Spring Waters South of the Pond

[Beijing Social Circle] [Married First, Love Later] [Old Flames Reignited] [Stealing Someone Else's Partner] [Everyman Romance] Blurb: The second son of the Chi family and the youngest daughter of the Nan family were promised to each other when they were children. Nan Xi loved Chi Zhaoming. She gave him freedom, respected his career, and didn't take his so-called business-world flirtations seriously. Unexpectedly, after pretending not to notice for three years, she was rewarded with his brazen affair before their wedding. Photos of the second Chi son in bed with a famous actress hit the trending charts. Overnight, the Nan family's daughter became the biggest laughingstock in their social circle. * They say the playboy turned over a new leaf, kneeling in the rain outside the Nan family's villa for three days and nights before he was finally allowed inside. Later, the Chi and Nan families went ahead with their alliance as planned, and the two-billion-yuan island wedding became known throughout the country. The bride wore a couture wedding dress sewn by one of the world's top designers, walking toward a handsome man in a sharply tailored suit, with the waves roaring around them. But the man wasn't Chi Zhaoming. He was Chi Zhaoming's half-brother. No one knew that on the day Chi Zhaoming had knelt for three days and nights and finally entered the Nan home, he hadn't seen Nan Xi. At the time, she had also spent three days and nights in a penthouse suite on the top floor of the Jinghua Hotel. Beyond the spotless floor-to-ceiling windows, a vast expanse of prosperity stretched beneath her feet, neon lights filled her view, and a man's heated breath brushed her ear: "Turn around." * Nan Xi had always thought Chi Jinyu was cold by nature, unmoved by anything, and that he didn't mind her past with Chi Zhaoming. He simply needed a marriage alliance, so he chose her. Later, at a family banquet, Chi Zhaoming got drunk and ran his mouth, talking about how he and Nan Xi had grown up together, how they'd been each other's first love, and how even if she married his older brother, she'd never forget him. Chi Jinyu, usually steady as a mountain and never one to show his feelings, flew into a rage in front of everyone and beat him up. That night, Nan Xi was in the bedroom where Chi Jinyu had grown up, directly above Chi Zhaoming's room. She cried and stayed awake until dawn. Tips: A powerful fatherly type who descends from his pedestal for love x a quick-witted, spoiled rich beauty. A sweet, everyday romance. The author's fictional settings are extensive. The heroine truly loved the second male lead, so don't read if that bothers you. The male lead has been plotting for a long time. He and the heroine are both sexually inexperienced, and this is their first time. Six-year age gap. The male lead is steady and influential. At first, the heroine doesn't know him well and addresses him respectfully. (If that bothers you, don't read. Respecting one's elders is a proud tradition and basic courtesy. The heroine has done nothing wrong, so anyone who insults her will have it thrown right back at them.) Coming soon, No. 1: The Eighth Year of Marriage, married first, love later / he has a secret crush. Please add it to your reading list! Blurb: On the day they went to register their marriage, Tang Ran was dumped by the man she'd met through a matchmaking arrangement. He admitted that he didn't actually like her, so he couldn't marry her. Tang Ran leaned against the wall outside the marriage registration office, lost in thought. Looking back over everything Tan Zhe had done since they started dating, it all confirmed what people online said: When it comes to matchmaking and marriage, every man is an Oscar-worthy actor. She thought Tan Zhe liked her. He'd certainly acted like he did. As her thoughts drifted, a hand reached out beside her. A tissue held between long, slender fingers fluttered in the bitter winter wind. Tang Ran sniffed. "Thanks, but I'm not crying." Her nose was blocked from the cold wind, and the tip of it was so red it was nearly frozen. The other person gave a quiet laugh, but didn't move his hand. Tang Ran looked at him suspiciously. His slightly upturned phoenix eyes shifted away calmly when their gazes met. In that instant, Tang Ran suddenly realized something and snatched the tissue from his hand. --- Her first meeting with her future husband was when the cold made her nose run and he held back from laughing at her. * These days, matchmaking is all an act. How is it any different from grabbing some random man off the street? Tang Ran agreed to marry Song Boqiao, a man she'd met only once. At least he was handsome and well-off. He showed her his ID and military officer certificate, proving he was a real Air Force major. His salary was excellent, and he promised to hand it all over to her. After they married, they lived apart in different cities. Tang Ran collected a fortune every month without having to play the role of wife or daughter-in-law. Life couldn't have been better. Until one day, she received a call from an unfamiliar number. Thinking it was work, she answered automatically: "Tang Ran from the Sixth Procuratorate Department. Who's calling?" A languid, amused voice replied, "Your husband." "..." Hearing the same voice from another direction, she looked up at the tall man leaning in her office doorway, his long shadow stretching across the floor in the sunset. This was bad. Her comfortable life was over. * Tang Ran had always thought she'd first met Song Boqiao outside the marriage registration office that day. It wasn't until she finally went with him to the capital to meet his parents that she learned his mother had been her high school English teacher. Much later, she happened to open the old sandalwood box in his bedside table. Among the military medals lay the hair clip she'd left behind at her teacher's house during her last tutoring session in the summer before her second year of high school. He had kept it in an exquisite dustproof case, still as bright as ever. It turned out nothing had been arranged by fate. What she thought was their first meeting was actually the eighth year of his long-laid plan. [Rebellious, roguish Air Force pilot x beautiful, ambitious prosecutor] Coming soon, No. 2: And Yet You Came Closer Blurb: Gu Jinshi, a financial tycoon renowned on Wall Street, returned to China, and his old classmates gathered to celebrate. Over dinner, they started talking about the beauty from the neighboring university, a girl so popular that countless people couldn't even get a word in with her. Recently, though, rumors had been spreading that a luxury car kept picking her up after class. It seemed she had a boyfriend. A gossip said, "I heard he's a real estate company owner, in his fifties or sixties. Girls these days..." Gu Jinshi's eyes darkened. He said nothing and drained his glass. That night, an unexpected visitor appeared at Gu Nian's place off campus. The night was deep and still, and a faint light glimmered by the bed. The girl's soft voice mingled with the lazy music. "Could you stop picking me up at school? My classmates are getting the wrong idea..." "What idea?" Gu Jinshi bit her ear. "That I'm a real estate tycoon in my fifties or sixties?" Gu Nian pressed her lips together. In the light, her skin was fair and faintly pink, like a ripe peach. He pinched her with one hand, making her flush. "What, can't even call me big brother anymore?" * Gu Jinshi had always been the kind of child other people's parents bragged about: handsome, academically gifted, and well-rounded. Gu Nian followed him around as his little sidekick, happily choosing to lie flat as a poor student, thinking that as long as her big brother did well, she'd never have to worry about food or clothes. Until she was eleven, when a Mercedes stopped outside their gate and her mother told her that they were her brother's biological parents. Tips: The leads are not blood-related and are not registered in the same household. There is no romance before adulthood. Theme: Only by leaving the wrong person behind can you meet the right one.