A Marriage as Promised

The arranged-marriage-to-love novel Snowy Night Wedding is available for advance reading in the author's collection.

When Wen Nian was twenty-three, three major things happened in her life.

First, her mother, Wen Ruhua, was hospitalized after a car accident.

Second, she learned she was the long-lost daughter of the Yu family of Nancheng.

Third, she gained a fiance named Zhou Qisi.

Zhou Qisi lost his father when he was young and had been taken in by the Yu family for years. At a young age, he took charge of the Zhou Group.

At Wen Ruhua's bedside, her refined and carefree fiance promised to take good care of her.

Wen Nian knew he was repaying the Yu couple for their kindness, and all she wanted was to put her parents' minds at ease.

One day, Zhou Qisi injured the back of his hand, and Wen Nian helped treat it. She remembered how he had come back late at night with an injury, acting as if nothing was wrong.

Unable to help herself, Wen Nian gently chided him. Without thinking, she used the soothing tone one might use with a child, telling him to behave.

When she looked up, she caught an inscrutable glint in his dark eyes.

Zhou Qisi leaned toward her, his crisp, woody scent enveloping her.

His voice was languid.

"So, Teacher Wen, how are you planning to teach me to behave?"

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His friends often said that no matter how many women tried to win him over, Zhou Qisi was too hardhearted to pay any of them the slightest attention.

Zhou Qisi also thought he would never care for anyone in his life.

But then there was Wen Nian, with her gentle brows and soft eyes. Usually quiet, she was like a serene white magnolia.

Yet in private, she worried about whether his injury hurt.

And when a rainy night brought on one of his trauma responses, she found him in a secluded corner and softly whispered in his ear, "Qisi, don't be scared. I'm here."

He was the one in pain, yet warm tears fell against the side of her neck.

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Later, Zhou Qisi started coming home earlier and earlier. Even his friends teased him that the man who had always done as he pleased had become such a family man.

That is, until one night, after a drunken encounter, Wen Nian began deliberately avoiding him.

Late that night, Zhou Qisi cornered her by the door.

The usually unflappable man leaned down and drew her into his arms, his voice full of reproach. "Wife, can you stop avoiding me?"

"Or did you use me and decide you don't have to take responsibility?"

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Arranged marriage to love / Love grows over time / Five-year age gap

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Coming soon: Snowy Night Wedding. Please add it to your collection!

Qin Ningyu got married. Her husband was the eldest grandson of her grandfather's old friend, the chosen heir to the Xie Group, and a powerful, distinguished heir.

She was just an ordinary employee in one of its departments.

Before the wedding, they had met only a handful of times. Later, Xie Chiyan returned from overseas.

At a company gala, Qin Ningyu saw her superior fawning over a man on the terrace from a distance, bending down to light his cigarette.

The man raised a hand to refuse. As the scarlet glow flickered, he glanced sideways at her, noble and aloof.

Qin Ningyu had no time to react.

His gaze moved away as if she meant nothing to him.

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That same night, the first snow fell. Qin Ningyu finished the work her superior had suddenly dumped on her, then hung up on her mother's relentlessly reproachful phone call downstairs from the office.

When her blood sugar dropped, she crouched down in a miserable heap.

A Maybach stopped in front of her. The window rolled down, its light illuminating her reddened eyes.

Xie Chiyan furrowed his brows and offered her his suit jacket.

"Get in."

Qin Ningyu lowered her gaze to the coffee stains on her clothes.

After only a moment's hesitation, the man got out and lifted her into the car in his arms.

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Their friends all knew that the eldest young master of the Xie family, so untouchable in the eyes of outsiders, had married only because Old Master Xie was ill and had stepped back from the business.

They figured he had never given his unmentioned wife a second thought.

Later, after being invited again and again, Xie Chiyan finally showed up at a drinking party. For once, he had a female companion by his side, a woman of striking beauty and uncommon elegance.

As soon as they sat down, his friends kept giving him pointed looks.

Xie Chiyan glanced at them. "Why haven't you called her Sister-in-law yet?"

His friends: "?"

Wasn't this supposed to end in divorce sooner or later? Why did he seem so devoted to her?

Before long, Qin Ningyu had lost three rounds in a row. When she heard someone joke that they'd invited a lucky charm who made everyone lose money, her cheeks warmed. She didn't want to spoil their fun.

She was about to stand, but the man quietly held her down on his lap.

Xie Chiyan took off the expensive watch from his wrist and casually set it on the table. Then he took Qin Ningyu's hand and pushed all their chips in.

He leaned close and murmured soothingly,

"If we lose, it's on me. If we win, it's all yours, darling."

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A doting, cunning older man x a cool, gentle woman

Arranged marriage to love / Six-year age gap

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Theme: Tomorrow will be better