Shattering the Moonlight

[Visit the author’s profile: the possessive romance She Is the Delusion of This World is complete; its companion story, the obsessive pursuit Later, I Could Never Stop Missing You.] Blurb: This story is divided into the childhood arc, where the heroine pursues him, and the adult arc, where the hero pursues her. The heroine’s story: When Gu Nangui first met Wen Yu at six years old, she felt drawn to the handsome boy. At eleven, she was adopted by the Wen family and began living under their roof. Wen Yu helped her a few times without a second thought, stirring the heart of Nangui, who had seen too much of the world’s coldness. As time went by, Nangui began to indulge in a fantasy: reaching for that bright, pure moon that seemed forever beyond her grasp. Who was Wen Yu? A man at the very top of Beicheng’s social pyramid, raised in the lap of luxury and fawned over by the elite. Proud and arrogant by nature, his gentleness and courtesy were only a facade; coldness ran deep in his bones. Gu Nangui poured all her effort and passion into chasing Wen Yu, that dazzling light. Wen Yu thought nothing of it, even sneering at her. “Do you know? The thought of you liking me makes me sick every time.” For her coming-of-age ceremony, the bright, pure moon she had once admired gave her that very special gift. Later, when he begged her to have their child, she finally understood how he had felt. “Wen Yu, do you know? I finally understand how you felt back then. The thought of you liking me makes me sick, too. I don’t want it.” Wen Yu’s eyes reddened at the corners. His hands trembled as he gently touched her belly, and he begged in a soft voice, “Please, Nannan. Don’t say that. It can hear you.” The hero’s story: To Wen Yu, Gu Nangui was an ordinary girl with rough features and a lowly background. Years later, when they met again, he outwardly showed no reaction to his childhood friends teasing him about her, but inwardly he was deeply resistant. His upbringing forced him to hide his disdain and mockery, maintaining at least a semblance of courtesy. He never cared about her attempts to get close to him. He even lumped her in with those women who schemed to get his attention. When someone mistreated the birthday gift she had put so much thought into, he turned a blind eye. To him, she was merely a pitiful, homeless girl living with the neighbors. But one day, he, too, began to long for his deepest desire to be fulfilled. He hoped she might fill the emptiness inside him. Wen Yu ran his fingers over the embossed seal on their marriage certificate again and again. Unable to believe it was real, he couldn’t keep the smile from spreading across his face. “Nannan, can I… kiss you?” Seeing the man with a bandage over his eyes, the tips of his ears flushed red, Nangui felt utterly desolate. It was as though he alone was lost in this marriage of convenience built on a lie. He didn’t know that she and Mother Tan had had no choice but to make this compromise. Wen Yu: If I had never gotten it, never experienced it, I wouldn’t have known how intoxicating it was to taste something I’d never been able to touch, and how willingly I would lose myself in it. Once, he scorned her. Now, she was beyond his reach. In the end, Wen Yu and Nangui could no longer tell which of them was the moon reflected in the water, forever impossible to grasp. Reading guide 1. The story is a slow burn, with the beginning covering the heroine’s childhood and upbringing. 2. The childhood arc focuses on the heroine chasing the hero and suffering for it. (Readers who are absolutely devoted to the heroine, please avoid.) 3. The hero is awful at first. He seems refined and courteous, but inwardly looks down on the heroine. 4. The heroine later falls for someone else. 5. Neither lead is a virgin. (If that bothers you, feel free to skip it. The hero is set up, which becomes one of the ways he suffers later.) 6. The hero later humbles himself for love. (Readers who are absolutely devoted to the hero may want to skip it, too.) 7. The main story has a bad ending; the bonus chapters have a happy ending. [Also: This story isn’t for readers who are absolutely devoted to either lead. It’s not a wish-fulfillment story.] [I’m planning to start this one next. Please add it to your reading list! It’s my favorite kind of story: a man going crazy while chasing his wife. But the heroine has a rough time at first, and neither lead is a good person, so please don’t read it if that’s not for you~] A shameless con artist with no moral compass VS a cold-blooded man who’s no good either Qi Si couldn’t remember when he’d stopped being content with being only a lover to Shi Liangyue in the dead of night. Blurb One: At the main entrance to the Golden Hall, Qi Si looked out the car window at the couple behaving intimately and suddenly felt like the biggest cuckold alive. Just two hours ago, she had been sulking and acting cute over the phone, saying she was tired and wanted to rest. Now she’d given him a surprise like this! Qi Si suddenly wondered how Shi Liangyue would explain herself when she saw that he’d prepared a “surprise” of his own. Would she talk her way out of it with that nimble little tongue of hers, or burst into tears and fall to her knees to beg forgiveness? But when he spotted her fingers interlaced with the man’s, he suddenly stopped wondering. He didn’t want to know what excuses she would make. He never imagined that one day he, Qi Si, would be toyed with by someone so despicable. What an idiot he’d been. He was so stupid that he couldn’t help laughing out loud. “Mr. Qi…” His secretary had never seen the usually composed, dignified CEO look so terrifying. It sent a chill down his spine. “Run them over.” His voice remained low and emotionless, but every word was icy. “W-what?” The secretary hadn’t understood. Qi Si sounded so calm, as though he’d casually given an utterly ordinary instruction. But the CEO of Huanyu never wasted words, so… The secretary exchanged an uneasy glance with the driver. He didn’t dare disobey, but he couldn’t bring himself to actually do it, either. Qi Si’s cold gaze swept over the front seat. Suddenly, he reached out and pushed open the car door. Two words shot through the secretary’s mind: We’re doomed! Blurb Two: To outsiders, anyone who could make a living with the Qi family of Yuncheng must have done something to win the favor of the gods. Shi Liangyue once naively thought so, too. But the circumstances under which she entered the Qi family were disgraceful, so she never got to enjoy the life others envied. Even living like a normal person was beyond her reach. When she was slammed into a solid-wood table over three meters long and vomited bile, she could only clench her teeth and swallow her bitterness as she watched the young man leap onto the tabletop and stroll toward her, lazy and indifferent. Looking down at her, the young man’s eyes held not a trace of feeling. “You were born low. You need to know your place.” Shi Liangyue laughed coldly inside. She knew she deserved all this. Someone like her, who had never been favored by fate, would have to endure dozens, even hundreds of times more hardship and pain than anyone else to get what she wanted. So she didn’t resent it. This was her choice. But one day, she would be the one standing on the table, looking down on others. Note: The leads are not related by blood. The hero will go crazy. There are no good people. Theme: Strive to grow