Signals of a Beating Heart

My next story, Fall for Me, is coming soon. It's a marriage-first, love-later romance. Please add it to your reading list!

Capricious heiress x charming rich heir with a hidden dark side

Radiant, proud photographer x calculating, steady CEO

*A bad boy's face-slapping, make-her-eat-her-words tale / a brief separation and reunion / light, sweet romance / playful bickering and falling in love

After graduating from college, Xia Zhi is unlucky in love and heads to Nancheng to clear her mind.

One night, in a bar thousands of miles away, dim lighting and a heady atmosphere set the scene for countless flirtatious glances.

Xia Zhi is striking and flamboyant, born to draw attention. Everyone in the booth crowds around her, eager to please.

A curious onlooker asks what kind of boyfriend she likes.

Dazed and not quite drunk, Xia Zhi points casually at the bar entrance. "Any kind, really. But that type? I hate them most."

Under everyone's astonished gaze, the man's face darkens. Amid the noisy music, he silently walks in and carries the drunken girl out.

-

Once she sobers up, Xia Zhi forgets the whole thing and heads abroad to party through her entire vacation.

She casts Xu Yuan from her mind completely.

-

Later on, the two cross paths at a family banquet.

In a suite on the top floor of a hotel, music plays softly in the background.

Xu Yuan takes off his glasses and loosens his tie, pinning Xia Zhi's hands above her head.

His gaze is amused as his thumb repeatedly brushes over her delicate, luscious lips. His voice, roughened by the alcohol, is husky with laughter. "Any kind, you said? Why not me?"

#A story about a carefree heiress who develops a brief crush, only to run into a calculating CEO and fall hard, spectacularly crashing and burning

#I only liked you for a little while. Don't come near me, ahhh!

*One-on-one, first sexual partner for both / sharp-tongued champion x "Keep running your mouth and I'll send you off" / fake proper CEO with a daddy vibe drops his disguise and carefully schemes to win over an adorable, naive little rabbit

Fall for Me, blurb:

"Cool beauty x refined, powerful tycoon"

"Marriage first, love later / marriage by agreement / the male lead falls first / sweet story of mutual healing"

To fend off her family's nagging about marriage, Ning Zhi marries the man they introduce her to. In six months of marriage, they see each other only a handful of times.

Xi Lanyu is a famous business tycoon in Beicheng, powerful and influential, and hard for ordinary people to meet even once.

Ning Zhi, by contrast, is a young doctor who has only just landed a job at a top-tier hospital. They're from completely different worlds.

They run into each other in a VIP ward at Jing Medical Center.

Xi Lanyu suffers a minor injury while exercising, and Ning Zhi is assigned to bandage him. Their eyes inevitably meet, and in her nervousness Ning Zhi tries to break the silence. "I thought rich people like you would choose private hospitals."

Xi Lanyu is frowning as he pulls open his windbreaker. At her words, he raises his eyes and gives her a lazy glance, clearly unwilling to respond.

Ning Zhi takes the hint and shuts up.

That night, after she gets home, Ning Zhi receives a belated explanation from Xi Lanyu, just as arrogant as the man himself.

"I'm not used to strangers touching me. I thought about it for a long time, and you were the only one I could tolerate."

"..."

-

Xi Lanyu is ill-tempered and wild, and keeps women at a distance. His friends have wondered what kind of beauty could make him willingly bend down for her.

After discussing it among themselves, they conclude there is no such woman.

Only later do they learn that the man in question has been secretly married for ages, and his wife has a distinctive elegance and is even prettier than a celebrity.

Someone can't resist their curiosity and goes to great lengths to track down Ning Zhi, asking her to tell them how it happened.

Ning Zhi smiles and hesitates before replying, "Actually, he and I aren't the kind of couple you think we are."

.

One night after they've let their feelings be known, in Beijiang Bay,

Xi Lanyu is wicked and shameless, deliberately pinning her against the window. His breath is hot as he laughs under his breath and settles the score. "Now tell me, what exactly are we to each other?"

-

Ning Zhi has always thought Xi Lanyu is only caught up in the moment. Once their agreement expires, they'll divorce.

But later, he drafts a new contract. His eyes lowered, he asks earnestly, "In exchange for my entire fortune, would you be willing to spend your life with me, Zhi Zhi, and grow old together?"

Love is venturing alone into the wilderness, betting you'll be there with me to gaze at a blue moon.

1. One-on-one, first sexual partner for both. Some liberties have been taken with the setting, and neither lead is perfect.

2. Name inspiration: "I'd rather die holding fast to my fragrance on the branch than be blown down by the northern wind" and "Though brushed away, it returns in full."

Theme: Break through prejudice and embrace love.