After the Hopeless Romantic Awakens

[Coming soon: Willow Colors Beguile and Slightly Plump Love Song. Scroll down for the blurbs.]

After Xu Linlang falls in love with Liao Chen, she sheds her usually aloof demeanor, giving up her studies and career for him. No matter how careful and gentle she is, she can't teach him to love her.

On a rainy night when her heart is broken, memories of her past life awaken.

It turns out she came from another world. Once, she was adored by everyone and moved among men without ever getting entangled. Everyone looked down on her and feared her, yet she had never suffered a loss. At the top of the pyramid, she died alone in a hospital.

Before she died, she felt a little lonely and prayed that in her next life she might experience love. So she ended up living the way she did in this life.

Xu Linlang scoffs. She's experienced it now. Being a lovesick fool is no fun. She'd rather be herself.

Liao Chen mocks his friend, who is drinking to forget his failed pursuit of a woman: That's all you've got? You can't spoil a woman. I will never lower myself to placate anyone.

Just then, everyone sees Xu Linlang lazily rise from the sofa, wipe the spot Liao Chen kissed from her lips, and smile.

You piece of trash. You think I care?

Her words leave the room stunned.

Later, Liao Chen keeps his word. He really does not lower himself to placate anyone.

He just smiles tenderly, bends to lift Xu Linlang's hem before the banquet's red carpet, and follows close behind, gazing at her with devotion.

Now that she's done being a lovesick fool, Niu Hulu Linlang doesn't need anyone to placate her. She thinks his glowering King of Hell face is ugly, groveling is pathetic, and soothing her is annoying. She wants none of it.

Everyone: ...What a man!

Reader advisory:

1. The heroine is no saint, and the hero isn't a good person either. The male lead is a virgin, while the heroine is not.

2. I can't provide a complete list of trigger warnings. This is a writing exercise with an amateurish style. If you need trigger warnings, I suggest not reading. If it's not for you, stop reading; there's no need to tell me.

3. The hero will chase his wife to the crematorium. His ashes won't be scattered, but he'll certainly get burned badly.

-- Willow Colors Beguile --

At sixteen, Liu Yue becomes the stepdaughter of the uncle of Yan Seventh Young Master, one of the Yan family in Dingcheng.

At nineteen, Liu Yue is set up and ends up in Yan Seventh Young Master's bed. He kicks her out, leaving her bedridden and frail.

At twenty, her mother and stepfather die in a car accident.

Yan Seventh Young Master puts an end to the Yan family's internal strife in Dingcheng and becomes the untouchable Lord Yan.

She is brought into the Yan family and becomes Lord Yan's publicly acknowledged companion. When Lord Yan is ready to marry, she is sent away from the Yan family. Ten years pass.

She never gets to enjoy the comfortable, wealthy life Lord Yan arranged for her. She dies of illness a week before his wedding of the century.

Then, at thirty, Liu Yue is reborn at sixteen, as if it were all a dream.

This time, when she visits the Yan family, Liu Yue no longer foolishly hovers around her "cousin."

She remembers what her father told her as he held her hand before he died: I hope you can live up to your name and be resilient and steady.

She shouldn't have forgotten that in her last life.

P.S. The heroine is the stepdaughter of the sworn brother of the hero's mother. They are neither legally related nor blood relatives.

-- Slightly Plump Love Song --

In the first year Yu Mo works as Ji Lishen's secretary, she thinks it's better to be without love than to love someone so humbly.

In the second year, she thinks that loving him humbly might be all right, since she isn't losing anything.

In the third year, she changes her mind, only to realize she's long since fallen into the sea of love Ji Lishen has carefully set for her. He never gave her a chance to climb back ashore.

Only later does Yu Mo understand that she spent the first thirty years of her life loving no one so she could build up the strength to love him better for the rest of her life, along with all the carefree, innocent years she missed.

A secretary and a powerful film industry tycoon

Theme: The secret to lasting love is loving yourself