[Once a story has been settled, I can't unlock it again. Sorry.]
Blurb:
[Sunny, cheerful heiress x cool, reserved singer]
Reunited after years apart / Second chance romance / The aloof beauty comes down from her pedestal
The first time Zhou Xiyue saw Song Zhiyang, she was bare-faced and just recovering from a serious illness, looking utterly worn out.
The man before her stood tall, dressed in a black shirt, cool and elegant.
She took one look and couldn't look away.
"He's so handsome he doesn't seem real."
Everyone around him knew Song Zhiyang was like snow on a high mountain: abstinent, aloof, impossible to melt, and never interested in women.
Xiyue was determined to start by becoming his friend, then slowly bring this lofty beauty down from his pedestal.
For the next two years, she stayed by his side as he worked hard. At last, he became like the sun, bright and blazing.
One day, Zhou Xiyue suddenly realized that he was no longer the Song Zhiyang she could reach out and touch.
As he was about to leave for a career abroad, she summoned the courage to confess her feelings. All she got was half a minute of silence and his cool, unreadable gaze.
She understood it was a gentle rejection, so she turned away without hesitation and locked all her feelings for him in her memories.
**
Three years later, on a neon-lit street abroad, amid a long, gloomy drizzle, they unexpectedly met again.
She wore a striking, classical red dress, and her porcelain-white, radiant face was lit by eyes as lively as ever.
But when she looked at Song Zhiyang, her gaze was calm and unreadable. With a soft, "Mr. Song, long time no see," she put distance between them.
Song Zhiyang had thought he was destined to be immune to love for his entire life. No woman had ever stirred a ripple in his heart, including the little fox who had secretly loved him.
But on the flight abroad and throughout the next three years, he kept reliving the little fox's confession.
The woman who had said she would never leave turned her back and walked out of his life.
Six months after their reunion, one day, drunk and unsteady, he rushed over and grabbed her wrist without a second thought.
Her reflection was clear in his eyes, but this time they were veiled by a faint mist. In a hoarse voice, almost begging, he asked:
"Didn't you say you liked me?"
Zhou Xiyue replied calmly, "I still do. I just don't want to have you anymore."
[Because I love you, my breath is like a thread in your hands. It brings me pain, and it brings me joy.]
Reader's Guide:
Both leads are each other's first and only love / Happy ending / No real-life inspirations
Hong Kong City, Qinzhou, and Lion City are fictional, with many liberties taken.
The female lead has an ex. The male lead does not.
The male lead is slow to realize his feelings. He pursues her, but this isn't a groveling pursuit.
Neither lead is perfect or all-capable.
My other completed works, "Secret Love" and "A Camellia Banquet", are available in my author profile. You're welcome to read them.
Please add my new novel "The Hunt" to your library!
Nontraditional groveling pursuit / Real and fake heiresses / Coercive possession
A ruthless, outwardly refined young master x a docile, gentle, clear-headed, clever fake heiress
On the streets of Paris, Xinrui turned and smiled at Lian Che, whom she was meeting for the first time. At her side was the fiance she'd been in love with for five years, and a silver diamond ring sat on her left ring finger.
Before her gaze drifted his way, Lian Che had already been staring at her, intently and shamelessly, for three whole minutes.
During those three minutes, reason and desire tore through Lian Che's mind.
In the late autumn, before the mist had fully lifted, Lian Che realized he had to have this woman.
For this fiery rose, he used every means at his disposal and stopped at nothing.
*
Three years together were enough for Xinrui to see through Lian Che.
Beneath his gentle, dignified exterior lay an ambitious, restless man with a deep-seated scheming streak.
One day, in their room, she worked up the courage to ask him, "Our contract ends at the end of next month. Will you let me go?"
Beneath the lights, the man's features were sharply defined. He smiled, but his eyes were cold and distant, keeping everyone at arm's length.
Smiling, he pulled her onto his lap and forced her to sit down. He lifted her chin with one hand and spoke in a low voice:
"Would it really be so strange for someone like me to break a promise?"
*
During her closest attempt at escape, just as she was about to succeed, she watched helplessly as his men suddenly appeared and surrounded the entire car.
Xinrui curled up beside the seat, the sound of his demonic voice in her ear.
"Xinrui, if I were you, I wouldn't run."
*
In Lian Che's eyes, Xinrui was naive and ridiculous, hypocritical and greedy, foolish and cowardly.
He had made it clear that he controlled how their relationship would end, and that it would end only when he decided.
Later, he nearly lost his life for this woman, only to get a faint, cold smile from her.
So he added one more thing to his opinion of Xinrui: heartless, cruel, and utterly inhuman.
Later, everyone thought that Lian Che would always have the upper hand in their relationship, calm and unshaken, taking everything in stride.
Only Xinrui knew that every night, he would willingly enter the small prison cell, put on the chains himself, and kneel before her.
"Xinrui, please use me. Please."
At last, Lian Che realized he had fallen into a trap prepared long ago, and the hunter was none other than his own "prey."
#The story of a little white rabbit turning the tables on a big bad wolf#
Reader's Guide:
Both leads are each other's first and only love. The female lead has an ex; the male lead does not.
Both leads have flaws, and neither is a perfect good person.
An unconventional pursuit-after-rejection story, with angst for both the female and male leads and some mild coercion.
Romance and plot are equally important.
It may be an old-school, melodramatic story, so readers who dislike that sort of thing should proceed with caution.
Hong Kong City and Qinzhou are fictional.
Theme: Destiny
