The First One's Darling

My next novel, Sugar-Coated Marriage, is now available. Here's the blurb:

Marriage first, love later. A goofy heiress X a scheming CEO.

When Jiang Ying was sixteen, she met Shen Jue. She thought he was so handsome that, without thinking, she asked him to pick her up on the stairs.

Shen Jue: ...

Four years later at a banquet, Jiang Ying heard the rumor that Shen Jue was “impotent.” She blurted out, “Poor Mr. Shen!” and kindly consoled him: “Even with a disability, you can still work miracles.”

Shen Jue: ...

After a lovely, awkward conversation full of mutual misunderstanding and flirtation, Jiang Ying struggled desperately to turn down his affection.

It was so hard! Tears everywhere...

*

As it happened, the Jiang family was on the verge of bankruptcy. Shen Jue, nursing his wounded pride, laid a contract in front of Jiang Ying and said coldly, “Marry me for two years, and I'll save the Jiang family.”

Jiang Ying figured she had nothing to lose and happily signed the papers and got her marriage license.

But he kept flirting with her and dropping hints, while she wouldn't let him get close. Jiang Ying finally realized she was the one having the worst time of all.

Then one day, drunk, the goofy little bunny pounced on the big bad wolf and decided to take him down...

??? Why was she the one who got eaten? What happened to him being “impotent”?

Shen Jue: ... So that's why you turned me down back then?

Jiang Ying: Yeah. What else?

“What a humiliating disgrace!”

Blurb:

A sweet little romance. The male lead wastes no time winning her over: a devoted schemer VS a woman who doesn't know how to read the room.

At a party, Lin Wan discovers she's just a stand-in, so she promptly gives her gift to Gu Jin, the top name on the campus heartthrob list.

Gu Jin is aloof, comes from a wealthy family, and always turns girls down. Yet he accepts Lin Wan's gift and smiles like a spring breeze. “I'll ask you out again tomorrow.”

Lin Wan: What?

The onlooking students: What???

*

Rumors fly everywhere. His admirers can't believe the campus heartthrob would like Lin Wan. She must be a scheming woman, shamelessly chasing Gu Jin.

Gu Jin: “How is she chasing me? I'm the one pursuing her.”

...Yet the night before he graduates, Lin Wan, who can't read the room, politely turns him down.

Gu Jin's smile slowly fades. He asks coldly, “Is this the graduation gift you're giving me?”

*

During summer break, Lin Wan is “blessed by fate” with an internship as a junior assistant at a certain company. On her first day, a familiar figure enters her line of sight.

His features are icy, his gaze sharp as a blade. He glances at Lin Wan with a half-raised brow.

Lin Wan is stunned. G-Gu Jin is the president of this company???

“Um... Is it too late to withdraw from the internship?”

She thinks she's bound to be given a hard time, so why is everything at work going so smoothly?

*

Someone asks, perplexed, “What do you like about her?”

Gu Jin smiles faintly. “She has the embarrassing stuff from my edgy teenage phase. What else can I do? Spoil her, of course.”

Blurb for A Marriage That Stirs the Heart:

Sweet heiress X scheming CEO. Marriage first, love later~

Rumor has it that Shen Jue, the young head of the Shen Group, has a problem in that department. That's why he focused entirely on his career after returning from studying abroad, and keeps women at arm's length.

At a gathering, Ye Xu looks at Shen Jue, five years her senior, with sympathy and thinks to herself: Poor Mr. Shen!

Shen Jue: ...

*

Little did she know that she was the one who'd end up worse off.

Shortly after Ye Xu turns twenty, she discovers the Ye family's fortune has been completely drained.

To save the family business her parents built, her older sister Ye Shu decides to follow Shen Jue's suggestion: marry Ye Xu to Shen Jue in exchange for an investment.

“Big Sis, he can't even perform! You're sending me straight into a pit of fire!”

Ye Xu once promised their father, before he died, that she would help her sister protect the Ye family. She has no choice but to accept the “contract marriage,” after which she'll be free once the term is up.

*

The first day of marriage.

Mr. Shen is so cool and handsome. Ye Xu figures that just looking at his face is nice enough.

A few days into the marriage.

Mr. Shen seems to be looking at her strangely.

The Nth day of marriage.

Ye Xu finally realizes she's been tricked!

Many days later.

“Honey, swallow the Ruan family whole and kick my scumbag brother-in-law out of the Ruan company. Transfer his shares to my name.”

“Easy enough. But what's the reason?”

Ye Xu gives him a little kiss on the lips. “Isn't that reason enough?”

Theme: Facing the future together