Spoiling You Rotten

[Hong Kong Society's Rich Heir x Pretty, Gentle Darling]

[Wolf-and-Rabbit Romance / Marriage First, Love Later]

The Xie family fell from grace overnight, yet its only daughter married into the Liang family, an old-money dynasty in Hong Kong. Everyone mocked Old Master Xie for being so calculating that he had managed to make an alliance with his longtime rival.

Only Xie Qingci knew this was nothing more than a transaction between two old-fashioned families, each sucking up the last drops of life from the other. Once the time came, they would go their separate ways, and a divorce agreement would be the best ending for her and Liang Jingzhuo.

They met for the first time before registering their marriage. The man wore a tailored suit, yet his dashing, charming air was impossible to hide. His handsome features had a distinctly masculine appeal.

Looking at her, he said flatly, "Miss Xie, I don't like being forced into anything."

Anyone could tell from his expression that he was unwilling.

She figured their future would probably be like the saying: "A husband who's never home, and enough money to spend without worry."

It sounded pretty good. There was no need to get too involved in a marriage of convenience.

But from their wedding night onward, that husband who "didn't like being forced" showed up at home on time every day after work.

Though they had no foundation of affection, and had exchanged health certificates, they still missed none of the intimate things a married couple was supposed to do.

As he put it: "Being physically faithful to your partner is the most basic respect you can show your marriage."

It was more than she had expected, but she could accept it. A partner who got along with her was hard to come by, after all.

Until one day, Liang Jingzhuo once again paid an astronomical price at an auction to buy her an old keepsake. She decided to repay him for recovering it with a night in bed.

In the heat of the moment, the man tossed aside what he was holding and murmured, "Let's stop using protection, A Ci. Let's have a baby."

-

Liang Jingzhuo was named Jingzhuo because his mother was caught in a sudden downpour the day she gave birth to him in Jingzhao.

Later, he had a secret of his own. On another rainy day in Jingzhao, exhausted by the blind dates his family had arranged, he saw a figure approaching through the rain-misted alley, holding an umbrella. That was when he met the love of his life.

Zhuo (zhuó)

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Original novel / Male lead is an outstanding graduate of the Good Husbands' School

--- Below is the synopsis for the next-generation story, Tidebound Letter ---

After her third failed confession, Xu Wenyan decided to cut off the long hair she had grown for years and start over, just like the heroine of a romance drama.

The young lady, whose life always went smoothly, had never stumbled over the same thing three times. She called Liang Yinze and cried to him.

"Am I not pretty? I'm rich, too!"

Their phones connected two ends of the world ten thousand miles apart. After a few seconds of silence, his lazy, heartless voice came through the receiver. "Do you know what time it is?"

His words doused her like a bucket of cold water. Xu Wenyan choked, snapped, "You men are all liars!" and promptly hung up.

Down on her luck in love, Xu Wenyan asked her girlfriends out for an all-night drinking binge, determined to forget the world of romance.

At dawn, as she left the bar, she spotted someone on the quiet street who should have been on the other side of the ocean.

Tall and graceful, hands in his pockets, he leaned lazily against a car. When his friends began nosily asking why he'd flown home overnight, he lifted his sleepy, flirtatious eyes toward her and said nonchalantly, "I came back to see which blind fool had made our princess mad this time."

-

Because their mothers were close friends, Xu Wenyan and Liang Yinze had grown up together. They were a year apart, and from childhood Xu Wenyan had loved making Liang Yinze call her "older sister."

He was taught that boys should give way to girls, and for a few years, Liang Yinze really did call her that. But Xu Wenyan couldn't remember when he stopped.

That day, amid the haze of alcohol, she suddenly remembered the year she graduated high school. She had missed out on an offer and was crying alone on the street in the middle of the night. Liang Yinze was the first to find her then, too.

The boy, travel-worn from rushing over, crouched in front of her and said coldly, "Xu Wenyan, is that really all you've got?"

With tears on her face, she retorted, "Who said you could call me by my name? I'm your older sister!"

The boy's dark, glossy eyes watched her, his expression still. It was as if he hadn't heard her. After a brief silence, he fixed his gaze on her and stubbornly said, "Xu Wenyan."

-

When she was sixteen, at the seaside after sunset, the rosy glow of the evening sky reddened the girl's cheeks. The sea breeze swept her fragrant hair across Liang Yinze's chest.

At that moment, the heavenly bodies stirred the ocean tides, but the crashing waves left a deafening echo in his heart.

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A reckless young heir with no patience, who still opens the passenger-side vanity mirror for his wife when she touches up her makeup

A top-tier princess who has always been the one indulged, even though she's technically the older sister

Childhood friends / He falls for her in secret

You are a letter I wrote to the moon, but never dared to send.

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The next-generation stories of You, So Proud and Fine and Beguiling Kisses

Theme: A fairy tale for the modern world