Your Wife Doesn’t Want You Anymore

After her boyfriend broke up with her for being too clingy, Jian Nian stormed out of the house and walked straight into a truck.

When she woke up again, seven years had passed. Penniless and starving, she crouched by the roadside late at night, barely able to see straight. The fallen young heiress had no choice but to swallow her pride and call her ex-boyfriend.

She would pretend to be an old classmate and borrow money from him.

Luckily, her ex was an old-fashioned engineering type who hadn't changed his number in seven years.

When the call connected, Jian Nian pinched her nose and made up a tragic backstory on the spot: a gambling-addict dad, a sickly mom, an abusive husband, and a kid she couldn't send back.

All she wanted was for some kind soul to lend her five hundred yuan. One day, she'd restore the Qin Empire and make him a great general.

There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line.

Jian Nian thought she'd dialed the wrong number, or perhaps the call had been answered by accident in the middle of the night.

"Hello? Are you listening?"

"Mm."

Through the dreary nighttime rain, a familiar yet unfamiliar young man's voice came through the muffled phone, hoarse and slow as it reached her ear.

He said, "Jian Nian, I'm listening."

-

When they met again, the quiet, taciturn young man from her memories had been tempered by time into a gentle, courteous gentleman, refined and elegant in every gesture.

He took her home to stay for a while and looked after her with tender, thoughtful care, down to the smallest detail.

A thoroughly mature older man.

He felt familiar, yet unfamiliar.

Jian Nian's anger slowly faded. So many years had passed; surely he had long since forgotten.

Forgotten that brief, troublesome relationship: when it began, and why it ended.

Only she had childishly remained stuck in the past.

At the dinner table, Miss Jian lowered her head and ate. For the first time in her life, she apologized calmly. "I'm sorry. I was so immature back then, always wanting to rely on you and never doing anything for myself. I won't be like that anymore."

She slowly told him that she'd found a job recently and rented a place. She could move out as soon as she got everything sorted.

She smiled. "After all, we broke up. It wouldn't be right to keep inconveniencing you by staying at your place."

The person across from her remained silent the whole time. Not a sound. It was unnerving.

Jian Nian looked up, puzzled. Through the lenses of his glasses, she abruptly met a pair of dark, brooding eyes.

Long, cool fingers covered the reddened corner of her eye, gently wiping away a trembling tear, then softly brushed over the cold restraint around her ankle.

Through her frightened, blurred vision, shaking uncontrollably, the gentle, courteous man slowly removed his glasses and gave a quiet laugh.

"What did you just say? I couldn't hear you. Say it again, darling."

-

Fallen heiress x sick, cold-hearted scoundrel

The male lead is unwell, completely unhinged, and has virtually no moral limits after his wife dies.

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Coming soon: A Secret Tryst on a Spring Night

No one in the Li family likes Li Tang.

The younger daughter they brought back from the countryside is dull and honest, inexperienced, as bland as water and clumsy. Whenever they take her out, she only embarrasses them.

So when the eldest daughter refused to marry into the Shen family, everyone agreed to push Li Tang into the match instead.

At a banquet, her eldest sister linked arms with her boyfriend and told her with a smile, "Young Master Shen comes from an excellent family. He's proud and refined, and he wouldn't look twice at me anyway. It's a marriage of convenience, and we'll be divorced in six months at most. Just put up with it. I'll find you an honest civil servant to settle down with afterward."

Li Tang nodded slowly. "Oh."

The New Year came around, and the six months were nearly up.

Her eldest sister, busy vacationing abroad, found a moment to send her a message. She'd found Li Tang a blind date: a high school teacher, five years older than her and twenty-eight this year, with a stable job, no wandering eye, and a kind, dependable nature.

She'd even booked a private room at a restaurant for her.

She told Li Tang to go meet him and try dating him.

Li Tang replied with a mild, "Okay."

When she arrived at the restaurant and pushed open the private room door, the man from the photo wasn't there.

The room was dim. Sitting on a soft sofa was her husband in name only, Young Master Shen, dressed casually in a bespoke shirt, two buttons undone at the collar as he lounged against the cushions.

When he saw her come in, he lazily raised his eyes. His pupils were pitch-black.

Her eldest sister's panicked apologies came in an endless stream of calls and messages.

In the misty, dark night, her small, trembling sobs were muffled and swallowed among the begonias.

The man's face faded into the darkness, indistinct.

His icy fingers gripped her jaw as he kissed away her trembling tears, his tenderness sickeningly twisted. He slowly met her shrinking, terrified gaze and gave a quiet laugh.

"Shouldn't you ask your husband before you start dating, darling?"

-

Married first, in love later

Dull, honest woman x refined, cold-hearted scoundrel

Theme: Even the longest rainy season will eventually end