A Kiss of Thorns [Age Gap]

Precocious and sensitive heroine x gentlemanly and restrained hero | Age gap | An old flame reignited | Forbidden love

[Su Xiao fell for someone when she was fifteen. Later, that someone became her brother-in-law.]

When she was fifteen, Su Xiao met Ji Xingchuan for the first time at the Su family mansion.

He wore a crisp white shirt and stood bathed in moonlight, elegant and refined. She, meanwhile, had just endured a humiliating night.

Her first stirrings of love began with a bouquet of white rabbit roses, then lay buried in the years that followed.

-

When Su Xiao was seventeen, her older sister died, and with no one else to turn to, she was taken in by Ji Xingchuan.

"Ji Xingchuan, do you hate me?" She moved closer, emboldened by the alcohol. Her sweet, fresh scent enveloped him as she closed the distance between them to barely an inch.

"Don't fool around, Su Xiao." He frowned, anger flickering in his eyes, though his thoughts were already in a turmoil.

-

Two years later, in the autumn breeze of Paris, he asked her in a hoarse voice, "Su Xiao, don't you recognize me?"

"Mr. Ji, of course I recognize you." She smiled, cool and cutting. "My dear brother-in-law."

-

Later, Ji Xingchuan saw Su Xiao with her arm linked through a young man's, the two of them acting intimately.

The young man smiled and introduced her to someone else: "This is my girlfriend."

That night, Ji Xingchuan cornered Su Xiao on the hotel terrace. He grabbed her wrist, blocking her way.

Su Xiao said, "Didn't you know I have a boyfriend?"

"Would you mind having one more?"

Ji Xingchuan's fingertip gently traced her wrist bone, seemingly by chance. She shivered despite herself.

They kissed beneath the starry sky in Paris, and neither knew how long it lasted.

-

He thought she was a rose, never guessing she was a thorny briar.

He thought he could restrain every desire, but in the end, she set him aflame.

She asked, "When did you start liking me?"

He replied, "When you had me in your heart."

[Reading Guide]:

1. There is a nine-year age gap between the leads. Angsty at first, sweet later.

2. No intimate scenes before the heroine reaches adulthood, and no familial relationship exists between the leads while their romance develops.

3. Both leads have only ever been with each other, and the story has a happy ending. The relationship between the hero and the older sister will be explained in the story, so rest assured that they have only ever been with each other. Emphasis added!

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1. On the day of Wen Zhiyi's wedding, the banquet hall was full of guests, but the groom suddenly disappeared.

All she received was a text from Shan Yun: "You know what you did. We're over."

She drank quite a bit that night. In the hotel corridor, a tall, handsome man caught her as she stumbled. It was Jiang Wenche, a high school classmate she hadn't seen in years.

The alcohol went to her head. She leaned closer, her eyes glistening. "Don't go, okay?"

Rising onto her toes, she kissed him.

2. Wen Zhiyi was gentle and well-behaved, and had never done anything out of line. Yet she kept making exceptions for Jiang Wenche.

Her first time letting go.

Her first night away from home.

Her first marriage to someone she didn't love.

In a luxurious penthouse apartment, the spring rain had just let up.

"Wen Zhiyi, if you need to get married, could that person be me?"

Jiang Wenche offered her a diamond ring, bigger and more dazzling than Shan Yun's.

Wen Zhiyi had always thought Jiang Wenche married her only because they were so compatible in bed. That was until one day, when she found an unsent postcard.

"Wen Zhiyi, I like you."

It was from Jiang Wenche, at seventeen.

*Male lead's unrequited love / Physical attraction / Marriage first, love later

Reading Guide:

1. Both leads have only ever been with each other; happy ending; a sweet, doting romance.

2. From the heroine's perspective, close friends become lovers and they marry before falling in love. From the hero's perspective, his unrequited love finally comes true. The second male lead gets his comeuppance while trying to win her back.

Theme: Blooming from the mud