[Main story complete] [Main story complete] [Main story complete]
Criminal investigation professor x freelance illustrator
Cool, urbane, fake gentleman x sweet, delicate yet resilient heiress
// Marriage Before Love, age gap, extra chapters updated according to rankings! The complete story costs less than a cup of milk tea TvT Promise me you’ll read the official version, okay?
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At twenty-two, Yu Xian set foot on her homeland’s soil for the first time in eighteen years.
She had flown halfway around the world to find her older brother, who shared both her parents but whom she hadn’t seen in years.
When she landed at Yuancheng Airport, Yu Xian spotted someone holding up a sign with her name on it and hurried over without a second thought.
She tugged at the corner of a stranger’s clothes. “Hi, brother.”
“Your brother’s over here.” Yu Heng pulled his sister away from the man she’d mistaken for him. “And I’m not that great, either.”
Yu Xian forgot all about the touching reunion after a long journey. All she remembered was the man’s cool, clear voice, like tea brewing beneath falling snow.
He seemed to chuckle as he pinched her sleeve and gently freed himself. “Miss, you’ve got the wrong person.”
Then, for no apparent reason, he added,
“I’m Chen Yixun.”
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Chen Yixun, twenty-eight, is a professor of criminal investigation at the Yuancheng Public Security Bureau and specializes in criminal psychology. He’s not only successful in his career, but also tall, handsome, refined, and a gentlemanly intellectual.
Yu Xian needs to get married.
Chen Yixun fits all her criteria perfectly, and since he’s close at hand, he should be easy to win over.
So she uses her brother as an excuse, again and again, to shower Chen Yixun with attention.
The man turns her down every time.
“Yu Xian, there’s no point wasting your time on me.”
Yu Xian denies it. “Time is money, and no amount of money can buy the pleasure of doing what I want.”
“Yu Xian, you don’t understand the kind of person I am.”
“...”
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Chen Yixun thinks Yu Xian is a delicate rose, someone to coax, cherish, and nurture.
But when the rose slips from his palm, the thorns on its stem dig deep into his flesh.
The pain is sour and bitter, mixed with blood.
When he sees Yu Xian again,
all his refinement, propriety, and gentlemanly restraint are cast aside. The side of himself he finds most shameful comes fully to the surface. All he wants is to hold her tight, tighter still.
Even if the rose’s thorns have already left his hand mangled and bloody.
“I’ve changed my mind. The time I spend with you isn’t a waste.”
The man toys with Yu Xian’s earlobe, watching her ear turn red inch by inch. “Let’s go home, darling.”
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Blurb written: 2023.12.21
If you happen to pass by, please add this to your favorites! Love you all~
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My next story will be this one! Pluck the Strings of Spring [Marriage Before Love]! Please add it to your favorites, pretty please!
A wealthy-family marriage alliance | Intense push and pull | Fated romance
Female lead’s perspective | Marriage Before Love
Male lead’s perspective | He’s been plotting this for a long time
Fake-refined heir x sweet, pampered rich girl
In high society, Chu Yan’s name carries real weight.
He’s ruthless and calculating, willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. In just a few short years, he has risen rapidly to become the head of the Chu family.
Everyone else avoids him, but Shen Keque doesn’t take him seriously.
When her best friend hints at their engagement for the N+1th time, she’s still completely unconcerned.
“Me? I’m the beloved eldest daughter of the Shen family. I can have the stars and the moon if I want them.”
“It’s just a business marriage. What, am I supposed to be afraid he’ll eat me?”
They’ll simply stay out of each other’s way and maintain the appearance of a respectful couple.
Born into a wealthy family, Shen Keque never had much faith in romantic love between spouses.
Besides, she’d already had someone look into it. Chu Yan had someone in his heart, an unattainable first love.
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It’s only when Chu Yan corners her against the wall by the entryway and kisses her until she can barely breathe that Shen Keque belatedly realizes their marriage is nothing like she expected.
His immaculate suit and shirt, always buttoned to the very top in public, are now a mess.
A large hand rests gently against Shen Keque’s pale neck, leaving her nowhere to run.
“I heard you aren’t afraid of me?”
The man’s voice is deep and magnetic, his anger barely held in check.
After Chu Yan catches her at a bar and keeps her in bed for three whole days without letting her leave the room, Shen Keque begins to reconsider their relationship.
“I am afraid.”
This time, Shen Keque changes her tune. She hadn’t expected Chu Yan, who looked so refined,
to be capable of devouring her when they were alone.
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One of the Shen family’s subsidiaries goes bankrupt, and rumors say Chu Yan was behind it.
Several women who still have their eyes on Chu Yan team up with the media, driving the story of “Chu Yan and Shen Keque, a couple in name only” to the height of public attention.
But Shen Keque, one of the people involved, is completely unfazed. She’s too busy staring at the silk nightgown on the floor, torn beyond recognition, and feeling thoroughly resentful.
“When are you going to give me a proper title?”
“...When you learn to take a dress off properly.”
“But I can’t wait.”
The man’s words seem to carry a double meaning.
That night, fireworks blaze over Jinglin until dawn.
In front of the floor-to-ceiling window beneath the fireworks, they spend another night wrapped in passionate, restless pleasure.
At one point, Shen Keque slips away for a moment and tilts her head back to admire the gift Chu Yan has given her.
She can’t help teasing him. “President Chu, are you really so impatient to tell me you love me?”
“A Que, do you truly have no idea how long I’ve loved you?”
Sweat beads at the man’s temples, yet his voice is tender in a way no one else has ever heard. “Every extra second is agony.”
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[Bonus scene]
One day, during foreplay, Shen Keque suddenly has a pang of conscience and tells Chu Yan about a brief fling she once had.
He’s attentive and skilled, so surely he’s not some old-fashioned innocent.
“President Chu won’t mind such a little thing, right?”
Chu Yan pounces on her, kissing her with such force that she can hardly breathe.
He wipes the blood from his bitten lip and smiles. “So you really don’t remember.”
In her daze, Shen Keque sees him remove the ring he always wears. Beneath it is the faint trace of a tattoo that has been washed away.
Memories of that night of revelry come flooding back. She remembers those hands, and the butterfly that once fluttered on his ring finger.
“It was you.”
“It was always you.”
Theme: Always on the path to becoming the best version of yourself
They were all beaten up, but they were still unscathed.
Baby, baby, I'm back [Spread flowers][Spread flowers] I'm going to cry to death. I'm going to military training. I'm a high school student. I want to go dark and turn into chocolate. I feel so homesick after a week of military training.
I'm coming, I'm coming [Let me be healthy] [Let me be healthy] [Let me be healthy] wow, so tender, I really want a brother [cat head]
Um?? What a sudden accident?
Fall in love immediately!! [Compare your heart][Compare your heart] I really like my brother. I feel that he is so handsome. My brother keeps thinking about his mother and sister. 😭
Okay, okay, it's me [spread flowers][spread flowers][spread flowers] Girls themselves should be strong [like][like]
It feels like Feng Wang is turning into a monster!!
Not enough!! 😳 Please give me more information. [Compare your heart] [Compare your heart]
I c!! Is it exciting enough?
I'm back again, but I changed my name again 😭 😭 😭