Crossing the Grain

Sorry, the bonus chapters from the male lead's point of view aren't written yet. I'll post them when they're done, but there's no set date.

Before reading, please check the warnings at the very end. If you've read a pirated copy and are coming here for the bonus chapters, please don't comment on my story. I'll delete those comments, so please be considerate.

Married first, fall in love later * pregnant first, fall in love later * the heroine gives birth and runs away, the hero raises the child

[Succubus-like, sweet-talking, pure and gentle girl x unruly, flirtatious young master from Beijing's elite circles] [167 cm x 189 cm]

Everyone is crazy, and none of them are good people!!!

Blurb:

On He Shu's twenty-fifth birthday, Old Master He publicly promised to grant her the most impossible wish she could come up with.

She lowered her eyes and stayed silent for a long time, then suddenly raised a hand and pointed at her older brother, He Li.

Everyone present was confused. No one noticed He Li's face turn deathly pale in an instant.

But the next second, she turned her hand and pointed at the unruly, handsome man standing beside him.

"I want him to marry me."

Tan Xuchuan.

He was a notorious playboy.

Carefree since childhood, with a heart as wide open as the wilderness, he had never even considered settling down.

Just as expected, Tan Xuchuan rejected her in front of everyone.

"Why should I?" the man drawled.

Yet before long, He Shu married into the Tan family in a grand ceremony.

After the wedding, Tan Xuchuan, who had rejected her in public, shared her bed every night.

Just three months later, word got out that she was pregnant.

Tan Xuchuan realized that He Shu seemed to be on the verge of cheating on him.

It happened on the very day they found out she was pregnant.

He accompanied her back to the He family home. At one point, He Shu excused herself to use the bathroom, but didn't return for a long time.

He went looking for her and happened to catch her clutching He Li's clothes and crying, her face so pitiful that anyone who saw it would feel sorry for her.

She was saying, "He Li, if you're willing, I'll ask him for a divorce right now."

He Shu had always understood one thing very clearly.

She and Tan Xuchuan seemed married in name and in fact, sleeping together every night, but their hearts were elsewhere.

Tan Xuchuan had agreed to marry her only because he was obeying Old Madam Tan. As long as he gave the Tan family a child with her, he could still do whatever he wanted outside the marriage.

This marriage had always been an arrangement of mutual convenience.

Now that they'd both gotten what they wanted, she wanted a divorce and to walk away.

But the man tore up the divorce agreement, pinned her against the wall, and gripped her chin. His gaze was cool and haughty. "The child in your belly can only call me Dad."

"A divorce? Keep dreaming."

Reader's notes:

1. The hero is not a playboy. He's completely inexperienced, in both body and heart, and has no past romantic entanglements.

The heroine is a virgin, but her heart isn't devoted to the hero. She likes the second male lead, and still likes him after getting engaged to and marrying the hero. If you can't accept a heroine whose feelings aren't exclusively for the hero in a one-on-one romance, please read with caution.

The second male lead and the heroine are not blood-related. The heroine isn't the gentle, kind, innocent type. She's selfish, a little crazy, a little dark and obsessive, a little twisted, and a little coquettish.

2. Everyone is crazy, nobody is a good person, and none of them are perfect. They all have their own flaws.

3. The author's stories don't follow especially rigorous logic.

4. Major warning!!! The heroine gives birth and then abandons everything to run off and find the second male lead. If you can't accept that, please think carefully before reading. Please don't read it and then complain about the heroine.

6. She ends up with the hero, and the child is his.

Theme: Courage