Temperature Difference

🏝️ "This age gap is so enormous, I can barely handle it, Temperature Gap"

Age gap of 10 / marriage first, love later / old flame reignited / Daddy

#Powerful, high-ranking, old-fashioned father figure X proud, dazzling bankrupt heiress

[Old-money family patriarch X pampered flower of wealth]

On Christmas Eve, Hong Kong media flashed the news: "Mr. Xi caught meeting a young beauty late at night. Is the old bull chasing a young calf?"

The accompanying photo was a blurry, secretly snapped shot in a parking lot, but the cane Xi Mingxuan always carried close to his side was recognizable.

Before long, the "young beauty" seen walking intimately home with him was exposed as the infamous Ninth Miss of the Shi family, Shi Jiuyuan.

The Xi family was the foremost of the five great families in Hong Kong's New Territories, while the Shi family had long since fallen into decline.

Xi Mingxuan became the undisputed head of the Xi family at just twenty-six. In the five years since taking power, his accomplishments and charitable work had earned him widespread praise.

He was a true moon in the heavens, flawless as jade.

No one believed he could have anything to do with Shi Jiuyuan.

That is, until Xi Holdings' airline suddenly announced that its newly built port would be named "Nineteen Harbor," celebrating Mr. Xi and Miss Shi's wedding.

The news sent all of Hong Kong into an uproar.

Shi Jiuyuan remembered the first time she met Xi Mingxuan. It was a winter night, on the day of Lidong.

It was her eighteenth birthday party, but someone had splashed alcohol all over her. After giving them a piece of her mind, she was still fuming, so she went to sulk by herself beside a flower bed.

Xi Mingxuan appeared with an unhurried voice and the tap-tap of his cane.

"The white peonies are beautiful, but stay out here too long and you'll catch a chill. Go, drape something over Miss Shi."

A gray cashmere scarf carrying the faint scent of tobacco settled on her shoulders, covering her bare skin. Shi Jiuyuan ignored it and let it slide to the ground.

She recognized the man before her. Her grandfather had swallowed his pride to invite this honored guest. She ought to call him "Uncle Xi."

Uncle Xi watched her for a few seconds, handed his cane to his assistant, then crouched down in front of her himself. With gentlemanly care, he used his cashmere scarf to wipe the alcohol from her ankle.

Shi Jiuyuan instinctively tried to pull away, but a cool, warm palm soon clasped her ankle.

"Since you call me uncle, I should take care of you," he said.

The gentlemanly Mr. Xi, putting on the air of an elder, probably never imagined that taking care of her would eventually lead all the way to bed.

The Shi family was on the brink of bankruptcy, so Shi Jiuyuan found herself a top-tier backer: the head of the Xi family.

Hong Kong's media waited for a laugh, after all, Xi Mingxuan had rules for everything. He was detached from worldly desires and so old-fashioned he seemed utterly heartless.

But after the wedding, instead of seeing the fallen heiress thrown out, the press repeatedly reported that Mr. Xi, rumored to be utterly unromantic, had lit the auction's bidding lantern three times in a row to buy her an entire pink diamond mine;

Then, on her birthday, he lit up all of Hong Kong with drones just to celebrate her.

The lofty moon in the heavens came down to earth for her, against all odds.

But Shi Jiuyuan was fed up with his antique ways.

They had agreed not to interfere in each other's lives, but she wasn't allowed to drink or go to bars, and she wasn't even allowed to stay up late!

At the end of her tether, she used the alcohol in her system as courage and asked for a divorce.

The man didn't get angry. He simply took off his gold-rimmed glasses with unhurried ease and pulled her across his lap.

"Smack."

The air fell deathly silent.

Shi Jiuyuan was stunned.

She'd been pampered all her life. When had she ever been treated so roughly?

"Are you going to keep bringing up divorce so casually?" The man's tone was gentle, but his large hand gripped the back of her neck with an unyielding force.

"You old fossil! How dare you hit my xx! I'm definitely divorcing you!"

Watching her lash out in wounded indignation, the man sighed helplessly. He let go, then gently cupped her cheek and wiped away her tears with his thumb. "Such a temper. I only gave you a light tap, and you're this upset?"

As he spoke, he pulled her into his arms and leaned close to her ear, his voice low and dangerous. "If you dare bring it up again, next time I won't stop at one slap."

Deep in the night, steam fogged the bathroom.

From the bathtub to the sink, then to the chilly floor-to-ceiling window, she cried until her voice was hoarse.

The man who usually followed every rule had completely shed his disguise. Stroking her long hair as if to soothe her, he pressed her down and murmured hoarsely that they should try it.

Hearing his encouraging "good girl," she followed his instructions with red eyes. Afterwards, she lay limp in his arms and glared at him. "So this is how you take care of me?"

Xi Mingxuan kissed the crown of her head. His gaze was tangible, his tone gentle and restrained. "Xiaojiu, this is punishment for being naughty today."

The novel is also known as Sleeping with My Own Creditor

Synopsis written on 2024.11.5 and screenshot for the record.

My next novel will be Cold Rainy Night, another Hong Kong-style story in the same series.

Synopsis:

University student at first, documentary director later X heir to a top-tier conglomerate

Clever and resilient X aloof and cold-hearted

Older man / university student / father figure / age gap / size difference / Hong Kong style

1.

The first time Yu Qianhui met Lu Weiqing was in a Manhattan rooftop lounge.

She held a champagne tray, her eyelashes trembling in the cold air.

The man sat in the shadows, an unlit cigarette between his fingers, like a piece of cold jade.

Later, he asked casually, "Want to come with me?"

Qianhui politely but firmly mocked him. "Sir, the truth is, not every young, beautiful girl needs a sugar daddy."

The man didn't get angry. He exhaled a puff of smoke and smiled faintly. "You said it yourself. You're still young, so you have the leverage to negotiate."

2.

Lu Weiqing was generous with his money and ostentatious in his affection. What began as a relationship in which they each got what they wanted eventually became common knowledge.

During the most turbulent years for H shares, everyone in Hong Kong's upper circles knew that the Lu family's heir kept a female student at his Mid-Levels villa. She was breathtakingly beautiful, but her temper was nothing to boast about.

To win her over, he converted the seven-hundred-million-Hong-Kong-dollar luxury yacht by Victoria Harbour and put it in Yu Qianhui's name: "Lady Yu."

Everyone said the girl was incredibly lucky, and perhaps she'd really become the heir's wife.

No one could have guessed that in the end, she would silently dump Lu Weiqing.

The day she left without a word, Yu Qianhui only asked his secretary to deliver a sapphire brooch. It was the first gift he'd given her, yet she didn't take it with her.

Every flight that day was delayed by half an hour due to circumstances beyond anyone's control.

People in their circle clicked their tongues in amazement, sensing something wasn't right. "How strange. He spoiled her that much, and she still flew away?"

With all this going on, who was the one who clipped whose wings?

The words reached his ears.

Lu Weiqing brushed off his sleeve, a careless smile on his lips. "If a bird I couldn't tame wants to fly away, am I supposed to keep her?"

3.

Five years later, Yu Qianhui returned to Hong Kong.

Because of that reckless affair in her past, she kept a low profile and turned down every public appearance.

She taught classes and went on arranged dates, following her routine. The memories of the Mid-Levels villa were like film negatives blurred by rain, reduced to nothing but muddy patches of color.

Until one late night, when a storm pounded the windows.

The doorbell startled Yu Qianhui awake. She wrapped her robe tightly around herself and opened the door just a crack. "Mr. Lu, what is it?"

Lu Weiqing's collar was unusually open, his posture easy and unrestrained. He asked in return, "Can't I ask you for a cup of hot tea?"

"It's inconvenient. My boyfriend is here." She gripped the doorknob.

"Is that so?" He suddenly leaned into the narrow gap, his right arm forcing its way in to encircle her waist. He said nonchalantly,

"Then wake him up and let him see how I kiss you."

Reader's Guide:

1. Both leads are each other's first and end up together. Age gap of six years / size difference

2. University student at first, genius documentary director later X heir to a top-tier conglomerate

3. The leads aren't doing pure romance. They're doing the kind of thing adults enjoy reading. Expect melodramatic twists!

4. The male lead is extremely possessive, very domineering, and no pushover.

5. At its heart, this is a love story about two arrogant people.

Theme: Love people well