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On the last day of their contractual marriage, Zhao Mingyue waited outside the civil affairs bureau until dusk. Cui Xuan never showed up. Instead, a lawyer called with the news of her death. The person who had said she would divorce Zhao Mingyue that very day was dead. Cui Xuan forbade her only surviving family member from attending the wake or funeral. In fact, Cui Xuan had held no funeral at all. By the time Zhao Mingyue received the call, Cui Xuan was already buried in the cemetery. After a long search, Zhao Mingyue found Cui Xuan and stood for a long time before the brand-new, utterly improper, absurd gravestone. Cui Xuan Born March 23, 2000 Died April 3, 2018 Wife of Zhao Mingyue, age 17 * Before she turned twenty-three, Zhao Mingyue had a wealthy family and a life that went smoothly. After twenty-three, her family was destroyed, and she was saddled with enormous debts. When she was at the end of her rope, Cui Xuan appeared before her and offered to pay off her debts in exchange for a five-year contractual marriage. Cui Xuan was her high school classmate. Cui Xuan was mentally ill. Cui Xuan had an imaginary first love, modeled on Zhao Mingyue. Zhao Mingyue was a fake, a substitute... She only learned all this later. Cui Xuan had risked everything and fought tooth and nail to save someone who was not the Zhao Mingyue she had longed for, remembered, dreamed of, and waited for all those years. Zhao Mingyue thought Cui Xuan must have hated her: hated her for shattering Cui Xuan's fantasies, hated her for not being the ideal first love, hated her so much that even after death she refused to see her. The gravestone was engraved with nothing but “Wife of Zhao Mingyue, age 17.” What was so special about Zhao Mingyue at seventeen? Twenty-nine-year-old Zhao Mingyue punched the words “Zhao Mingyue, age 17” on the gravestone. A dizzying, gut-wrenching sensation of weightlessness swept over her, and her fist struck bone through flesh. The person on the ground screamed in a dim, damp alley. Dazed, she turned around and saw a familiar yet almost unrecognizable face, young, numb, and gaunt to the bone. It was a young Cui Xuan. It was her wife, who had just died. Healing/redemption/happy ending/first loves for both leads [Click into my profile for completed novels] * Rational Investment: A poor, scheming lackey who lies through her teeth x a pure-hearted, aloof, possessive heiress, ID 8888661 * So What If She's a Bad Woman? Her Wife Loves Her! (quick transmigration): Episodic stories, each with a standalone setting and couple, ID 8868886 [Coming next] * I Really Don't Want to Live Off Someone Else! (quick transmigration): A laid-back powerhouse who plays the pig to eat the tiger x a beautiful, strong, tragic, possessive villainess, standalone settings and couples, ID 8888994 . Theme: Only when I wake do I realize I am ink on paper; now I mend the past and the broken bamboo