Don't Pretend

[Next up: Normal Heartbeat and Breathing / Amber Goldfish]

· Powerful person lowering his head, taming-the-dog story | Self-conquest | Mild coercion

· Cool, aloof, strong young master vs. cool, seductive, sweet-on-the-outside, dark-on-the-inside beauty

1.

After the college entrance exam, Chu Jia came alone to an unfamiliar city.

At her most desperate, the son of her benefactor found her.

The young master had a face so beautiful it was almost outrageously arrogant, and a temper that was just as bad.

To secure a place to stay in Jinggang, Chu Jia cooked and cleaned every day, cared for him when he was sick, picked him up when he was drunk, and even removed the fish bones from his food.

She was more attentive than a personal maid on call twenty-four hours a day.

His rich-kid friends teased him:

"Where'd your mom find you a child bride?"

"That girl is so sincere about you."

Bo Yu kept his face cold, but the tips of his ears turned a very strange shade of red.

He told people to get lost, and told her to get lost, too.

Chu Jia pretended she hadn't heard him.

As soon as school started, she packed up all her things and disappeared.

2.

Not long after the semester began,

Chu Jia finally met the person who had promised to come to Jinggang with her.

But he'd already found someone else, and was still trying to string her along.

It was obvious her once-beloved had long since turned rotten.

Chu Jia didn't want to get tangled up with him any further.

Until one day, at a gathering with their social circle, someone with bad intentions tried to expose what had happened between Chu Jia and the young master of the Zhou family.

Desperate to hold on to the influential family he'd finally climbed into, Zhou Yinghuai denied having anything to do with her without a moment's hesitation.

Everyone laughed at her for being delusional, for thinking she could marry into the Zhou family.

Only Bo Yu, who had always seemed to dislike her, walked up to her with a cold expression.

Without saying a word, he lifted her chin in front of everyone and carefully wiped the cake off her face.

As everyone looked on in shock,

Chu Jia heard him lean close to her ear and mutter through gritted teeth in the same tone as before:

"You've got terrible taste, falling for trash like him."

Reader's guide / Content warnings:

1. Both leads are each other's first and only love

2. 80% anti-piracy text

3. To be added

"The night is damp, the ground is damp.

The air is still, the woods are silent.

Tonight, I love you."

Theme: Love is equality.