My Las Vegas Lover

The new novel Borrowed Leverage is now underway. Please add it to your favorites. Its blurb appears after this one. This novel may be revised at any time. Please support the official release; I am not responsible for pirated copies.

1. When Yin Xi was born, a fortune-teller once declared that she had a heart with seven orifices, making her a natural-born official.

More than twenty years later, Yin Xi lived up to expectations by devoting that heart entirely to men. She held her place on the throne as the Queen of the Sea with absolute stability.

Emmm, why can't the Queen of the Sea be an official?

With her gentle, domestic-looking face and eight hundred tricks up her sleeve, Yin Xi always managed to make her ex-boyfriends sob and wail that the breakup had been their fault.

Just as everyone thought Yin Xi would climb from Queen of the Sea to Empress of the Sea, she suddenly announced that she was going to reform.

"I swear, this one's true love." Yin Xi was unusually firm.

She'd heard her new crush was an MBA student at the university next door, exceptionally talented, born into a family of scholars, and humble and courteous.

He was cool and aloof, with an air of distance about him, like a flower atop a high peak, impossible to reach. But the more unattainable he seemed, the more Yin Xi wanted to see him fall from grace and lose control of his expression.

Yin Xi bought a light-colored dress in a ladylike style, straightened her "bad-girl beach waves" into long, straight black hair, borrowed a campus card, and began her pursuit of him.

Armed with a heart full of "sincerity" and plenty of technique, she made excellent progress. Just as she was getting ready to feast after bathing and burning incense, the duck she'd nearly had in the bag suddenly flew away!

Unable to figure out what had happened, Yin Xi felt so frustrated that she decided to let loose for a while and went back to Twilight Bar with a friend.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but Yin Xi actually spotted the man who'd kept her at arm's length right outside the bar.

He was dressed in black, two buttons undone on his shirt, laughing and chatting with the people around him. As the wind blew, Yin Xi's heart swayed along with his open collar.

If not now, then when?

Yin Xi staggered over to him, managed to squeeze out a tear, and said in a tearful voice, "Ye Xiang, help me. They're trying to force me to go with them."

Song Yexiang looked up. His gaze met her tear-streaked face, and his eyes darkened before he looked past her toward the group she was pointing at.

Seizing her chance, Yin Xi threw herself into his arms and trembled all over. She raised her tear-streaked face and said pitifully, "I came with a friend, but she left me behind. Can you take me home? I'm really scared."

2.

Everyone knew that Song Yexiang was immersed in the game of love, indifferent to feelings, and skilled at breaking hearts without anyone realizing it. He was a Sea King who had maxed out his cultivation.

Before he started his MBA, a friend had urged him to rein it in and stop preying on the flowers of the nation. Song Yexiang hadn't cared, but he still kept his hunting ground off campus. When he occasionally played around, he also wrapped himself in the image of a refined gentleman and showed much more restraint.

One day, the friend who'd once told him to rein it in suddenly came to ask for his help.

"Help me get revenge on a woman!" His friend pointed at a photo, gritting his teeth. Song Yexiang grew interested and took a look.

The woman wore a faint smile and looked wholesome and domestic. Wasn't she the junior who'd been pursuing him lately?

Song Yexiang: "Why?"

His Sea King friend: "I couldn't win her over. This woman is a die-hard romantic. She actually dates with marriage in mind. You have to really hurt her!"

Song Yexiang: "Are you seriously messed up in the head?"

His Sea King friend: "Are you helping or not?"

Why give up on a beauty like that?

Song Yexiang: "Okay."

Yin Xi was completely unlike the women he'd dated before. She was gentle and well-behaved, with a clear, innocent gaze. She was alluring without even realizing it.

He suddenly couldn't bear to do it. But a Sea King had no heart and didn't know what it meant to come ashore.

One month, two months, three months... When the relationship had run its course, Song Yexiang began using the silent treatment to force her to break up with him, while returning to his carefree love life.

3.

Yin Xi's friends weren't the least bit surprised when she went back to the dating scene, and they decided to celebrate at a bar.

Yin Xi had brought back her old curls and was wearing a spaghetti-strap top, laughing brightly with her friends in a booth.

Song Yexiang wore a black shirt with two buttons undone, his abs faintly visible as he sat at the bar, drinking and chatting.

"Xixi, that guy in black at the bar is totally your type! You have to make a move!"

At the same time:

"Yexiang, that curly-haired beauty in the booth is incredible. She's exactly my type! I'm going to ask for her WeChat."

In a flash, they both looked up, their eyes meeting across the room.

Yin Xi drew a sharp breath. "I think I've already won him over."

Song Yexiang ground his back teeth and forced out the words through clenched teeth: "That's my girlfriend."

Later, Song Yexiang finally learned that Yin Xi had a routine for breaking up.

If the other person was a sweet, innocent guy, she'd say she'd been hurt before, was afraid to fall in love, and didn't believe in marriage.

If the other person was a Sea King, she'd say she was dating with marriage in mind and needed to cut her losses in time.

Song Yexiang: "..."

4.

Many years into their relationship, Song Yexiang held Yin Xi in his arms and asked her:

"Why am I saved in your phone as 'late-night snack'?"

"Because you're for eating at night."

When a jerk dates a jerk, the negatives cancel out.

Tips:

The leads have absolutely no hang-ups about their partners' romantic pasts. If you do, don't read! This is not GB. Extreme fans of either the female lead or male lead, please move along!

1. The leads enjoy flirtation. This is not a story about a man who sleeps with every woman he sees.

2. Based on real life, but there are no real-life inspirations. The characters aren't role models, so don't identify them with anyone.

3. There is no career plot. This is simply the love and desire of ordinary men and women in the mundane world. The leads are ordinary people, utterly conventional, with their minds full of nothing but love and desire.

4. This is the story as written. It's entertainment. If you don't like it, read something else. There are plenty of novels on Jinjiang. Attacking people personally there is pointless.

Blurb for Borrowed Leverage:

1. Childhood sweethearts who grew up together, Xu Chengyi and Lin Hongzhou were sure to get married. At least, that's what all their friends thought.

So when Lin Hongzhou cheated, everyone tacitly chose to keep it from Xu Chengyi.

One rainy night, Xu Chengyi came down with acute gastroenteritis. In so much pain that she was barely conscious, she wanted to ask Lin Hongzhou to take her to the hospital.

The next second, he pushed the door open. "There's a serious problem with a project at work. I need to go deal with it."

Before she could say a word, the door shut.

She called a friend afterward. Her friend felt sorry for her and cursed Lin Hongzhou for being a scumbag.

Xu Chengyi was in so much pain she was nearly passing out, yet she still defended him. "Something came up at work. It's not his fault."

2.

A while before Xu Chengyi's birthday, she spotted a jewelry necklace at home. It was so beautiful, it didn't seem like something a straightforward man like Lin Hongzhou would pick out.

She marveled that after being clueless for more than twenty years, he'd finally come around, then carefully put the necklace back where she'd found it.

On her birthday, Xu Chengyi waited from midnight to midnight. For twenty-four hours, Lin Hongzhou never showed up or sent her a present.

Later, at a company team-building event, Xu Chengyi saw that necklace around the neck of a female employee.

Her name was on her ID badge: Wu Xue.

At the same time, Wu Xue smiled brightly and greeted her. "Long time no see, Xu Chengyi! I'm Wu Xue, your classmate from high school. You haven't forgotten me, have you?"

Xu Chengyi tugged at the corners of her mouth, trying hard to smile. "No, how could I forget you?"

Wu Xue smiled. "I heard you're with Hongzhou now. Congratulations!"

Xu Chengyi fell silent. Wu Xue continued, "Come to think of it, you should thank me. If I hadn't clearly stepped aside back then, you two might never have gotten together!"

Memories came surging back like waves, one after another.

Wu Xue, who had always competed with Lin Hongzhou for first place back in school, was also...

Lin Hongzhou's rumored girlfriend.

3.

When you feel unloved, you can check his phone.

Xu Chengyi did just that, but Lin Hongzhou had two phones. Xu Jia couldn't unlock one of them.

On the one she could unlock, she found no messages between him and Wu Xue. But she did see messages from his friends.

"Lin Hongzhou, are you even human? Chengyi is this sick, and you're off with your mistress!"

"Chengyi was in a rear-end collision. It's a minor injury, but she's terrified."

"Chengyi's coworker bullied her."

"Chengyi..."

Lin Hongzhou hadn't responded to a single one of these messages about her troubles.

Xu Chengyi couldn't bear to read any further. She quickly scrolled to the bottom, to messages from a few days earlier, around the time of the company event.

"Jiajia seems to have figured out what's going on between Wu Xue and you! Can you be more careful?"

Lin Hongzhou replied, "Don't say things you shouldn't."

His friend: "Now you're threatening me? Believe me, I'll tell Jiajia every one of your dirty secrets."

Lin Hongzhou: "I won't repeat myself."

"..."

Everyone knew. Everyone had been keeping it from her.

Xu Chengyi was ice-cold all over. She leaned against the corner of the bed, without even the strength to stand.

Lin Hongzhou's affair was now beyond doubt.

But her mother, who had cancer, was still receiving treatment in the hospital, and Xu Chengyi couldn't afford the exorbitant medical bills.

Once she learned the whole story, she couldn't pretend nothing had happened. They argued more often than they ate.

One day, the hospital called to say her mother was in critical condition and that a payment was due. When Xu Chengyi returned home and ran into him rushing out, she finally couldn't hold back and shattered the fragile peace between them.

She cursed him as a cheating scumbag and called Wu Xue a homewrecker who had broken up their relationship.

She had never seen Lin Hongzhou this furious. His eyes were bloodshot, his lips trembled, and he retorted in a dark voice, "I'm a scumbag? I'm the one who's fucking pathetic, pathetic to the bone for supporting you, your mother with cancer, and your whole family!"

"So you're too proud to bend, Xu Chengyi? Fine, I'm not paying for her treatment anymore. Deal with your family's mess yourself!"

Lin Hongzhou left, called away by Wu Xue.

In the empty house, Xu Chengyi cried until her heart felt torn apart, then left too.

4.

A few days later, she received a message from Lin Hongzhou.

"Where did you go? The house is a mess. Couldn't you clean up?"

Half a month later, Lin Hongzhou finally seemed to realize something was wrong. He sent her a message:

"What are you throwing a fit about now? Don't ruin my mood. Pick out a bag for yourself."

"I also had my secretary pay your mother's hospital bill. Don't be childish."

Xu Chengyi couldn't stand it anymore. She picked up her phone and typed, "Your mother."

Later, the house sat empty for so long that a faint smell of dust filled the air. Lin Hongzhou stood inside it all night.

When the first rays of sunlight shone in at dawn, he could no longer hold himself upright. He fell to the floor, clutching his chest, trying to ease the tearing pain there.

He had received twenty years of Xu Chengyi's love, and he was destined to spend the rest of his life paying it back.

Guide:

The first male lead pursues his wife, and the second male lead takes his place. The female lead is not a virgin, while the second male lead is.

A melodramatic relationship with the first male lead, a sweet Mary Sue romance with the second male lead.

Theme: Healthy relationships in love.