Butterfly Mark

[Complete] [Foster care / Second male lead takes the crown / Marriage before love] [Next book: Half Tide, coming soon. Please add it to your favorites in my column!] Lin Ni was eleven when she moved in with the Zhou family. Alone in the world, she came to think of everyone in the family as her own, especially her brother Zhou Zeyu, even though he always wore a cold expression. Still, he had stood up for her before. “If they pick on you, why not tell them my name?” She just didn't want to cause him trouble. Later, she foolishly fell for Chen Jing, the wild and carefree eldest son of the Chen family. In a bar booth, she watched another girl light his cigarette for him. She wrote him a love letter, and someone tossed it in the trash. She sat on the balcony late at night, hugging her knees and crying in secret over him. Zhou Zeyu came downstairs for a drink and saw her. His voice was cold. “Do you like him that much?” Later, Chen Jing regrets everything and drunkenly calls Lin Ni in the middle of the night. A cool, refined male voice answers: “Calling my little sister this late? Should I report you for harassment?” Chen Jing lets out a scornful laugh. “You know she's your sister too?” - Lin Ni agrees to marry Zhou Zeyu because their elders arranged it, and because she wants to repay him. Zhou Zeyu is cold and aloof. Their original relationship makes the marriage, nominal though it is, a stable arrangement that can last. That way, the Zhou family's vast business empire won't fall into someone else's hands. Lin Ni says, “Brother, you don't need to worry about me. Don't worry, I won't interfere with your personal life.” “Mm.” Zhou Zeyu gives a faint smile and readily agrees. That is the true nature of their marriage. But somehow, everything changes after that. She keeps her promise not to interfere, but to him, it all becomes empty talk. Lin Ni has never understood him. Not until she accidentally knocks a book off the shelf in his study and sees what is written on the title page: “Ni-ni, stop liking him. Be with me instead!” [There's a butterfly-shaped mark on Lin Ni's shoulder. Zhou Zeyu wants to watch it flutter freely in his palm.] ·Highly educated exhibition designer × wealthy young heir Reading notes: ·Seven-year age gap. Much of the story takes place after marriage. ·The leads are not related and are not registered under the same household. ·Both leads are each other's firsts / Slow burn / Everyday life / Workplace / Secret crush / Carefully planned Please add my next book, Half Tide, to your reading list! Blurb: No one knows that Song Yun fell in love with Yu Gusен at first sight. Their first meeting is a chance encounter in a quiet bar. The second time, she can't help approaching him first. Just as she imagined, Yu Gusen is a perfect gentleman, warm and refined, an ideal boyfriend in every way. He's exactly as his friends describe him. Only later does she realize that all she knows about him is what he wants her to know. She doesn't know that he's powerful and dangerous, that he belongs to a world beyond her reach, and that they'll never be together. So Song Yun retreats. In the gloom, Yu Gusen looks at her and gives a faint, self-mocking smile. “Then I guess I'm pretty pathetic.” “...” - After that, they get together, only for the relationship to end without a fight. Song Yun is the one who initiates the breakup. “Yu Gusen, can't we part on good terms?” They were worlds apart to begin with. She had only strayed from the path she'd already chosen for a little while. So when she says it, she leaves herself no room to reconsider. After a quiet pause, he finally answers in a subdued voice. “All right.” - After returning to China, Song Yun finishes her studies and follows her family's wishes, settling into a stable job with a steady income. Her days are peaceful and pleasant, without any ups or downs. Until she is ready to accept someone else's pursuit and become another man's girlfriend. That night, mist hangs in the air. A discreet black car, worth a fortune, has crashed by the roadside, and Song Yun is cornered against a wall. “Mr. Yu, what brings you back to China?” Yu Gusen is no longer the gentle man she remembers. He pulls her forcefully into his arms, claims what he wants, then says in a low voice, “Be good and leave him. We aren't over.” Powerful heir × Resilient, hardworking international student Theme: The meaning of hard work