pretends to have amnesia while looking for a chance to escape.

The morning Ye Shengsheng comes to her door, she knows her chance has arrived.

Over the year or so she spends getting close to Zhou Xushen, she plays along with him and receives thirty million and a villa from him as gifts.

-

Until the truth is laid bare.

Zhou Xushen learns that she plans to leave the country with another man and demands coldly, "Wen Nianchu, have you forgotten how you loved me eight years ago?"

She smiles faintly. "I've forgotten."

Afterward, she takes the money and leaves the country without looking back.

-

* A melodramatic story. Everyone helps the heroine.

* The male lead is destined to be alone, grovels to win her back, and the second male lead ends up with her.

* The two contracts mentioned in the blurb are both the male lead's one-sided schemes, meant only to win the heroine back.

Theme: Be brave and keep moving forward