Entangled with [the Nanyang Tycoon]

[Bold, passionate small-town girl X devoted, restrained Southeast Asian tycoon]

Huge age and class gap + powerful man lowering his head for love + exes’ battlefield

Liang Shengchen thought that after turning thirty, he could never fall for a woman again.

At first, Xie Linglan felt that every time she crossed paths with Liang Shengchen, it ended in embarrassment and awkwardness.

Her ex-boyfriend’s fiancée mocked her, and he stepped in to defend her. When she saw the mistress basking in glory, she crouched in a corner, venting her fury and sobbing uncontrollably. He quietly stayed by her side and lit her a cigarette.

On a stormy, rainy night, the man’s icy fingertips pinched her earlobe and pierced it with a rare white jade stud. He licked away the bead of blood with his burning tongue and said, “Linglan, in a tiger’s territory, there are only two kinds of creatures: prey, and the other kind. Do you know what it is?”

-

People said Liang Shengchen was a tiger lurking in a dark rainforest, a solitary king who ruled everything through killing.

-

But she thought he was more like a stubborn rock on a sheer cliff, impossible to warm no matter how hard she tried.

He said he would protect her for life, forcefully claimed her, then pushed her far away.

Later, he asked, “Would you be willing to stay with me like this, without a name or a place in my life?”

She looked at his blood-soaked bandages. Terrified, she wept like rain. “I don’t know, Liang Shengchen. I don’t know what to do. But I want to... I want to stay by your side.”

-

Later, the Hong Kong media trumpeted that the Liang family patriarch was to marry an aristocratic heiress. Meanwhile, in a maternity hospital in Jincheng, Xie Linglan labored for eight hours and gave birth to a daughter.

The man’s eyes filled with tears. He cut his daughter’s umbilical cord with his own hands and named her Liang Ailin, with the pet name Rongbao.

A note: In a nutshell, this is an urban adult fairy tale about Cinderella, with an old-school feel and my kind of sweet romance between mature adults. The story is set around 2008, when the rise of the West China economic zone was underway as I began my studies at a third-tier university. My completed companion novel in the same genre, High Above [Old Flame Rekindled], is also available. It features a powerful older man, ten years her senior, lowering his head for a sweet young wife. Please give it a look if you happen to come across it!

Theme: You only live once, so why not love with all your heart?