Awake at Dawn, Asleep at Dusk

Jiang Ning x Xie Xiao (Updates whenever inspiration strikes, old-school melodrama, follow at your own risk, not contracted)

1.

A week before his wedding to Jiang Ning, Xie Xiao was nowhere to be seen.

The day before, he finally turned up at a bar.

But he was sprawled drunkenly in another girl's arms.

At the time, Jiang Ning was standing behind them, while everyone watched like it was a show.

She heard him tenderly coaxing the girl, "Stop crying. I'll divorce her sooner or later."

2.

Everyone knew the Xie and Jiang families were joining their families through marriage.

Xie Xiao did not want to marry Jiang Ning. The old master of his family had forced him into it.

Everyone in their social circle knew that.

The two of them had made a terrible scene back then.

When they broke up, Xie Xiao had even ordered all of Nancheng to blacklist Jiang Ning.

3.

But nobody expected that, at the wedding the next day, the groom, sweating from head to toe after drinking, would cling to the bride's arm the entire time and refuse to let go.

Everyone thought he was drunk and had mistaken her for someone else.

Until he gave a snort of laughter and brushed away the hand reaching to pull him off her.

In front of all the guests, he revealed a secret:

"Actually, I was the one who proposed the marriage alliance. I brought it up to my grandfather. Who the hell could force me to do anything?"

4.

On the way back to their new home, Jiang Ning kept gazing out the car window, lost in thought.

Xie Xiao was thoroughly drunk. He lay across her lap, both arms wrapped tightly around her waist.

Not until the car pulled into the front courtyard...

The moment it stopped, Xie Xiao suddenly opened his eyes, grabbed Jiang Ning by the chin, and yanked it down hard.

Seeing tears of pain spill from her eyes, he looked more vicious and clearheaded than ever. "What, did you really think I meant it just because I humored you at the wedding, Miss Jiang?"

5.

When he was little, he ruined one of her paintings and made her cry for a long, long time.

Later, on a hot summer afternoon, he sneaked into her bedroom and "made it up to her" by drawing one on her sleeping face.

"A little calico cat"

He had always known that she did not love him.

So he tried his best not to fall into her trap.

But he failed anyway.

Then one day, he finally understood something.

So he wove an even bigger, more terrifying net: one that would lure her into his arms.

"Born at dawn, asleep by dusk; people come and go. Morning after morning, we part at dusk; evening after evening, we part at night.

Year after year, with you."

Theme: Love and redemption.