Words Left Unspoken

Note: The title has been changed to You Leave Me Hanging. Its original title was Words Unspoken.

★ Refined, dignified tech CEO × beautiful, bold, rebellious lawyer

|Fake siblings + love and hate + secret love comes true|

1.

Shi Yu'an, widely known in legal circles as a heartbreaker, picked up a call from her current boyfriend with an expressionless face before a court hearing.

“Let's break up... You heard me right. Right now.”

As soon as she hung up, her face turned professional. She spoke gently to her client:

“Don't worry. The case isn't complicated. You've just run into a shady boss.”

Two groups of people ran into each other in the courthouse corridor.

Shi Yu'an looked up, then suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Chen Ci slowly took off his sunglasses. Wearing a custom-tailored suit, he stood before her looking every bit the part of a gentleman.

“What a coincidence, Lawyer Shi.”

“Looks like I'm the shady boss.”

2.

The night of her friend's wedding, Shi Yu'an got thoroughly drunk and pinned Chen Ci to the back seat of a car, kissing him hard.

After three seconds of tangled lips, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her away. Chen Ci's voice was low and heavy. “Shi Yu'an, have you lost your mind? Look at me. I'm your brother!”

At his words, Shi Yu'an didn't back off. Instead, she leaned close to his ear, smiling brightly and brokenly.

“I know, brother.”

“But what am I supposed to do? I don't want to pretend anymore.”

The air fell silent. After a long moment, Chen Ci straightened her collar.

“Now that you've gotten your drunken antics out of your system, go home and get some sleep.”

“Tonight never happened.”

3.

But it wasn't long before...

Chen Ci blocked the woman who had stayed out all night at the door. His voice was hoarse, still touched by strong liquor. “Who were you out having fun with?”

Shi Yu'an toyed with his tie and smiled. “What's it to you, brother? Who are you to tell me what to do?”

Chen Ci's eyes darkened. He abruptly pinned her against the wall. “Who am I? Wasn't it you who pinned me in a car and kissed me a few days ago?”

_

Bonus scene

Someone asked curiously, “Mr. Chen, forgive me for asking, but what exactly is your relationship with Ms. Shi?”

When the man looked up, a lazy curve touched his lips. He asked in return, “We're on the same household register. What do you think our relationship is?”

P.S. 1. One man and one woman, one-on-one pairing; both leads' first time.

2. Piracy will be pursued. Thank you for supporting the official version.

3. Reader comments are open.

Advance notice divider, Half Light, Half Shadow [Marriage Before Love]

Blurb:

★ Diplomat × high school teacher

Cool and refined × gentle and perceptive

1.

When he married her, Ning Buyan said, “I need a stable marriage.”

Fang Yuchi understood, so she tried to be an undemanding wife and never asked about things she shouldn't.

At one gathering, a group of rich young men took turns complaining that their wives were too controlling. Ning Buyan swirled his glass, unusually bold. “My wife is so open-minded. She never asks what time I'll be home.”

A friend teased him. “Sure, your wife is the most open-minded. She doesn't ask what time you'll be home, or who you'll be sleeping with.”

The table fell silent for a moment.

Ning Buyan curled his lips into a smile. “That's why I married her. Our Teacher Fang is smart and knows how to behave. She always knows exactly what she wants most.”

After the gathering broke up in the early hours, only one lamp was on in the living room. Warm yellow light fell over the woman on the sofa, grading papers.

Ning Buyan leaned against the entryway, half his face hidden in shadow. He watched her for a long while, then suddenly spoke. “Teacher Fang, have you ever thought that if you'd married someone else, your family problems could have been solved, too?”

“Maybe.” Her pen kept moving.

“Then why did you choose me?” He took the red pen from her hand and leaned over, bracing himself against the back of the sofa.

Fang Yuchi looped her arms around his neck and leaned close. “Of course, because you were the best deal and the most generous with money, Director Ning.”

Ning Buyan gave a very faint laugh and asked no more.

2.

Neither of them had pure intentions when they married. At first, each got what they needed, and they lived in peace. Then, of all things, they fell for each other. Once someone falls in love, greed becomes impossible to suppress. Both wanted to be loved, yet both were convinced the other didn't love them enough. Their grievances piled up until every word became a knife.

She pulled off her ring and flung it at his feet. “Ning Buyan, cut the act. You know who you have in your heart, don't you? You only married me to spite your parents!”

He loosened his tie, his tone even colder than hers. “And what about you? Did you marry me because you love me? Don't you know exactly what you wanted out of this?”

Her heart clenched painfully, but Fang Yuchi smiled and nodded. “Right. You're right.”

They had both entered this marriage with an agenda. Neither was innocent, so neither had any right to complain.

3.

She had once heard someone say that love was an endless ache. At first, Fang Yuchi didn't believe it. Later, she came to understand it all too well.

During the most painful days, she lay in the darkness, her voice so faint it was almost inaudible. “Ning Buyan, have you ever considered... getting a divorce?”

He looked over. She pressed the back of her hand tightly against her eyes.

Ning Buyan was silent for a long time. Long enough for her to think he was already calculating how to divide their assets. But then he said, “No.”

He took a tissue and put it in her hand. “Teacher Fang, as far as I'm concerned, divorce isn't a way to solve problems. I got married, and I never intended to get divorced.”

She kept her eyes closed. She didn't see Ning Buyan turn away and close the door, his nails digging into his palm as he used all his strength to hold back his trembling.

Ning Buyan also didn't know that an hour before she asked him that question, Fang Yuchi had turned the faucet on full blast in the bathroom and cried until she was drained.

Two people who weren't right for each other would rather cling to a marriage that had become unrecognizable than so much as mention divorce. It wasn't that they didn't know it hurt. Every pain paled beside the thought of losing each other.

[Reading Guide]

1. Both leads' first love and first time; happy ending.

2. Strangers who marry before falling in love. They had no feelings for each other before marriage, no secret crushes, and no long-term schemes.

3. Neither lead is perfect.

Advance notice divider

Campus novel: A Hot Summer of Lies

★ Alluring beauty with a hidden dark side × playboy who turns over a new leaf, only to get hooked himself

|Two top students + intense romantic push and pull + a battlefield of love|

“The perfect hunter often enters the game in the guise of prey.”

“Guess how much of the affection in my eyes is real?”

Blurb:

Everyone knows that the two stars of the province's top high school are polar opposites: one is a playboy, the other innocent and well-behaved.

On a stormy day, in a dark alley, Lin Xiyin saw him with his arm around a girl whose eyes were red from crying. His white shirt billowed in the wind as the boy said coldly, “It was just a game we both agreed to, babe. There's no point in clinging to me.”

Everyone knew that Jiang Chi, the heartthrob of No. 1 High School, was dangerous and irresistible. A rich, carefree heir, he never dated a girl for more than two weeks. But Lin Xiyin refused to be deterred and deliberately played with fire.

She engineered chance encounters, intentionally left behind a hair tie, and even rushed into his arms in the rain, clutching her soaked school uniform.

“Lin, if you date me, you have to be able to handle it.” The boy casually sucked on a mint, a metal lighter spinning so fast between his fingers it became a blur. Jiang Chi gave her an amused look. “Three rules: no promises, don't take it seriously, and we can stop whenever we get bored.”

Lin Xiyin's gaze fell on the second button of his collar. As her fingertips brushed his Adam's apple, she heard his breath suddenly falter.

The girl tipped her head back and drank the wine he offered from his glass, smiling until her eyes curved like crescent moons. “Sounds good.”

Everyone thought Lin Xiyin had won this relationship through sheer persistence. No one knew that every smile of hers that reached Jiang Chi had been meticulously crafted, each detail calculated to the last fraction, as part of her revenge.

The night the truth came out, blue flames flickered in the wind on the rooftop. When Jiang Chi stubbed out his seventh cigarette, the mark of Lin Xiyin's kiss still lingered on his neck.

She calmly smoothed the wrinkles from Jiang Chi's collar and announced with a red-lipped smile, “Young Master Jiang, the game's over.”

“You used me and now you want to run?” As Lin Xiyin turned away, the boy's trembling hand clamped around her wrist, gripping so hard it nearly crushed her bones. She looked back and saw that the usually laid-back, arrogant boy's eyes were bloodshot. “Lin Xiyin, how much of your love was real?”

She smiled, pried his fingers open, and removed her good-girl mask. Years of ice lay in her eyes. “Jiang Chi, there's no point in clinging to me.”

They had agreed: this was a game of love, and whoever fell first lost.

[Reading Guide]

1. Lin Xiyin (yin is pronounced as in the character).

2. One man and one woman, one-on-one pairing; both leads' first time.

3. A revenge story about a sweet-looking girl with a dark side. The male lead is a genuine playboy at first, then chases his wife after she leaves.

Theme: Love really does take courage, to face rumors and gossip