Reaching Above One's Station

My new story, After the Demolition, Our Whole Family Made the Pig-Butchering Scam List, is now available in my author column. Coming soon: Can Infinite Failures Only Deduct Love? Please add them to your collections, thank you!~ About this story: Watch him go from cold and cautious, resistant and wavering, struggling and restrained, to completely abandoning all propriety for her. A well-matched marriage is the most polite kind of romance. The first time she saw this young man, she knew she could work her whole life and still never afford the watch on his wrist. Later, it turned out things were even worse than she had imagined. Fortunately, she wasn't in love with him back then. For fifteen years, they were strangers who kept crossing paths without ever knowing each other. __ Later, Mr. Jiang, as unshakable as a rock atop the social hierarchy, came down the stairs, soaked from head to toe. His voice trembling, he said a few words to her. After a moment of silence, Xi Liang said, "First of all, Mr. Jiang, I don't want to be more invested than you are in upholding the rules of social matching within your own class. That wouldn't be appropriate." She rejected him, using the fact that she was someone else's lover as her reason. PS: This story involves dysfunctional families, the exploitation of women, wealthy-family feuds, the inheritance of power and wealth, unethical business competition, and dark sexual content. It is not a fluffy romance. It's about two mature adults trying and failing to hold back, then giving in to a chase. The young heir to a wealthy family: Guys, who gets it? I was just playing a game and fell for a power-leveling service provider, and my brother even wants her to be my sister-in-law. Good thing he's failed so far. A cool, beautiful woman with a dark past, unyielding grit, and an ultimate survivor's instinct / a wealthy family mansion whose owner tries desperately to prevent a fire, but still goes up in flames. A few things to note: 1. The leads play a game to test its user experience for work and business reasons. There are some game scenes, but not many. This is where the leads have some unconventional online interactions. 2. The heroine has a complicated past. Her circumstances and state of mind have their reasons, and things are not as the other cannon fodder in the novel assume. 3. The characters' values do not represent my own. Please don't impose modern moral standards on the story. The characters' actions follow the logic of the plot. 4. This is a couple-focused romance about two mature, strong-willed adults clashing and circling each other. Their words and actions fit their identities and the plot. Use your imagination; reader interference is not welcome. 5. It's very short, a transitional writing exercise. Exactly how short may depend on how much you criticize and nitpick me, hahaha. Theme: A strong person's true love can break through the barriers of reality.