Adrift in a Spring Night

1.

Su Wanqing is a sensible person, but at twenty-five she impulsively marries a stranger she’s only met twice.

At the time, Wen Yanqi is the heir to a business conglomerate and a famously refined young heir in Bincheng. Su Wanqing, by contrast, is an ordinary office worker struggling to make ends meet.

They’ve been married on paper for six months, but Su Wanqing and her nominal husband haven’t seen each other once.

They meet again on a rainy day when Su Wanqing sends her resume to Wen Yanqi’s company. They run into each other outside a conference room and wordlessly pretend they don’t know each other.

After leaving the office building, Su Wanqing tries to explain. “I didn’t know it was your company.”

Wen Yanqi lifts his eyes to look at her, his dark gaze deep and unreadable. “Are you saying it was fate? Out of all the companies in Bincheng, you just happened to send your resume to mine?”

2.

Wen Yanqi got married on impulse to appease his elders. The people around him know this, and figure that one of these days, on a whim, he’ll quietly get a divorce.

After all, even though the fallen heiress of the Su family is prettier than any celebrity, Young Master Wen is never short of beautiful women vying for his attention. He’s never once bent over backward for any of them.

Everyone is certain the marriage will quietly fizzle out without a story worth telling. That is, until a few months later, when Wen Yanqi starts showing up at social gatherings less and less, until eventually he stops answering calls altogether.

A friend goes to his place to corner him and rings the doorbell several times.

Young Master Wen opens the door leisurely in his pajamas. Seeing his friend with half a cigarette between his lips, he closes the door halfway again. “Finish that before you come in. My wife can’t stand the smell.”

In the silent, empty wilderness, I thought all I’d see was a spring night steeped in mist.

I never imagined it would be so hard to cross.

Reading guide:

1. Marriage first, love later. The male lead falls first. A slow-burn sweet romance with a slice-of-life feel.

2. Refined and dignified x gentle and independent.

3. Some settings are unrealistic, and there are many original elements. If that bothers you, please read with caution.

---Upcoming book: Moonlit Tides.

1.

In her third year of college, Xi Yue finally gets what she’s always wanted and starts dating the boy she’s had a crush on for five years.

It’s her first relationship, and she doesn’t know what she’s doing. She plays the perfect girlfriend, clumsily expressing her love and doing everything without complaint, until she sees her boyfriend walk hand in hand with the art department’s belle into a hotel.

Xi Yue is heartbroken, but she isn’t alone.

As she stands there, dazed, her crush’s boyfriend is standing beside her with a cigarette between his lips.

He’s a victim too, but Xu Yichao handles it much better. As if nothing happened, he taps away the ash and even teases her. “Looks like your boyfriend’s fallen in love.”

2.

Unlike the unremarkable Xi Yue, Xu Yichao is undoubtedly one of Bin University’s most talked-about figures.

A spoiled young heir who lives for pleasure, he has a wealthy family and a handsome face. Rumor has it his ex-girlfriends have left their mark in every corner of campus.

Xi Yue pursues him for a week and gets her wish: she becomes his current girlfriend.

At first, she thinks Xu Yichao is just going along with it. After all, his list of ex-girlfriends is so long, and none of them are like the art department’s belle, who broke up with him only after cheating on him.

Until one night, the young master gets drunk at a bar and calls Xi Yue to pick him up.

Xi Yue rushes over, furious, along a long street lit up with neon. She finds Xu Yichao leaning by the door and haggling with the bar owner, insisting on buying the moon-shaped night-light displayed on the counter.

“Do me a favor.” Xu Yichao’s lips curl into a lazy smile, softened by drink. “I want it to make my girlfriend happy.”

Only then does Xi Yue realize she might have been the one who was fooled.

-

Xu Yichao has a brilliant night sky, and Xi Yue always thought she was just one star among many, ready to fade away at any moment.

Until Xu Yichao tells her she is the moon he has schemed and struggled to draw into his arms.

-

Sweet and adorable x spoiled young heir

He falls for her first. The ex-girlfriends are a lie.

Blurb for Secretly Enchanted:

1.

When Li En first meets Shen Lanxi, she is nineteen.

Her mother remarries into the wealthy Zhao family. Before the wedding, she accompanies her mother and her fiancé to a family banquet. Attending as unwanted baggage, Li En feels out of place amid the clinking glasses and polite chatter, so she slips out to the villa’s back garden.

Holding a handful of fish food, she sits sideways on a bluestone slab. That’s when Shen Lanxi appears.

The man is exceptionally handsome, with a straight nose and a refined, dignified air. A glowing cigarette ember rests between his fingers. He approaches as if to pass the time, lifting his pale eyelids to look at her. “You can’t feed them like that. These fish are fussy.”

At a loss, Li En stands up. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”

Shen Lanxi’s gaze settles on the flush at the side of her neck. He lightly taps the ash off his cigarette and chuckles. “What’s your name?”

The fish food makes her palm sweat. Before she can answer, someone calls the man away.

2.

After that, Li En hears his name many times.

His name is Shen Lanxi, the powerful head of the renowned Shen family in Nancheng. He is also the younger brother of Zhao Houshan’s ex-wife, Li En’s stepfather.

In front of others, she calls him “Uncle.” He only answers, “Mm.”

Their positions are worlds apart, and Li En once thought she would never have the chance to tell him her name.

Until, much later, at another banquet, Li En slips out early again. This time, though, she makes her way through the crowd and into Shen Lanxi’s room.

Mist clouds the glass window. Li Wu corrects him: “It’s En, not ‘Mm.’”

Shen Lanxi slips an arm around her waist. Through the curling smoke, he smiles, eyes playful. “Got it. You’re my En-En.”

-Refined rogue x cool, beautiful young woman

-A long, drawn-out push and pull in the early and middle stages. Eight-year age gap.

-The male lead is the younger brother of the female lead’s stepfather’s ex-wife. The ex-wife and stepfather divorced amicably. Their families have extensive business dealings, but the leads are unrelated by blood and are not registered in the same household.

Theme: Cherish the person in front of you.