A Passionate Romance on Guangdong Island

■ Gorgeous, clear-headed actress x aloof, refined heir from Guangdong

■ He humbly pursues his wife after their breakup

He Biqing's appearance on a livestock-farming variety show was purely accidental. When she met Jiang Youchen on the set, the whole internet was hating on her.

Their interactions were far from pleasant.

She thought Jiang Youchen was much too aloof and sharp-tongued, and seemed to have a conventional prejudice against her.

Then one day, Jiang Youchen suddenly rang her hotel room doorbell.

Over the three months of filming, everyone on the crew knew they were together. Everyone marveled that even the cold-hearted Mr. Jiang had eventually fallen for a woman.

But after filming ended, in a quiet corner no one paid attention to, He Biqing heard him talking with a friend.

"I was bored, so I treated it as a bit of fun."

He Biqing's heart was like the cigarette burning out between his fingers in the dark: it fell silent.

He Biqing decisively ended that relationship, returned to Haishi, and made a name for herself in the entertainment industry.

Rumors linked her to her male co-stars time and again.

But she never expected Jiang Youchen to show up on a snowy night, looking exhausted from the journey, with the car doors locked.

He Biqing couldn't understand how a man who had always been so cold and detached could lose control like this.

"Didn't you say it was just for fun? Why are you acting crazy now?"

Jiang Youchen's eyes darkened. "Because I was sick in the head."

The man everyone else saw as untouchable now had red-rimmed eyes, his husky voice brimming with desperate pleading.

"Don't be with him."

"Or I'll really go crazy."

[Side Story]

After an awards ceremony, inside a van in the dark of night.

He Biqing looks silently out the window at the skyscrapers rushing past.

Jiang Youchen smiles indulgently and rests a hand on her slender waist. "Still mad?"

"I made the aged tangerine peel tea you love. Look at me."

He Biqing swallows. Resisting the temptation, she neither speaks nor looks at him.

He nearly pushes her against the car window. His warm breath burns her ear, his voice so husky it's irresistible:

"That fabric was no good to begin with."

He Biqing thinks of the deep-V evening gown he tore before she left, and her face grows warm.

"Stop pushing me. I want my tangerine peel tea."

■ Content Notes and Reading Guide

* The early part features filming a variety show at a mountain livestock farm, with romantic tension and push-and-pull.

* The middle and later parts move to the urban entertainment industry, though it doesn't take up much of the story. The hero goes through a long, painful pursuit of his wife after the breakup.

* Both leads are each other's first and only; the hero is deeply in love with the heroine.

* Many creative liberties; no characters are based on real people. The plot is melodramatic.

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The author's upcoming book, Pond Green, is next. Please add it to your favorites~

* Cunning, suave man x gentle, innocent little white flower

* Eight-year age gap | Wolf-and-rabbit romance | The powerful one yields | A touch of coercive romance

Ten years after last seeing her uncle, Chi Yan, Chi Lu meets him again. He's now the head of the Shen Group, going by the name Shen Xuqiu.

The man holds absolute power at the top of the elite world. He's ruthless and decisive, showing no mercy. Having endured humiliation in the Chi family back then, he treats Chi Lu coldly.

Later, at Nan University’s centennial celebration, Shen Xuqiu's nephew confesses his feelings for Chi Lu in front of everyone.

After the ceremony, Chi Lu gets into a Rolls-Royce.

Shen Xuqiu sits in the back seat, his profile cloaked in shadow. Two buttons of his shirt are undone, giving him a suave, untouchable air.

The next moment, he forcefully grips Chi Lu's chin and bends to kiss her. "However long he held you just now, that's how long we're going to kiss."

On the surface, Chi Lu treats Shen Xuqiu, who isn't related to her by blood, as an elder and calls him Uncle.

Behind his back, she curses him as a rotten bastard countless times, convinced he's using her to get revenge on the Chi family.

On the night of her twenty-first birthday, after she ruins the banquet he arranged, the villa is cleared out, with cake crumbs scattered across the floor.

She knows she's provoked his anger, but it's already too late.

The lights in the room stay on all night.

Her voice breaks apart. She finally learns how ruthless the man is beneath his elegant exterior.

"What kind of uncle would do this with you?"

Chi Lu is always thinking about leaving him.

One evening, after hosting a dinner with friends, she goes to the study to call him to dinner.

In the dim room, his eyes hold an inscrutable darkness.

As they kiss, lost in the moment, she touches a laptop on the desk and sees a paused surveillance video.

She hears her conversation with her friend.

"Aren't you afraid he'll break up with you if you spend his money like this?"

"He's a despicable, shameless, unscrupulous, dark, thuggish old man. I'd be thrilled if he broke up with me."

The old man sees the look of horror on her face, a faint, wicked smile at the corner of his mouth. He runs his wet fingers over her lips. "We can't break up. I can't be a thug with any other woman."

Three years later, Chi Lu escapes back to the small town where she grew up.

That winter, a private jet bearing the name chilv circles above the town.

The aloof, proud man sees Chi Lu smiling as she walks out of the courtyard with a young man beside her.

Hah.

The young man is the nephew he sent off to Africa years ago.

■ Content Notes and Reading Guide

* The hero is possessive, doesn't know how to love, and is cunning and obsessive.

* He loves the heroine deeply. Expect both sweetness and angst.

* Old-school romance style; both leads are each other's first and only.

Theme: Regretting not falling in love with you sooner