There Were Signs All Along

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★ Investment banking tycoon × chief perfumer

Roguishly handsome young heir & capital socialite

Money above all vs. feelings above all

| Marriage Before Love + childhood sweethearts + reunion after years apart |

1.

Jiang Wang, the youngest Chinese CEO in Wall Street history, has an innocent-looking face, but his methods are more ruthless than the last.

Cool and aloof, noble and decisive at the negotiating table; irreverent and unserious in private.

The Beijing elite have this to say about him: “Young Master Jiang is a flirt, but never a cad. He gets involved, but never falls in love.”

Xu Guiyi first met him in London.

Far from home, she was being harassed by someone. Just as she was at a loss, a warm hand firmly supported her lower back from behind, steadying her panicked heart as well.

Xu Guiyi looked up and met a strikingly handsome face.

The man was composed, his voice languid and casual. Only the look he gave the drunkard held an unmistakable warning: “She’s mine.”

Over drinks, they talked about work.

Jiang Wang said without changing expression, “I collect debts.”

Xu Guiyi replied calmly, “I mix fragrances.”

2.

They happened to meet for the second time at an ancient temple.

The temple stood tall and grand. Monks chanted sutras in the main hall. A woman knelt in prayer with her hands clasped, a string of exquisite, apparently valuable prayer beads looped three times around her snow-white wrist.

She opened her eyes and turned, but froze in place the next moment.

Incense smoke curled through the air. A man stood tall by the doorway, leaning against the frame. His crisp, impeccably pressed suit exuded wealth and status.

The instant she crossed the threshold, he suddenly leaned his face toward hers. His languid, unhurried voice drifted through the smoke.

“Your heart is unsettled.”

The morning breeze stirred the bamboo grove into a rustle. Xu Guiyi never looked away.

She believed in Buddha, and in the fateful encounters of this vast world.

When the temple bell rang, she met his gaze without hesitation. “Next time we meet, I want your name.”

Jiang Wang lowered his head and curled his lips into a smile, adjusting his shirt cuff with easy nonchalance. “Next time we meet, I want you.”

Behind them stood solemn gods, not to be profaned. His gaze was certain, his words brazen, and he tugged at her heart with just the right touch.

3.

The third time they crossed paths was at a bar.

Xu Guiyi wore a black spaghetti-strap dress, her curls falling over her shoulders. Her slender heels clicked against the floor, and her gaze could steal a person’s soul.

The bar lights swayed. Their eyes met and clung to each other like magnetic poles.

In an instant, sparks flew and desire surged.

Jiang Wang’s shirt collar was subtly rumpled. He buried his face in the hollow of a beautiful woman’s shoulder and murmured softly.

His breath was scorching, teasing her ear.

When she told him she had a fiance, the man brushed the loose hair beside her ear with long fingers and laughed softly. “Well, what are we going to do about that?”

Their breaths mingled

“Before he officially becomes my husband, I don’t have to save myself for him, do I?”

The woman asked coolly. The vivacity and abandon in her bones were irresistible.

Jiang Wang grinned wickedly. Damn, she was exciting.

4. Bonus scene

The broad corridor was dim and shadowy. The person in his arms leaned back against the wall and held out a hand, palm up.

Jiang Wang instinctively started to hand her a card, but she stopped him.

The next moment, she said earnestly, “Please show me your health certificate.”

Xu Guiyi wanted to have fun, but she did not want to catch a disease.

Jiang Wang froze for a second, then pinched her chin. His dark eyes grew more dangerous as he stared at her. “Have I been indulging you too much? Last time you left money for me, and this time you want a certificate?”

[The gears of fate turned quietly. It turned out that everything had been foreshadowed. Amid all the coincidences and chance encounters, you were the one certainty.]

*Inspired by:

Finally, tipsy and flushed, who ruined the mood? Their crime is unforgivable.

Xu Jiaying, “Change the Song”

Blurb written on August 24, 2023 (screenshot saved)

Reader's Guide:

1. The male and female leads are in a one-on-one relationship, and both are sexually inexperienced. The male lead and his female companions are only involved in casual transactional relationships. Please do not read if this bothers you. Thank you!

2. This is part of a series. Some content overlaps with Chapter 76 of Kissing Under the Galaxy. It sets up important plot points, so thank you for understanding.

3. The story focuses mainly on romance. Please do not compare it to real life.

4. Reading is for fun. Hope you enjoy it ^_^

Upcoming Novel, Half Light, Half Shadow [Marriage Before Love]

Blurb:

★ Diplomat × high school teacher

Cool and distinguished × gentle and perceptive

1.

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

Fang Yuchi understood, so she tried her best to be an easygoing wife and never asked about anything she shouldn't.

At a gathering, a group of young heirs took turns complaining about their overbearing wives. Swirling his wineglass, Ning Buyan made an unusually boastful remark: “My wife is so understanding. She never cares what time I get home.”

A friend teased him. “Right, your wife is the most understanding. She doesn't just ignore what time you get back, she doesn't care who you sleep with, either.”

The table fell silent for a moment.

Ning Buyan smiled. “That's why I married her. Our Teacher Fang is clever and knows how to keep things easy. She always knows what she wants most.”

The gathering broke up in the early hours. Only one light was on in the living room, its warm yellow glow falling over the person on the sofa grading papers.

Ning Buyan leaned against the entrance, half his face hidden in shadow. He watched her for a long while, then suddenly said, “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 it's because you had the best qualifications and were the quickest to pay, Director Ning.”

Ning Buyan gave a barely audible laugh and asked nothing more.

2.

Neither of them had entered the marriage for pure reasons. At first, they each got what they needed and lived in peace. Then, unexpectedly, they fell for each other. Once love took hold, desire became impossible to suppress. Both wanted to be loved, yet both believed the other did not love them enough. Their grievances piled up until every word became a knife.

She pulled off her ring and flung it hard at his feet. “Ning Buyan, stop pretending to be so devoted. You know who you're really thinking about, don't you? You married me just to spite your parents!”

He yanked at his tie, his voice even colder than hers. “And what about you? Did you marry me because you loved me? Don't you know what you wanted out of this?”

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

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

3.

She had once heard that love was an unending ache. Fang Yuchi had not believed it at first, but later came to know it was true.

During the hardest days, she lay in the dark, 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 hard against her eyes.

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

He put a tissue in her hand. “Teacher Fang, divorce isn't a way to solve problems for me. Since I got married, I never planned to get divorced.”

She kept her eyes shut. She did not see Ning Buyan turn and close the door, his nails digging into his palms as he struggled with all his might to suppress his trembling.

Ning Buyan also did not know that an hour before she asked him that question, Fang Yuchi had turned the bathroom faucet on full blast and cried until she was completely spent.

Two people who were wrong for each other would rather cling to a marriage that had become unrecognizable than utter the word divorce. It was not that they did not know pain. No pain could compare to losing the other, even for a single second.

[Reader's Guide]

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced and each other's first love. Happy ending.

2. A pure strangers-to-spouses romance. They had no emotional connection before marriage, with no secret crushes or long-planned schemes.

3. Neither lead is portrayed as perfect.

Upcoming Novel

Campus romance: The Sweltering Summer of Lies [Playboy × flirtatious schemer]. Please add it to your favorites!

Blurb:

★ Alluring beauty, sweet on the outside and dark within × playboy who comes back to love, only to be ensnared

| Two top students + intense push and pull + romantic battlefield |

“The perfect hunter often enters the game disguised as prey.”

“Tell me, how much of the affection in my eyes is real?”

Everyone knew the two stars of the province's top high school were complete opposites: one lived a life of reckless indulgence, while the other was pure and sweet.

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

Everyone knew Jiang Chi, the heartthrob of the affiliated high school, was dangerous and captivating: a wealthy, carefree heir whose relationships never lasted more than two weeks. But Lin Xiyan refused to be deterred and insisted on playing with fire

She engineered chance encounters, deliberately left behind a hair tie, and even rushed into his arms with her uniform soaked through on a stormy day.

“Lin, if you date me, you have to be able to handle it.” The seventeen-year-old boy casually bit down on a mint, a metal lighter spinning in a blur between his fingers. Jiang Chi looked amused. “Three rules: no promises, don't take it seriously, and we can stop whenever we get bored.”

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

The girl tipped her head back and drained the drink he offered, then smiled, her eyes curving like crescent moons. “Sure.”

Everyone thought Lin Xiyan had won this relationship by relentlessly pursuing him. They did not know that every smile of hers that reached Jiang Chi's eyes was a carefully crafted act of revenge, measured out to the last detail.

The day the truth came out, the night wind swept across the rooftop, carrying blue flames. When Jiang Chi stubbed out his seventh cigarette, the kiss marks Lin Xiyan had left the previous night still lingered on his neck.

She slowly smoothed Jiang Chi's rumpled collar and curled her red lips as she announced, “Young Master Jiang, the game is over.”

“You're just going to use me and then run?” As Lin Xiyan turned away, the boy's trembling hand clamped around her wrist. His grip was almost strong enough to crush her bones. She turned back and saw the usually carefree, arrogant boy with bloodshot eyes. “Lin Xiyan, how much of your affection was real?”

She smiled as she pried his fingers away, taking off her good-girl mask. The cold of years lay in her eyes. “Jiang Chi, how many defeats can your pride take?”

They had agreed: it was a game of romance, and the first to fall in love would lose.

Theme: Freedom above all.