The Late Banquet in the Capital

[Marriage First, Love Later] [Mutual First Love] [Prestigious Family Alliance] [Slow-Burning Romance]

[Charming, spoiled heiress × aloof, powerful heir of the capital's elite]

Everyone said Ruan Wu was blessed. It had taken three generations of the Ruan family to raise such a pristine, pampered beauty.

The first twenty-two years of her life had gone smoothly, until she hit a snag in two things:

First, someone stole away the fiance she was engaged to marry.

Second, the culprit was none other than the sister of Zhou Heyan, the one person in the capital's elite circle no one dared cross.

*

Rumor had it that Zhou Heyan, head of the Zhou family, was refined and distant, with frost in his eyes. He was an untouchable flower on a high peak, decisive and ruthless, untouched by worldly concerns.

Yet Ruan Wu deliberately fell into his arms and loosened his tie. "Your sister stole my fiance. You owe me compensation."

Zhou Heyan looked down at her.

"Fine. I'll give myself to you. Is that enough?"

A wedding announcement that rocked the capital was settled just like that.

Ruan Wu had thrown herself into his trap. Everyone waited for the spoiled young lady to hit a wall and for the untouchable flower to lose patience.

Surely the pampered heiress, who had never known hardship, would end up crying into her pillow in Mr. Zhou's hands.

That was, until a charity auction, where a socialite maliciously outbid Ruan Wu again and again for the pearl necklace she wanted.

Zhou Heyan instead had ten boxes of South Sea pearls brought in. "Wu Wu, take them and play marbles."

*

Late at night, Ruan Wu nestled in his arms. "Zhou Heyan, did you know me long before we met?"

The man was silent for a long time, then took a yellowed photograph from the safe.

An eighteen-year-old Ruan Wu stood on tiptoe beneath a cherry tree on Putuo Mountain, hanging up a blessing tag.

In one corner of the photograph was Zhou Heyan, twenty-six years old.

It turned out the Bodhisattva hadn't heard her prayer for everything to go smoothly, but had heard the deepest obsession in his heart: He wanted her.