High and Mighty

Blurb: Before that incident, Zhang Xintan had always thought she and Yan Zheng were dating. Their relationship was kept secret because she was a star, because she had chosen to keep it private, and because he was thinking of her. Then one day, he came to her for the sake of his younger brother. The second young master of the Yan family was also a star, a top traffic celebrity. His girlfriend was a rising star in the industry who was competing with Zhang Xintan for a role. Yan Zheng practically ordered her, “She’s the woman A Rong is going to marry, not some little star he can fool around with. Don’t compete with her. If you run into her in the future, keep your distance. I’ll make up for whatever you lose.” So their so-called secret relationship was only because she was a little star who could be kept in the dark and casually played with. Zhang Xintan didn’t give up the opportunity. Instead, she dumped the man and ended their unequal relationship. Yan Zheng seemed perfectly calm on the day they broke up. They kept out of each other’s way after that, until the rising star finally snatched the role and Zhang Xintan’s career began to stall. Only then did she realize his nonchalance had all been an act. She fought back, but still couldn’t win, so she decided to leave the industry. With the savings she’d built up over the years, she could live well. If she couldn’t afford to cross him, she could at least stay out of his way. But he showed her no mercy. One by one, he “looked after” the people she cared about. A mutual acquaintance came to warn her: no one could get away unscathed after offending Yan Zheng. Zhang Xintan couldn’t abandon her friends and walk away. She asked to see him. This time, she was finally allowed onto that elevator and taken to the legendary top floor, where she entered his domain... Blurb Two: Yan Zheng had his eye on someone who was exactly his type, someone who matched all his tastes. Like the antiques he collected and cared for, one of his other hobbies, he kept her and took care of her. At first, he didn’t even deign to tell her about his other identity. For a long time, she thought he was just an ordinary businessman. He couldn’t understand why she reacted so strongly when she learned that he was the owner behind Giant Fish Entertainment. Shouldn’t she have felt grateful, even secretly delighted? What he understood even less was that she would say the words “let’s break up” over something he said. Break up? Wasn’t that what you said to someone you were officially dating? What they had was, at most, a relationship that was ending. It didn’t matter. It was only a choice of words, and he didn’t care. He thought... he didn’t care. As time passed, he went through the famous five stages of grief: “denial,” “anger,” “bargaining,” and “depression.” He had managed to hold on this long because the final stage should have been “acceptance.” But that stage never came. At last, he realized he simply couldn’t accept her leaving. In that case, he wouldn’t let her go. PS: 1. His identity is revealed in Chapter 4. 2. Later on, the male lead goes completely off the rails and resorts to possessive, coercive tactics. This is an old-school melodramatic romance, with a powerful man humbled and chasing his wife to the crematorium. 3. Neither the male lead nor the female lead is a virgin. 4. Happy ending. A reminder: The alternate-timeline bonus story is marked in the title with “Read with caution: a regretful timeline where the leads never get together.” The author’s note at the start of the first chapter also gives a warning. Since some readers still missed it, I’m repeating the warning here: please read the bonus story with caution. Also: My contemporary romances with similar themes, His Tactics and Sweet Sugar, Bitter Taste, are complete. My historical romance with a similar theme, Palace Trap, is ongoing. Blurb for Palace Trap: Wu Ye, founding emperor of the Da Wu dynasty, and Empress Zhang Xian were childhood sweethearts. During her first year as empress, Zhang Xian learned well enough that Wu Ye not only did not love her, but looked down on her for her vulgar, streetwise ways. In the second year of the Tianchu era, the empress presented the emperor with a letter of self-reproach and asked to be deposed and sent out of the palace. To the young new emperor, who possessed the entire realm and everything in it, this was nothing short of a provocation. The emperor granted Zhang Xian only half her wish. He stripped her of her title and demoted her to commoner, then divorced her, but refused to let her leave the palace. Instead, he kept her there as a servant. By then, Zhang Xian knew she had married the wrong man, but she never imagined Wu Ye would be so merciless and coldhearted, with no regard for their past. Still, she thought, she had substantial savings. During her year as empress, she had always treated people kindly and won over quite a few female officials and consorts. All she had to do was endure for five years, and she would be able to leave the palace. But things did not go as she hoped. In her first year as a palace maid, the female official who could protect her was transferred away, and the consort willing to take her in was demoted and could no longer protect herself. In her second year as a maid, she was transferred to Yuanlong Hall, where the emperor lived, and had to endure Wu Ye’s unpredictable temper. That was bearable. What Zhang Xian could not accept was the emperor forcing her to spend the nights there. She protested, “Your Majesty and I divorced long ago. Apart from the master-servant relationship, there is nothing between us.” Wu Ye replied, “You know we’re master and servant. Then whatever your master tells you to do, you must do.” In the third year, the emperor stopped giving her the contraceptive broth he had ordered for her. Desperate, Zhang Xian decided to risk everything and fight her way out. She succeeded, but only for two years. After Zhang Xian escaped, Wu Ye flew into a rage and became frantic searching for her. Two years later, when he saw her already married to another man, he went even madder. Blurb for the upcoming novel A Complete Mess: Blurb One, from the heroine’s perspective: When the Zhao Prince’s household held a wedding to take a secondary wife, the former principal wife, now fallen from favor, was lying on her sickbed, close to death. Li Yuan listened to the bustle outside and opened her empty, unfocused eyes. “What’s all that noise? It’s so loud.” Everything before her was a blur, and she could barely see at all. It probably wouldn’t be long before she went completely blind. The maid attending her was not particularly attentive. She only hoped Li Yuan would die soon so she could escape Beitai Residence, which was like an ice cellar. So she answered with exaggerated enthusiasm, “Today is the grand wedding of our prince and the third young lady of the Duke’s mansion. Of course it’s lively outside. Princess, please bear with it. I wouldn’t dare risk bringing bad luck by going out there right now.” So it was today. She wouldn’t even live long enough to see him again. She had thought she might see Wang Lingyin once more before she died. They hadn’t seen each other in a long time. The last time had been when she learned that he had personally executed her father and brothers, and tried to take him down with her. She didn’t want to see him because she was jealous or couldn’t bear to let him go. She wanted to ask him for a favor because the maid who had been with her since childhood had been taken away by the household’s head stewardess to be punished, and she had no idea what had happened to her. She wanted to ask him, since she was about to die, to show mercy and give her maid a good future. The light before her grew dimmer and dimmer. Earlier, she had been relieved that her eyes could no longer make anything out, because if Wang Lingyin came, she wouldn’t have to look at the face she hated. She was afraid that seeing him would stir up her resentment and make her offend him again, jeopardizing the favor she needed to ask. But now it didn’t matter. She wasn’t even sure she would survive the night, and there was no way he would come to her shabby Beitai Residence on his wedding night to see someone as useless as her, who could no longer serve any purpose. The clamor of drums and gongs outside grew louder and more festive. Li Yuan’s vision finally went completely black. A bone-deep chill made her body tremble. With her voice shaking, she summoned the last of her strength and asked the maid if a fire had been lit. No one answered. If someone had told her three years ago that she would die alone and destitute on a winter night, discarded like a worn-out shoe, Li Yuan would never have believed it. That was what she thought just before she died. She never imagined that when she opened her eyes again, she would be back three years in the past. Blurb Two, from the hero’s perspective: Wang Lingyin felt no guilt whatsoever about using Li Yuan. The Li family had become too powerful and did not know when to stop. Even if his elder brother, the emperor, was softhearted and had no intention of wiping them out, Wang Lingyin would become the blade that removed this threat on behalf of his brother and the imperial house. But it was Li Yuan’s father and brothers who had committed the crimes. She herself was innocent. She was also beautiful and docile, and serving him was a pleasure. So when her entire family was convicted, he kept her and even preserved her position as his princess consort. It was nothing more than a casual handout from him. But the emperor and empress dowager felt he had been wronged, and issued two imperial edicts at once, arranging a marriage for him. As a prince who had always been dutiful and filial, Zhao had no choice but to accept. He thought that if Li Yuan was smart, she would understand her circumstances and know enough to endure everything, be grateful to him, and honor him as her husband and master. Besides, a secondary wife was no big deal. It just meant one more person in the household. Everything else would carry on as usual. When he felt he had left her alone long enough and taught her a sufficient lesson, he decided to visit her, expecting her to have given in and accepted her fate. But when he arrived, Beitai Residence was pitch-black... Word spread through the streets and alleys that ever since the Zhao Prince had taken his new secondary wife, he had been bewitched. Every day, he performed rituals at the highest point of his mansion, Beitai Residence. They said he had gone mad and refused to eat or drink. At last, something happened. Every resident of the capital saw the flames surging into the sky above Beitai Residence. If you think this sounds interesting, please add it to your favorites. Once it has enough favorites, I’ll start it after finishing Palace Trap. Thank you for your valuable support. Theme: Facing the sun and living.