Cheese Coaxes Cream Puffs

[The main story is complete. The advance blurb for my next book, Don't Peek at My Love Letters, is at the very bottom. Please add it to your reading list, ovo.]

Blurb:

Tang Sifu has been doted on her whole life. A true haughty heiress, she's used to being spoiled and doing whatever she likes. She never expected to be promised in marriage to the Song family's young master, Song Zhizhou.

Rumor has it that the young master of the Song family is refined, elegant, and exceptionally intelligent. He has been involved in the family's affairs alongside his elders since childhood, and is the power behind the Song family's throne. Unfortunately, he never appears in public. No one knows what he looks like, and he remains mysterious and low-profile.

Gossip is everywhere. Most people say he probably doesn't look very good, and stays out of sight to save face.

Tang Sifu sighed when she heard that. Damn these family-arranged marriages.

Her older brother, Tang Siyu, loved his little sister dearly and couldn't bear to see her married off just like that. On the day of the engagement, he went so far as to dress as a woman, put on the bridal outfit in her place, and pull off a switcheroo.

-

With her older brother's help, Tang Sifu boarded a plane and fled all the way to a small town in Florence, Italy.

By the river, a refined and handsome young man approached. He took off his black hat and bowed like a gentleman. "My name is Tommy. Would I be so fortunate as to invite you to dinner?"

Tang Sifu smiled and casually made up a name. "I'm Jerris."

Tommy took her to an art museum, accompanied her to visit a church, and treated her to local snacks.

He told her his fiancee had run away, and he had come out to clear his head.

Tang Sifu clapped her hands with heartfelt sympathy. "Goodness, she really doesn't know a good thing when she's got it."

On the day she left, she gave the young man a big hug and said regretfully, "You're a good person. I hope you find someone wonderful. Maybe we'll meet again someday!"

They really were destined to meet again. At the second stop on Tang Sifu's escape, she ran into him once more, by some strange twist of fate, and they even became neighbors.

Song Zhizhou smiled warmly. "Hi, Jerris. What a coincidence."

Tang Sifu narrowed her eyes. "Hi, Tommy. We really do keep running into each other."

-

A few months later, Tang Sifu was heading out with her suitcase, planning to run away again, when she happened to bump into Tommy coming back.

"You're leaving?"

Tommy's gaze darkened, his voice low.

"Yeah..." Tang Sifu hadn't finished speaking when Tommy grabbed her by the wrist.

"You can't get away."

He lowered his eyes and moved to corner her.

The faint scent of alcohol drifted to her nose, intoxicating her.

Tang Sifu thought, Oh no. This guy's drunk.

"Y-you have a fiancee. Don't go grabbing at me!"

"It's always been you. Stop pretending, Tang Sifu."

"...?"

You're the one who's been pretending this whole time!

#The years of Tommy and Jerris chasing each other around#

#Jerris runs in circles, but still can't escape Tommy's grasp#

-Here's an advance blurb. If you're interested, please add it to your reading list, qwq.

Don't Peek at My Love Letters

A sweet, gentle, and easygoing girl x a cool, scheming heartthrob

Snow fell in winter. Xia Weizhi stepped out of a cafe with a cup of milk tea in her hands and gazed into the distance. Suddenly, her breath caught.

He was walking toward her from across the street, wearing a black trench coat. His figure was tall and straight, snowflakes resting on his black hair, his features as beautiful as a painting.

Xia Weizhi lowered her eyes and passed him by.

A faint, clean woody scent drifted to her nose, and her heart, calm for so long, began to race.

No matter how much time passed, seeing him again still made her heart flutter.

But the feelings she'd had as a girl had long since turned to dust.

She stumbled up the steps.

Then a voice suddenly sounded behind her, warm and elegant, like clear jade chimes.

"Little junior, shouldn't you say hello when you see your senior?"

She turned abruptly, and Xu Yanchen's gentle smile met her eyes.

Everyone said Xu Yanchen was gentle and aloof, came from a good family, and was talented, like a star in the sky, too distant to reach. But now he'd let go of that cool reserve and was smiling warmly.

As if they had known each other for years.

-

When she was younger, Xia Weizhi had a secret crush on Xu Yanchen. She wrote him thirty-three love letters, each one pouring out a girl's tender feelings.

In the last one, she wrote: The truth is, the only thing I love is my own delusion and fantasy.

After a lecture one day, she was about to pack her bag and leave when a cool voice suddenly sounded beside her.

"Why are you hiding so far away from me?"

Xia Weizhi got nervous and edged toward the corner, covering her eyes as she mumbled, "Senior, I don't think we're that close..."

Xu Yanchen raised an eyebrow and said mildly, "You left a box of love letters on my desk the day before yesterday."

Xia Weizhi's eyes flew open. ...You didn't read them, did you?

Xu Yanchen smiled faintly. "What do you think?"

When she got home and opened the journal of love letters, she saw a note scrawled on the front page:

"He's alive. No need to fantasize."

Furious and blushing, she messaged Xu Yanchen: Senior, how could you read someone else's love letters?

A few seconds later, he replied.

"Because the cover said, 'To Xu Yanchen, my love.'"

++

At that moment, Xia Weizhi wanted to tear up the entire box of letters and eat them.

Instead, she messaged an online friend she'd happened to add: Help, I don't like him anymore, but what do I do if I accidentally sent him my love letters?

Behind the screen, using a young girl's secret identity, Xu Yanchen calmly typed.

[You have to take responsibility. {Cute}] ++

He wasn't deliberately pretending to be a girl. She'd just gotten the wrong idea, and there was nothing he could do about it. :)

-A girl's secret crush comes true, from college to city life, with high school flashbacks.

Theme: Be brave and pursue love.