Summer Stars at Dusk

1.

At a class reunion, someone brought up He Yao, the heir to a wealthy family, who was now worlds apart from the rest of them.

Jiang Wanxing, daydreaming in a corner, was asked, "Jiang Wanxing, weren't you and He Yao deskmates for a while? Tell us what he was like at school. That was probably the closest any of us ever got to a wealthy CEO."

Jiang Wanxing stiffened, blinking guiltily as she answered vaguely, "I only shared a desk with him for three months. He was always quiet, and we hardly ever talked. We weren't close."

That night, He Yao returned home from overseas, weary from the journey. The moment he stepped inside, he pinned the woman who had come to greet him against the entryway wall.

His rough fingertips caressed her slender, pale neck. His hot lips and tongue pressed against hers, and amid the sticky, intimate sounds, he asked in a husky voice, "Wife, you call this 'not close'?"

2.

No one knew that, during the summer after the college entrance exams, Jiang Wanxing and He Yao had shared a secret, passionate romance.

But it lasted less than six months before Jiang Wanxing broke up with him.

Years later, the brooding boy who had once rolled around in the mud had transformed into a hot new name among the world's financial elite.

Jiang Wanxing thought there would never be any connection between them again.

Until, at an auction, she nearly fell prey to a man with ulterior motives. She accidentally spilled a glass of red wine, soaking an apparently ordinary mural behind him.

A man strode slowly toward her from the end of the corridor, his gaze dangerous, his bearing noble and cold. His silhouette, cloaked in shadow, revealed a familiar face as he drew near. The corner of his lips curved slightly.

"Old classmate, long time no see. How are you going to pay me back for that thirty-million painting?"

3.

Jiang Wanxing never imagined that He Yao, now at the height of his power, would use a thirty-million mural to threaten the ex-girlfriend who had once wronged him, all because his family was pressuring him to marry.

In less than a week, Jiang Wanxing and He Yao got married. They went from secret exes to contract spouses.

On an interview show after Jiang Wanxing's new drama became a hit, she was asked about her romantic history before her debut. She only smiled and shook her head. "Things from my school days were so long ago. I can hardly remember them now."

After the show, the tall man grabbed her and pulled her into a cramped emergency stairwell. His forceful embrace carried the grievance of someone long neglected. His dark eyes churned like a raging sea as his burning breath fell on her lips.

"Make us public. Tell everyone that the deskmate you weren't close to and the ex you can't remember from your school days has become your legal husband."

"Say it again. Say you like me."

"Say you love me. Say you've always loved me."

Theme: What kind of theme could a work awaiting publication possibly have?