Untamable

* Humans never need to tame a puppy with love.

And yet he willingly let her tame him.

Cold-hearted CEO heroine x obsessive, dark-hearted stray dog

Zhou Zhici was fifteen when Qi Manyu took him in.

That night, rain poured down. He'd been driven out of the Cheng family like a dog.

Qi Manyu lowered her car window and casually took in the sight of him, a drenched stray.

She didn't consider herself a particularly good person, but she wasn't so awful that even cats and dogs would despise her.

Bored, she finished her cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray, then got out under an umbrella. In high heels, she looked down at the boy, soaked through by the storm.

She studied him for a moment and said in her smoky, chilly voice, "You look like a dog."

Miss Qi was famous in Nancheng for knowing how to have a good time. She'd had countless romantic entanglements over the years and liked so many people, but none had ever stayed by her side for long.

Except Zhou Zhici.

People in their circle wondered. If there was nothing between them, why did Miss Qi treat him so differently?

But if they really were involved, she certainly seemed to care about Cheng Luo.

Anyone could see that Zhou Zhici and Cheng Luo were, in some ways, at least a little alike.

It was hard to understand how someone as distant as snow under the moon could willingly let her tame him.

To become someone else's substitute.

Qi Manyu likes dogs, so I'll become one.

Zhou Zhici told himself to become a soaked little puppy, a little puppy covered in blood, a little puppy Qi Manyu couldn't turn away.

Older woman and younger man | Age gap | Male lead is a virgin

Features a substitute trope. The male lead mistakenly thinks he's a substitute.

The characters' names come from the phrase "branches and vines entwined."

* Cover used with permission, non-exclusive. Art by Y Caiyu.

* "Become a soaked little puppy" is adapted from "Become a dog soaked by the rain" in Quartet.

* Completed story with a similar older-woman-younger-man pairing: "Rose Delusions," in which a woman who comes running back meets a pure-hearted college boy.

* Next story with a similar older-woman-younger-man pairing: "Off Course."

Theme: Cherish the person in front of you