A Newlywed Performance

New novel, Nine Summers of Love, now underway

Blurb:

When Zhou Miaoying is fifteen, a handsome, aloof boy named Chen He moves into the Zhou family home.

Zhou Miaoying, a terrible student, is always hanging around top student Chen He. Her goal is clear: this adopted big brother has potential, while she's probably destined to be a slacker, so she should build a good relationship with him. Maybe he'll come in handy someday.

But Chen He looks distant and turns to leave. She runs after him, stuffing her pocket money and snacks into his hands, and says bluntly, "If you get rich, don't forget me."

But after half a year at the Zhou home, Chen He is taken away, and then vanishes without a trace. No one hears from him again.

*

They meet again eight years later. Chen He is every inch the successful professional, with countless people fawning over him.

One day, he finds Zhou Miaoying and says he wants to repay her.

Her eyes light up as if she's just spotted a pile of gold, only for him to give her a job that's exhausting and unpleasant.

Is this how you treat your benefactor?

Chen He says coolly, "It's better to teach someone how to fish than to give them a fish."

*

Too busy to have any fun, Zhou Miaoying complains, "Is it really worth giving up happiness just to earn a little more money?"

Chen He: "I understand."

Zhou Miaoying is overjoyed, waiting for her boss to give her a raise.

"I have a way for us both to have the best of both worlds."

Zhou Miaoying waits expectantly.

"Your happiness plus my wealth: one plus one is greater than two. We both win, maybe even more than that."

Zhou Miaoying doesn't quite understand.

*

After years of hard work, Chen He achieves financial freedom at a young age. He knows how to make money, but not how to enjoy spending it, and his friends have even labeled him a miser.

After reuniting with Zhou Miaoying, he discovers the joy of spending money, especially when she's spending his. It makes him incredibly happy.

At first, Chen He's motivation for making money was to control his own destiny. Later, he gains another motivation: Zhou Miaoying.

He hopes she will always be that lively, carefree little princess.

*

Aloof and scheming male lead & cheerful and straightforward female lead

One-on-one, both virgins

No romance before the heroine comes of age

This novel's blurb:

A sharp-tongued, roguishly handsome extreme sports enthusiast with a gentle, innocent heart & an independent, clear-headed beauty and mural artist, who struggles early on and grows stronger later

Marriage first, love later; the male lead neglects the heroine at first, then goes through hell trying to win her back

Jun is pronounced like "yoon"; Yang is pronounced like "yahng"

Blurb:

On the day Zhang Yang and Yang Yunxi reunite, he asks, "Would you like to start a relationship with marriage in mind?"

She hesitates for just a moment, then nods.

They've been together for less than a week. They've shared one meal and held hands once, but haven't even kissed.

Yet Zhang Yang says, "We're getting married anyway, so why not do it now?"

Yang Yunxi's eyes widen. "Isn't that too fast?"

"The result will be the same either way, so we might as well speed things up. I don't believe love is the grave of marriage. On the contrary, marriage can deepen love."

Yang Yunxi feels a little dizzy. Under Zhang Yang's sincere, passionate gaze, she nods.

Zhang Yang is a man of action. He immediately takes Yang Yunxi to meet his mother, Madam Zou, the hugely influential richest woman in De'an.

Yang Yunxi comes from an ordinary family and expects Madam Zou to oppose their marriage, but instead she agrees readily.

*

The day after the wedding, Zhang Yang leaves for a distant place and stays away from home for long stretches. People mock Yang Yunxi, and the name "the Zhang family's abandoned wife" spreads.

Yang Yunxi is confused and resentful, but when she learns the real reason Zhang Yang was in such a hurry to marry, she lets go of her bitterness.

Though her husband is rarely home, her mother-in-law treats her well. She isn't in a hurry to save the marriage, and instead devotes herself to her beloved mural art.

*

Everyone around Yang Yunxi urges her to pamper Zhang Yang more and get him to come home. She isn't in a rush. She throws herself into her career while planning how to make her husband want to stay home.

Later, Zhang Yang comes home often and stops rushing off to work elsewhere.

One day, Yang Yunxi asks, "When are you leaving?"

Zhang Yang: "What, will you miss me when I'm gone?"

Yang Yunxi: "You're like a bird. You can't stay cooped up indoors all the time."

Zhang Yang: "Even a bird needs a nest to come home to."

Yang Yunxi: "Then when you're home, could you give me some time off? I want to go out for a while."

Zhang Yang grabs his car keys and puts an arm around his wife. "Where do you want to go?"

Yang Yunxi looks up at him with a faint smile. "But I want to go by myself."

Zhang Yang's face turns cold, and his heart goes cold with it.

*

That day, he placed the kite string in her hands.

Theme: Even free-spirited birds eventually return to their nests.