Sunset Trap

[Main story complete, with a few bonus chapters to come!]

Yanyi was beautiful and sweet-tempered. Banking on the hand she'd been dealt, she managed to win over Meng Heming, the sole man in charge of the Meng family. Meng Heming was perfect in every way: powerful, noble, considerate, and blessed with a face so handsome it seemed the heavens had favored him too much. If he had one flaw, it was that his thoughts were impossible to read, shrouded in mystery.

Yanyi's greatest virtue, however, was her pragmatism.

When she sensed their relationship was heading for a dead end, she asked to break up. The man lit a cigarette. His voice, hazy behind the smoke, was calm and casual as he asked, "For him?"

Yanyi said nothing. She watched him stub out the cigarette and light another, his composed expression showing rare impatience. Suddenly, he stood and strode over to her, gripping her wrist so tightly that it hurt.

"Stay, and I'll let bygones be bygones between you and him."

-

Rumor had it Meng Heming was ruthless and decisive, and had seized power on his own in his early years.

There was also a rumor that the only regret in his otherwise flawless life was the disappearance of his younger brother. It had become a thorn in his heart.

Years later, by a stroke of luck, he found his younger brother. He had thought they would be on good terms as brothers.

In a corner unseen by anyone, Meng Heming wiped the blood from his knuckles and cast a gloomy look at the young man before him. The youth was hunched on the ground, trembling, yet still refusing to yield, as if deliberately opposing him.

He was displeased. Bending down, he grabbed the young man's hair and forced him to meet his gaze. "A-Zhou, say that again. I brought you back, not so you could covet your sister-in-law."

(Female-lead version)

When Yanyi heard her best friend explain that people had two major flaws [first, they can't stop themselves from being fickle; second, they love rescuing people from the gutter], she neither agreed nor disagreed.

She never expected that, days later, both would prove true for her.

Reader advisory:

Rivalry over the love interest / love-triangle chaos / stealing someone's partner / regret and groveling / the main story features a relationship before marriage, and