The Scent of Night in the Capital

[Resilient, Clear-Headed College Girl x Brooding, Powerful Beijing Tycoon]

[Strong (and Cunning) Pursuit | Stealing Her Away | Second Male Lead's Regret | Eight-Year Age Gap]

After they parted as children, Shang Beize thought about Su Yundai so much that he began to see things.

Her silhouette, her features, her smile would often appear vividly before his eyes.

Her image grew year by year.

Fifteen years later, he finally saw the real her again.

She already had a fiance, had become an orphan, and had been living as a foster child in someone else's home.

Then one day, her fiance, Wei Lin, got drunk and laid his heart bare. "She's not my type. I only feel responsible for her."

The girl who had come to pick up her fiance turned pale.

-

Su Yundai never expected Shang Beize, who was as gentle as an older brother, to take advantage of her at her most vulnerable. He kissed her, his eyes full of greed and bone-deep, unabashed desire, and said almost manically, "I love you so much, so much, so much!"

Shang Beize was a business tycoon who controlled half the tech industry. Young and handsome, he was also passionately devoted to her. She couldn't resist his spell and lost her head.

He was incredibly jealous and possessive, always asking, "Are you thinking about him?" "Do you feel sorry for him?" "Do you like me more, or Wei Lin?"

He was even constantly afraid she'd think of Wei Lin when they were intimate, and would deliberately find ways to provoke her so she'd remember him.

But she wasn't afraid of him. As long as she made the first move, no matter how crazy he got, she could soothe him until he was putty in her hands.

It worked every time.

Until she refused his proposal because of her health, and even took a job in another city to distance herself from him.

He really went mad. There was no soothing him this time.

He dragged her into his car and pinned her against the window. His tear-filled eyes were bloodshot. "I thought you'd really fallen in love with me... I thought it was real..."

-

She had always thought Shang Beize was only physically attracted to her, and that his feelings would eventually fade. Then she saw his records from fifteen years of psychotherapy.

April 7, 2010: Hallucinations and auditory hallucinations. Separated from the little girl and unable to find her. Misses her. Severe psychological trauma...

April 26, 2025: Fifteen years of hallucinations and auditory hallucinations have worsened. Three consecutive distressing hallucinations. Saw the girl choose someone else and abandon him...

It turned out that ever since they parted as children, he had thought about her for fifteen years.

It turned out that every time she ignored him or left him, she had inflicted an even deeper wound.

[One-on-one, both leads sexually inexperienced, happy ending]

Reader's guide:

(1) The hero is Shang Beize, a brooding tycoon who breaks into her life and steals her away. When he was young and down on his luck, the heroine saved him. His feelings for her are overwhelming. Without her, it's as if he's in hell. He's obsessive, possessive, and darkly brooding. He thinks about her so much that he hallucinates. When he's heartbroken, he hallucinates and becomes even more miserable. He's insanely jealous of the second male lead. But he also cares deeply about the heroine's feelings and will hold himself back. He truly loves her. His daily life is a constant struggle between losing his mind and keeping himself in check.

(2) The extent of the forceful pursuit and taking her away: He won't actually force the heroine. He uses schemes to dismantle his rivals and takes advantage of her vulnerability. The leads are devoted to each other, with no flirtations with anyone else.

(3) The heroine is a frail beauty and a gifted student with uneven strengths. She grows over the course of the story. Early on, she fails the college entrance exam and struggles to change majors, but later she rises to prominence. She's attracted to the hero but also scares herself. At first, she likes the second male lead.

(4) The second male lead has always treated her like a younger sister, and only realizes his feelings once he's already in the regret arc. He and the heroine have fifteen years of sibling-like bonds. He's an impressive and ruthless man who believes no man is any good. He refuses to let go and will fight the hero tooth and nail.

--------------- Upcoming novel ---------------

Title: Is It Wrong to Want Money and Power?

[Outwardly Pure, Ambitious, Unflappable Darling Girl x Black-Bellied, Unhinged, Heartbroken Young Master Who Crawls in the Shadows]

When Xia Zhiyan was young, her childhood sweetheart and first love, Zhao Mochen, was taken in by a rich woman after his family went bankrupt. Rumor had it the wealthy tycoon only liked clean-cut young men who'd never been with anyone. Xia Zhiyan was powerless back then. When she saw him get into the rich woman's car, she nearly ground her teeth to dust, but could only bid him farewell through her tears. "Zhao Mochen, when I'm rich, come be with me. I won't look down on you!"

That incident left its mark on Xia Zhiyan's worldview, planting a dark seed in her young heart.

As an adult, Xia Zhiyan isn't too happy with her current boyfriend, Qi Junheng. Even though he's a beloved prodigy, even though he's devastatingly handsome and a feast for the eyes. But he's so clingy that she feels like she has no freedom, and he has so much sex with her that she feels she's fallen into depravity.

Unfortunately, he's a major investor in her project, so she can't afford to offend him. Their relationship gradually becomes too fragile to withstand anything, as she keeps ending her overtime early to have sex with him and lose sleep.

He's standing in the way of her path to money and power. She has to give up sex.

Xia Zhiyan's company goes public. After arranging for Qi Junheng to cash out and leave, she breaks up with him.

On the day they break up, Xia Zhiyan seizes the opportunity to use his sudden fiancee as an excuse, making the breakup seem perfectly reasonable. Little does she know, Qi Junheng spends the whole night outside her house in the cold dew, only to happen upon Zhao Mochen, now a rising tycoon in the tech industry, looking at her with red-rimmed eyes.

"Yanyan, congratulations on going public. You once said that when you got rich, I could be with you. Does that still count?"

A tempest rises in Qi Junheng's eyes. He seems like a ghost drifting through the cold, mist-wreathed mountainside, his voice icy as he says, "Xia Zhiyan, did you break up with me because of him?"

Xia Zhiyan feels her scalp tighten. "..."

Oh no.

[Reader's guide:

The hero is Qi Junheng. The heroine is unflappable and cares most about her career. She likes the hero, but is very good at eliminating distractions. When she realizes she's falling into depravity, she tries to give up sex, only to run into a massive rivalry showdown.

The hero loves her desperately. He restrains himself as much as he can, but she still finds him annoying. When she "quits" him, he mistakenly believes she's only ever used him and has only loved the second male lead from the start. Then he turns dark and loses his mind. Truly dark. Truly dark. Truly dark.

The second male lead, Zhao Mochen, is handsome, strong, and tragic. He's suffered a lot and finally become a rising tycoon in the tech industry. The heroine has always been his unrequited love. She thinks he was kept by a rich woman, but he actually wasn't. His circumstances are pitiful, and the heroine feels sorry for him, which makes the hero even more jealous and unhinged.

Both the first and second male leads are great, but this is a one-on-one romance, with both leads sexually inexperienced.]

Theme: Growing through adversity.