The Winter Tropic

Blurb:

1.

Tong Sui came from a wealthy family and was spoiled from childhood. Bright and outgoing, she was completely clueless when it came to love.

A social butterfly in public, a hopeless romantic in private.

After getting together with Yan Jie, she thought what she felt was love.

She watched him frequent one upscale venue after another, with a constant stream of women at his side, all supposedly for business.

Once she made up her mind, she promptly broke up with him.

Yan Jie was conceited and aloof. He casually tossed her a contract between the Yan and Tong families. The black-and-white terms said that the Tong company was on the brink of collapse and urgently needed a marriage alliance between the two families to stabilize things.

Anyone would say that breaking up at a time like this was irrational of Tong Sui.

Yan Jie was certain his girlfriend would come crawling back, so he let her make a scene.

That was until Qian Qingyu, her childhood friend whom she had not seen in four years, suddenly returned to the country and showed up at her home. He held all the shares in the Qian company and sincerely asked for her hand in marriage.

Tong's parents: "Sui Sui already has a boyfriend."

Qian Qingyu: "That's fine. I can wait until she breaks up with him."

Tong's parents: "Sui Sui is getting engaged to him."

Qian Qingyu: "If she's willing, I can be the one she gets engaged to."

Tong Sui was stunned. Then she thought about it: if she had to get engaged anyway, she might as well choose the childhood friend she knew.

They could always break up later and set each other free.

2.

After they got married, Tong Sui suddenly realized that her childhood friend was nothing like she remembered.

And... did he really like her?

One day, while tidying the storage closet, she found an old umbrella. She remembered how, halfway through their senior year, Qian Qingyu had handed her the only umbrella in a torrential downpour and pushed her onward. Alone, his brows sharp and his gaze resolute, he had called out to her: "I'll take care of everything. All you have to do is make it through this winter."

The forgotten details came rushing back like a flood, and she finally realized that every reason her heart had fluttered during her youth had to do with him.

[Before You Read]

- Childhood friend returns / second male lead takes the lead / marriage before love

- Both leads have no prior sexual partners

- A sharp-tongued, scheming, taciturn cool guy × a seemingly composed but truly oblivious chatterbox

- Marine geologist × cloud researcher

(The heroine's career is the author's invention. Please don't scrutinize it. The intention is to promote the protection of the sky and the oceans.)

- The heroine's family does not go bankrupt [highlight]

- "Too young to appreciate the childhood friend, she mistook a scumbag for a treasure."

- Anti-piracy delay: 36 hours, 50%

- Blurb saved on 2022.11.16

Theme: Make it through winter and step into the future