He's Really Hard to Mess With

#Please add my next novel, Raising You with Tenderness, to your reading list#

Ye Zhou is a finance executive pursued by international headhunters, so admired that even a celebrity tycoon would bow to her.

Then, one day, she arrives in a whirlwind with a rolling suitcase, prying open a window and climbing into a man's home.

The man's name is Jiang Guo. For ten years, she called him "big brother."

Jiang Guo was born with bright, handsome eyes, but whenever he looks at Ye Zhou, his stern features are always as cold as moonlight.

In a narrow, dim alley, Ye Zhou pins him against a wall, rising onto her toes to give him a kabedon.

Jiang Guo lowers his eyes and sneers, his deep gaze fierce. "You use other men to string me along, and you still have the nerve to come here asking for a kiss?"

She once knew the strength of every muscle in his body as it tensed. Now she raises her lashes to meet Jiang Guo's gaze as he braces one arm against the wall, holding back his anger.

Ye Zhou smiles, unconcerned. "Big brother, help me practice a little, will you? He's a gentle, refined CEO. Tomorrow he's taking me for a helicopter ride."

"Tomorrow? Then the helicopter's off. You might as well go for a walk with him."

A clear spring of delight wells up inside Ye Zhou.

He's definitely consumed with jealousy, she is certain.

Ten years earlier

In this same narrow, dim alley

"If you don't want to die, don't make a sound." It was Jiang Guo!

The boy's voice had grown deep and magnetic. He was no longer the little boy with a shrill voice who used to threaten her.

One of his long legs slipped between Ye Zhou's, leaving her nowhere to retreat...

Back then,

she thought he hated her, and he thought so too.

Love is finding your equal. Devotion is willingly admitting defeat.

Cool, edgy aerial photographer, restrained and self-controlled vs. wild, uninhibited finance executive who relentlessly pushes his buttons

*Childhood friends / foster family romance; mutual crush becomes mutual love (the leads aren't blood-related)

Next novel: Raising You with Tenderness, please add it to your reading list

Blurb:

Yue Wen Ye can outshine the popular stars on a poster with her bare face, but all she wants is to be a C-list actress.

After all, her yearly acting fee wouldn't even be enough to buy a few stones for her hobby.

Besides, people are always willing to buy the stones she designs.

Her uncle, Yue Yanting, who has been playing with her since she was a child, takes over as head of the group. Rumor has it he's a ruthless business titan, but at home, he still smiles as he pays a high price to buy up every kind of little stone she makes.

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Twenty-year-old Yue Wen Ye is a little princess awaiting an arranged marriage when, at her engagement banquet, she is suddenly exposed as a fake heiress.

Overnight, she falls from being a wealthy young lady of Jiangcheng to an unknown girl with nothing to her name.

Yue Wen Ye isn't about to feel regret. She never wanted to try some marriage-first, love-later romance with a domineering CEO who looks down his nose at everyone anyway.

The day she leaves the Yue family, autumn rain falls steadily.

The parents who loved her yesterday now belong to someone else, and see her as a thorn in the Yue family's side.

The employees who used to praise her now all roll their eyes at her, watching closely in case she takes even a pin from the Yue family.

In front of everyone, she takes the most valuable thing from the Yue family in her pocket: a little stone she drew in her first year of school.

Too bad it was painted in watercolor. The rain blurs its colors...

Yue Yanting abruptly cancels a shareholders' meeting and hurries home, but his little princess is like a solitary autumn water chestnut in the misty rain, leaving him only her defiant, determined back.

He grabs the pale wrist of Yue Wen Ye, still clutching the little stone.

"Uncle..."

"What did you call me?"

"Then..."

"I've never wanted to be your 'uncle.'"

In the quiet rain, water drips from Yue Wen Ye's bangs, moisture clings to her lashes, and even her usually bright eyes seem streaked with tears.

"Here, this is for you." She softly and meekly says the simple words she's been turning over in her mind for so long.

"I don't want this. I want you to stay, and draw me a better one." His gaze gleams. This time, he isn't just indulging her.

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On their wedding night, Yue Yanting's pillow is stuffed with little stones of every kind.

Yue Wen Ye can't fathom just how much madness her gentle, refined uncle has concealed beneath his polished exterior.

Eight-year age gap / marriage first, love later

Theme: Love life and keep striving