Selling Heartbeats

[Complete, Weibo: @Jinzhiyue]

[Badass Hero and Heroine | Mutual Crush]

No one knew that Jian Yi had been secretly in love with Fu Tingxian for three whole years back in school.

At their graduation reunion, the usually bold and proud Jian Yi nervously clutched the love letter in her purse, her palm damp with sweat. Before Fu Tingxian showed up, she overheard her classmates gossiping:

Fu Tingxian had already confessed to their classmate Wen Yi.

"Well, he certainly has terrible taste."

She tossed out the remark with a scoff, then fled in embarrassment.

And so her three-year crush came to nothing.

*

She saw Fu Tingxian again after returning from studying abroad.

The once-rebellious young man now had a more restrained air about him. In a calm voice, he explained how a marriage alliance between them could benefit both their families.

Coolly rational and calculating, he was every bit the capitalist.

Jian Yi readily agreed.

Her youthful feelings had long since been buried. Their marriage of convenience was simply driven by mutual interests.

After their wedding, they played the loving couple in public while ruthlessly expanding their power in their respective family businesses. In private, they treated each other with icy courtesy under the same roof, as if a border ran between them.

Then, on Jian Yi's birthday, she returned home late at night to find the handsome man lounging on the sofa with an old diary in his hand.

Jian Yi's expression stiffened. Her eyes fell on the page he'd opened, and her thoughts fell into disarray.

"Take over the Fu Group and make Fu Tingxian beg to pursue me."

That was the wish she'd angrily written in her diary the year she graduated.

Mortified, Jian Yi turned to run, but the man swept an arm around her from behind and pulled her close. The sudden intimacy left her mind blank, and she froze in place. Seeing that, he pushed his luck, bending down to murmur in her ear.

"Mrs. Fu,"

His cool voice turned husky, filled with a tender affection he'd never shown anyone. He asked, one word at a time, "How would you like me to beg?"

Reader's Guide:

1. Both leads are each other's only partners. One-on-one romance, happy ending.

2. The hero was never in love with his female classmate, and the heroine doesn't go bankrupt. [Doge]

Coming Soon: Spring Begins Anew

[Badass Guy x Good Girl / Reunion After Years Apart / Second Chance Romance]

1.

In their first year of high school, Ren Zhen and Zhou Yanxin were on two entirely unrelated parallel tracks:

One studied hard, while the other swaggered through life like he owned the world.

Then the students were sorted into arts and science classes, and they became desk mates.

Ren Zhen's childhood friend, whom she'd secretly loved, wanted to pursue the school belle he had a crush on. To put an end to the school belle's feelings for him, he asked Ren Zhen to go after Zhou Yanxin.

Ren Zhen's heart sank. She refused coldly, then turned away with red-rimmed eyes, only to run into a cocky figure leaning against the wall at the stairwell.

"You boss me around, then come here and let someone else push you around..."

Zhou Yanxin raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Ren Zhen, you're a hypocrite, aren't you?"

Ren Zhen bit her lip, her hands clenched into fists. "It's not like I like you."

"I know you like that guy, so why not just do what he says?"

Zhou Yanxin's lips curled slightly. He drawled, one word at a time, "Come chase me, then."

2.

They met again at a business dinner. As the client, Zhou Yanxin carried himself with arrogant nonchalance.

Ren Zhen kept her head down, trying to make herself inconspicuous.

Glasses clinked and drinks flowed. Her superior chatted and laughed as he respectfully offered Zhou Yanxin a cigarette.

"No thanks."

Zhou Yanxin's gaze darkened. He refused coolly, "My wife doesn't like the smell of smoke."

A few seconds of awkward silence followed. Her superior hurriedly put the cigarette away with an apologetic smile, and several colleagues immediately stubbed out theirs.

-

After the dinner, Ren Zhen was the last to leave the private room. In a daze, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into the emergency stairwell.

Recognizing him, she struggled to steady her breathing and compose herself. "Mr. Zhou, please behave yourself."

"Ren Zhen."

Zhou Yanxin gritted out her name and shoved a crumpled sheet of pale gold paper into her hand. "What, does a brilliant liar not know the difference between truth and lies?"

With that, he turned and strode away.

The dim stairwell was silent. Ren Zhen unfolded the wrinkled paper. The handwriting was neat and elegant, its ink slightly faded:

"Zhou Yanxin, see you in Spring City after the college entrance exam."

Signed: Ren Zhen

Date: June 6, 2015

Theme: Pursue both career and love.