Make Me Fall for You [Marriage Before Love]

“Cool beauty x refined, wealthy magnate”

“Marriage first, love later / marriage of convenience / he falls first / sweet story of mutual healing”

To fend off her family's pressure to marry, Ning Zhi married the man they introduced her to. For a while after the wedding, they saw each other only a handful of times.

Xi Lanyu was a well-known business magnate in Beicheng, refined and distinguished, and not someone an ordinary person could easily meet.

Ning Zhi, meanwhile, was just a young doctor who had recently passed the exams to join a top-tier hospital. They lived in completely different worlds.

They ran into each other in a VIP room at Jing Medical.

Xi Lanyu had suffered a minor injury while exercising, and Ning Zhi was assigned to bandage him. Their eyes inevitably met, and in her nervousness, Ning Zhi spoke up to break the silence: “I thought rich people like you would go to private hospitals.”

Xi Lanyu was frowning as he unzipped his windbreaker. At her words, he lifted his eyes and gave her a lazy glance, clearly not interested in replying.

Ning Zhi took the hint and fell silent.

That night, when Ning Zhi got home, she received a belated explanation from Xi Lanyu, as arrogant as the man himself.

“I'm not used to strangers touching me. I thought it over for a long time, and your place was the only one that would do.”

“...”

-

Xi Lanyu was hot-tempered, wild, and especially uninterested in women. His friends in their circle had once wondered what kind of beauty could make him willingly bow his head.

After going around in circles, everyone concluded there was no such woman.

Only later did they learn that the man they were discussing had secretly gotten married long ago, and his wife had a distinctive presence and was prettier than any star.

Some curious soul couldn't resist finding out more. After going to great lengths to track down Ning Zhi, they asked her to tell them how it happened.

Ning Zhi smiled and hesitated before replying, “Actually, he and I aren't the kind of couple you think we are.”

.

One night after they finally crossed the line, inside Beijiang Bay,

Xi Lanyu was wickedly audacious. He deliberately pinned her against the window, his breath burning hot. With a muffled laugh, he brought up old scores: “So, tell me. What exactly are we?”

-

Ning Zhi had always thought Xi Lanyu was only interested on a whim, and that once their agreement expired, they would divorce.

But later, he drew up a new contract, lowered his eyes, and asked her sincerely, “I offer you everything I own. Zhizhi, would you be willing to marry me in a union that lasts until we're both old and gray?”

“Love is standing alone in the wilderness, betting that you'll be there with me, hoping to see a blue moon.”

1. One-on-one pairing, both leads sexually inexperienced. Some original settings; neither lead is perfect.

2. The title draws inspiration from “Better to die embracing the fragrance on the branch than be blown away by the north wind” and “Brushed off, yet still covered in flowers.”

Blurb for The Ploy:

“Stubborn, sensitive girl x calm, self-possessed older brother”

“Staying under the same roof / the level-headed one falls / the untouchable one goes mad”

Ten years ago, Zhu Jinyuan met Lu Xianqing for the first time.

At the time, her parents were preparing to move abroad, and they dumped her at the Lu home to stay for a while, treating her like a burden.

A sprawling villa, an exquisite back garden: every place she passed along the way spoke of wealth.

Zhu Jinyuan was nervous and anxious. At her mother's prompting, she quietly called him “big brother.”

The moment their eyes met, Lu Xianqing stood up and coolly looked away.

He was even too stingy to respond, as if her arrival had left him utterly indifferent.

-

Ten years later, in that very same garden.

On the night before she was due to move out for good, rain poured from the sky. The man who came in the dead of night had heard that she was about to start dating someone new. In a fit of fury, he grabbed her wrist and pinned her against the wall.

His breath burned beside her ear. The marble pillar at her back was hard and cold.

The damp rain soaked their faces, currents churning beneath the darkness.

In her panic, Zhu Jinyuan called him “big brother.” “Calm down.”

Lu Xianqing laughed in fury, loosened his tie, and leaned in close. “Now you remember to call me that? What did you call me last night?”

“I will love you from far away.”

“At a calm and distant remove.”

*The leads are not on the same household registration and are not blood-related.

*Five-year age gap, sweet romance.

*The final quotation is from Mereriles' “I Will Love You From Far Away.”

Theme: Let me teach you that loving someone is a skill.