A Heartbeat's Temptation

[Pre-release: Ridge Snow Rose, a secret-crush story, and my darling Hu Ren's pre-release Springtime Whispers (Esports). Blurbs at the very bottom. If you're interested, please add them to your favorites!]

At sixteen, Tan Muqi fell in love at first sight with Ning Yunyan, who was full of youthful confidence on the sports field.

Later, thanks to her family's status, her secret crush finally became a reality. She thought it was the beginning of a beautiful dream.

For two years of being engaged to Ning Yunyan, Tan Muqi felt she had fulfilled all the duties expected of a fiancée.

No matter how cold and indifferent Ning Yunyan was, she could keep their engagement going with the love in her heart.

In a lavish bar's private room, the men were all having a grand time.

Everyone saw Ning Yunyan sitting there drinking, with no intention of leaving, and started teasing him. "Director Ning, it's so late and you're still not going home. Won't your fiancée get mad?"

Ning Yunyan drained his glass. His voice was low, one hand resting casually on the leather sofa behind him as a wisp of smoke drifted past his impeccably tailored suit. "We're just using each other. Who said I ever took her seriously?"

The men in the private room burst into laughter, but outside the door, Tan Muqi clenched the ring in her hand.

Then, maintaining a graceful smile, she entered the room.

Her long dress accentuated her alluring figure. Amid the startled stares, she flung the ring at Ning Yunyan's face. "Then let's end our engagement."

Two years later, in the same private room, the group watched Ning Yunyan with amused expressions. "What, still haven't talked your wife into coming back?"

Ning Yunyan looked displeased, his face drawn and tired. "Almost."

But that very night, he saw Tan Muqi enter a hotel, wearing a high-slit qipao and chatting and laughing intimately with the man beside her.

He waited outside all night. What he got in return was Tan Muqi, wearing a silk slip nightdress, smiling seductively as she asked him, "Director Ning, don't tell me you actually took it seriously."

Everyone in Beicheng's upper circles knew Ning Yunyan was aloof and noble, never bound by love.

But on the day his film won an award, he openly professed his love to Tan Muqi, seated below the stage:

"I will love you forever."

Her only response was a post on Weibo that night: Don't use me for clout. Don't mention me.

Fans: Which one of you is using the other for clout?!

When the stars shine bright, we hide our love in our eyes.

Highlights:

1. This has a very old-school romance feel. If you don't like it, feel free to leave. We'll all be happier that way. Thank you.

2. Personal attacks are not acceptable. You can criticize anything in the story, but please don't insult the author.

Blurb dated 2021.7.13 / Screenshot saved

= Pre-release: Ridge Snow Rose (secret-crush story) =

At sixteen, Wen Ying met Chu Yan for the first time.

The boy wore a white shirt and black trousers. With a gentle expression and a smile, he walked right past her.

From then on, Wen Ying's heart fluttered like a startled fawn. Chu Yan, however, never realized how she felt, and treated her only as a younger sister from a prominent family.

Years later, Chu Yan became a highly sought-after Best Actor.

Wen Ying, meanwhile, was a little-known actress in the entertainment industry.

After falling out with her family, Wen Ying got drunk at a bar and unexpectedly ran into Chu Yan again.

Taking advantage of her drunkenness and the bar's lighting, she concealed the clarity in her eyes.

Pretending to be out of it, she stumbled against Chu Yan.

Her red lips parted, and the fragrance of her perfume was irresistibly alluring.

Dressed in a suit, Chu Yan was as courteous as ever. His expression was gentle but distant as he helped her up.

Before he could pull his hand away, Wen Ying wrapped her arm around his. Her voice was soft and sweet. "Would you marry me?"

She spoke under the influence of alcohol, thinking Chu Yan would brush it off as a joke.

She never expected him to agree.

They kept their engagement secret and met only once a month, on the first day.

Chu Yan was gentle and courteous. Once, when he came home and saw Wen Ying return drenched after falling into the water, his gaze darkened.

That night, when they "rekindled their feelings," Chu Yan was clearly suppressing his anger.

The next morning, Wen Ying received a job offer.

People in the entertainment industry said Wen Ying was lucky, able to win the Best Actress award with just one role.

Only Wen Ying knew what she had traded for that position.

And she knew that she wasn't the person in Chu Yan's heart.

They continued their marriage of convenience, until the media accidentally photographed them entering the same residential complex.

That night, their relationship was exposed.

Wen Ying tried several times to clear things up, but in the end she didn't know what to say.

Finally, she drew up divorce papers and knocked on the door of Chu Yan's study.

The room was dim. The tall man stood by the window.

A faint ember glowed between his fingers.

Its flickering light made his features look even more striking, but his eyes were churning with barely concealed emotion.

Wen Ying stepped forward and placed the agreement on the table.

Before she could speak, Chu Yan pinned her against the table. His voice was low, laced with anger. "Don't even think about divorcing me."

Highlights:

She has a secret crush on him. He's a super self-indulgent male lead. If that's not your thing, please leave. No real-life inspiration, so don't read it that way.

= Hu Ren's Springtime Whispers [Esports] =

- A touch of healing / Esports / rekindled romance

- A hearing-impaired, sensitive concept artist X a cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside sharpshooter

In high school, Meng Yushan was insecure and sensitive, but gradually fell in love with her desk mate, He Chen.

On the day she worked up the courage to confess, He Chen coldly rejected the most beautiful girl in their grade. His words were blunt and hurtful: "I don't like quiet, introverted girls like you."

Meng Yushan clenched her love letter, feeling as if she could see her own fate.

After the college entrance exams, her belated rebellious streak made her act without thinking. Meng Yushan confessed to him while drunk, and, to her surprise, became He Chen's girlfriend.

He Chen treated her well, fulfilling every duty of a boyfriend. Their first time together, he gave her a tenderness and love she had never experienced before.

Yet even so, her insecure heart still made her suspicious of He Chen. After one reckless night, Meng Yushan broke up with him.

-

Years later, He Chen became Whisper, the celebrated sharpshooter of the game GrabSights, while Meng Yushan could only look up from the dim audience seats as he was crowned in a shower of golden confetti.

After Whisper won the championship, the game developer invited Meng Yushan to design the championship skin.

During the creative interview, she knew He Chen was watching her, but kept avoiding his gaze.

Someone like He Chen was far beyond her. If she looked at him for even a moment longer, she would fall for him all over again.

At last, when it was over, Meng Yushan fled, only to be cornered by him in the hallway.

He Chen still smelled just as he had back then. Even the pleading whisper in her ear was unchanged. "Why are you hiding?"

"I won back the flowers and the trophy. What I mean is, when are you coming back to me?"

※ Weibo: @Jinjiang Peach Milk Foam

※ GrabSights is an FPS game I made up, shortened to GS. Its pro league is called the GSPL. The league format is my own version, so please don't scrutinize it for accuracy.

※ Latest version of the blurb written on 2022/09/18

Theme: Grow toward the sun

2":"[Also known as: The Everyday Life of a Construction Maniac]

Lin Tutu studied history, but she's a lazybones who graduated straight into unemployment. With no other choice, she went home to grow tea.

One day, while surveying the soil, she fell off a cliff during a sudden crisis. When she opened her eyes, she'd transmigrated to an ancient era where people couldn't even afford food! And she'd become the prophesied Ziwei Star, the one destined to win the world?

Looking at the leaky thatched hut around her and the coarse, barely edible food by her mouth, Lin Tutu shook her head.

Well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Lin Tutu rolled up her sleeves and got to work!

To her surprise:

In just one day, she solved the problem of the Lingnan tribes having to cut down trees;

Her very first rice harvest yielded two shi per mu, breaking the national record;

She also stumbled across "sweet potatoes," a golden crop that yielded thousands of jin per mu;

With her own efforts, she filled the granaries throughout the Zhou Kingdom.

Seeing all this, King Zhou, who had never believed in prophecy, exclaimed, "Whoever gains the Ziwei Star gains the world!"

He even established an Agriculture Ministry specifically for Lin Tutu, putting her in charge of the nation's agricultural production.

With power in her hands, Lin Tutu expanded rice and sweet potato cultivation, bred superior seeds, built canals, and cultivated fine cotton. The Zhou Kingdom, long plagued by famine, built countless granaries, and its people no longer had to fear the winter!

After Lin Tutu took charge of the kingdom's agriculture, the people of Zhou were never again left hungry and freezing.

The people therefore revered Lin Tutu as a living God of Agriculture.

This is a story about a divided world being reunited, a weak kingdom rising up, and a nation unifying the land.

See how Lin Tutu uses her knowledge of history to pursue great ambitions amid a chaotic age and lay the foundations for a new and powerful kingdom, one step at a time.

[An overpowered rise to success, and the satisfaction of building from the ground up]

[Please add to your favorites and let it build up!]

Theme: Infrastructure building, and the satisfaction of creating something from nothing

3":"I first saw her at my sister's wedding. She was my sister's makeup artist. It was love at first sight, an attraction to her looks, and a puzzling curiosity about the strange way she and my sister looked at each other. I discovered the past between the makeup artist and my sister, but by then love had already taken root in my heart...

Theme: True love above all

4":"I may change the setup and turn this into a short novella to include in Ordinary People's Love Story next door. Feel free to move your lovely self over and add it to your favorites in advance :P

*

Hello, I'm Alexis Agronov, a graduate of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. I currently live in Brooklyn.

This book tells my story.

*

Three things that have been troubling Agron lately:

1. One of my newly discovered mutant powers is seeing other people's opinions of me materialize above their heads.

2. The first time I met the new neighbor across the hall, I saw a huge heart bouncing above their head.

3. My new neighbor is none other than the legendary blonde-haired, blue-eyed, broad-chested, shapely-bottomed Captain America.

*

No outline, no advance chapters, just starting on a burst of enthusiasm. It might be a cozy, funny story about everyday life. Who knows?

The characters may be out of character, and I've eaten the timeline. Canon purists, please don't come after me. Everyone is welcome to read this without overthinking it.

I'm sensitive and overly sentimental, so please leave lots of comments to encourage me. Muah!

Theme: Choose to stand firm in your own sense of justice

5":"- Before you start -

0. Updates will be slow, or whenever inspiration strikes. What do you mean, "will it ever be updated"?!

1. My interpretation of the characters may make them out of character. The protagonist is an original character whose setting is still a work in progress;

2. The author will occasionally pop up in the text to make comments. You can think of the author as the protagonist's Paimon, but only the protagonist can hear them;

3. Apart from Chapter One, there may be zero to seven note-like entries, depending on the situation;

4. I wrote this for myself and only hope to have a clear conscience. If anyone enjoys it, that would be a great honor to me;

5. The protagonist's surname is [Zhongli], and he has no given name, so the [Nameless] in the story may refer to him as well (October 26, 2021);

6. I couldn't keep things running because of a technical problem, so I had some free time to tinker with it again. Some locations may be a little different from before...

7. Usually I won't revise or fix errors, because I'm afraid to revisit my embarrassing past (?).

8. I'll add more if I think of anything.

Black hair and golden eyes are a very common combination. The first character I ever designed looked like that, and I've kept using the same design ever since.

That is, until one day, a game came out with a character who looked just like him.

Even more coincidentally, they had the same name.

The game character was famous and had lots of fans. Mine was different: I'd only just remembered him.

So, for reasons I can't quite explain, I sent him into this world to be the protagonist of the story I was writing.

I gave him a little program. He could decide for himself where to go and what to do. I, the author, would only make suggestions.

[Creator's Diary]

Day One after he arrived there:

I changed him into new clothes and gave him a new setting... Ah, it's raining there... Whew, good thing someone picked him up.

Wait, someone picked him up?!

Oh, a new friend...

# Original blurb below #

How he introduced himself before:

I'm Zhongli. My family gave me a plot of land to grow medicinal herbs on, so it'd be easier for me to get medical treatment.

How he introduces himself now:

... I am Zhongli, of the Zhongli clan, Nameless. I suppose you could call me an adventurer who takes commissions, and I am an alchemist.

Meta scenes

*Meta comes from "meta" in metafiction. Simply put, it means a game character realizing they're a character in a game and breaking free of the System's control, and so on.

*There is only one such character in the entire story.

There's not much difference between before and now. It's just that after the creator found out that Zhongli likes them, and that he's a famous character, they've kept thinking about him.

Anonymous creator: That's not why! I mean, yes, I did remember you because of the Geo Archon in Genshin Impact... But I put a lot of thought into your character setup, Zhongli!

Zhongli: Mm.

Anonymous creator: Aww... I feel like you believe me even less now...

Zhongli: ...? No, please don't

Anonymous creator: You must be mad that I took away your name and even wanted someone else to replace you...

Zhongli: (sighs, then tries to comfort them with a gentle pat from afar)

Theme: Your existence in this world is unique and irreplaceable.

6":"My mind's a blank. What should I call it?

[456: Host, about the split for this time...]

"Don't worry, I won't shortchange you."

[456: (/≧▽≦)/~┴┴ ]

Ah, this is so badly written. It'll become an embarrassing relic of the past, won't it?

Theme: No matter what, you should still enjoy living.

7":"I want to get away from my phone

Theme: May I succeed in quitting my phone

8":"As a repairer of the Study System, Ruo Pu transmigrates through multiple eras to select high school students as Hosts, all to expand the limits of the human brain.

First story: The chubby nobody

Second story: The pretty vase-like older sister

Third story: The sweaty jock

Fourth story: The unlucky kid who gets diarrhea before every exam

... To be continued

Theme: Study hard, live well

9":"When Yue Li was forging her life-bound sword, she encountered the rare Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation. She couldn't survive it. Her body was blasted to dust, her soul shattered and scattered, and she reincarnated.

When she opened her eyes, she saw her human mother and a father who was clearly a demon cultivator.

Her demon-cultivator father gave her a name that sounded like Dog Yasha:

Yue Li: Your naming skills are so bad they kill brain cells! You're the yasha, your whole family's yasha... Damn it, I just insulted myself too!

Later, Yue Li learned that she was a half-demon, half human and half dog!

She also had an older brother, a real dog.

Later still, she and her dog brother became the classic examples of single dogs in everyone's eyes!

King Lingyue: You two useless things! You're hundreds of years old and neither of you has found a partner!

Dog Brother's current partner: No comment needed. Miss Dog Sister is the most imposing girl in my heart. No man can compare!

Dog Brother's ex: A dog sister with such powerful spiritual energy shouldn't waste her time on love. Cultivation is the right path.

The Boss: What? Who'd dare want a terrifying woman like that, straight out of a yasha legend! Whatever you do, don't let her know I exist! Stay as far away from that she-demon as possible!

A friendly reminder from the author:

1. This is a crossover with plenty of fanon. Characters may be out of character. I'll do my best to avoid it, but proceed with caution if that bothers you.

2. The second dog is gender-swapped, and the female lead's soul is reincarnated.

3. The female lead is extremely overpowered. This is a feel-good power fantasy.

4. Started on 2021.11.5.

Please add my new crossover story to your favorites: Sesshomaru's Daughter's Crossover Adventure, Has Little Dog Sister Grown Up Today?

Blurb: Yue Chaoxi was born into nobility. Her father was the White Dog Demon Venerable, King of the Western Lands, and her mother was a powerful cultivator. With the blood of both immortals and demons, she was undoubtedly a genius.

But while cultivating her demon form, something went wrong with her flawless spiritual energy, and she regressed into a puppy. Unfortunately, she was in the middle of an adventure in a small world at the time...

A certain blond, dark-skinned, triple-faced public security officer had been feeling rather troubled lately. His white Shiba Inu, Haro, had brought home another white puppy.

Thinking his job was too dangerous to raise another puppy, the officer planned to put the white dog up for adoption.

But then the little white dog started talking!

Little Dog Sister: I'm a cultivator here to train in this small world. I can grant your wishes!

The officer, firmly committed to science: If I had a wish, it'd be for the organization to be destroyed as soon as possible...

So, a few days later, at a meeting where the organization was making a deal, Little Dog Sister suddenly transformed into a giant demon dog and was about to eat everyone there.

The officer was horrified. "Stop right there!!!"

The public security officer finally realized something was wrong. After Little Dog Sister turned back into a tiny puppy, he gave her a stern warning: "You absolutely must not eat people!!!"

Little Dog Sister looked aggrieved. "I was granting your wish!"

The officer made it clear that he didn't want wishes granted like that.

Little Dog Sister: "Then do you have any other wishes?"

After thinking for a long time, the officer decided to name a wish that seemed impossible: "I have a few classmates from the academy... I wish they could come back to life..."

Then the officer blacked out. When he opened his eyes, he discovered he had returned to the day he first entered the police academy...

Theme: Create your own life!

10":"A cruelly treated adopted son, plagued by suspicion and relentlessly climbing the ladder, X a beloved consort who always keeps a clear head.

Rumor had it that after the new emperor ascended the throne, Mingzheng Palace housed a consort more beautiful than the famed "Minggui," Miss Lu, but she had never once stepped outside its gates. Wei Wan rescued Yan Qiao outside Linhua Palace. Wei Wan always thought her act of kindness was a fluke, but she didn't know it was something Yan Qiao had tried to bring about countless times. Night after night, Yan Qiao woke from the mire of his nightmares. He watched rose thorns, sharp as blades, pierce his warm, beating heart, as blood flowed without end. An imperial edict sent Wei Wan to the most bitterly cold, war-torn Anse, temporarily quieting the turmoil of her feelings, but it also pushed Yan Qiao's despairing heart into an even more impossible abyss. He gave a self-mocking smile. Anse was the fate that the person he loved most had chosen for him with her own hands. That day, the sound of hooves shattered the silence of Zijin City. The carriage raced past without slowing for a moment. It was the emperor's deep devotion.

Theme: There will always be someone who accepts your shadows and heals your nightmares, until they pull you out of the mire.