Sleeping Together

The main story is complete! Thank you all for your support and companionship along the way! Blurb for my upcoming novel, Prelude to Captive Love, below! The first time Chi Rang saw Shi Xia, she had been robbed of her money by her own brother and had fallen, humiliated, into the filthy water in a narrow alley. The stains on her pale skirt were just as irritating as her miserable face, which looked like she was about to cry but wouldn't. Chi Rang tossed away his cigarette and called out to the man who was gleefully counting the money. "You pull this kind of stunt on my turf and don't even pay protection?" - At school, Shi Xia is the clever, well-behaved girl teachers adore and the goddess scholar her classmates admire. Her skirts are always spotless and fluttering, and her smile is always bright as sunshine. But just as she's working hard to put on a show of a peaceful, carefree life in front of everyone, Chi Rang suddenly transfers into her class. At the corner of the garbage dump, Shi Xia corners Chi Rang against a wall, her face dark as she warns him in a low voice: "Don't say you know me, or else..." "Or else what?" Chi Rang nonchalantly lights a cigarette. "Or else you won't come sleep with me anymore?" He blows pale blue smoke into Shi Xia's face and smiles, eyes narrowed. "Have I ever told you how irresistible you look in your school uniform?" - Shi Xia was born into a chaotic quagmire. She desperately wants to climb out and escape the shameful things around her, doing everything she can to make her life clean and bright. But Chi Rang's arrival shatters it all. He's arrogant, domineering, and utterly unrestrained. He has the darkness and gloom Shi Xia most wants to escape, yet he also has the warmth and love she longs for most. She wants to get away from him, but she can't bear to lose him. Plenty of people at school are drawn to his dangerously jaded aura, but Chi Rang always smiles carelessly in her direction alone. "I have a lover." "We're made for each other." *We belong to the darkness forever, not to the beautiful sunrise. *Come sleep with me. Warnings: Both leads are virgins; the male lead is a bastard with severe insomnia (I'll decide just how severe); the female lead is imperfect (holds fist up). They save each other. Prelude to Captive Love 1. Jiang Yun lost her memory in a car accident two years ago. When she woke up, she had a husband. In other people's eyes, her husband treats her well: handsome, wealthy, gentle, and attentive. Apart from being a little controlling, he's practically perfect. But only Jiang Yun knows what lies beneath the polished exterior of the aloof, refined genius architect she sees by day. On countless moonless nights, his feverish eyes hunger for her body. "Relax. Let me take care of you." Unable to handle his extreme change in character, Jiang Yun tremulously suggests that they get a divorce. His teeth pierce her skin with unerring accuracy. Jiang Yun shudders. The man bent over her lifts his face. The sweet, bloody taste at the corner of his lips mingles with the fresh jasmine beside the bed, creating an indescribably beautiful fragrance. "You still want to run?" "...Still?" The corners of the man's eyes, stirred by desire, hold a sinister mystery. 2. After that night, Jiang Yun is confined to the house. She can't go out, and her only daily contact with the outside world is opening the door to take in the flowers Jiang Zongyu ordered. Pale purple irises, beautiful enough to steal the soul. She stares at them, lost in thought, feeling as though she's seen them somewhere before. In the bathroom, Jiang Yun stands with her back to the mirror and unfastens her clothes. A long surgical scar clings to the back of her neck like a venomous insect. Jiang Zongyu said the surgeon hadn't stitched it up properly and that, if she minded, she could hide it with her hair. So Jiang Yun has been growing her hair for two years without ever suspecting anything. She gently lifts her hair and turns around, looking for the first time at the end of the scar in the mirror A broken iris, blooming with decadent beauty. As her heart pounds violently, Jiang Zongyu's dark voice sounds by her ear. "Piaopiao, why won't you behave?" 3. The floodgates of memory open again. Thunderclaps echo through the mountainside mansion Jiang Zongyu built with his own hands, a place like a maze. Jiang Yun rushes into the attic he never allowed her to enter. By accident, she hits a switch, and the sky screen in the ceiling slowly slides open. The rain beats against the glass, its shadows flowing over sheets of paper that cover the room. Jiang Yun as a girl, her skirt fluttering; Jiang Yun at university, seeming both angry and coquettish; Jiang Yun after leaving the hospital, lost and helpless... Countless moments missing from her memory return through these images. Jiang Yun collapses to the floor. Behind her, Jiang Zongyu's somber gaze is drenched by the downpour, and his grief-stricken sigh sounds like a ghostly whisper. "I only wanted to keep you with me." "Or die together." *There is no muse in this world, only fate. *So, Jiang Yun, the cage I built for you has trapped me too. Jiang Zongyu Theme: Stars shine brighter in the darkness.