The Skin

[The companion novel, The Fake Gentleman, is now underway!] When Jiang Baoti was in her teens, her family sent her abroad and then paid her no attention. But just before she was due to return home, she was told her biological father had found her a marriage prospect. In a fit of anger, she blocked all her father's contact information and decided to make her own way. At a charity auction, she managed to get an invitation and finally found a suitable marriage prospect for herself. The eldest son of the Adams family, half Chinese and half American, twenty-eight years old. He was said to be young, accomplished, and ruthless in his methods. He didn't seem to have much sense of time, though. The banquet was nearly over, and he still hadn't shown up. The nobles, who usually looked down their noses at everyone, waited in silence, not daring to complain. When he finally arrived, Jiang Baoti looked at his face and decided his lateness was entirely forgivable. It was a privilege reserved for handsome men. The tall man wore a bespoke suit, immaculately tailored, that brought out every bit of his mature elegance. A refined, abstinent gentleman, he surveyed the room from on high. Two rows of bodyguards cleared the way ahead of him, making quite a spectacle. Jiang Baoti narrowed her eyes as she watched him, a sly glint flashing in them. He's so handsome. He's mine. Her persistence paid off. She finally got the powerful man, always the center of attention wherever he went, to fall at her pleated skirt. And she succeeded in sleeping with him. - But Jiang Baoti, who'd thought he was the prey, had no idea that she was the one being hunted. After more than a year together, she finally had enough of his rules and old-fashioned ways. She'd made up her mind. She'd rather go back to China and marry that man with the mind of a three-year-old than stay with a hypocrite like him! He wasn't a gentleman at all! He just had a weird kink for acting like everyone else's father! She yelled at him over the phone: “Keep your gentlemanly act and your disciplinarian tricks to yourself. If you're so desperate to be a dad, find someone to have a kid for you. I'm going back to China to get married!” - On the day she went to register her marriage, she didn't see her fiancé, the one who wouldn't let go of his doll. Instead, she saw a man she knew all too well. He smiled warmly and walked toward her. “I finally found you. How should I punish you this time?” Not even Jiang Baoti could have imagined it. Maybe no one could. A man so high above everyone else, so cold and ruthless, would one day try his hand at cooking for her. In their first month of marriage, Jiang Baoti sat on the living-room sofa, watching the man bustle about in the kitchen. Mm... Sure enough, every daddy has what it takes to be a husband. Jiang Baoti was still in her rebellious phase, while Zong Junxing went from disciplining her to indulging her. She still remembered the score she had to settle from their time abroad. Zong Junxing had imposed a curfew: she had to be in bed before midnight, and she couldn't play games for more than two hours. Taking advantage of his kindness, she ate the food he'd made and announced that she was going to play games all night. Zong Junxing indulged her, nodded, and played with her all night. The bedroom door stayed shut for a whole day and night. It wasn't until the following evening, when the housekeeper knocked, that she found Jiang Baoti completely exhausted and just soothed to sleep by Zong Junxing. The man smiled gently, fully dressed and ready to leave. “Wake her tomorrow morning. Let her sleep in. And make her some nourishing soup while you're at it.” A rebellious girl who's good at pretending to behave × a fatherly type who's not what he seems Content warning: powerful male lead, weaker female lead The male lead is domineering, not the typical gentle type #A powerful man humbles himself for love The male lead is sexually pure, and has only ever loved the female lead Coming soon: The Fake Gentleman When Jiang Peiyu was sixteen, her mother brought her to a grand estate as opulent as the Palace of Versailles. Her mother told her to greet someone. She timidly called the man in front of her, who was over fifty, Daddy. Then her gaze shifted to the second-floor terrace, where a young man leaned lazily against the railing, smoking. His severe good looks startled her. Her mother told her, “Call him your brother.” The young man smiled and flicked cigarette ash onto her face. “My mom's been dead for twenty years. How come I never knew she gave birth to a sixteen-year-old sister?” Later, a scandal broke out. Her mother took some of the family's assets and returned to China, but Jiang Peiyu was left behind. In the dead of night, the man asked her softly, “What do you call me?” She bit her lip. “Brother.” He coaxed her. “Say it a few more times.” - Looks run in the family. Jiang Peiyu looked six-tenths like her mother. So did personality. Like her mother, Jiang Peiyu was good at using a fragile, helpless demeanor to toy with men. -A low posture and a willingness to yield, with expert-level dog training -A story about a powerful man willingly lowering his head A bad man × a sweet, gentle girl Not-quite-step-siblings / overseas setting / six-year age gap / size difference The romance between the leads begins only after their parents' relationship has completely ended. Theme: Study hard