The Downpour Is Letting Up

🍷 The arranged-marriage romance After the Morning Wedding is updating! 🍷

🍊 For the second-chance reunion and secret-crush story A Green Tangerine, please add it to your reading list! 🍊

When Chen Youyi was sixteen, she went to live with the Liang family.

The Liang family's young master thought she was Liang father's illegitimate daughter and made things difficult for her at every turn.

She thought she could stay out of his way and be safe. But one summer night after the college entrance exams, the villa lost power. She went into the wrong room and blundered straight into Liang Zhiyun's arms.

In her panic, she called him "big brother."

The man's face darkened. He gripped her jaw and forced her to look up. "Haven't I told you not to call me that?"

She stayed silent, not looking at the turbulent darkness in his eyes.

Rain poured over the city. Liang Zhiyun finally lost control and bit down hard on her soft lips. "I don't believe you don't like me."

One reckless night led to two months of intimacy.

The day they broke up, Liang Zhiyun lowered himself for the first time. "Youyi, can we not break up?"

She fought free of the wrist he held tightly and never returned to the Liang family.

*

Years later, she returned to the country with her new boyfriend. At a glamorous banquet, she sat at the same table as Liang Zhiyun.

Someone who didn't know the situation casually asked, "Miss Chen, do you know our Mr. Liang?"

Chen Youyi smiled faintly, as calm as ever. "He's my brother."

Everyone was astonished, but no one noticed Liang Zhiyun's gaze turn icy beside her.

Later, after several rounds of drinks, she went out for some air and was suddenly pulled into a lounge. A gloomy shadow pressed down on her. Their noses almost touched, and it was impossible to tell love from hatred.

Someone outside called for her in the corridor. "Youyi? Youyi?"

Alarmed, she tried to break free, but the hand she flailed was pinned firmly to the wall.

"You'd better not make a sound," Liang Zhiyun warned coldly. His kisses traveled over her pale neck, wicked to the extreme. "You don't want someone coming in and seeing you doing this with your brother."

Reader's Guide:

1. The male lead is two years older than the female lead. They are not related by blood, and she lives with his family. They do not enter a relationship until after she is an adult.

2. A second-chance romance, primarily set in the city after their reunion. Both leads are sexually inexperienced.

3. Old-school, melodramatic setup. Neither lead is perfect, and both have flaws.

4. I don't recommend buying all the chapters at once. Read them one at a time so you can stop in time if you don't like the story.

5. Everyone has different tastes. I hope we can respect one another.

Please add the upcoming novel After the Morning Wedding to your reading list

Ning Sui had spent years following the rules, yet ended up marrying a man she'd met only twice.

The first time, she'd been fired from her company. The elevator malfunctioned, and she accidentally spilled coffee all over him.

The second time, unable to come up with the money for her mother's surgery, she hid in the hospital stairwell and sobbed. The man, who had come out for a smoke, handed her a black card. "Take it."

She looked up in astonishment, her vision blurred by tears, and met a pair of sinister eyes.

The man said nothing more. He bent down to set the card and a business card beside her, then left.

She lowered her eyes and read his name: Shang Yanzhou.

She'd heard of him: the eldest son of the wealthy Shang family, whose vast business empire owned dozens of companies across a wide range of industries. One of them was her former employer.

With nowhere else to turn, Ning Sui used the card to pay the bill. After her mother's surgery succeeded, she called him and asked, "Mr. Shang, what do you want?"

The man's voice on the other end was low, languid, and threaded with an inscrutable laugh. "I want you to marry me."

*

After the wedding, they lived together but never crossed the line.

Ning Sui had always thought their marriage was nothing more than a transaction.

All she had to do was play the loving wife in public and help him secure an inheritance worth a trillion. Once Mr. Shang passed away, she would be free again.

In the third month of their marriage, her former friend and first love returned from abroad.

She went to welcome him, only to run into Shang Yanzhou at the airport as he returned from a business trip.

He didn't expose the fact that she was already married in front of her first love.

She thought he wouldn't mind. But that night, the man carried her into the bathtub. His burning fingertips brushed the moisture from her lips as he asked again and again, "Why did you pick him up, but not me?"

"Sui Sui, how am I not as good as him?"

Later, Ning Sui remembered an old incident

When she was seventeen, she'd thrown away the love letter he had written to her.

Back then, his name was Lin Yanzhou.

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