A Bite of Peach

[The physical edition I produced is now on sale. The cover, interior, and bonus items are full of thoughtful details. If you’ve been waiting for a physical copy, feel free to pick one up~] Jian Tao, a top-tier star and one of the entertainment industry’s most popular actresses, won millions of views for a single ballet performance. With her slender, supple waist and delicate beauty, she earned the title of the nation’s first love. Xie Xingchuan, the second young master of the Xie family, is carefree and irreverent. His roguishly handsome face has won him a legion of admirers. Rumor has it he entered the entertainment industry just for fun, but somehow ended up the actor with the greatest commercial value. No one knows that the two people the media says can’t stand each other have two bright red marriage certificates in the bedside drawer. * After secretly marrying Xie Xingchuan, Jian Tao strictly follows the company’s instructions and does her best to act like they barely know each other. At public events, they stand at opposite corners. In private, they share a bed. Then a variety show upends the balance. Jian Tao and Xie Xingchuan are invited as guests and stay in the same villa. Around the same time, a popular celebrity ship sinks. Heartbroken ship fans decide to swear off love: as long as the couples they ship are fake, they’ll never break up. So these deranged fans start shipping Jian Tao and Xie Xingchuan like crazy. Jian Tao wants to try Xie Xingchuan’s chilled dessert, but he refuses with a single look. Comments: [He knows when she’s on her period! He loves her so much!] Jian Tao points out the “mosquito bite” on her neck and narrows her eyes at Xie Xingchuan. Comments: [Did a mosquito bite her? Xie Xingchuan did!] During a game where they have to identify their teammates by touch, Xie Xingchuan runs his fingertips over the base of her ring finger. [He’s touching her wedding ring! This handsome couple is killing me!] Later, fans see the tall, elegant man pull her into his arms in the bushes outside a party. He presses his thumb to the corner of her mouth, his voice full of amusement. “It wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t mean to bite it open. Can you stop being mad now?” Something glints faintly in the footage. When the camera zooms in, there is unmistakably a shining wedding ring on Jian Tao’s ring finger. #ShipFans: ? #Wait, I was making it all up and somehow got everything right?! The nation’s first-love swan x the carefree second young master Love’s exclusivity means: I can see no one but you. *Married first, in love later; secret marriage = A married-first romance from the heroine’s perspective, and a secret crush coming true from the hero’s perspective *All characters are fictional. The story is not based on real people in the entertainment industry~ Next novel will probably be *Butterfly Signal* At the start of her career, Xia Zhiyi was expected to become a star. Instead, she got blacklisted and reduced to a nobody after giving her lewd-joke-cracking boss three slaps. Her fellow actresses had already made it big, and her agent was beside herself. “Why don’t you find a rich sponsor to get you out of your contract and back you up? It’s common in this industry.” Thinking about what the big names in the industry looked like, Xia Zhiyi smiled sweetly and turned her down. “Looking at an ugly man would take ten years off my life.” On the day she planned to leave the industry, Xia Zhiyi delivered a dress to a friend and was stopped by security. She couldn’t enter the smaller venue without an invitation. As the standoff dragged on, an event organizer came hurrying out. She turned to look and saw a Rolls-Royce Phantom quietly driving through the downpour, surrounded by people, before coming to a stop by the entrance. The black car door opened. A broad-shouldered, slim-waisted man stepped out, his air of nobility and the crowd’s attention nothing new to him. He walked through the throng with indifference, and their eyes met. It was their third time meeting. They were casual acquaintances, and she’d helped him out with a few small things. A moment later, he bent his arm, inviting her to enter as his companion. “If you don’t mind.” Once she was seated in the front row, she searched for her friend and couldn’t find her. Then she was surprised to see that even top-tier stars were seated in the corner, and finally realized just what kind of center of power the man beside her occupied. The main venue. The investors’ section. A seat reserved for the guest of honor. - Later, as the sky cleared over a garden after the rain, the man said that circumstances left him no choice and asked if she’d be willing to pretend to be his girlfriend. After looking into it, she discovered he was not only handsome and easy on the eyes, but also had a secret crush, was impotent, and would never make a move on her. If she agreed, no one in the industry would dare raise their voice to her again. Xia Zhiyi was thrilled. “There’s a deal like that?” She moved into the Shen family home, as cleanly as could be, planning to leave just as cleanly after making a name for herself. Then one day, a little accident happened, and she ended up spending the night with him. She woke in his arms the next morning and struggled to scoop up her clothes to cover herself. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “Could you pretend last night never happened?” “...” The day they finally talked things through, she said “rich sponsor” with such force it landed like a gavel. The man paused for two seconds, then frowned. “What kind of sponsor?” Xia Zhiyi: “...A rich sponsor.” “I give you the stars and you ask for the moon. You kiss me whenever you want, dump me whenever you want, and tell me to stop dreaming,” he said with the faintest hum. “I’ve never seen a sponsor this pathetic.” “...” From the hero’s perspective: contract relationship, pretend turns real From the heroine’s perspective: a rich sponsor who has money, makes no demands, doesn’t expect sex, and has issues in bed. Wait, how are all three wrong?! Six-year age gap. The hero has no secret crush. A pretend-sugar-daddy romance. Theme: Love is patient, always., The Bible