A Passion That Defies Time [Marriage Before Love]

# A Mutual Crush That Never Expires # Marriage First, Love Later #

Wen Ning was the fake heiress, switched at birth into the Wen family. At fifteen, she was kicked out. At twenty-five, they found her again and had her take the real heiress's place in an arranged marriage with the Chen family.

The Chens were one of Rongcheng's century-old elite families, powerful across all three spheres. But their heir was a notorious playboy, famed for his womanizing ways, and everyone steered clear of him.

The day before registering their marriage, Wen Ning discovered that her intended was Chen Yuzhou.

He was the boy who had once rescued her from hell. When they parted, he became the enemy she never wanted to see again.

Living under the same roof, Wen Ning went along with his wishes, forgot the past, and earnestly played the part of a good roommate, waiting for the day they could divorce.

Until one night, when they got drunk.

Wen Ning scrambled out of bed, aching all over. When she met the man's shining dark eyes, she finally realized

It seemed she wasn't getting divorced after all.

--

When Chen Yuzhou found the divorce papers, he was unexpectedly calm. Without a change in expression, he fed the few thin sheets of paper into the shredder.

As if nothing had happened.

That night, Wen Ning was held in his arms, tears in her eyes.

She sensed at once that something was wrong with him. The comforting words she'd just begun to say fell apart before she could finish.

When she finally managed to ask, Chen Yuzhou said coolly, "It's nothing."

But his movements were rough.

When her thoughts grew hazy at last, she felt a kiss land softly on her forehead, and heard a voice filled with humble pleading:

"Wife, don't leave me again."

--

Only the moonlight that night knew.

The once-proud, free-spirited man had cast aside his pride and broken his stubborn spirit. He spent everything he had and knelt all night in the pouring rain, just to win a marriage no one believed in.

"You and I are my all-or-nothing gamble."

[Bonus Scene]

After the joint entrance exams, Chen Yuzhou's hopeless-at-school deskmate confidently asked to borrow his test paper to check their answers.

He glanced at him, then impatiently tossed over the paper.

Half an hour later.

The hopeless student looked at him, at a loss for words. "Brother Zhou, Wen Ning probably likes someone with good grades, like the class president. Or at least someone in the top ten..."

In other words:

Have some damn self-awareness.

The tips of Chen Yuzhou's ears turned red. He looked away and stubbornly retorted, "Am I that bad? Are they as handsome as me? Besides, what do I care who Wen Ning likes!"

The hopeless student secretly rolled his eyes and pointed emphatically at the paper.

The essay section was covered in densely packed writing

Every last word was Wen Ning's name.

"Chen Yuzhou likes Wen Ning."

"Does Wen Ning know yet?"

# A cocky guy who's stubborn about everything but one thing (literary type :) × a soft girl who's always a beat behind (a little neurotic :)

# Cool, thoughtful poet of the universe × fake social phobe who always leaves people speechless

# Marriage first, love later from the heroine's perspective; unrequited love comes true from the hero's

# Mostly urban, with school-day flashbacks

# The rumored affair involves someone else; both leads are each other's first love

"A Good Night's Crossing"

Zhu Suining was a bright, bold heiress. At twenty-five, her mother handed her a profile and told her to meet a potential match.

The profile said Jiang Yiyu was aloof, quiet, and a cleanliness obsessive.

To silently put an end to the blind date, she acted like a spoiled brat, calling him "big brother" all day, pretending to be afraid of the dark so she could hold his hand, and making one unreasonable demand after another.

She gleefully danced all over the man's red lines.

Once Zhu Suining decided the marriage was well and truly "dead," she rewarded herself with a wild night at a bar.

She also planned to meet in person the online friend she'd chatted with for seven years.

But when the doorbell rang, she never expected to find herself staring into Jiang Yiyu's dark eyes.

In the hazy light, Jiang Yiyu looked down at her. His long fingers slowly brushed her shocked, guilty face, moving upward inch by inch until they covered her eyes. The world went dark, and warmth pressed closer.

Jiang Yiyu bent down, his thin lips grazing her earlobe. His voice was calm, like still water:

"It's all right if you don't like me."

"You've got decades to learn."

Zhu's mother had worried herself sick over her daughter's marriage. She'd picked out a suitable son-in-law, and relaxed once she learned the two were seeing each other steadily.

The day he was due to visit, she sat waiting in the living room from early on.

Until Zhu Suining came home holding the hand of a handsome man who wasn't the one she'd expected.

"Didn't I tell you to meet the young master of the Jiang family?!"

Zhu Suining had taken the wrong profile, but Jiang Yiyu hadn't!

How had he ended up coming over to talk about marriage too?!

The night Zhu Suining stayed at Jiang Yiyu's place, she discovered a secret:

Jiang Yiyu cried uncontrollably.

But it only happened when he watched movies with her.

Only later did she learn that when those burning eyes watched the beads of sweat on her collarbone,

there was a glimmer in the corners of his eyes too.

Bright heiress × cold, domineering CEO

She turns up the heat and flirts with the wrong person

Sweet romance

Theme: Everyone has to find their own ray of light, then save themselves from hell.