Black and White Samantha [Fake Uncle-Niece Taboo]

◎Midnight snack, delicious and decadent / A forbidden tale of desire

[Living-under-one-roof trope / Nine-year age gap, older man / Mutual exploitation, feigned feelings mixed with genuine affection / A two-faced mogul's fall from grace]

◎A calculating, beautiful snake taken in by a top-tier wealthy family x an urbane master with a savior complex

Twenty-year-old Chen Shitong was sent to live with the prestigious Ruan family. That was the first time she met Ruan Yanlin.

From then on, she was to call him Third Uncle.

The man was always impeccably dressed in a suit, refined and composed. When no one else dared take in a daughter of the Chen family, he settled everything with a single sentence.

She thought he would be the easiest stepping stone to manipulate on her road to the top.

It wasn't until the private secret between them was exposed that Chen Shitong realized Ruan Yanlin was a ravenous wolf in human skin.

She was twenty-four that year, and looking for a husband.

That night, Chen Shitong heard the man murmur in a low voice,

“Tongtong, I'm the only one allowed in your room. Don't bring any other filthy things in here, understand?”

At her insistence, the man remained fully dressed throughout. Tell him to bend, and he bent. Tell him to kneel, and he knelt.

Only the possessiveness and resentment that colored every word he spoke came close to excitement.

Chen Shitong suddenly remembered what people said about Ruan Yanlin:

“Mr. Ruan is so gentle.”

“Mr. Ruan is refined and easygoing. He always conducts himself with the utmost grace.”

Everyone knew Ruan Yanlin let most things slide and was easygoing. But anyone who dared compete with him for power and profit never met a good end.

That included his own father.

Hypocrites always need a good reputation. Chen Shitong understood.

After all, Ruan Yanlin in his business suit made her blood run even hotter.

/

Ruan Yanlin had climbed to the top by despicable means, and had been reviled for years because of it.

When he first met Chen Shitong, he saw in her the person he used to be, with his pride crushed and his sense of self worn away. He couldn't stop the urge to save her from surging up inside him. He wanted to help her, and hoped that through her, he could awaken his own numb conscience.

Everyone called Chen Shitong a beautiful snake, but Ruan Yanlin still offered her a handkerchief when he saw the dirt on her cheek.

As if he cherished her.

After protecting Chen Shitong for four years, his friends teased him for being like a knight without worldly desires. He looked down at Chen Shitong, who had finally escaped the mire, and even his heartbeat quickened.

Just as Ruan Yanlin was sure life would go on beautifully, Chen Shitong told him she wanted to get engaged to a piece of trash.

For the first time, Ruan Yanlin ignored Chen Shitong's request and smiled gently.

How could he let that happen?

Later, Chen Shitong left bite marks on his chest, clasped her hands around the man's sinewy neck, and cursed him passionately: “You used me to grow a conscience. I taught you how to submit. Isn't that fair?”

Ruan Yanlin's Adam's apple bobbed as he gave a faint, mocking laugh.

Oh, so she wasn't a flower in a greenhouse.

She was a gun.

-

The male lead's urge to save someone only fully erupts after he meets the heroine, because her personality is immensely captivating to him from the very start. A compelling redemptive romance.

Blurb: 2024.8.12 (tentative)

The heroine starts out with fewer resources than the heroines in my previous novels, so this one has a somewhat different style, but it's still a snake woman x a restrained, obsessive man.

Theme: Ambition above all