Ruan Shu died at twenty-five, on the day Xie Jiayan married someone new.
The person he had loved for thirteen years used all that love to deceive him and take his entire fortune. After they married, Xie Jiayan imprisoned and humiliated him, forcing him to use his looks to ingratiate himself with wealthy investors. Unable to bear the abuse any longer, he ended his life on Xie Jiayan's wedding day.
*
Perhaps fate took pity on him: Ruan Shu was reborn at eighteen. His grandfather had just died, and the Ruan family had fallen into disarray. His cousins and uncles were like wolves and tigers, eager to seize the inheritance. Xie Jiayan acted as though he were Ruan Shu's savior, holding an umbrella over him at the funeral. "Xiao Shu, from now on, I'll be your umbrella."
Ruan Shu said only, "Get lost. I don't need you."
There were many people at the funeral, but he knew none of them had come to mourn his grandfather sincerely.
Zhong Lu held a black umbrella when Ruan Shu, rushing to get out of the rain, crashed into him. The umbrella slipped, revealing half of Zhong Lu's face. Ruan Shu recognized him at once: the senior who had confessed to him in high school, Xie Jiayan's business rival, and the future most powerful man in the Nanzhou region, Zhong Lu.
Ruan Shu fell into the mud. Eyes red, he said to Zhong Lu, "My foot hurts... I can't get up."
Zhong Lu reached out. "I'll carry you."
*
Ruan Shu repeatedly engineered chances to run into Zhong Lu.
At a party, he deliberately got drunk, wore Zhong Lu's coat, and let him take him home.
In a downpour, he deliberately stayed overnight at Zhong Lu's place.
At a restaurant, he deliberately ruined Zhong Lu's blind date.
Zhong Lu asked, "Do you like me?" Ruan Shu shook his head. "I don't like you, but I want to marry you."
"After we marry, you can help me drive out the Ruan family's vermin. You can make use of the Ruan family's resources however you like."
Zhong Lu: "All right."
*
Xie Jiayan couldn't understand why Ruan Shu had suddenly changed his mind and fallen for the unfavored third son of the Zhong family.
When he saw Ruan Shu shining like a diamond under Zhong Lu's care, he regretted everything.
Five years later, Ruan Shu became a hugely popular singer-songwriter of traditional Chinese music in the entertainment industry, releasing hit songs year after year.
His song "Light of Redemption" won the Golden Lyrics Award. At the ceremony, the presenter asked, "I hear you wrote these lyrics and music for your same-sex partner."
"Zhong Lu, I wrote this song the year I married you, when I was twenty. I'm a lone boat, and you're the island where I can moor. In my darkness, you were the only light that saved me."
That night, Zhong Lu's post also trended: @Ruan Shu + Darling, you're my light, too.
A cool, venomous-hearted bottom × A disciplined, ascetic researcher in a white lab coat, and a brazen, scheming, fatherly mad king in a suit.
Both have only ever been with each other; marriage first, love later.
Theme: Even a rose amid ruins has a moonlight all its own
