Bright Moon Over the Mountains

[Updated daily at 6 a.m. The story has reached the events described in the blurb.]

Chen Qian is quiet and obedient as a lamb. An orphan living under someone else's roof, all she can do is study hard and stay out of trouble.

And she should humor the proud young master of the Zhou family, who has always been hostile toward her, so life will be a little easier.

On Zhou Jin's birthday, her aunt prepared a fruit platter and asked her to take it upstairs.

She pushed open the door. A young man in a crisp white shirt leaned back in his chair, his profile sharp, his tone arrogant. "You're really willing to stoop to anything just to chase me?"

The girl had never been able to argue with him. Her face went pale, but she offered no defense.

Instead, a pair of slender, straight legs appeared before his desk, the hem of a milky-white skirt swaying slightly. She set down the fruit platter and quietly went downstairs.

-

Chen Qian's aunt became Zhou Jin's stepmother. As the pampered young master everyone adored, it was only natural that Zhou Jin disliked Chen Qian.

He was polite but distant with everyone, and cruel only to Chen Qian.

Chen Qian was a pushover, yet even so, she kept trying to talk to him.

They ran into each other at the stairwell landing while filling out their college applications.

Zhou Jin: "You went to all that trouble to find out where I was applying. Now you've got your wish."

Chen Qian murmured an indifferent "Mm," quietly hiding her overseas application papers in her palm before turning back into her room.

-

Chen Qian's parents had left her enough money to pay for her studies abroad.

On Christmas Eve, in her third year in New York, a Chinese-British international student invited her out. She went with light makeup, as lovely as a lotus rising from the water.

At the bar, the crowd jeered and egged her on until she had no choice but to go onstage and sing a Jiangnan folk song for the student.

Only after she finished did she realize the bar's mood had changed in an instant. The lights were dim, the room was silent, and the student was nowhere to be seen.

In the shadows, several bodyguards surrounded a tall man in a black overcoat.

It was the coldest time of year in San Francisco. Zhou Jin sat upright, his features stern, silently watching her over his glass.

An arrogant, sharp-tongued rich boy x a gentle, polite beauty

People said Zhou Jin was an unconquerable mountain. But Chen Qian had never been a mountain climber. She was a mountain beyond the mountains, the moon atop the highest peak.

*

A story about a well-mannered scoundrel who goes from prejudice to devouring his stepsister whole.

Relentless pursuit and a groveling ex

----Coming Soon----

"Backflow"

Powerful CEO x innocent, delicate beauty

Lu Yu is the eldest son of the Lu family of Nancheng, refined as jade and coldly aloof.

Song Xun is the daughter of the Lu family's chauffeur. Her father died saving the Lu family's matriarch, so the two families arranged a marriage to repay the debt.

Song Xun was eighteen that year, young and with no one to rely on. After moving into the Lu household, she was quiet and reserved, often gazing up at Lu Yu with her dewy eyes. He was eight years older than her, a man who could command the winds and clouds in the world of wealth and power, deep in the mortal realm.

Even though he was reserved and cold toward her.

One ordinary spring night, the rain fell without end. Lu Yu was out entertaining clients, and Song Xun brought him an umbrella through the rain.

The rain soaked her white shoes. When she arrived, she saw through a traditional carved window, from a distance, a woman with a sexy, beautiful face leaning beside him and lighting his cigarette.

He turned his head to accept it, his posture languid and his smile careless.

Her heart, too, cooled little by little with the rain.

Later, she summoned the courage to leave for a faraway land and asked to break off the engagement.

Lu Yu looked at her for a long time, stubbed out his cigarette, and smiled faintly. "A Xun has grown up and has ideas of her own."

-

Another rainy night, just like the last.

On the road from the suburbs to the villa, he stopped by the roadside at a red light.

He flicked his lighter and lit a cigarette, his pale, rugged profile turned to the side. By chance, he saw Song Xun in a white dress slipping beneath someone else's umbrella.

From that day on, Lu Yu could never forget the pure smile in those bright, dewy eyes.

Not long afterward, Song Xun's boyfriend's business went bankrupt. A friend whispered in his ear, and for the sake of his own future, he sent his girlfriend to a powerful man's luxury apartment.

At the time, Lu Yu sat by the floor-to-ceiling window. He set down his glass of Cabernet Sauvignon blended with Chateau Lafite and wiped a crystalline tear from the corner of her eye.

He sighed softly, the corner of his lips curling into a smile.

"The world outside is too cruel. You're too innocent, A Xun. No one else can protect you."

He waited patiently for the fish he had let swim free for a while to obediently return to the net he had woven with his own hands.

Coming soon: "Ashes and Snow". Please add it to your favorites!

Refined professor x alluring, scheming beauty

----Synopsis below----

It snowed heavily in the south. Wen Chan carried a book in one hand on her way to class, lighting a cigarette as she walked into the biting wind.

Wen Wan stopped her. "Wen Chan, Dad said I can have the spot in the Russian exchange program. You're not in good health, and you didn't really want to go anyway, right?"

"Mm."

The girl's face immediately lit up with a bright smile. "By the way, it's my birthday today. Mom made all your favorite dishes. Will you come home with me?"

"No. Today is the anniversary of my mother's death."

After Wen Wan left, Wen Chan smoked in the snow. When her cigarette burned out, the window of a Rolls-Royce rolled down nearby.

A man sat in the driver's seat, wearing a dark wool coat, his profile sharp.

A professor in the physics department at A University, an elite in his field, in his thirties, with an impressive research record. Refined and abstinent, he kept women at a distance.

He also happened to be Wen Wan's maternal uncle.

Wen Chan walked over, leaned against the window, and tapped on it. Holding up her cigarette, she smiled seductively and flippantly. "It's snowing hard. Can I borrow a lighter?"

Zhou Sinan turned his head and frowned almost imperceptibly.

Out of politeness, he handed her the lighter the driver had left in the car, then drove away.

-

Wen Chan lost the lighter she had borrowed.

Wen Chan bought him a new one.

Wen Chan sprained her ankle on the way to give him the new lighter.

Later.

Wen Chan leaned against Zhou Sinan's broad shoulder and lit a cigarette with that lighter. She exhaled a thin stream of smoke, then brushed the cigarette against his lips. Her lipstick left a bright red mark on the filter. "Want to try?"

Zhou Sinan took it, didn't even look at it, stubbed it out, and tossed it straight into the trash. "Wen Chan, stop imitating those unsavory people."

Later still.

From behind a carved window, Zhou Sinan heard Wen Wan confront Wen Chan.

Wen Chan said, "Zhou Sinan gave me the project. I did want the project, but I have no interest in being the accompanying teaching assistant. All those meals Dad treated people to were less useful than one word from Zhou Sinan."

Wen Wan's eyes widened. "You don't even call him Uncle?"

"I do." Wen Chan looked at Wen Wan's sour expression and smiled.

"In bed."

-

The heroine and her younger sister have different fathers. The male and female leads are not related by blood.

Theme: Live well.