No Biting Marks Tonight

▲ Scheming, sweet little flower x cold-faced man with a split personality

▲ Aloof beauty falls apart / ferocious puppy learns to obey

Sang Zhixiang wants to propose to Lian Lie, but all she gets in return is his icy reply: “I don’t like you.”

She doesn’t cling to him. She turns and walks away.

Soon, the paparazzi break the news that she’s going to get engaged to the eldest son of the Lian family.

That is, Lian Lie’s cousin.

*

That night, wild winds and lashing rain batter the city. Someone pounds on her door, frantic and impatient, their furious blows like a storm crashing against the window.

After the pounding goes on for three rounds, Sang Zhixiang finally opens the door at her own pace.

It’s Lian Lie.

But unlike during the day, he isn’t wearing glasses, and his sharp, cold gaze is fully exposed. The rain has soaked most of his body. His white shirt clings to the muscles of his forearms, and his whole body radiates a wild, explosive force, like a beast.

As soon as the door opens, he pins Sang Zhixiang against it, his fingers closing around her throat.

“I heard you’re getting engaged. Even after taking my medication, Lian Lie couldn’t keep me under control. Sang Zhixiang, are you so impatient to have me come out and strangle you?”

This is Rong Qingxuan, the secondary personality inside Lian Lie, born to protect him.

To his surprise, Sang Zhixiang doesn’t resist. Instead, she struggles and tilts her face up toward him,

until she gently kisses his lips.

The furious brute goes rigid all at once.

A hint of almost childlike bewilderment suddenly spreads across his eyes.

“Do you know who I am?”

“I can tell you apart.”

*

The storm outside rages all night, but the bedroom is soft and tender.

Rong Qingxuan is much more obedient than she expected.

Like a child finally given candy, he cherishes their damp kisses with reverence, occasionally pausing to talk to her, as if checking that she’s acting of her own free will.

But in the second half of the night, he inexplicably turns rough, biting a ring of bloody marks into her shoulder without restraint.

When she gasps in pain, he forcefully grips her chin and kisses her until she can hardly breathe.

His fierce strength feels like punishment, and like a mark made by a primitive instinct.

*

The next morning, it’s the primary personality, Lian Lie, who wakes up.

Looking at the mess in the room and Sang Zhixiang, who is gazing at him with her face in her hands like a blushing bride, his eyes are full of remorse.

“I’m sorry about last night... Whatever you want me to do to make it up to you, I’ll do it.”

Sang Zhixiang gazes at him eagerly and slips the ring she prepared long ago onto his finger.

“A Lie, then marry me.”

Lian Lie stares back at her blankly. He neither agrees nor refuses, and a strange feeling of loss wells up inside him.

“Sang Zhixiang, I know you did it on purpose last night. You’re risking your marriage to help your father. Have you really thought this through?”

But she shows no unease or embarrassment at being found out. Smiling, she asks in return, “Lian Lie, weren’t you doing it on purpose, too?”

“Actually, I know... In the second half of the night, starting when you bit my shoulder, you had already regained control of this body.”

▲ Reading Guide:

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. Happy ending.

2. A melodramatic, angst-filled love story. Familiar tropes ahead, so don’t read if they aren’t your thing.

Theme: Cherish the person in front of you