What Plot Are We Following Tonight? [Marriage Before Love]

As a novelist, Shu Cheng has been writing for years. Compared to sweet romance, she has a very particular type: she adores gloomy, unhinged male leads who force their love on the heroine, and they all have one thing in common: they willingly become the heroine's dog.

People's tastes are reflected in their work.

Shu Cheng looked at her staid, boring husband, shook her head, and let out a long sigh.

Should she get a new one, or...

One day, Chen Juesi suddenly received several files on his phone, along with a conversation sent to the wrong person.

"Qingqing, look at these stories I just wrote! Aren't they thrilling? I based them all on Chen Juesi."

Yu Qing was Shu Cheng's best friend. Chen Juesi saw the files that had been sent to the wrong contact and remained unmoved. But when he read his wife's bold words in the second half of the message, a dark current suddenly stirred in his eyes.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the files.

Reading the steamy, blunt descriptions, Chen Juesi closed his eyes. Shu Cheng's words suddenly echoed in his mind.

He couldn't help sneering. So this is the type you like.

That night, Shu Cheng had just returned from Lincheng. As soon as she got off the plane, she received a text from Chen Juesi.

"Holston Hotel, Room 7624. Coming?"

Shu Cheng's brow twitched. "???"

With a heart full of apprehension, Shu Cheng stood outside the hotel suite twenty minutes later. The moment the door opened, she hurried to defend herself. "Listen, let me explain..."

"I'm not listening." The man refused without hesitation, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her into the entryway.

"Mmm..."

[If I'd known you liked this type, why did I pretend otherwise before?]

Bonus scene:

"Darling, according to your script, today we're playing a movie star and her sugar daddy. Next time, it should be a repairman and a qipao shop owner, right? Oh, and then there's the rest: numbers three through nine."

As soon as he finished speaking, Shu Cheng began to tremble and sob.

Tonight's scenario is up to my wife.

-------------------- Coming soon: Rain After the Storm --------------------

In March in Yicheng, the spring rain fell in a steady drizzle. Jin Yue's father died in the line of duty, leaving him alone. A close friend of his father's took him into the Shen family.

But that was also the year the Shen family was in turmoil. Jin Yue had barely stepped through the door when he walked in on the couple arguing, and froze on the spot.

As his mother's words grew increasingly sharp, Shen Li finally couldn't take it anymore. She came out of her room, her voice drowning out their argument.

That was the first time Jin Yue saw Shen Li. On the way there, Shen Rong had kept praising his daughter, saying she was beautiful and adorable.

But at that moment, she looked more like a little lion with its fur standing on end.

--

At first, Shen Li didn't like Jin Yue. They were strangers living under the same roof.

Later, she thought Jin Yue was an idiot. Why didn't he dodge when her mother hit him?

She took all the pocket money she had and brought him to get treated.

Gradually, the ice between them began to thaw, though they remained distant.

Until Shen Li's senior year of high school, when Jin Yue, far away in Lancheng, heard from Shen Rong that Shen Li might be dating someone.

The next day, when Shen Li came home from school, she saw a white figure on the balcony, of all places.

For the first few years, everyone around Shen Li knew she had a brother she couldn't stand. Then, after the college entrance exams, Shen Li agreed to go on a graduation trip with her friends to avoid someone. When they saw the hickey on her neck, they were shocked and pressed her to tell them who it was.

Her relationship with Jin Yue was like a summer downpour: fierce and passionate, then over all too suddenly.

--

They met again years later. Shen Li was being followed, so she went to the police station to report it. That night, someone knocked on the door of her hotel room. Her assistant opened it and stared at the man standing outside. "Who are you looking for?"

Jin Yue got straight to the point, gritting out Shen Li's name.

Shen Li stood before him barefaced, with dark circles almost reaching her jaw, looking haggard and flustered.

After they broke up, Shen Li had imagined countless ways they might meet again, but never this. And she never expected that, after all these years, the first thing Jin Yue would say to her was, "Come with me."

Shen Li looked at him coldly. "Have you ever heard of a couple moving in with an ex after breaking up?"

The word "ex" made Jin Yue's eyes turn red. He fought back the emotions surging inside him and looked at her with forced calm. "Maybe not with an ex. But what about your older brother's place?"

A month later, Shen Li attended a drinking party and was unexpectedly drugged. Her assistant anxiously asked what they should do.

Shen Li endured her discomfort and told her to go find Jin Yue.

Afterward, Shen Li lay beneath him. Jin Yue held her shoulders down and sneered. "Shen Li, all these years, have I just been a dog you call whenever you want and dismiss whenever you please?"

Blurb written on June 30, 2025

Message: Happiness is something you have to strive for yourself