A Letter in Winter

Xu Chen Can always believed her marriage to Chu Lingyu began as a deal in which each got what they wanted. She needed money to save her grandfather, and he needed a pawn to bring down the Xu family. So she played along, acting the part of the meek Mrs. Chu, but gradually fell for him under his attentive care. He remembered her period, smoothed over difficulties at work, and even found her mother, who had been missing for years. When she was caught up in a medical malpractice scandal, he stood up for her and declared to the whole world, “I’ll protect my wife.” At last, Xu Chen Can worked up the courage to ask whether he had ever truly cared for her, but accidentally discovered an old, yellowed photograph in his study. It was of her, a timid girl back in middle school. It turned out every chance encounter had been part of his long-laid plan. Outsiders thought Cinderella had married into wealth, unaware that he had been unable to forget her for years. Chu Lingyu, did you know me all along? Of course. Ever since you were sixteen, I never intended to let you go.