A Bite of Sweet Pear

My new novel, Willful, is currently being serialized~

On her wedding day, the groom, Song Jinyan, disappeared, just to take his "bosom friend" to the hospital over a tiny scrape.

Gu Li instantly became the laughingstock of their social circle.

Distraught, she got into a car accident and was taken to the hospital.

When Wen Yiyang heard the news and rushed over, Gu Li's eyes were red. She suddenly reached out to him. "Hubby, it hurts so much. Hug me."

"?"

When he didn't move, Gu Li looked at him through tear-filled eyes, aggrieved, then threw herself into his arms. "Why haven't you come to hug me yet?"

Wen Yiyang gazed at her with dark, inscrutable eyes. "Do you know who I am?"

"Of course. You're my darling husband."

Song Jinyan finally got the message and came over from the next room. This was what he saw.

Seeing her in another man's arms, he felt inexplicably irritated. He looked down on these little tricks of hers most of all. "Gu Li, stop pretending. I know you're mad at me for missing our wedding. What do you want?"

Only then did Gu Li notice someone else in the room. Frightened, she hid in Wen Yiyang's arms.

"Hubby, who is that? He looks so scary."

Wen Yiyang finally pulled her into his arms and soothingly patted her back. Meeting Song Jinyan's disbelieving gaze, he looked utterly contemptuous. "Just an idiot. Don't be scared, A Li."

Later, when Gu Li woke up one morning and saw the man lying beside her, it felt like a bolt from the blue.

Wasn't this her sworn enemy?!

But that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was...

She touched her still-flat belly, on the verge of tears.

Waaah, I'm doomed.

Knowing she had done something wrong, Gu Li packed her bags and tried to run, but the man blocked her way.

"All these years later, and you still haven't learned a thing." Wen Yiyang held up her "evidence of the crime," the pregnancy test with two lines, his voice hoarse. "You make a mess and all you know how to do is run."

Gu Li had always thought they had married first, then fallen in love over time.

Until one day, by chance, she found a photo booth strip she no longer remembered in the worn inner pocket of his textbook.

Only then did she understand: what she had thought was a twist of fate had been exactly what he had always wanted.

--

Coming Soon 1: Love Makes You Mine

The first time they met, Shen Xi was accompanying her grandmother to Guangji Temple to pray for blessings. Through the misty drizzle, she saw a man in a white shirt and trousers standing in the rain, a string of Buddhist prayer beads around his wrist. She couldn't help taking a second look.

They met again when her uncle pulled strings to get her an internship at a friend's company. The two gradually grew close, perhaps a little too close.

Fu Lvbai liked her, but he could only let himself like her.

When she left, Shen Xi asked for nothing except the prayer beads on his wrist, then boarded a plane to Los Angeles.

He couldn't go to see her off, but after the takeoff announcement, a flight attendant's gentle voice rang through the cabin once more:

"Mr. Fu wishes Miss Meng a safe flight and a smooth journey in all things."

He had always been discreet, yet he had done everything romantic for her. Even his farewell was grand.

They met again three years later.

Across a bustling banquet, Fu Lvbai looked at her from afar.

Her long, straight black hair, which had once reached her waist, was now a shoulder-length perm. She looked more mature and beautiful than ever.

Then a pretty little boy with curly hair ran over and clung to her leg, calling her Mommy.

The cigarette burned between his fingers, a pain beyond words.

No one knew that Fu Lvbai didn't actually believe in Buddha. The prayer beads had merely been a gift his elders had asked for on his behalf, and he hadn't wanted to disappoint them.

No one knew, either, that the year a major earthquake struck the area where Shen Xi lived, he spent the depths of winter at Guangji Temple, bowing ninety-nine times in full prostration, praying only for her safety.

--

Coming Soon 2: The Oscar-Worthy Couple of the Rich and Powerful

The Ji and Wen families arranged a marriage between their heirs. The state of their relationship directly affected the market value of both families, and even had an impact on the entire stock market.

So,

In public, they were incomparably loving.

In private, they were transparently fake.

Even the public loved to watch the two century-old businesses' heirs together.

Onlookers excitedly declared that they were shipping them: the sweetest couple among the wealthy, and their childhood favorites were finally together!

Their friends in the know just smiled without a word. Everyone knew what the two were like in private. Their greatest pleasure was contradicting each other, trading barbs every day, and watching the other blow a fuse.

They even claimed that neither of them could put up with the other for more than six months.

Every day, they competed to put on the better performance in public. Neither wanted to be outdone.

"Have some water, darling. I just blew on it to cool it down."

"Have some shrimp, sweetheart. I just peeled them for you."

Onlooker Friend No. 1: "Ugh."

Onlooker Friend No. 2: "They're really trying their hardest to gross each other out."

Onlooker Friend No. 3: "You can gross each other out all you want, but leave us out of it."

-

Wen Sili was a leading figure of his generation, and true to his name, he was a refined scoundrel. His cool, handsome face was always framed by gold-rimmed glasses, but even they couldn't hide his commanding presence.

One day, this always-composed, impeccably dressed tycoon attended a business forum. Beside his refined, ascetic gold-rimmed glasses was an utterly incongruous punk-style skull earring.

Bold and unruly, it immediately caught everyone's eye.

One daring person went up to ask him about it.

The usually cold, imposing gaze softened, tinged with unmistakable pride. "My wife gave it to me, and she designed and made it herself."

Everyone praised them even more for their deep love as a married couple. The next day, the market value of both families' stocks even doubled.

Friend: "Those two are really good actors."

Then one day, when their group of friends gathered for a small get-together and the couple was late, one friend went out to check on them. The moment they left the private room, they saw the normally aloof man pinning his wife against the wall, pleading softly, "Stop being mad."

Ji Wenxia gave him a sidelong glance with her watery eyes. Her normally full lips were a complete mess.

Friend: "So that's what they mean by trading barbs. :)"

Theme: Everything is arranged for the best.