Beijing's Playboy Dotes on a Wealthy Little White Flower

[A seductive Beijing socialite vs. a wealthy, sheltered sweetheart, possessive pursuit + Marriage Before Love]

Everyone in their circle knew Yan Mingji was a devoted lover, but Shang Jintong thought he was a playboy.

Everyone knew that Fourth Young Master Yan was never short of women. He moved among them like a breeze through a field of flowers, never letting a single petal cling to him.

The Shang and Yan families, two powerhouses at the top of the social pyramid, dreamed of joining their families through the marriage of their younger generation.

Yan Mingji didn't care. Whoever he married would be the most beautiful flower vase in the world. That is, until he heard that the Shang family's precious heiress had been so upset by their engagement that she'd suffered a heart attack and been rushed to the hospital. He couldn't help frowning, and deep down, he began to “loathe” the delicate young lady.

On their wedding day, the heiress barely spared him a glance. Yan Mingji, however, smiled for once. The pure white jasmine raised by the wealthy and influential Shang family really was soft and fragrant. His years of “keeping himself pure” for her hadn't been in vain.

Yan Mingji had fallen for her first, back when he was young. To marry the heiress, the calculating, seductive fox pretended to have no choice but to accept the family alliance. By day, he seemed indifferent, desireless, and detached. At night, he whispered one sweet nothing after another.

In the end, Yan Mingji fell completely. All his life, people had looked up to him as he stood alone on the mountaintop. But meeting Shang Jintong was like seeing spring arrive in a barren land, bringing life to every hillside.

[Side Story]

The girls Yan Mingji brought along were different every time. At social gatherings, if anyone happened to mention his name, everyone exchanged knowing looks and changed the subject. After all, even among Beijing's elite, there were different ranks. No one knew just how rich Yan Mingji was, and no one wanted to find out.

Rome has an inner city and an outer city, and princes come in all ranks, legitimate and illegitimate, elder and younger. The rich inside the Second Ring Road can't compare to those living by the imperial city, and even those by the imperial city envy the people within the red walls.

Everyone knew that Yan Mingji belonged to that inner circle, the people behind the red walls. The things he had in life couldn't be bought with money. There was a saying among the elite: “For Fourth Brother Yan, money isn't a number. It's just wastepaper with pictures on it.”

And yet this playboy announced that he was going to marry Beijing's wealthy sweetheart. Rumors spread at once, and some even said the immensely rich Shang family was selling their daughter for status.

At that time, in a top-tier private hospital room across the Atlantic, the white-haired head of the Shang family leaned on his cane and earnestly tried to persuade his granddaughter, whose heart condition had flared up again after a fit of anger. “Tongtong, this engagement was hard-won. If you marry him, you won't be mistreated. The Yan family doesn't care about the things rich people like us have, and we can't buy the things they have.”

The frail girl sat upright in her hospital bed, gazing out the window at the lush plane trees, the whole view brimming with spring. Yet her quiet words made the old man stiffen. “Grandpa, what makes you think I won't be mistreated if I marry into a family like that? Do you think an exorbitant dowry will satisfy the Yan family? You know perfectly well they don't care about what we have. How could a marriage like that make anyone happy?” Her question was met with a long, long silence.

Shang Jintong was the only girl among her generation of grandchildren, and the only one who had inherited the family's heart condition. She had grown up cherished by her aunts, uncles, and cousins. Her parents treated her like the apple of their eye, and the whole family had raised her with the utmost care. Now, for the sake of the family's long-term interests, they had no choice but to sacrifice her future