The Art of the Catch

Seeking advance readers for *Fake Couple* and *Soft Red* Meng Qiyang first met Tan Su at a cocktail party. At the time, she was gathering material for her new book. Using a false identity, she planned to get close to a roving ladies' man who worked as an architectural designer. She pushed open the glass door leading from the venue to the garden and spotted a man in a suit standing in the shadows. Tentatively, she called out, "Mr. Liang?" The man turned around. The light from the venue illuminated his face, refined and distinguished. He glanced at her nonchalantly and asked, "And you are?" She made up a name on the spot. "I'm Lily." Later, Meng Qiyang realized she had mistaken him for someone else. He wasn't "Mr. Liang" at all. He was "President Tan." She didn't expose him. Instead, she kept playing along. They did all sorts of flirtatious things, until finally they came clean and exposed each other's identities, ending their game of make-believe with a kiss. They met again when Meng Qiyang went out to dinner with friends. One of her friends went over to hand Tan Su a business card, hoping to make a good impression. "That was President Tan of the Tan family," her friend said when she returned. Meng Qiyang didn't react. Tan Su didn't even glance her way. They acted as if they didn't know each other. A few hours later, they were kissing in a corner of the parking lot. Meng Qiyang said, "President Tan, you don't like relationships, do you? Good, because neither do I." And so they began a relationship with no feelings involved. One day, Meng Qiyang called it off. Tan Su was away on a business trip, but he rushed back overnight and appeared at her door, looking unusually disheveled. "Why end it so suddenly? Because I fell for you and wanted us to last?" A game of seduction: the first to fall in love loses. Pretending-to-be-innocent heroine x refined, controlling hero *Fake Couple* Everyone in Nancheng's wealthy circles knew that Shu Shiran and Ji Xi's marriage was purely a business arrangement, and that Shu Shiran couldn't keep her rakish husband in line. Plenty of people mocked her behind her back. In reality... Ji Xi had plans that evening. Shu Shiran flipped through her notes and reminded him, "The third son of the Zhao family will be there tonight. You've met her before, and she's interested in you. For the sake of the partnership, you can get a little closer to her." Ji Xi looked indifferent, and she couldn't tell if he was listening. She nudged his arm and went on, "But don't get too close. I've never gotten along with her." At last Ji Xi spoke, his tone teasing. "How close is too close? Like we were last night?" Shu Shiran blushed and glared at him. When she fell into a crisis, her fiance broke off their engagement. On that wretched, rainy night, a car pulled up beside her. The window rolled down, revealing a cool, distinguished face. The illegitimate son no one had wanted anything to do with was now a rising star in Nancheng and the talk of the town. Ji Xi curled his lips into a smile, looking languid and carefree. "I can help you, on the condition that you marry me." That night, soaked through, she got into his car. As Shu Shiran saw it, she needed Ji Xi's help to get through her predicament, while Ji Xi needed to marry her to reenter the upper echelons of Nancheng society. They were partners, bound together by the strongest of ties. She didn't know that on that rainy night, Ji Xi had finally plucked the rose he'd long admired from afar. Elegant, proud heiress x ruthless, rakish dealmaker The heroine falls in love after marriage; the hero's secret crush becomes reality *Soft Red* When the young master of the Zhan family in Beicheng turned twenty-three, he called in plenty of favors to finally invite his goddess, Zhou Ruanhong, the reigning pop diva. But on his birthday, before he could even speak to her, he saw his uncle cornering her. He had always been intimidated by this uncle, but he couldn't bear to let him cut in line. After much deliberation, he decided to appeal to reason. "Uncle, I invited her. Can't we agree to go in order?" Cen Sui drew his gaze back from the distance. The cigarette between his fingers had burned more than halfway down without him noticing, and a long ash fell away. His voice was low and cold. "She got together with me when she was eighteen. I taught her to drink, and I stayed by her side the first time she entered a competition. And you want to talk to me about who came first?" At eighteen, Zhou Ruanhong met Cen Sui when her life was a complete mess. After what they shared, for many years afterward, amid a world of glitter and glamour, no one else could catch her eye. Pop diva x distinguished tycoon Theme: Give sincerity, receive sincerity