Run to You Before Sunset

[The whole novel is being polished. You can read it after the revisions are done. Weibo: @Sui Yuyu Ah]

· Marriage first, love later | He has a secret crush

· Gentle, well-behaved girl x devoted puppy-like guy

"Could you turn around and look at me? I've liked you for years, too."

After her parents died, Su Zhizhi was adopted by the Cheng family.

Over the years she spent with Cheng Yanche, she came to understand that there could never be anything between them. Even so, she was content to stay by his side as his younger sister.

Until Cheng Yanche announced in public that he was getting engaged to someone else.

At the engagement banquet, Su Zhizhi fled in a wretched state, only to accidentally stumble into another man's arms.

Jian Xubai looked at Su Zhizhi, who was crying pitifully before him, and gently wiped away the tear lingering at the corner of her eye.

As she looked up, Su Zhizhi heard his warm voice slowly reach her.

"Zhizhi, stop liking your brother," he said. "Would you... be with me instead?"

*

Su Zhizhi had never imagined that one day she'd marry some random man, especially not her brother's best friend, who had grown up with him.

She thought no one would care.

But no one expected the usually aloof and elegant Cheng Yanche to get dead drunk and block her at her doorstep, his eyes rimmed red as he whispered, "...Do I still have a chance?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, the front door suddenly opened from the inside.

Wearing casual home clothes, Jian Xubai leaned lazily against the doorframe and raised an eyebrow with a smile. "It's so late, Young Master Cheng. Is there something you need from my wife?"

He pulled Su Zhizhi into his arms. "If not, it's late. We should get some rest."

*

In the dim light of his study, Jian Xubai stared blankly at the jade Buddha he had kept hidden away for years.

At twenty-two, a flutter of the heart meant holding back and letting go of the person he wanted to keep.

At thirty, their reunion became a prayer: that she would be the only one for him in this life.

Reading guide:

· Both leads are virgins / happy ending / six-year age gap

· The heroine falls in love after marriage; the male lead's secret crush comes true; the second male lead tries to win his wife back, but fails

Theme: Cherish what you have by your side.