The Floating Lights of Jingxia [Marriage Before Love]

Complete

[Ice-Cold Power Player with Ambition x Gentle, Clear-Headed Female Student]

Beijing's elite circle | Marriage first, love later | Six-year age gap | Investment banking workplace | SC

#The top player who can read everyone falls for her pawn#

#Fatherly high-ranking authority x sweet, gentle girl, marriage first and love later#

-

The year Ye Qizhen got an internship offer from a top investment bank, she thought she was about to reach the pinnacle of a million-yuan salary.

She never expected life to take such a sharp turn: on the day of her grandfather's funeral, she married a stranger she'd never even met.

At the time, she was frazzled over graduation and job hunting, working as an always-on-call corporate drone around the clock and used to cramming onto the subway.

He, meanwhile, was the Qin family's young master, a man no one in the highest circles dared even discuss carelessly. Holding the pieces in his hand, he entered the game on his way to the top, lofty and untouchable.

In the vast, sprawling city of Beijing, she and he lived in entirely different worlds.

Their one point of connection was that they were listed on the same marriage certificate.

-

They met again unexpectedly, in the headquarters of CIN Securities.

Rumor had it that the managing director parachuted into their investment banking division held a PhD from Cambridge, had descended from Wall Street, was devastatingly handsome, and came from an inscrutable background. Ye Qizhen paid it no mind. Then, in the middle of the bustle, she glanced up and met a pair of eyes as deep and unfathomable as an abyss.

Her mind went blank.

What was she supposed to do when her new boss was her husband, a man she barely knew and could never hope to measure up to?

Ye Qizhen silently clung to her job and worked even more diligently.

Until one day, she finished reporting the changes to the prospectus to Qin Yingchen. A long time passed, but he didn't respond. All she could see from beneath her lowered gaze was his long, elegant hand, holding an antique fountain pen as it tapped the rosewood desk, once, then again.

Just as the tapping made Ye Qizhen's nerves feel ready to snap, he suddenly said in a calm voice:

"Tonight, come sleep in the master bedroom."

Ye Qizhen: …

-

But theirs was a transaction, each taking what they needed. This absurd marriage was bound to end one day.

Ye Qizhen had always been keenly aware that she was a pawn. Before she could stumble too far into the shelter of his powerful, tender protection, she tried to save herself and asked for a divorce.

Silence fell for several seconds on the other end of the phone.

"All right." His voice was as steady and placid as ever.

Just as he had been when they last met, calmly and methodically giving her his assets.

So calm, as if the feelings that had once sprung up between them in their unguarded moments had never existed.

Ye Qizhen finally gave up hope.

-

Until one cool, moonlit night, Ye Qizhen said goodbye to her childhood friend, who had walked her home. The moment she turned around, a broad-shouldered figure pinned her against a wall and kissed her fiercely.

In the darkness, his familiar presence closed in around her, forcefully meeting the defenses she had raised. The wound at the corner of his mouth split open in the heat of their struggle. The metallic sweetness of blood mingled with sweat or perhaps tears, filling their mouths as he pressed against her again and again, assaulting her senses and pounding at her heart.

She shoved him away with all her strength and laughed bitterly, her voice trembling.

"Congratulations, Fourth Young Master Qin, you got what you wanted. What else do you want from me?"

Qin Yingchen slowly raised a hand and circled her wrist again. His fingertips rested against her pulse. Each beat of her heart grew heavier than the last, lending his deep, resonant voice an unfamiliar, barely perceptible fracture.

"Zhenzhen... I want you to come back to me."

*

At first, to Qin Yingchen, Ye Qizhen might have seemed pitiful and delicate, not particularly useful.

Later, no one could have imagined she would become the one he indulged in without restraint, the one he couldn't bear to be apart from day or night, the one who was his life.

*

Every sunrise and sunset we've shared, drowning in each other,

has made me fall in love with this world all over again.

***All settings are fictional and based on no real people or events.

Theme: Industries move in cycles, but youth never comes again.