Sweet Dream Swamp

Childhood friends / marriage before love / a husband chasing his wife after a breakup / secret crush

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Only Liang Mo can put up with Jiang Linchen's awful temper. Unfortunately, the man is blessed with a handsome face and has admirers everywhere.

Whenever that happens, Miss Liang affectionately links her arm through his and smiles sweetly. "Sorry, but Jiang Linchen is in love with me. He loves me to death, and he can't live without me."

A crowd of their good-for-nothing friends can't stop laughing at Liang Mo's painfully cheesy line.

But Young Master Jiang only glances lazily at the person beside him, then smiles nonchalantly. "What are you laughing at? Didn't you hear what the woman I love just said?"

Likewise, whenever Liang Mo runs into someone she doesn't want to deal with, Jiang Linchen pulls her into his arms and coolly eyes the person in front of them. "You think you can pursue my woman?"

One day, egged on by their friends, Liang Mo looks at the man shielding her from drinks. "We've been taking drinks for each other all these years. Why don't we get married and do it for the rest of our lives?"

"Sure." Jiang Linchen gives a faint laugh, showing no emotion.

*

Liang Mo never thought the wish she'd made as a joke would actually come true.

After they marry, she and Jiang Linchen kiss, embrace, and do all the things married couples do.

Until one day, she hears Jiang Linchen tell the old master in a calm voice, "It's just a family-arranged marriage. How deep a bond do you expect us to have?"

This sweet dream has gone on far too long.

One day after they separate, Jiang Linchen leans against his car with a cigarette between his fingers. His long coat is wrapped around him against the cold, and it seems he's been waiting all night.

"Feeling any better?"

The man's voice is hoarse, but Liang Mo only looks at him quietly, keeping her distance.

"Have you signed the divorce papers?"

Snow falls thickly. The unfamiliarity and indifference in her eyes stab at Jiang Linchen's heart.

…

Content warnings:

* The male lead is stubborn and sharp-tongued at first, then has to win his wife back. They will divorce.

* Neither lead is perfect; both have flaws. Perfectionists, beware.

Blurb first posted on 2023.10.5, revised on 2024.1.3

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Blurb for my next book, Falling into the Spring Tide:

On her wedding night, Lu Meng rushes back to the hotel for work, still wearing her wedding banquet dress beneath her coat.

By the time she finishes handling a complaint, it's already late at night. Only then does she remember the new husband she left behind. She's guiltily trying to figure out how to apologize when she suddenly meets a pair of deep, dark eyes.

Lu Bofan comes up to her, kneels on one knee, and slips off her elegant wedding shoes.

"What are you doing here?"

Meeting her stunned gaze, he scoops her into his arms and replies in a languid tone, "Taking you home."

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Lu Meng had assumed that Lu Bofan married her only to appease his family.

At a family gathering, her little niece pulls him aside and says unhappily, "I don't want to get married just because it's a good match, like Uncle did."

Lu Bofan has no idea where she heard that rumor. He laughs and says, "A lot of couples get together because they're a good match."

Lu Meng feels a momentary pang of disappointment at his answer.

She hasn't meant to eavesdrop and is about to leave when she hears him say, unhurriedly, "But I fell in love with your aunt at first sight."

From the moment I first saw you, I knew there would never be anyone else.

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* Hotel manager x cunning lawyer

* Strangers marry before falling in love / the male lead falls for her at first sight / both are each other's first / he is four years older

Theme: Love yourself.