No Holds Barred Tonight

Xu Qingru was born beautiful, with captivating peach-blossom eyes, but she had a cold disposition.

At twenty, after her family fell on hard times, she registered her marriage with Chi Zaiye and was spoiled until she could do anything she pleased.

Outsiders, mindful of Chi Zaiye's reputation, praised them against their better judgment: "A perfect match, a talented man and a beautiful woman."

Whether they were a perfect match, Xu Qingru truly didn't know. All she knew was that there was a photo on Chi Zaiye's desk. The girl in it had peach-blossom eyes, with coldness etched into her gaze.

That person wasn't Xu Qingru, but people always mistook her for the girl in the photo.

Chi Zaiye had once risked his life to save her, and once done everything he could to keep her family from forcing her to marry some spoiled playboy. He had also once loved someone else with all his heart.

Fortunately, she only liked Chi Zaiye's face. It wasn't a big deal.

On a snowy night, Xu Qingru felt that Chi Zaiye's gaze had become unusually intense and no longer resembled that person's. So she asked him for a divorce. After signing the papers, she said, "Thank you for your company all these years. Let's never meet again."

She left without looking back, unable to see the lonely figure behind her, the man who always carried himself with such arrogance.

Three days later, Chi Zaiye ran into Xu Qingru at a nightclub, dancing in a spaghetti-strap dress and heavy makeup.

Half a month later, Chi Zaiye saw her trending online, livestreaming a flower-arranging session. The comments were filled with "I love you, big sister!"

Using his real name, Chi Zaiye sent her a hundred virtual aircraft carriers. The screen filled with comments saying, "That's my wife."

Xu Qingru calmly snipped a flower stem. "Thanks for the generous gift, but if you're sick, get treatment. Stop daydreaming."

That day, the usually composed and refined Chi Zaiye smashed the antiques in the entire room, then waited all night at Xu Qingru's door with flowers in his hands.

"Come back," Chi Zaiye began pleading, but Xu Qingru called security to escort him out and finished his sentence for him. "I'll come back and remarry you, then annoy you to death and inherit your estate. How about that?"

Chi Zaiye nodded. "Of course."

Xu Qingru laughed. "Then let me know when you're in the ICU and we'll get married again. Also, stop making that face when there's no need. You don't look like him that way."

Chi Zaiye ran his fingers over the photo of himself and Xu Qingru by the bed. He accidentally broke the frame and discovered there was another photo tucked inside.

A girl smiled radiantly, her sparkling peach-blossom eyes fixed on the boy across from her. The boy looked uncannily like him.

-- [Who hasn't been someone's substitute?]

Blurb screenshot dated June 18, 2020.

Theme: Do you know me?