The Confessional Chapel

‖A naive exiled girl x a tough, handsome cop with boyfriend energy

As an international student, Yu Xingye was definitely one of the least hardworking around.

Either she stayed home playing video games day and night, or she went out drinking and dancing.

That night, she'd just said goodbye to her friends beneath the glittering disco ball and gotten home when, in a ridiculous mix-up, she called the police.

The tall, long-legged young officer looked down at her and asked if anything in the house had been disturbed, and whether anything valuable was missing.

Yu Xingye seemed not to notice the mess all around her. She could see only the officer's uniform and handsome face.

Her panic vanished in an instant, and she brazenly blurted out:

"I don't think anything valuable is missing, but I've lost my heart. I'll need the handsome officer's number to get it back."

Before Reid left, he fixed the light in Yu Xingye's home, then turned her down.

"You don't need my number. Just remember 911."

Before long, she really did dial those three digits again. Reid, however, regretted not getting there in time.

Later, Yu Xingye kept up all her other bad habits and had plenty to say in defense of her downward spiral.

Reid couldn't agree. He looked her in the eyes and said seriously:

"This isn't rebellion. It's childishness."

No matter how childish Yu Xingye was, she still cared about saving face. Her smile vanished, and she sent him away, then shrank back into her little home, shutting out people and light alike.

Then the rainy season arrived, and someone knocked on the door of her little home, claiming to be there to fix a light bulb.

When she opened the door, there he was in that handsome uniform, with those same deep, emerald-green eyes.

That night, the Holy Spirit apologized, and a god bowed his head.

He led her into the wilderness, then took her to the highest mountain and pointed out the stars scattered across the slopes and the moonlight above.

From then on, the lights in Yu Xingye's home never went out again.

[Blurb for the upcoming The Gray Rhino's Horn]

‖An ambitious rookie reporter x a power-hungry, sadistic senator

To help Senator Clarence Morton secure the services of a certain lobbyist, Zhong Qin, a reporter with no particular skills, struggled for three weeks on K Street in Washington.

After getting the lobbyist's verbal agreement, she hurried back to her rental and stayed up all night writing an article for Mr. Morton.

Before dawn, Zhong Qin walked the rain-washed streets once more, delivering her manuscript to the office in the Capitol.

Mr. Morton's secretary received her in the outer office. There was no offer of a seat, no tea or coffee. A brief verbal thank-you, and he was already seeing her out.

As she turned to leave, Zhong Qin glanced at the closed office door. A faint light spilled from beneath it.

The secretary took the manuscript into the office and handed it to Clarence.

The tall, resolute silhouette of a man stood by the window. The dim desk lamp could not illuminate his figure, swallowed by the dark. Only the cigar between his fingers glowed.

"No need to show me. From now on, her articles can go straight to publication."

The secretary put the manuscript away, then couldn't help asking, "Is that person on K Street really so important to us? And Miss Zhong..."

"Of course not. I don't need that person at all."

Clarence turned around and said, word by word:

"This is nothing more than a test of her obedience."

Yet even Clarence Morton, so skilled at manipulating power and people's hearts, could be careless sometimes.

He could even forget that games of taming are always played by both sides.

[Blurb for the ongoing Borrowed Fire]

‖A master of playing sweet and well-behaved x a wily old lawyer who gets burned by a replacement

Everyone in the Bay Area's Big Law circle knew that Karl, a partner-level transactional lawyer and the cream of the crop, always worked for money. One little scheme from him, and you could almost hear the coins landing in his pocket.

He had once run errands for a young girl, too. She was just the daughter of a wealthy, foolish client.

But at some point, a well-behaved Chinese girl started following Karl around. Big eyes, black hair, head bowed as she whispered into his ear.

He actually bent down to listen. Then he let her reach up and push his gold-rimmed glasses back into place as they slipped down his high nose. He gently held the back of her head and stroked her hair in praise.

Everyone around them was so shocked they could barely speak. Some even wondered if he'd become addicted to raising a girl. Had the old fox really become the sort to indulge a little white rabbit?

The girl heard them gossiping and showed no reaction. Lips pressed together, she quietly carried on helping Karl with his cards, looking every bit the devoted one.

Karl had thought so too. After all, she was his little rabbit, whom he'd taken in and raised by his side.

It wasn't until he saw the will from three years ago that he understood what it meant to have more than one way out, and to stumble at the last hurdle.

It turned out his little girl had never been short of money. What she lacked was a replacement who resembled the person who'd left her a vast inheritance closely enough.

The yellowed, brittle pages were carefully slipped back into the kraft-paper envelope. The refined fingers that had always held a pen and marked up paper clenched into a fist, then trembled as they reluctantly relaxed.

"If he left it to you, then keep it. No one else needs to know."

"As for what I give you, can we keep doing things the way we always have...?"

Theme: Love is growth