The Powerful Man Bows vs. The Flower That Blossoms in the Dust (The full novel is being revised. The character settings remain unchanged, but the plot is being substantially rewritten.)
Night lifts the veil from every face.
He Xu first met Wen Siyu late at night, in a trendy bar.
The young woman wore a white T-shirt and jeans, her hair tied in a high ponytail. Hugging a canvas bag, she sat apprehensively on a bar stool in the corner.
His mood had been awful, but he couldn't help finding her amusing.
Later, he saw her accept a drink from a stranger. In a rare fit of kindness, he stepped in to help, only for her to mistake his good intentions for malice.
He watched her hurriedly retreat, then raised his hand to examine the tooth marks she'd left on its back.
Remembering those eyes, brimming with tears and far too clear, he felt something strange stir within him for the first time, something akin to a desire to destroy...
They met for the second time at an interview for a Fortune Global 500 company.
He was the lofty interviewer; she was a nervous rookie.
She watched a sunny, cheerful young man, six foot one, walk out of his office in tears.
She wanted to run, but then she heard someone call, "Wen Siyu, you're next!"
The young man stood casually by the blinds, the sleeves of his blue shirt rolled up to his elbows. His employee badge, identifying him as the CEO of a certain group, was neatly clipped to the pocket over his left breast. He stared at her with a stern expression.
The woman before him wore a white blouse and a black knee-length skirt, her long hair pinned up. Her anxious eyes looked strangely familiar.
"Miss Wen, have we met somewhere before?"
By a twist of fate, he kept her by his side with a marriage contract.
They agreed that this was merely a transaction, each getting what they wanted, and neither would fall in love.
By day, they were superior and subordinate, conducting themselves strictly as business demanded, with a vast difference in status between them.
By night, they were newlyweds, strangers to each other and caught in a storm of passion.
He told her, "I need a simple, genuine partner who expects nothing from me."
She was considerate and knew her boundaries. She gave him an experience unlike anything he'd had before, yet never asked him for anything.
He was perfectly satisfied with their arrangement.
Until one day, she told him, "I want to end our contract early..."
The first to fall in love loses everything!
P.S. The heroine has someone she pines for, but it's a purely emotional attachment.
The hero has had an ex, but they fell out before their relationship had a chance to develop.
He mainly married the heroine because he discovered he desired her. After the wedding, they began exploring all kinds of intimate experiences he'd never had before, and he fell in love without realizing it.
Updates will most likely follow the ranking schedule. Daily updates after signing.
Theme: The first meeting was an accident; the second was a fateful entanglement.
