Check out my upcoming novel, His Close Proximity.
Blurb:
Xu Qingning and Jiang Huaixu began with an arranged marriage between families of equal standing. Mr. Jiang was courteous and aloof, while she was poised and taciturn. They saw each other three times a year, and their relationship was as cold as ice.
But when she got drunk, she'd drape herself around his neck and whisper against his ear, "Jiang Huaixu, are you in a good mood today?"
Mr. Jiang would indulge her transgressions, picking her up and letting her nibble on him.
"Let's give us a try." Xu Qingning was willing to take that first step, and Jiang Huaixu would always catch her, making sure she never fell.
"All right."
Perhaps they were the right people, meeting at the right time.
There was a hurdle in Xu Qingning's youth that she could never get past. It made her hide the person she used to be: the girl who loved milk tea, so lively and innocent.
So in front of her husband, she ordered the purest iced Americano and played the part of the elegant, sophisticated Miss Xu.
But that was never who she truly was.
Until one day, drunk, she reached for his eyes. "What beautiful beads. I'll take them and make a necklace."
Mr. Jiang held her as he leaned away. "No. If I go blind, you'll have to support me."
She giggled. "That'll never happen. You're a jack-of-all-trades. Even if you went blind, you could play 'Moon Reflected on the Second Spring' under a bridge. With a face like yours, I'd take the erhu along with you."
When she sobered up, Miss Xu felt as if the sky had fallen.
But Jiang Huaixu only smiled at her. "Will you dare drink again next time?"
The heroine is adorable at heart, and the hero isn't an ice block either. Basically, it's just two normal people falling in love.
Reader note: All entertainment industry characters in this story are fictional. Please don't associate them with real people.
Upcoming novel, His Close Proximity, blurb:
Yao Qiao once said, "If someone can't make my heart flutter in three minutes, they'll never get into my heart in this lifetime."
"So you only believe in love at first sight, Sis?"
"To put it bluntly, that's just being attracted to someone's looks."
At eighteen, Miss Yao told her sixteen-year-old sister Xu Qingning, who had a huge crush on the school heartthrob, this with an air of nonchalance.
Then, with her lofty attitude that she was too good for everyone, she remained single until she was twenty-eight. By then, Xu Qingning had become Mrs. Jiang, and she asked her sister, "Sis, why not try believing in love that grows over time?"
It was great that her sister lived so freely and carelessly, but having nothing but work every day was dull. She ought to find something fun to do.
"Love that grows over time? Are you sure that's not just deciding to compromise after weighing the pros and cons?" Though Miss Yao had a happy family, loving parents, and a close bond with her sister, she had little interest in love, until she met Ji Lin, a young man who also failed to make her heart flutter within 180 seconds.
But perhaps it was at the 181st second that she hesitated. And so he crossed her threshold, shed his refined and elegant facade, and barged into her heart with the brashness of a wolf pup.
Bonus scene:
Drunk, Ji Lin took off the gold-rimmed glasses he always wore, revealing a pair of slightly hazy foxlike eyes. His eyes were a little red, and at first glance, he looked terribly aggrieved. "They said you had a first love you liked for years. He went abroad, and I look like him. You're using me as a stand-in, aren't you?"
Were the financial reports not enough to keep him occupied, or had she not given him enough work? How could he come up with such wild ideas? "No. Don't overthink it." Yao Qiao didn't want to waste her breath on a drunk.
"You're brushing me off..." Ji Lin didn't get to finish before she covered his mouth.
"Be good. You're drunk." She even humored him for once.
Early the next morning, when Ji Lin woke up, the house was empty. There was only a note on the dining table: If I had a first love abroad, there'd be no place for you. It's not like I can't afford a plane ticket. Also, drink less. My boyfriend can be 26, but he can't be 6.
Theme: Loving yourself comes first.
