After Marrying a Gentle, Old-Fashioned Beauty, We Fell in Love

Marriage first, love later | Older partner with a long-standing plan | Sweet wealthy-family romance

On the eve of her engagement banquet,

Ji Chunxia is nearly sent to bed with her fiancee's business partner by her fiancee.

When the truth comes out, her scummy fiancee instead acts as if she's in the right. "We'll be family sooner or later. If I'm doing well, then you can do well too. You should be grateful to have the chance to do something for me."

Although Ji Chunxia is a daughter of the Ji family, she isn't favored at home.

Everyone thinks she has to put up with it.

Ji Chunxia says nothing. She only looks at the woman now seated at the head of the banquet table, with cool, refined features and a composed bearing.

Suddenly, she remembers a few days ago.

It was a rainy night. Bo Zhao got out of her car, kindly offered her an umbrella, and asked, "Since we're both getting married anyway, why don't you give me a try?"

-

As the head of the Bo family, Bo Zhao has always seemed calm, rational, proper, and chaste to outsiders.

After their marriage, the two keep a low profile and never publicly display their affection.

Someone takes a dig at Ji Chunxia.

"She might as well have gotten together with Bo Tang. At least she'd look good on the surface, wouldn't have to live like a widow, and wouldn't have to pretend to be happy."

When the comment reaches Ji Chunxia,

she has just been carried into the bathroom by Bo Zhao. Her entire body is limp with exhaustion; she can't even lift a finger.

Is she the one living like a widow?

Ji Chunxia is too tired to care.

Someone continues waiting to see her become a laughingstock, but unexpectedly, news of a magnificent wedding is made public soon afterward.

The wedding venue is filled with flowers and jewels, dazzlingly extravagant.

Bo Zhao walks slowly toward her, slips an 18-carat ruby-and-diamond ring onto her finger, and gently kisses the back of her hand. "I'm honored that my wife likes it."

Everyone: Who said she wasn't happy or living in style? Get me a ruby-and-diamond ring too!

-

Ji Chunxia has always thought Bo Zhao treated her well only because she looks so much like Bo Zhao's first love, and because they happen to be so compatible in bed.

Until one day, she happens to discover that Bo Zhao's study

has long been hiding photographs of her from every stage of her life.

Only then does Ji Chunxia belatedly realize:

She's the one and only precious treasure in Bo Zhao's heart.

[Apologies for changing the original idea after running out of inspiration!]

Theme: It's never too late to fall in love