Misty Butterfly

The completed marriage-first, love-later novel, Nurturing a Little Rose, is in my author page. Please add my next novel in the same universe, Sailing Home Through the Fog, to your reading list!

Gentle opera beauty x abstinent, possessive tycoon

1. The day Huo Qingtan left the Huo family, a once-in-a-century blizzard descended on Wucheng.

Huo Qingtan had no money to her name. All she had was the pipa that had been with her for twenty years. In the freezing snow, she sat by the roadside with her instrument and sang and played, oblivious to the world around her.

In a Rolls-Royce parked at the street corner with its window half lowered, a man idly rolled the wheel of a silver lighter between his fingers. Sparks of flame reflected on his cool, restrained profile, mysterious and unsettling.

After patiently listening to an entire song, he opened the car door and held out a hand to Huo Qingtan. "Come with me?"

2. Huo Qingtan spent the first half of her life being abandoned, until Lu Yanchen appeared

Like a savior, he carefully took in this broken-winged butterfly, cherishing her as if she were a priceless treasure.

But she knew that she and Lu Yanchen were together only because they each had something the other needed.

It was only a matter of time before they parted.

The day she finally decided to leave, Huo Qingtan left a letter and disappeared without a word.

Lu Yanchen used all his connections, but still couldn't find a trace of her.

3. Years later, everyone knew that Hong Kong City had a dan-role performer with a remarkable voice and extraordinary talent. A prized disciple of the famous Kunqu opera performer Yu Qiuyun, she rose to fame with just one performance of The Mulberry Grove Reunion.

Later, every performance she gave was sold out.

The head of the Lu family spent a fortune buying up tickets to her performances wherever they were available, setting the whole city abuzz.

After one performance, Lu Yanchen cornered the performer backstage.

In a place untouched by the spotlight, he wrapped an arm tightly around her slender waist and kissed her passionately, yet with restraint.

He kissed every trace of color from her lips. Huo Qingtan angrily shoved at him. "Lu Yanchen! I don't owe you anything anymore!"

The large hand around her waist didn't loosen. Instead, it tightened further, as if he wanted to meld her into his very bones.

Lu Yanchen lowered his head until his forehead rested against hers. His voice was hoarse and careful, as if he were treating a precious treasure returned to him after being lost. "Now I'm the one who owes you."

[Bonus scene]

At the center of Ganan Temple stood an ancient bodhi tree covered in red ribbons, each carrying the devout wish of a former visitor.

Only later did Huo Qingtan learn that Lu Yanchen, a man who believed in neither gods nor Buddha, had personally tied a red ribbon to the tree every year after she left.

She secretly went to look. Among the many ribbons, their writing blurred, she recognized his at a glance:

May my wife find peace and fulfillment, and may all her wishes come true.

Blurb for my next marriage-first, love-later novel, Sailing Home Through the Fog

Pampered little princess x cunning old fox | "You are the bright moon I've pursued over thousands of miles at sea, and the pearl I would keep hidden even amid raging storms."

1. Ji Mingyue was the little princess of Wucheng's Ji family, born with a silver spoon in her mouth and doted on by her parents. Being spoiled from childhood made her willful, capricious, and utterly unruly.

Then the Ji family suddenly lost its power. Her parents, who had always cherished her, tremblingly handed her a marriage contract, intending to marry her off to the useless son of the Wen family, a man who did nothing but eat, drink, and have fun.

Everyone in Wucheng's upper circles knew Wen Shuo was an uneducated playboy who frequented places of pleasure and flirted with women everywhere.

Her parents were willing to push her into a fire pit.

Ji Mingyue stared at the gold-embossed marriage contract, finding it unbearably glaring.

On the day of the engagement banquet, Ji Mingyue smashed the cheap pearl crown the Wen family had sent. In full view of everyone, she walked straight toward the man sitting at the head table, composed as a god.

She slapped the marriage contract down in front of Wen Siheng and met his amused gaze without fear. "Three years ago, when you acquired the Ji family's shipping routes, Mr. Wen, you said that true pearls shouldn't be left to gather dust, "

"I'm here to ask you to honor that promise. Will you?"

2. Wen Siheng controlled more than half the strategic ports and channels in Wucheng. He was the true head of the Wen Group, and Wen Shuo's uncle.

His courteous, gentle exterior was only a disguise. His true nature was cold and imperious, allowing no one to challenge him.

People thought that although Ji Mingyue had succeeded in forcing him into marriage on the spot, Wen Siheng would inevitably throw her out of the Wen family after the wedding.

They all waited to see her make a fool of herself.

But one year passed, then another.

By Ji Mingyue's twenty-fourth birthday, Wen Siheng had not only arranged a global birthday message for her, but also opened a series of exhibition halls displaying the precious jewelry she had designed on a whim.

At the center of the starry-domed exhibition hall stood a unique star-and-moon crown designed by Wen Siheng himself.

Later, that crown rested on Ji Mingyue's head.

3. After they married, Ji Mingyue couldn't help wondering how a man as decisive as Wen Siheng had agreed to her forcing his hand at the engagement banquet.

"If I hadn't come to you, would you really have watched me marry that useless Wen Shuo?" Ji Mingyue straddled him, winding her wine-red tie around her fingers again and again.

Wen Siheng looked relaxed, letting her hold his life in her hands. "Why do you think I went to his engagement banquet?"

Obviously, to steal the bride.

What right did Wen Shuo have?

Theme: Everyone needs the courage to face everything head-on.