The Game of Heartbeats

[Coming soon: my school romance, "A Confession as Summer Approaches." Please add it to your favorites!]

When Le Siyin is looking for inspiration for a perfume at a bar, she meets a man.

He looks refined and aloof, with a tall, straight figure. Girls crowd around him, but he remains unmoved.

Warm and cool lights shift across his handsome, sharply defined face and those flirtatious eyes, making him seem like a silent temptation.

Their eyes meet, and the flirtation begins. Le Siyin falls in love at first sight.

That night, Le Siyin gets the inspiration she hoped for. To make sure he doesn't feel he got the short end of the stick, she gives him a bottle of perfume with a note: "A reward for you."

It isn't until the next day's trending news breaks that Le Siyin learns she was flirting with none other than Qi Huo, head of the Qi Group.

Everyone knows the current head of the Qi family is a force to be reckoned with, yet despite his wealth and looks, he's an ascetic monk in all but name.

But Le Siyin refuses to believe it.

The second time they meet, she approaches him and strikes up a conversation, smiling as she looks at him and makes her intentions clear. "How about being my boyfriend?"

The answer is exactly what she expects: "No."

The third time they meet, Le Siyin approaches him again. "Qi Huo, how about we play a game?"

"Give me a hundred days, and I'll make you fall for me."

This time, Qi Huo doesn't refuse.

*

At first, Qi Huo agrees to play along only to get out of an arranged marriage.

After signing a marriage agreement, he doesn't take the hundred-day game seriously.

The girl in front of him is certainly beautiful, but she's not his type.

But he doesn't expect that from the very start of their thrilling game, he'll fall into her trap.

Her endless teasing and flirting draw him deeper and deeper in, until he gradually becomes infatuated with her.

-

Later, when the hundred-day deadline arrives, Le Siyin ends their thrilling game as promised.

After their engagement ends, she's at the bar flirting with a new target when Qi Huo suddenly appears and pulls her into an empty corridor.

Their breathing is ragged. Le Siyin can clearly smell the whisky on his breath, strong and intoxicating.

The man's lips trail from her collarbone up her neck before finally stopping beside her ear. His voice is low and sexy with a hint of drunkenness. "Now that the game has started, you have to take responsibility for me to the very end."

Le Siyin: "Being chosen by me is extremely dangerous."

Qi Huo: "It's an honor."

Flirtatious perfumer x refined, chaste CEO

-------Blurb for "A Confession as Summer Approaches"-----

**"To you, we merely passed each other. To me, you were the whole summer." A secret crush comes true

The day the countdown to the summer solstice hits zero, I'm going to confess to him.

At seventeen, Lin Xia first meets Chi Ye in an empty alley.

The boy in a white school uniform is surrounded by people in the corner, his clothes torn and disheveled.

She hurriedly pulls out her phone to call the police. But a few minutes later, when the boy emerges, his pure white uniform is completely free of dirt.

Lin Xia quickly flees the scene, never imagining the boy would become her classmate.

Later, wanting to save the boy from going astray, she starts helping him out of kindness.

She keeps him awake during class, tutors him, and even secretly slips motivational books into his desk.

It isn't until the monthly exam results come out and Lin Xia sees the name beside the number one spot that she realizes the truth.

But he'd already found the motivational book in his desk. Lin Xia stammers, "Let me explain."

The boy simply looks down at her and says in a carefree tone, "You care about me so much. Do you like me?"

At that moment, Lin Xia panics.

Maybe she really does like him, just a little.

*

At seventeen, Lin Xia falls for a boy named Chi Ye.

Her young love is cautious, hidden deep in her heart.

She decides to confess to him on the summer solstice when she turns eighteen.

But just one second after midnight on the summer solstice, she gets a call from Chi Ye: "Happy birthday, Lin Xia."

And then he says one more thing.

The boy's confession is innocent and passionate.

"I like you. Will you be with me?"

Theme: Dreams always come true.