An Unavoidable Heartbeat [Marriage Before Love]

(A story about the best friend of the heroine in To This Life. Please add it to your collection!)

[Marriage first, love later | He's been plotting this for a long time]

A clear-headed, composed research doctor devoted to science * a refined, wealthy heir whose only wish is to be in love with his wife

1.

Jiang Nanxi had just returned home after graduating with a medical doctorate. Before she could even get over her jet lag at the hotel, her father had arranged for her to meet a fellow PhD graduate who had also studied overseas, someone he described as "both talented and beautiful."

She managed to get through the date. "Dad, if I get married, will you stop bothering me and let me focus on research? Does it not matter who I marry?"

It was a spring night, and the breeze carried a slight chill. Jiang Nanxi stood outside the hotel and pulled her coat closer around her, but it still couldn't keep out the cold that swept over her.

A Bentley Mulsanne rolled by slowly. As its window rose, the man's handsome face and elegant fingers caught her eye. She thought a man like that had nothing to do with her.

Yet a week later, at an event, the man stood before her in a perfectly tailored, custom-made black suit. "Dr. Jiang, would you consider getting married?"

2.

The Xie family was one of Jiangcheng's most prominent and powerful families. Its heir, Xie Yunting, was refined and aloof, kept a low profile, and rarely appeared in public. The only exception was three years ago, when he donated tens of millions to fund the construction of Jiangcheng University's Medical Center.

No one knew why he had done it. Three years later, when the Medical Center officially opened, the media noticed that the chairman of Shengchang Group's Rolls-Royce was frequently seen outside a certain apartment building, with a beautiful woman by his side. Rumor had it she was a doctor at a hospital.

Speculation ran wild. When a financial magazine invited him for an interview, Xie Yunting accepted, to everyone's surprise. At the end of the interview, the reporter asked, "There's a rumor going around that you have a special someone these days. Could you tell us about that?"

"It's true. I've already married her."

3.

Jiang Nanxi thought their contract was simply a matter of mutual benefit. Once it ended, they would go their separate ways.

That night, Xie Yunting, who was usually disciplined and disliked drinking parties, let his friends get him drunk at their private club. She passed through a series of corridors and heard his voice from behind the half-open door of a private room. "I can't drink anymore. My wife is coming to pick me up soon."

His friends jeered. "Your contract wife counts as a real wife?"

"What contract wife? She's the woman I've been longing for for four years." Even drunk, Xie Yunting spoke with such earnest precision that it was strangely touching.

Later, on a dazzlingly bright night, she helped him home and laid him on the bed. Half asleep, he rolled over and asked her again, "Baby, can you tell me you love me?"

Jiang Nanxi didn't know that four years earlier, in a small German town, they had met by chance. From that moment on, he could no longer keep his feelings in check. She had no idea, and his careful plans to enter her world were the culmination of his love at first sight.

Theme: Supporting each other and walking hand in hand through life