Thorns

Notice: The main story is complete! Thank you all for your support along the way.

The blurbs for my upcoming novels, "Sleeping Together" and "Words of Resentment", are below.

Flawless white porcelain heiress x cold bodyguard, dark as thorns

The first time Jiang Zhitong remembered seeing Zhao Chuan was at her sixteenth birthday party.

Her eldest brother brought Zhao Chuan over to meet her. The boy's face was so cold and strikingly beautiful, like a demon from a ghost story who could steal your soul.

"Tongtong, from now on, he'll be the one protecting you."

Jiang Zhitong thought he was like all the others who had come before, there to monitor her movements and control her behavior.

He rarely spoke to her. He just watched her, day and night.

She was afraid of him. Terrified.

Until the day he stepped in front of her and caught the knife aimed at her. Only then did she realize Zhao Chuan was different from everyone else.

"Don't be afraid, Miss. I'll protect you."

-

Later, the Jiang family went bankrupt. Their former glory vanished overnight, and every member of the family fell from the heights of wealth, left looking shabby and ridiculous.

Only Jiang Zhitong was different. Luxury cars still took her everywhere, and no high-society gathering was complete without her elegant presence.

Jiang Zhitong asked Zhao Chuan, "Why do they look at me like that?"

Zhao Chuan said, "Because you're different from them."

At first, Jiang Zhitong didn't understand how she was different from everyone else. Then she saw Zhao Chuan on television, his gentle eyes now hardened into an unfamiliar, icy glare, and watched wealthy young women flock to him.

Only then did she understand. Of course she was different: she was someone the Zhao Chuan of today held dear.

-

Zhao Chuan was a vine grown in darkness, with thorns all around him nearly cutting into his neck.

But Jiang Zhitong appeared out of nowhere, giving him the only tenderness he'd ever known, and the only desire that made him want to keep living.

He did everything he could to reach her side, even if all he could be was a rootless piece of driftwood.

As long as he could look at her, he was content.

Jiang Zhitong used to hate it most when Zhao Chuan called her "Miss."

But she loved that Zhao Chuan loved her.

Without reservation.

-I transmigrate through the thorns to reach you.

-I want you to remain a pure, free bird forever, with only me looking up at you.

"Sleeping Together": Bravado x Gloomy, dejected

The first time Chi Rang saw Shi Xia, her own brother had stolen her money, and she was sitting in the filthy water of an alley, in a miserable heap.

The stains on her pale skirt were as irritating as her tearful, gloomy face.

Chi Rang tossed his cigarette aside and called out to the man gleefully counting his money.

"You pull something like this on my turf and don't even pay protection?"

-

At school, Shi Xia is the clever, well-behaved darling of her teachers and the goddess top student among her classmates.

Her skirts are always clean and billowing, and her smile always bright and sunny.

But just as she is working hard to play the part of someone whose life is all sunshine and roses, Chi Rang suddenly transfers into her class.

At a corner of the garbage dump, Shi Xia pins Chi Rang against the wall and threatens him in a low, grim voice: "Don't say you know me, or else..."

"Or else what?" Chi Rang casually lights a cigarette. "Or else you won't come keep me company in bed?"

He exhales pale blue smoke into her face and gives her a sly smile. "Have I ever told you that the way you look in your school uniform is absolutely irresistible?"

-

Shi Xia was born into a chaotic mess. She tried desperately to claw her way out of it and leave her sordid past behind, doing everything she could to make her life clean and bright.

But Chi Rang's arrival shattered everything.

He's arrogant, brazen, and utterly unrestrained. He has the gloom and darkness Shi Xia most wants to escape, yet he also possesses the warmth and love she longs for more than anything.

She wants to run from him, but she can't bear to lose him.

Plenty of people at school are drawn to his dangerously jaded allure, but Chi Rang always looks only in her direction, smiling carelessly.

"I'm in love with someone."

"We're made for each other."

*We belong to the darkness forever, not to the beautiful dawn.

*Come sleep with me.

The male lead is a jerk, and the female lead is imperfect.

They save each other.

"Words of Resentment": Elegant and composed x unruly and indifferent

Before Yan Zhen's father died, he left her an inheritance that could only be claimed on a specified date, along with adoption papers.

When the lawyer brought Yan Zhi before her, Yan Zhen expressionlessly sized up the deaf and mute boy, who had no blood relation to her. She couldn't understand why she had to live with this stranger for five years just to claim the inheritance.

Still, for the sake of the money, Yan Zhen got up and said, "Come home with me."

At first, Yan Zhi was quiet, obedient, and so gentle that Yan Zhen felt guilty.

Over time, he became more mysterious and cold, with such a fierce, volatile air that Yan Zhen began to fear him.

-

Yan Zhi was a trapped beast sinking into a quagmire. Once he got hold of something that could keep him alive, he would never let go, even if it killed him.

At first, he wanted to drag Yan Zhen into hell with him.

Later, he began to find that he couldn't bear to.

He was immersed in a dark, soundless world, and Yan Zhen's smile was the first sound of heaven he ever heard.

He never spoke, yet she seemed to understand him, offering him tenderness, compassion, and merciful patience.

In the dark of night, he wanted to stain Yan Zhen with twilight.

In the sunlight, he wanted to return her to her pure white self.

Yan Zhi wavered between light and darkness, until Yan Zhen helped him make his choice.

-

Five years passed in the blink of an eye.

Yan Zhen took the inheritance and planned to leave for good, but Yan Zhi chased her to the airport.

He bound her hands against her chest with his tie and whispered tenderly in her ear, "Zhenzhen, come home with me."

*Obsession breeds resentment, resentment breeds grievance, and grievance breeds hatred.

*The most outrageous lie I've ever told in my life is no more than this: I love you.

The male lead has psychological problems. He's genuinely bad and a real jerk. He's only pretending to be deaf and mute, so don't expect too much of him.

Theme: Life is brief, yet full of meaning.