Entice and Ensnare

The project funding Zhou Shuyao had worked all year to secure was snatched away by the arrogant nephew of the deputy dean of her college.

The thought of all her team's hard work going to waste left her seething.

When she learned that the funding came from the Jin family, Europe's renowned art-investment dynasty, Zhou Shuyao decided to strike at the root of the problem. She would start with Jin Yilin, the Jin heir and a visiting lecturer at the architecture school next door.

So what if the dean's nephew thought he was untouchable? She would simply become the Jin heir's girlfriend and make that obsequious uncle-and-nephew duo bow and scrape before her.

Rumor had it that Jin Yilin was an aloof beauty frozen in ice for a thousand years, still waiting for someone to win his heart. Zhou Shuyao did her homework and was ready for anything.

Every time he came to campus, she appeared before him in a white cotton dress, with a delicate, pitiful face untouched by makeup...

But the man was even colder and more heartless than the rumors claimed. No matter how many tricks she tried or how hard she flirted, she couldn't move him.

After losing again and again, Zhou Shuyao decided that the Jin family was an unreliable backer. She would find another way to get the funding back.

Then, at a Halloween party, she had just transformed into a dark, gothic girl, no longer needing to pretend to be a sweet, innocent flower, when she ran right into Jin Yilin.

She pretended not to see him, ready to slip past. But as she brushed by Jin Yilin, he caught her sleeve and leaned close to her ear. "Need a ride today?"

Zhou Shuyao: ...

So Jin Yilin wasn't into sweet, innocent girls after all.

After three years together, the truth about Zhou Shuyao's scheming when she first pursued him came to light, and their carefully plotted romance ended in a breakup.

When they met again, she was a rising star who had made an impressive mark in China's art-investment market. He was the representative of an established European family, empowered to negotiate a partnership.

At the negotiating table, they went back and forth, clashed fiercely, and refused to yield an inch. The tension was so intense that everyone else sat in nervous silence.

With the deadline approaching and negotiations still deadlocked, Zhou Shuyao sent everyone away and cornered him between herself and the conference table. Furious, she asked, "Jin Yilin, what will it take for you to give in?"

Jin Yilin clasped her wrist and drew close, his breath hot against her as he said in a husky voice, "Pursue me one more time."

Theme: When everything is reset to zero, you have everything.