[Title is tentative. The blurb still needs polishing and revisions. Sweeties, please add this to your collection, mwah!]
When Bai Yunjin was six, she hid behind her mother and gazed up at Yan Qingxi in his suit and tie, timidly calling him, "Uncle."
She never imagined that at twenty, she would marry him, a man of thirty-two.
On their wedding night, the man's veined fingers tugged at his tie. "Work is busy. You'll have to be patient with me."
Then he left for the office to work overtime without looking back.
Left alone in the bridal suite, Bai Yunjin ordered milk tea and barbecue, then stayed up reading until six in the morning. She and Yan Qingxi, who got up at six to exercise, took turns using the door so they wouldn't run into each other.
After they accidentally slept together while he was drunk, the man frowned at the contraceptive that had rubbed her raw and asked his allergic wife in a husky voice, "Ah Jin, do you want a child?"
Bai Yunjin had completely forgotten her mother-in-law's advice about having a second child and instinctively shook her head.
The man got up with a dark expression and went to shower.
An hour later, the glass door opened.
The right side of the bed sank as Yan Qingxi propped himself up on one elbow. His dark eyes were clouded with moisture as he tucked the loose hair beside his wife's face behind her ear.
Two weeks later, Bai Yunjin, who had insisted on sleeping in separate rooms, stared in surprise as Yan Qingxi knocked on her door.
Wearing a stuffy, old-fashioned black silk bathrobe, the man said seriously, "I had a vasectomy two weeks ago. I've recovered now."
Bai Yunjin sneaked a glance at the glistening droplets on his well-defined chest, her ears turning red.
"Oh. Well, congratulations."
The man's gaze fell on the wet mark at the corner of his wife's mouth. "Congratulations to us both."
On their first wedding anniversary, Yan Qingxi discussed married life with his assistant, looking troubled. "Ah Jin is very clingy. Is your wife like that too?"
On the small table beside his desk sat the computer his wife had used yesterday to read novels. She'd forgotten to log out of her account. In her reader's profile, every five-star review was for school-bully stories where the male lead got jealous and teary-eyed. Every one-star review was for age-gap stories with an older male lead.
Some of the comments were especially glaring:
[I hate old men the most, hmph!]
[Why did the author pair our darling girl with a man in his thirties? Older men are no good! Aren't younger guys better!?]
The man's expression suddenly darkened.
His assistant struggled to hold back a laugh.
That night
Yan Qingxi bent over his work, one hand gripping his wife's waist while the other braced against the wet wall, stopping her from squirming away.
"No good?"
"What, you don't like being pinned against the wall anymore?"
"Waaah... you're just... too young... and immature..."
The next day, Bai Yunjin gave every older-male-lead novel in her profile five stars and changed the profile name from [I Love College Boys] to [Older Men Are Supreme :)]
Marriage first, love later | Old flame reignited | Face-slapping, then falling for him
20 x 32, 12-year age gap | Adorable girl x celibate older man
P.S. The darling girl who gives one-star reviews is a bad girl QAQ. Sweeties, don't make a habit of giving one-star reviews! Let's go with four or five stars!
Theme: Reject prejudice
