I'll Soothe You

[My other novel, Kiss Me Passionately, is now available. Next up: Almost, and Pretending to Be Infatuated. Please add them to your favorites.]

Blurb:

Rich, naive sweetheart vs. money-grubbing vixen

Note: The heroine really is a vixen.

Hu Yao's house burned down, and she spent several days moping.

Then she remembered she didn't have much time left in the human world, so she decided to stop working so hard.

Her specialty was seducing people and sweet-talking them, so on a moonless, windy night, she sat outside Mu Jiangbei's villa and started acting like a helpless little flower to make ends meet.

Mu Jiangbei looked so sweet and innocent, exactly her type. When she realized he was incredibly easy to tease, she couldn't help flirting with him from time to time.

A cockroach scurried across the floor. She clung to him in fright, trembling all over.

She couldn't open a bottle cap, ate her dumplings in eighteen tiny bites, and spoke in a soft, gentle voice.

She even had him hold her hand and teach her to write his name in her palm, over and over.

Mu Jiangbei was a carefree rogue, the opposite of his well-behaved looks.

When he encountered a sweet, gentle young woman at his door, he reined himself in, afraid to come on too strong.

But he fell for her at first sight, so he decided to use his harmless appearance to deliberately get closer to her, one step at a time.

He brought her a translucent plastic straw and asked her to teach him how to fold a star.

He claimed he was scared after a nightmare and asked her to tell him a story.

He brought her a problem no one had solved and spent ages discussing it with her, going off on all sorts of tangents.

But his acting was so clumsy that Hu Yao had already seen through him.

She kept up her own act, all the while enjoying Mu Jiangbei's daily attempts to put on a show.

Later, she blew her own cover too.

She sweet-talked Mu Jiangbei into giving her a card with no spending limit, then went to a bar to enjoy one last night before leaving the city.

As it happened, Mu Jiangbei was also at the bar with his friends, letting loose on his last night.

Then Hu Yao, dancing in a spaghetti-strap dress, came face to face with Mu Jiangbei in the crowd, wearing a floral shirt with his collarbones exposed...

Their disguises came crashing down without warning.

Thinking his own act had fallen apart, Mu Jiangbei stayed out all night, afraid to go home. Hu Yao had already fled in the middle of the night.

When Mu Jiangbei learned the truth, he was furious.

After he canceled her card, Hu Yao sheepishly returned to his side. Sweet and compliant every day, she charmed him until he was completely dazzled.

A few months later, Hu Yao sweet-talked him into giving her another villa. Having learned her lesson, this time she sold it and converted the proceeds into cash, just in case.

After a misunderstanding, Mu Jiangbei thought Hu Yao had tricked him again. He drove across provincial borders in the middle of the night, brought back Hu Yao, who had secretly gone to see her idol's concert, and took her to the city's largest zoo. He threatened to throw her into the cage of a tiger, the fox's natural enemy...

Hu Yao went white with fear and immediately tried to appease him, acting helpless.

Mu Jiangbei wouldn't listen to any of her explanations and confined her, so Hu Yao decided to go all the way: she turned her fake escape into a real one, and slept with him before she left...

When Mu Jiangbei found her, he held her close and murmured in her ear, "Yaoyao, please don't leave me again. I'll give you anything you want. As long as you love me, everything I have is yours."

Later, Hu Yao really did fall in love with him.

Reader's guide (content warning):

Neither of them has pure intentions at first. The heroine wants to swindle him out of money and a house (and really does), while the hero is attracted to her looks. If you can't accept that setup, please don't read!

Theme: Treat people with sincerity.