A Night in the Capital That Never Ends

A Beijing power-circle romance featuring a well-matched male and female lead, with no woman being mistreated in the name of realism.

A lightly ensemble-style look at Beijing's elite, with 90% of the story focused on the leads.

The pirated version may differ from the original. Bonus chapters will be released from time to time~

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On a snowy winter night in Beijing, a documentary called Fragrance, created to promote Chinese incense culture, went viral as soon as it aired on CCTV. Netizens were abuzz over the female lead, whose face appeared only three times.

As luck would have it, that night the young heirs of Beijing had gathered for a rare game of cards. Someone turned on the television in the private room, and the screen happened to freeze on a moment when a woman lowered her head to smell the gardenia in her hand. Yang Zhi'an pointed at it:

"Hey, Ting-ge, look! Director Qin made Wen look so beautiful!"

Zhou Baiting laid down a straight flush and turned toward the screen, grinning carelessly.

"Can't be helped. My girlfriend's beautiful. She'd look beautiful even if you took her picture with a landline phone!"

No one in the room knew that the night before, Wen Ni had broken up with him in bed, and she had been utterly resolute.

Beautiful women could be ruthless. When she said she didn't want him, she meant it.

At sixteen, Wen Ni learned that Mr. Zhou, the distinguished guest from Beijing, was a gentle yet dangerous man.

At twenty-five, she moved from Shanghai to Beijing.

At a party, someone asked what she thought of Zhou Baiting.

Wen Ni had been drinking and didn't notice the man sitting in the shadows in the corner. Her usual gentle voice turned cold as she spat out,

"A sanctimonious bastard."

Zhou Baiting was like an ancient well covered in vines. You might think you could see the bottom, but what you saw was only a reflection on the water.

Her marriage was destined to be a transaction, one that would help her family, after years of lying low and enduring hardship, climb even higher upon its return to the center of power.

At first, she accepted it calmly. Whether there was love in a marriage, the ending was the same either way.

But then someone appeared, gentle yet forceful, and little by little tore away the facade she'd used to pretend everything was fine and numb herself, leaving nowhere for her heart, still yearning for faithful love, to hide.

The day Zhou Baiting learned that she'd chosen to marry into the Zhang family, he abandoned his usual gentleness and composure.

He cupped her face in both hands, pressing the tip of his nose against hers, and threatened her with utter malice:

"Nini, if you dare marry Zhang Youqing, I, Zhou Baiting, swear that for every day I live, I'll stay one step ahead of him."

"I'll make you watch him bow and scrape to me, watch him toast me with a smile."

"Nini, do you know?"

He backed her into a corner, breathing heavily and urgently, each word a dagger to the heart:

"People say I like married women. If you dare marry him..."

Wen Ni couldn't bear to listen anymore. She raised her trembling hand and slapped him hard, choking back tears as she asked,

"Zhou Baiting, what will you do if I marry him?"

Maybe one day he'd send you to my bed for the sake of his future. I'd gladly accept, and in the end we'd still be together.

But Zhou Baiting said nothing. Tears glistened in the woman's eyes, and her hurt was plain to see.

He took her hand and slapped himself with it.

"I was being an ass."

By the light of the moon, Wen Ni saw his eyes, red to a frightening degree. He choked out,

"But Nini, I love you so much."

-- Blurb posted April 11, 2026 --

Theme: Lowering your head for love