[Clear-Eyed Realist] [Climbing the Social Ladder] [Powerful Families and Elite Circles] [Marriage Before Love] [Sweet Romance with a Contrast in Personalities] [Intense Push and Pull] [Adult Temptation] [The Powerful One Bows His Head]
Shen Tang, a small-town girl with a master's degree from a prestigious university, knows that beauty and academic credentials are no more than expendable commodities in the highest circles of wealth and power. Determined to stay in Jinghai's inner circle and escape her parasitic family, she carefully lays a gentle trap. With impeccable manners, generosity, and emotional attentiveness, she snatches Lu Jixing, one of Jinghai's most powerful men, right out from under an arrogant socialite.
A powerful business magnate, he is cool and restrained, always buttoning his white shirt right up to the collar. Everyone says he's cold and abstinent, and that their marriage alliance is merely a matter of mutual benefit. Shen Tang plays the role of an understanding, devoted canary, docilely enduring his ragged, uncontrolled breaths and possessive finger marks at night. But inwardly, she calculates every move with precision: drain his resources and connections, secure enough assets, then make her exit.
Afraid that their charade might become real and leave her trapped in a quagmire, Shen Tang deliberately tests the limits, acting spoiled and throwing tantrums as she buys out an entire collection of couture, even pretending to get jealous and demanding to break off the engagement at a society gala. What she doesn't know is that this man saw through the ambition and scheming beneath her clumsy disguise from the very beginning.
Behind a redwood screen, the man's long fingers caress the side of her trembling neck, holding her captive in the narrow space. He gives a hoarse, low laugh. "Tangtang, you used my influence to climb the social ladder, took everything you could, and now you think you can leave? Pay me back for what you owe from last night, one thing at a time."
