After Mistaking My Ex-Boyfriend's Nephew for His Substitute

Second Male Lead Takes the Lead | Female Lead Has No Experience, Male Lead Does | Five-Year Age Gap

Rising star Meng Songran has been kept as Zhao Yujin's mistress for five years. When she asks him to make their relationship official, he refuses and starts neglecting her.

Meng Songran takes that as a breakup and immediately finds a stand-in who looks like him. The guy is young and handsome, and a university student.

At first, Meng Songran only wants to make Zhao Yujin jealous, but things soon veer off course.

The innocent college boy has broad shoulders, narrow hips, and a fantastic body. He's also great at sweet-talking her. "I like you best. I like you so, so much, sis. I'll give you anything."

Meng Songran thinks she can have some fun and then end it, but her world comes crashing down: the stand-in she found is her ex-boyfriend's biological nephew, Zhao Cenyu, just 21 years old and as close to his uncle as a father and son.

Still shaken, she asks him to keep their relationship secret. "Don't let your uncle find out. I still love him."

Zhao Cenyu can only nod, eyes red. "You're so cruel. Don't worry, I won't tell my uncle."

Zhao Cenyu fell for Meng Songran the first time he saw her, but he knew she was the rose his uncle had hidden away.

Knowing Zhao Yujin had started neglecting her, he seizes every chance to move in on her, appearing whenever his uncle ignores her and she most needs someone to care for her. He showers her with attention.

She lets her guard down and pours out all her troubles to him. He becomes her emotional trash can without complaint.

At last, one day, he plucks that vibrant rose and watches her blossom for him.

He grins with wild abandon. "Come be with me, and I'll give you everything. I can give you what Zhao Yujin can't: marriage, status, money... He doesn't love you. I'm the only one who does."

Meng Songran finally sees things clearly. Better to be loved passionately than to wither away in the cold. After an unexpected pregnancy, she works up the courage to say goodbye to her past and break things off with Zhao Yujin.

Zhao Yujin still refuses, gently embracing her. "I'll make our relationship official. Wait a year for me, and we'll get married next year, okay?"

Meng Songran: "..." Where the hell were you when I needed you?

Bonus scene:

The biggest scandal among the capital's elite has everyone in an uproar.

The Zhao family's top-tier uncle and nephew get into a fight over a woman and end up in the hospital. Zhao Yujin is beaten up by his own nephew.

The Kyoto Evening News pulls no punches: "Zhao Yujin Wears a Green Hat, Nephew Steals His Woman. What a Spineless Fool!"

[Please note: The heroine has extensive romantic storylines with both men and is a Mary Sue with a heartthrob aura.]

Theme: Love is not a woman's whole life. Live for yourself.