Prey

[Main story complete]

Mad with love / I'm your best prey

Gu Xiaozhi had been secretly in love with Shen Ke for seven whole years.

Shen Ke was aloof and kept to himself. She was the only woman by his side, so everyone assumed they were together. In reality, they had never even held hands.

One day, a mutual friend quietly told her that Shen Ke seemed about to confess to her. She hurried downstairs, thrilled, and ran to him. But he turned aside to avoid her, his expression distant. "If I gave you the wrong idea before, I apologize."

Just like that, it was over, and they became strangers. She heard that he had started racing. The once restrained, well-behaved man now never went anywhere without cigarettes or alcohol, but none of it had anything to do with her anymore.

Two years later, Gu Xiaozhi was framed at work, and her company told her to lie low overseas. She chose to go to Las Vegas and drink herself silly.

In a bar, hazy with alcohol, she spotted an Asian man in a white T-shirt beside her. He looked so much like Shen Ke, the man she still kept hidden in her heart.

She realized she still missed him so much, but more than anything, she wanted to put an end to those feelings. As the man was about to leave, she grabbed him without hesitation. "Have a drink with me. It's on me."

"Anything you want?" "Anything you want!"

The man lowered his gaze to the wrist she was gripping and smiled. "You said it. Don't regret it."

One intoxicating night. When she woke up the next day, her phone was flooded with congratulations, her social media was blowing up, and two marriage certificates lay beside the bed.

Gu Xiaozhi's hands trembled as she shook the man awake. Her eyes widened in shock. "How could it be you...?"

After a night of abandon, her voice was hoarse.

At the sound of her voice, Shen Ke opened his eyes and stared at her. He opened his arms to hug her, but Gu Xiaozhi recoiled in alarm, as if she'd been shocked.

Shen Ke froze. His gaze turned deep and inscrutable. "Xiaozhi, we're finally married. Aren't you happy?"

"We can still get divorced." She slapped away the hand he reached out to her again. "Why do you think I'll wait for you just because you came back?"

Shen Ke lowered his eyes to the red mark her slap had left on his hand. Suddenly, he smiled, his eyes reddening. "But I'm so happy."

P.S. The Las Vegas marriage scene was inspired by Friends.

[Character summary in one sentence]

Gu Xiaozhi: All she wants is loyal companionship, but clearly Shen Ke is neither sensible nor willing to be her dog.

Shen Ke: There's an invisible leash around his neck. She doesn't even have to tug it; he comes crawling back on his own. That's how obedient he is.

Blurb written 2022.2.25

--{Please add my upcoming book, Wangchuan, to your favorites~}--

Xia Mu and Xie Lanchuan grew up together. For twenty-three years, they were inseparable. Everyone in their circle knew Xia Mu was Xie Lanchuan's precious darling, someone no one was allowed to criticize or touch.

When a car accident struck, Xie Lanchuan did exactly what everyone expected: he risked his life to shield her. Xia Mu was unharmed, while Xie Lanchuan ended up in the ICU.

The good news was that Xie Lanchuan would survive. The bad news was that his frontal lobe was damaged. He still had his memories, but he could no longer feel emotions.

Including his love for Xia Mu.

He was a good man. After leaving the hospital, he tried his best to treat her as well as he always had, as if he were completing a task, but they were both exhausted.

A year later, he began to grow cold and distant. "I can't keep holding you back. You should find someone who truly loves you."

Someone who wouldn't sit by his side, heartbroken all the time.

Someone who truly loved her?

Who could that be, if not him?

She said, "I don't care."

"But I do," he said softly.

Later, she fell and scraped her knees bloody. She called him and, just like before, cried and asked him to come get her. He didn't come. By the time the blood had dried, the sky had already grown light.

She decided to give up and moved abroad.

Xie Lanchuan thought it was for the best, but when she took someone else's hand, why did his heart hurt so much?

And so they went their separate ways.

Xia Mu returned to China and went on a work trip to the mountains without telling him. When she was about to leave again, she didn't tell him that either.

He was the Xie family's young master and heir. He couldn't leave Bincheng. So she went far away, into the mountains in the south, cutting off any possibility between them.

With the leaves rustling in the breeze and students all around her, she thought she could spend the rest of her life there.

Until one day, she fainted and was sent back to Bincheng.

And saw him again.

--Upcoming Book: Wenrou Dao--

A gentle blade, every cut takes a dog's life

{Bad-tempered * sweet on the outside, dark on the inside}

Chu Wen had liked the older boy next door, Fu Yan, ever since she could remember. On her twentieth birthday, she confessed to him, holding out a pair of matching rings.

All she got was a cold glance. He called her by her full name in disgust and dodged her reaching hand. "Chu Wen, do you have no sense of self? No self-respect?"

The next day, she made him lunch by hand and took it to his office, only to see him smiling as he opened the front passenger door for another woman.

That night, rain poured down. She watched helplessly as his car drove away, then hid in a street corner and cried her heart out. The cold rain made her shiver, and her heart finally turned cold too.

Later, when her mother told her to go on blind dates, she went every time. She completely put him out of her mind.

The little girl who had followed him around for twenty years ran off, pairing up with different men. It left him with a lump in his throat.

The Chu family threw her a coming-of-age party, supposedly to celebrate her adulthood, but really to gather the eligible young men in their circle so she could choose one.

Fu Yan narrowed his eyes as he watched her link arms with another man and dance with him. He cursed under his breath and ground out his glowing cigarette.

He followed her into the stairwell and clasped her slender wrist, making a gentle suggestion. "You're fed up, right? Why not use me?"

She blinked and shook her head. "But I don't want to spend decades living with you. Now I have a sense of self, and self-respect."

She looked at his taut jaw, her bright eyes sparkling. "Regretting it, big brother?"

"But it's too late." With a sweet smile, she twisted the knife in his heart. "Since we're here, and men understand men best..."

"Why don't you help me pick a husband?"

Fu Yan's brow twitched. "I pick one, and then what?"

Chu Wen smiled again, carefree and untroubled. "Whoever you pick, I'll marry."

She did exactly what she said.

She chatted and laughed with someone at her engagement party until Fu Yan could take no more and carried her off.

The next day, the deed was done.

She hooked a finger under her shoulder strap and pushed him away. "You're nothing special. Let go of me. I'm leaving."

Fu Yan held her tight, gritting his teeth as he asked where she was going.

Chu Wen smiled. "I should go back and see what my fiance is like."

Theme: Do your best to be a good person and take your work seriously.