[Eight-year age-gap romance, older heroine] [Unhinged young marshal pursues his wife and suffers for it] [Strong heroine in a business war]
At twenty-eight, Sheng Lingyi was the ninth daughter of the Sheng family's concubine-born branch, and the best accountant in Shanghai.
With her white gloves and trusty abacus, she could settle a credit crunch or a silk mill strike in just a few words.
Everyone said Ninth Miss was invulnerable, until Huo Xiao, the only son of the Jiangbei military governor, was sent to Shanghai to be put under her care. He was twenty, a devil-may-care troublemaker, and eight years younger than her.
He plotted to ruin her reputation, then changed his mind at the last moment and carried her out of the trap.
The photographs from that night were the weapon he used to blackmail her, and the weakness he would show no one.
When the photos appeared in the tabloids, her family disowned her and the entire city cursed her. Alone, she boarded a ship to Hong Kong.
Military orders pinned him to the dock. He could not even chase after her. Only then did he understand what it meant to get what he deserved.
Two years later, she returned to Shanghai with her own business.
He had become one of Shanghai's most prominent industrial magnates, but now he had a fiancée from a family of equal standing.
The night they reunited, he cornered her in the lounge, his eyes red. "Sheng Lingyi, take one more step and see what happens."
Everyone was waiting to see Ninth Miss Sheng suffer another fall.
Right in front of the military governor, she wagered her entire fortune. "I'll guarantee his debt."
This time, he would be the one to pursue her, wait for her, and lay his entire fortune at her feet.
He pushed a share transfer agreement toward her, his voice hoarse. "The betrothal gifts, and I myself, are yours."
She could calculate every account in the world, except for when she had fallen in love.
