Marrying My Nemesis CEO After Going Bankrupt

The pampered darling of the Ji family, Ji Mingchu, was arrogant and haughty, convinced she was above everyone else. Thanks to her privileged background, she had enjoyed a smooth and happy life for over twenty years, until the Ji family declared bankruptcy one ordinary evening.

Unwilling to face reality, Ji Mingchu went on a drinking binge at a bar. After a passionate encounter with a masked woman, she left her contact information and fled.

The woman was slender and sexy, with a butterfly-shaped birthmark on her lower back. She trembled when Ji Mingchu kissed it. Lost in thought, Ji Mingchu was recalling the warmth of the woman's body when a familiar sports car pulled up beside her, interrupting her reverie.

The woman in the driver's seat took off her sunglasses. It was the last face Ji Mingchu wanted to see right now.

Wen Xi clicked her tongue and smugly mocked her.

“I heard the Ji family went bankrupt. If you're willing to beg me, I can find you a job and even get you a sports car...”

“Are you crazy?”

Ji Mingchu walked away. She would never give in to the person she hated most!

When she got home, her father handed her an agreement. She took a closer look and saw that it was a marriage contract between her and her nemesis, Wen Xi.

Her father explained that if she agreed to marry, the Wen family would help the Ji family rise again.

It was humiliating, but she had no choice but to compromise.

After the wedding, Ji Mingchu found Wen Xi's humiliating behavior baffling.

For example, she had to curl up in Ji Mingchu's arms to sleep at night, or she couldn't fall asleep.

For another, she was always ordering Ji Mingchu to call her “wife,” or she would ignore her.

And then there were the late-night demands for Ji Mingchu to kiss her lips and skin.

Ji Mingchu spent the year being put through the wringer. Wen Xi kept getting under her skin, until her heart was more and more unsettled. On their first wedding anniversary, she steeled herself and asked Wen Xi for a divorce.

Wen Xi's smiling face suddenly fell. Her eyes reddened, and she revealed a vulnerability Ji Mingchu had never seen before. She untied her robe, and Ji Mingchu saw the butterfly-shaped birthmark she had been searching for all year.

A tear slipped from the corner of Wen Xi's eye as she pleaded carefully.

“Please don't leave me.”

Blurb finalized on 2024.6.21

1v1, both are each other's first, imperfect characters. There may be a little groveling later.

Cover art thanks to a lovely artist. I really like it!

Thanks for reading. Read on or move on as you please.

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Coming next: My Hated Substitute Lover Won't Do It Anymore, daily updates starting April 5. If you're interested, please add it to your favorites~

Blurb:

When Sang Cheng was six, she fell ill. In her delirium, a small arm pulled her into an embrace, gave her medicine, and soothed her to sleep.

Back then, Sang Cheng thought maybe she wasn't truly unloved after all.

Ever since she was born, everyone had hated her. She was a grubby little child, and only Ye Ranzhi treated her differently.

Later, she realized Ye Ranzhi was simply kind. She was gentle with everyone, and the one who truly got special treatment was Sang Cheng's older sister, Sang Mei.

Ye Ranzhi loved Sang Mei. She had loved her since they were children, and Sang Cheng had always known.

Eventually, Sang Cheng became the tagalong trailing behind Ye Ranzhi and Sang Mei, until the summer vacation before her first year of high school.

In the torrential summer rain, she saw the two of them embracing outside the airport terminal. Sang Mei chose to part ways with Ye Ranzhi for the sake of her artistic career.

Sang Mei was gone for two years.

On another summer night after the college entrance exams, Ye Ranzhi, tipsy and hazy, lifted Sang Cheng's chin as if on a whim and kissed her on the lips.

“Your eyes look just like hers. Be my lover.”

With that one drunken sentence from Ye Ranzhi, Sang Cheng spent four years as her substitute.

For those four years, she watched herself sink deeper with clear eyes. She became Ye Ranzhi's outlet.

Night after night, with a ribbon tied over her eyes, she heard Ye Ranzhi's voice and words, no longer anything like the tenderness of her childhood.

“Can't you smile? You look awful with that scowl.”

“You can't even fake a smile. No wonder nobody likes you!”

“Do you know how Sang Mei smiles?”

“You don't look like her when you do that...”

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There was a special room in Ye Ranzhi's villa. One day, Sang Cheng wandered inside by mistake and discovered its secret.

It held every award-winning work Sang Mei had created abroad over the years. Ye Ranzhi had bought them all and brought them home. The walls were covered with photos of the two of them, from childhood to adulthood.

Many of the photos were actually of all three of them, but Sang Cheng had been cropped out.

Sang Cheng shook her head with a bitter smile and quietly closed the door.

Later, when Sang Mei returned to the country, Sang Cheng let go without a word.

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Three years later, Sang Cheng returned from Italy and ran into Ye Ranzhi again. The elegant, refined woman had grown so thin she was almost like a sheet of paper. She clung to Sang Cheng, crying and begging, casting aside all her pride and dignity as if she had found a precious treasure lost for years.

“Do you know I've been looking for you for three years...”

“I've missed you so much.”

Younger woman/angsty and satisfying melodrama/dramatic twists/both are each other's first/HE

Reading guide:

1. A groveling chase after the wife, with a six-year age gap.

2. Both are each other's first. The love interest and the protagonist's older sister never dated, though their relationship was ambiguous. No kissing between them.

3. The groveling chase is not just for show. There will be a substantial amount of it.

4. Writing whatever I want for my own enjoyment. I write what I like, how I like it.

Theme: Love yourself well.