Stop Pretending to Be Good

Both virgins / second chance after a breakup / sweet push and pull / loyal dog type / secret crush / mutual healing

False sunshine, straightforward heroine vs. cold on the outside, passionate and obsessive hero

School life ---> city life

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If Lin Zhiyu could have another chance, she wouldn't have let herself sink into the mire named "Zhou Luoming" eight years ago.

At seventeen, the boy was skilled at hiding his true feelings behind a cold facade. Only Lin Zhiyu could see the tenderness in his eyes.

At twenty-five, Zhou Luoming was a promising lawyer, successful and polished, his expression still indifferent. But there was a hint of hatred in his eyes whenever he looked at her.

Lin Zhiyu forced herself to stay calm. "Zhou Luoming, don't be like this."

He curled his lips slightly, hiding the desolation in his eyes. "Are you trying to trick me into telling you something again?"

-

Nancheng's damp, lingering spring chill was bone-cold. Lin Zhiyu huddled in her clammy room, thinking over and over about the son of the man her father had an affair with.

He was top of the school, a prodigy praised by everyone. However you looked at it, he didn't seem like someone who could have come from a family like that.

"Classmate Zhou, you have to take responsibility for me." Lin Zhiyu raised her injured hand. Her eyes were red with unbearable pain, but her voice didn't sound hurt at all. It was tender, intimate.

"Lin Zhiyu, you're trying to pin this on me." She saw it clearly: though Zhou Luoming's face was cold, the tips of his ears were quietly turning red.

His fall for her was just as she had expected. Once he opened his heart, the boy shone on her like the sun, driving away the dampness in her heart.

In her hesitation, it felt as if countless threads were pulling her apart...

The day the scandal exploded, Lin Zhiyu deleted him from her contacts and cut off all ties. No matter how Zhou Luoming tried to win her back, she never looked back.

There was only... exploitation between them.

-

Hatred lasts longer than love. That was the truth Lin Zhiyu realized when she returned to Nancheng, whether Zhou Luoming hated her or his mother.

After a night of passion, Lin Zhiyu suppressed the love in her heart, tinged with bitterness. "I want to go to the birthday party."

"I'll go with you. If you want to use the microphone, I'll show the slides. I've already downloaded them to a USB drive."

Lin Zhiyu looked at him in surprise, then kissed the red mole at the side of his neck. "Have you turned bad?"

Zhou Luoming bit her ear. "Admit it. We've always been pretending to be good."

Reading Guide:

1. The hero doesn't know the truth about his mother's affair. Once he finds out, he firmly takes the heroine's side.

2. The heroine isn't lovesick or a heartbreaker. Before she has proof, she only wants to confirm her suspicions.

3. They don't date during the school arc, and their relationship doesn't go any further.

Upcoming novel:

[Younger man / cohabitation / unconventional second chance after a breakup / forbidden tension and push and pull / six-year age gap]

Resilient, sensitive, gentle older woman x sharp-tongued, obsessive, scheming younger man

Blurb:

After searching for her birth family, Jiang Yanxiu was branded an ungrateful wretch and completely cut ties with her adoptive parents.

Eight years later, in the same city, she crossed paths again with Shen Yichao, now a university student.

Jiang Yanxiu tried to make sure. "Are you Shuishui?"

Shen Yichao scoffed expressionlessly. "So your eyes aren't broken."

The obedient little boy who used to tug at her clothes had grown up, inheriting all the resentment and bitterness Jiang Yanxiu had felt before she turned sixteen. Like a hidden current beneath the waves, he lured her in step by step, ready to drag her into an unfathomable whirlpool.

By a twist of fate, they ended up living together again. He insinuated himself into her life and began to take ground, bit by bit.

"Jiang Yanxiu, I hate you so much."

He buried his face in her neck. Tears slid down his cheeks, made scalding by their body heat. The childish vulnerability he couldn't hide made it seem as if, for an instant, he had become the boy he once was.

"Why couldn't you remember what I looked like? Why did you make new friends? Why did you leave me behind and walk away without looking back?"

His voice caught for a moment. Then, choking back tears, he demanded, "And why did you lie to me that day?"

Overwhelmed by guilt, Jiang Yanxiu couldn't find the words to explain what had happened back then. She could only comfort him again and again, the way she used to when they were children.

That night seemed to resolve the problems that had stood between them for years. But soon Jiang Yanxiu noticed something was wrong. An unspoken tension between them kept growing.

Shen Yichao: "Jiang Yanxiu, why have you been avoiding me lately?"

Jiang Yanxiu: "Don't be disrespectful. You should call me older sister."

On the fifth day of avoiding him, she was finally stopped in her tracks by the young man.

"Do you remember?" Shen Yichao murmured into her ear. "From the moment we met, I told you not to see me as just your little brother."

Jiang Yanxiu tried to push him away. "Are you crazy?"

He caught her flailing hand. Shen Yichao kissed her fingertips, his gaze burning with intensity. "Older sister, please take a good look at me again."

He was no longer the well-behaved little boy she had imagined him to be.

Now he was just a suitor, longing for even a scrap of love.

A scorching heat flared in her palm, stabbing at her nerves. Jiang Yanxiu stood rooted to the spot, watching helplessly as something suddenly shattered.

It was her fault. After all these years apart, she'd clearly driven him completely mad.

Not related by blood / not registered in the same household

Theme: Love and mutual support