After the Divorce

[Blurb]

You won't be young forever, but someone always will be.

At nineteen, Yu Li first met Liang Zongwen in her father's study.

He was her father's friend, ten years older than her, gentle and refined, with impeccable manners.

At that single glance, she fell in love with him.

After she pursued him relentlessly, they eventually married.

Three years into their relationship and four years into their marriage, she discovered that he was cheating.

By then, Yu Li had established herself in the family business.

Curious and amused, she went to meet the woman her husband was having an affair with.

The girl Liang Zongwen had recently fallen for was only nineteen, young and immature, ordinary and frail, utterly unremarkable.

Yu Li sat on the sofa and took out a check, telling the girl to leave her husband.

As the head of the company, she had a responsibility to reassure the shareholders by maintaining a stable marriage.

But the girl spoke with haughty confidence. "He likes how young and lively I am. He says you're always dull as still water. Sister, you're not young anymore. Why won't you make way for me?"

Yu Li's eyes shifted slightly.

In the face of time, no one is invincible.

She may not be young anymore, but wasn't Liang Zongwen even older than she was?

Yu Li stood and thanked her rival. "Thank you for the reminder."

★

Cheng Zhuo was the only child of Liang Zongwen's elder sister, the pride Liang Zongwen was always talking about.

One day, Liang Zongwen went to his nephew's apartment. His ex-wife opened the door, wrapped in a pure white bath towel, her slender, beautiful shoulders bare. Faint red marks dotted her fair swanlike neck.

She looked up at him with a warm smile. "Uncle, is something the matter?"

Cheng Zhuo came over with a shawl in his hand, gently draping it over her and carefully smoothing her damp hair.

Without even glancing at his uncle, he said unhurriedly, "Weren't you tired? Why didn't you go back to sleep?"

Liang Zongwen's throat turned sour. An overwhelming sense of grievance washed over him. He felt betrayed, but did not know whose betrayal had made him so furious.

Was it his beloved ex-wife?

Or his cherished nephew?

★

Liang Zongwen arranged to meet Yu Li and said with self-righteous authority, "He's the only child of my elder sister. You can't be with him."

Yu Li smiled. "But he loves me, and we love each other."

Liang Zongwen paused, then looked up with his deep eyes, his voice pleading. "You're the one I love. You can't be with him."

He had always loved her, both before and after their divorce.

Yu Li smiled dismissively. "Just like you, I like young men, too."

Just as he likes nineteen-year-old girls, there's nothing wrong with her liking a twenty-two-year-old young man.

She, too, longs to let a young body set fire to the years she has left.

[*] The female lead has no male rival.

[*] Older woman-younger man romance, four-year age gap

[*] He secretly loves her and deliberately seduces her

[*] Ex-husband chases his wife after the divorce, but they don't get back together. One couple, one love.

Next novel: After the Marriage Alliance

[Blurb]

Born into a family of the highest rank and privilege, Rong Xiangxi does not want to end up like her mother: her husband is caught openly cheating, and she has to attend a press conference while still recovering from a miscarriage, gently telling reporters, "I've already forgiven Shaoshan. Our marriage is fine, and I ask the public not to pry too much into our private affairs."

But that's how a marriage alliance works. Before marriage, you choose the benefits. After marriage, you can only grit your teeth and swallow everything you have to face.

No one will pity you, not even your husband.

★

The year she took over the family business, Rong Xiangxi finally entered into a marriage alliance. She needed a powerful husband to solidify her position as heir.

Before the wedding, Rong Xiangxi set herself one goal: never fall in love with Shang Chengyu.

Once you fall in love with your marriage-alliance husband, your defenses have completely collapsed.

But tragically, she still falls for a husband whose heart belongs to someone else.

What makes it even more absurd is that the person he loves is her illegitimate half-sister, Rong Fengqing.

Her husband and her younger sister speak intimately downstairs, exchanging flirtatious glances, enclosed in a world of their own.

At the top of the grand spiral staircase, Rong Xiangxi slowly looks away.

All she does is bend down and pick up the little cat meowing on the carpeted stairs. Her face is calm as water as she turns and walks away from the landing.

★

In the first year of their marriage, when a reporter grills her with pointed questions, Rong Xiangxi smiles gently, her eyes soft. "Chengyu and I are more than just a marriage alliance."

In their third year of marriage, a reporter jokes, "Last week, Chairman Shang said in an interview that you're the perfect wife. Chairman Rong, what do you think?"

Rong Xiangxi remains gentle as she says, "Ours is only a marriage alliance."

Where the cameras cannot see, the smile fades from her eyes. The corners of her lips remain habitually curved, but her expression shifts from tender as water to cold, mocking scorn.

In a marriage alliance, if you don't love me, I won't force you. I'll simply and slowly take back this heart of mine, which never loved you with certainty.

Theme: Strive for excellence