A New Marriage in Hong Kong by Night

“Long-planned tycoon × spoiled, radiant heiress | Both devoted to one another | Marriage first, love later | Sweet romance”

Everyone in Qigang knew that Shang Xunyan, head of the Shang family, was as remote as a snowy peak above the clouds. His gaze was cool behind gold-rimmed glasses. Refined and dignified yet distant, he had used ruthless methods to pull a century-old family out of decline. With a gentle voice, he could drive his rivals to ruin. Even the society ladies feared that merely fantasizing about this celestial being would be presumptuous.

Yet this untouchable high flower ended up in the hands of the Lin family heiress, whose reputation in Hong Kong’s social circles was the worst of all.

When news of the marriage alliance broke, the whole city was in an uproar. Everyone knew Lin Qiao had chased after Shang Zelin, while Shang Xunyan was the uncle Shang Zelin revered most.

At the engagement banquet, the sight of Shang Zelin embracing his new sweetheart made Lin Qiao’s eyes sting. Champagne burned as it went down her throat. She stumbled into the restroom and cupped water in her hands to wash away her tears.

A cold scent of cedar and champagne suddenly spread behind her. Shang Xunyan’s figure took shape in the mirror’s depths, a dark silhouette. His gold-rimmed glasses framed his deep, cold eyes, like a blade tempered in icy light.

The man drew out a silk handkerchief and wrapped it around her trembling fingertips. The warmth of his palm seeped through the fabric and branded itself onto her wrist. “You are the mistress of the Shang household, and Zelin’s aunt by marriage.”

Lin Qiao looked up and met his gaze behind the lenses, where dark currents surged that she couldn’t understand. He suddenly clasped the back of her neck, his calloused thumb brushing over her smeared eye makeup. His breath swept over her damp lashes. “Remember, the dignity you’re about to stain is mine.”

Everyone believed Shang Xunyan didn’t love Lin Qiao. Even Lin Qiao thought this marriage was a spiteful second choice. But she didn’t know that on a rainy night, the man would grip her waist and press her against the floor-to-ceiling window, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Xiao Qiao, I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

At last, she realized that her long-held obsession had simply been directed at the wrong person.

Later, the Hong Kong media photographed the rose castle the century-old Shang family had spent a fortune building. The ever-correct Mr. Shang carried his wife, dressed in a spaghetti-strap nightgown, through the flower arcade, the kiss marks on her neck redder than the roses in the garden.

Later, on a stormy night on Hong Kong Island, Shang Zelin knelt outside the rose estate and asked Lin Qiao if she could give him another chance.

Lin Qiao was wondering how to refuse when Shang Xunyan held a black umbrella over her. The cold band of his ring dug into her waist. As he turned away, he glanced coldly at the man on the ground and spoke in a voice as cold as ice:

“According to the Shang family rules, anyone who covets his aunt by marriage must first endure ninety-nine strokes of the long whip, then kneel on the three hundred stone steps to the ancestral hall at the old residence.”

Theme: Beautiful love