Adrift in Your Embrace

[Coming soon: Afterward, My Heart Stirs; The Desire to Act [Entertainment Industry]] [1] That summer she was forced to learn how to swim, Tan Tingsi met the "teacher" her father had hired for her. "Are you Xiao Se?" The man was famous in business circles and worldly-wise, but now he was soaking wet. His gaze was like a quiet pool, leaving her dazzled and entranced. He gave her moments of freedom to catch her breath amid her high-pressure life, and the attention and care she'd always lacked. He was the only person in the audience at her ballet performance who had come for her. A rebellious courage suddenly flared up in Tan Tingsi's puppet-like life. She awkwardly tried to seduce him, deliberately changing out of her conservative swimsuit and appearing before him in a bikini. At last, after they'd been drinking, they spent a night together. "Does your father know what you've done?" He stood by the bed, smiling, though his gaze was cool and unfamiliar. "I have a fiancee. What role are you planning to play now?" This man was no philanthropist. A businessman who put profit first was cold-blooded to the core. His kindness toward her had only been a pretense, motivated by a favor he owed someone, while he watched from the sidelines. [2] Lu Wenbie had said it in a moment of anger, and thought there was no need to explain himself, until he learned she'd been in a cruise ship accident and had gone missing, her life or death unknown. A few years later, a video of underwater ballet went viral. Lu Wenbie watched with countless others as it played on a giant LED screen on a high-rise building. The dancer in the video was the person he'd been unable to forget for over two years, the woman who'd come back from the dead. She spoke intimately with the young master of the Yan family at a banquet, but when she faced him, she said coldly, "Lu Wenbie, let's not see each other again." Lu Wenbie thought he could manage never to see her again. But the moment Tan Tingsi fell into the water, he jumped in without a second thought and rescued her. The once immaculate, arrogant man was drenched, kneeling beside her, his eyes reddened by a storm of emotions. "What's your relationship with him?" She smiled. "Just having fun." "Having fun?" His fingers trembled. "Then have fun with me." "Sorry, Mr. Lu." Her wet foot pressed against his chest and pushed him away. "I'm not interested in old men like you." // The summer heat was scorching. Once, she'd drifted in his arms. It turned out that the life he'd lived all these years was less exciting than the tiny wave she'd made. [The male lead said it in anger; he doesn't have a fiancee | Ten-year age gap] // Coming soon: Afterward, My Heart Stirs [Ten-year age gap; neither has a past relationship, physically or emotionally] The night she got drunk, Jiang Jiami spent a wonderful evening with a handsome, charming, impeccably built mature man. They parted on good terms afterward, thinking they'd never meet again. The next afternoon, sore and aching, Jiang Jiami went downstairs to meet one of her father's friends, but the man in the living room looked awfully familiar. The man who'd been anything but refined last night was now dressed in immaculate, respectable clothes. "Jiami, this is one of Dad's friends," her father introduced with a smile. "He's also the investor funding your school's scholarship program." "Zhou Xushen." The man held out a hand and smiled faintly, his gaze meaningful. "Hello, Jiami." She reluctantly shook his hand, his body heat setting her mind spinning with fantasies. Jiang Jiami thought things with Zhou Xushen would have ended that night, while they were still strangers. But he seduced her until she lost her head, and she secretly met him again and again behind her father's back. At a lecture, Zhou Xushen appeared as a guest speaker. The students were all captivated by him, and during the break they crowded around him. Jiang Jiami was pulled forward by her companions. The man turned as if by chance, and his smiling gaze found her at once in the crowd. Impeccably dressed in public, in private he led her to a dark, empty backstage area. Through a door that couldn't keep out the crowd's cheers, he kissed her until their clothes were rumpled and his tie was loose. One day, Jiang's father sighed, "Looks like there's a woman in Xushen's life? That's rare. We really ought to meet this sister-in-law sometime." "Sister-in-law?!" Jiang Jiami laughed nervously. "Dad, that wouldn't be appropriate..." "Xushen and I are old friends despite our age difference. What's wrong with calling her sister-in-law?" But when he turned around, Zhou Xushen wore a perfectly calm expression and smiled. "Dad." Jiang's father: "…" Jiang's father: "?????" I treated you like a younger brother, and you want to be my son-in-law?! // Coming soon: The Desire to Act [Entertainment Industry] [1] Du Songni was alluring and graceful. Her first time starring in a film, she was paired with the acclaimed actor Yu Erzhi, who was twelve years older than her. In the film, she lured a repressed piano teacher step by step into the abyss, only to be killed by the man after he went completely mad. Off camera, she was so awkward and inexperienced in intimate scenes that the director yelled at her until she cried. "Come sit here." During their scene rehearsal, Yu Erzhi smiled gently, his long, clean hand gesturing for her to rest it on his thigh. Patiently, he told her, "If you touch my eyelashes, I'll feel ticklish. If you touch my chin, I'll want to kiss you. If you touch my wrist, I won't be able to help grabbing you." Like a good teacher, he showed her step by step how to seduce him. He even told her that the most sensitive spot was the small of his back. So during the kissing scene, she slipped her hand inside his jacket, with only his shirt between her palm and his skin. For the first time, Yu Erzhi lost his composure. As he tried to get up, Du Songni caught him by the wrist and smiled brightly, her tone innocent. "Teacher, come catch me." On camera, it was hard to tell whether his passion was real or pretend. On set, he looked at her as if he were deeply in love, but once filming wrapped, he stepped away cleanly and decisively, as composed as if he'd never been in character. [2] Some people said Mr. Yu was quick to get out of character. Du Songni was young and inexperienced, and her sincere reactions meant she might get too deeply into her role and have a hard time recovering. But no one knew that Yu Erzhi's greatest regret, and his greatest relief, was having told her every one of his weak spots in that scene, where the acting was both real and pretend. Late at night, he watched the film again and again, unable to escape the bizarre emotions of his character. Meanwhile, she smiled sweetly at another actor, just as she once had at him. "Songni's being naughty again." He propped his chin on his hand and gave a faint, sickly smile, murmuring to himself, "Come back to your teacher." Restraint and abandon, darkness and innocence. The first person to let pretense become reality is the one who loses. Theme: Hold on to what you don't want to lose