Spring Days at the Mountain Lodge

Complete | Thoroughly revised (and revised some more) + bonus chapters updating

◎ Shanghai and Macau settings | Buttoned-up boss whose old flame catches fire

Two twisted people pretending to be in love | Gorgeous beauty (energy tycoon, Secretary Jin) X abstinent mogul (love beggar, Boss Su)

[1]

A new bar opened beside Shanghai's insanely expensive CBD. Its lavish decor made it a hit with young people.

Only its name was tacky: it was named after a person to show off the powerful backer behind it.

That night, at a year-end party at the Venetian packed with wealthy guests, Jin Yuan rescued a refined young gentleman from a disgusting old man. She learned that he was already famous in Shanghai.

At first, all she wanted was to cling to this powerful connection.

[2]

Among Shanghai's many prominent figures, Su Zheyao alone kept his distance from women. He was nearly thirty and had never so much as touched a leaf.

Raised by relatives, he once told Jin Yuan plainly when he rejected her that he was incapable of love, and marriage was nothing more than an extraneous matter.

She thought it would be easy for a woman to win over a man, but Su Zheyao was wrapped in Tang Monk's cassock, impervious to fire and water.

Jin Yuan knew when to give up, so she did.

But then he refused to play by the rules:

Your love had ended, but his had only just begun.

[3]

Later, Jin Yuan climbed into the good graces of Xu Cen'an, and Su Zheyao's composure finally crumbled.

One night, Xu Cen'an suddenly showed up. Jin Yuan hurriedly pulled away from Su Zheyao and shoved him into the closet.

The man protested, reluctant to let her go. "Do you really have to entertain him?"

Jin Yuan: "...We're on his turf."

When she returned, she thought he had fallen asleep. The next second, he pulled her into the soft bed, pressing down on her with scorching urgency.

Jin Yuan asked in confusion, "Do you catch fire at the slightest touch, or has your flame never gone out?"

Su Zheyao's face was all sunshine, while his actions were a storm. He chuckled softly. "I'm incapable of love, not sex."

Only later did Jin Yuan understand: when someone incapable of love finally falls in love, it can be fatal.

"In life and death, stay with me. Don't let me go."

1. One true pairing, happy ending, with some business intrigue.

2. Neither lead is a saint, and both have a dark side. Readers with low tolerance for sensitive content, beware.

3. For specific content warnings, see the author's note in Chapter One. If you skip the warnings and then complain, the backlash is on you.

Blurb revised on June 10, 2024. Screenshots saved as proof. Do not steal.

◎ The series novel, Full Moon, is complete. Recommended to read together.

Next up: The Grand Entrance

◎ Capital power player X college student | Staying under the same roof | Thirteen-year age gap

Uncle and nephew competing for her | Three-way push and pull | Later content includes infidelity and melodrama

1.

He Wei had met Ji Boxuan long before she was sent to live with someone else.

Back then, she was a timid girl starved for maternal affection, while he was the beloved eldest grandson of the Ji family.

Their only connection was that he would occasionally pick her up from school in place of his busy father.

He Wei had never liked Uncle Ji.

Everyone around her father was cheerful and interesting, but Ji Boxuan was cold and taciturn. She was always on edge whenever she spoke to him.

Then He Yuanzheng disappeared, and rumors that he had fled to escape punishment spread like wildfire. His proud disciples vanished without a trace.

Only Ji Boxuan kept coming to pick her up from school.

During the years He Wei lived with Ji Boxuan, she began to rebel. Afraid she would go astray, Ji Boxuan always made a point of checking whether she was asleep after returning to the villa, even when his business engagements kept him out until late at night.

He never expected those extra glances to be what made him lose control.

2.

In He Wei's senior year of high school, Ji Boxuan suddenly announced that he was going to the Singapore branch and sent her to live with the Cheng family. Before he left, they had already been giving each other the silent treatment for over a month.

That night, he was dead drunk, murmuring her name. When the driver brought him back to the villa, he still thought he was dreaming.

He Wei looked up from her book and sat down on his black-trousered lap. As if trying to determine whether he was really drunk or faking it, she took off his glasses and tossed them aside, meeting his gaze with a provocative look. "You like me so much, yet you keep putting on the airs of an elder and pretending to be a saint. Ji Boxuan, aren't you tired?"

He turned his face away, missing the girl's soft lips.

3.

In He Wei's junior year of college, Ji Boxuan finally returned to Beicheng. His nephew, Cheng Ming, drove to the airport to pick him up. The girl was sprawled asleep in the back seat, showing no sign of welcoming him.

Later, when she and Cheng Ming began calling him "Uncle," he finally realized:

The girl he'd pushed away with his own hands four years ago seemed to have fallen into someone else's wolf's den.

The night Ji Boxuan disappeared from his engagement banquet, Beicheng was in an uproar.

Everyone wondered who the woman was that had bewitched him. Only He Wei herself was disdainful. "What do you mean, he can't live without her? A love that comes too late is cheaper than grass!"

He Wei watched the man on top of her, nearly frantic, her face expressionless. Before he could kiss her, she closed her eyes and sneered, "Ji Boxuan, you're not young anymore. Stealing a woman from your own nephew? Aren't you afraid of ruining your reputation in your later years?"

"If I don't steal you, will you come back on your own?" Ji Boxuan tore through the four years of distance between them, biting down hard on her stubborn denial. "Are you going to break it off yourself, or should I do it for you?"

Theme: When will repaying kindness ever end?