Lin Qiunai

Sang Nian has loved Zhou Yuli for ten years from the far corner of every room, through high school and university, never once close enough to be noticed. When her parents push her into an arranged meeting, the man across the table is Zhou Yuli himself. He proposes they marry at once. She says yes, and lets the whispers about substitutes and social climbing land where they will. Three years of courteous, careful marriage follow, her feelings kept where he cannot see them — until his first love comes home divorced.

Once a disposable assassin betrayed by love and power, Xu Ruyin resurfaces years later as the leader of a shadowy guard. When fate reunites her with Gongzi Fu, the man who once doomed her, the two must join forces to stop a rising war and decide whether their shattered trust can be rebuilt.

After her family’s downfall, Xu Bai tries to break her engagement to the possessive young marshal for money, only to be refused. She then meets his ambitious, cold-hearted younger uncle, who also falls for her. Caught between the marshal’s warnings and the uncle’s daring advances, Xu Bai navigates a dangerous game of love and desire.