Tracks of a Harbor Butterfly

Untamable, aloof rose x gloomy daddy who raises her with painstaking care and endless patience

Possessive pursuit / ensemble cast of wealthy families / nine-year age gap

To escape an arranged marriage, Lin Youmu, the beloved youngest daughter of the Lin family in Hong Kong, eloped with the butler's son on the eve of her engagement.

Hong Kong media broadcast the scandal far and wide, calling the Lin family's youngest daughter wanton and foolish. She had offended the powerful Fu family and become the first person to slap the face of that great demon.

Fu Tingzheng was head of the wealthy and powerful Fu family. Cold and dispassionate, sinister and ruthless, he was revered by all like a god.

Yet Lin Youmu had put horns on this formidable man's head.

Just as everyone waited to see what would become of the spoiled little princess who made trouble wherever she went, the Fu family publicly announced that Lin Youmu had been found and that the elopement had all been a misunderstanding.

On the television screen, Fu Tingzheng spoke politely with a smile at his lips, but his lake-like eyes were cold.

“Miss Lin and I will hold our engagement banquet as planned next week. You are all welcome to attend.”

_

Fu Tingzheng married Lin Youmu only to satisfy an anguish that had no relief.

He hated her family. He hated the surname Lin.

She was innocent, but could hardly escape unscathed.

That night at the ballet, her pas de deux with the male dancer was perfectly in sync, and they looked made for each other.

Fu Tingzheng tightened his grip on his wineglass.

When had this possessiveness begun?

Her shoulders, her neck, entwined like bees around flowers and butterflies around blossoms, were etched into the depths of Fu Tingzheng's eyes.

He was not satisfied with that alone.

He tried every means to marry her, but when he finally had her, it brought none of the pleasure he had imagined.

The woman before him was always looking for a way to escape, longing to tear apart the web he had woven with her own hands.

Watching her stand firm, as though she had suffered an enormous injustice, Fu Tingzheng finally lost control and broke down in front of her. “What do you take me for?”

Lin Youmu's red lips seemed steeped in poison. “Something worse than a pig or a dog.”

Fu Tingzheng smiled coldly, ready for them both to go down together. “If you have what it takes, run away from me. If you don't, then one day I'll make you fall in love with me.”

His unfinished words were drowned out by the sound of a slap.

Lin Youmu said resolutely, “I will never love you.”

But she did not know that Fu Tingzheng was willing to be a moth flying into the flames, again and again. Even with his wings burned, he would still fly toward her, his butterfly.

She could remain a breathtaking butterfly forever, while he was left battered and disheveled.

But as he gazed at her tearful eyes, he finally understood:

“She is like the path of a butterfly's dance, impossible to catch.”

“He cannot selfishly trap her in his hands.”

Reader's guide:

* Possessive pursuit, groveling pursuit after losing her, ensemble cast

* The heroine is a ballet dancer; the hero is a gloomy daddy from Hong Kong's social elite. He's a madman, and there will be scenes of him losing control.

* Arranged marriage between wealthy families, with melodramatic, bloody family power struggles

* The heroine had feelings for the second male lead and was physically intimate with him, but nothing more. The hero is pure and has never dated anyone; he's a single older daddy.

* The professional details in the novel are all based on research.

* No unsolicited writing advice, please.

Next up: Lost in the Hong Kong Night

Cool, unfeeling female student x deranged Buddhist gentleman from Hong Kong's elite

Rekindled romance / groveling pursuit after losing her / five-year age gap

As an inheritor of Cantonese opera, Jiang Qingwan was fair-skinned and beautiful, with delicate features and lovely brows.

That day, dressed in a golden embroidered costume, her bright eyes sparkled and her water sleeves swept through the air, rippling a pool of spring water.

Gu Qingdong was dazzled below the stage. He caught her backstage and took her slender wrist in his hand.

“What is your name?”

From then on, she spent three years by his side.

For those three years, Jiang Qingwan trapped herself beside him, enjoying his wealth, status, and prestige.

Even someone who kept a canary would grow attached to it, but Gu Qingdong had only ever been with her for pleasure, never love.

The day she left, she gave him eight characters: “May we meet again in this life, but never see each other again.”

After spending so long with him, she had absorbed some of his Buddhist teachings, too.

Jiang Qingwan left for good, cutting all ties. The love coiled around her heart was scattered by cold winds and icy rain, again and again.

The wind over Victoria Harbour was truly fierce. It numbed her from head to toe, leaving her heart an empty shell.

_

Jiang Qingwan never thought they would meet again.

Gu Qingdong stood in a black suit, austere and ascetic. A string of sandalwood prayer beads wound around his right hand. His gloomy eyes seemed to conjure a chill from thin air as he looked at her through the crowd.

Jiang Qingwan fled in panic, but he found his chance to corner her.

His tall figure loomed over her, and a bitter smile surfaced on his stern face. “You still dare show yourself in front of me?”

Jiang Qingwan answered stiffly, “We just happened to run into each other.”

“Happened to run into each other?” He seized her wrist, his voice dark and hoarse with hatred. “You once said we would never meet again, in life or death. So what do you call this?”

“They both lost their way in the Hong Kong night, circling back and forth, owing each other nothing, through love and hate, obsession and anguish, resentment and grief.”

Theme: May we never lack the courage to love