Camellias Falling

A melodramatic short story. Read the content warnings before diving in.

Love and hate intertwined | Mature man and woman | Lost love's substitute | Coercive possession | A groveling chase to win her back

Radiant, sincere actress x law-abiding but ruthless capitalist

#The coldhearted bastard is driven mad

Fang Wei's heart was broken three times in her life. Her most passionate love and hatred were both because of Jiang Yuchen.

The first time, Fang Wei learned that Jiang Yuchen had a deceased first love whom he cherished above all else.

The second time, Fang Wei learned that Jiang Yuchen had only ever treated her as a substitute for his first love.

The third time, Fang Wei learned that the heart she had received in a transplant had originally belonged to that very woman.

From the age of eighteen to twenty-three, they were entangled in each other's lives. Jiang Yuchen gave her the most fantastical fairy tale, descending into her life like a god and pulling her out of the filth. In return, she gave him the most sincere love a young girl could offer.

Throughout the most beautiful years of her youth, she believed he loved her. The more firmly she had believed it, the more devastated she was when she learned the truth.

The night she discovered the truth, the camellias Jiang Yuchen had given her tumbled to the ground, bloom after bloom, passionate, resolute, and carefree.

The moonlight was so cold that night, so cold that goosebumps rose on her skin like ivory. Everything had to end.

Fang Wei vanished from Jiang Yuchen's life, completely and without a trace.

Jiang Yuchen went mad.

The night he found Fang Wei, she was leaning against the mottled wall of a rented apartment. Her face was bare of makeup, yet she was still breathtaking, like a bold stroke of ink on a magnificent masterpiece.

"You let him spend the night here?" Jiang Yuchen backed her into a corner, his gaze greedy as it swept over every inch of her.

"Mr. Jiang, that's none of your business."

A quarter of an hour later.

He pushed her until she lost patience, so she simply admitted it. "Yes. So hurry up and leave."

The veins on Jiang Yuchen's forehead throbbed. He laughed in fury. "You and him have been together. You think I care?"

This time around, he would make her bloom for him again.

*The title was inspired by an essay by Zhang Ailing.

"There is a kind of flower that frightens me. It pays no heed to right or wrong and gives no warning. Before you can brace yourself, the whole flower comes rolling toward you, bloom after bloom, willful, reckless, and irresponsible. It is enough to make your heart leap in terror. I once kept a vase of camellias, and they died in this very shocking way. I was horrified, and from then on I feared camellias, feared their extremity and their fierce intensity."

Important content warnings:

1. The male lead really does have a deceased first love. At the beginning, he truly has no heart. Later, he goes mad and loves only the female lead.

2. The female and male leads end up together. The female lead has had no previous partners, while the male lead has had no previous partners either. The female lead has intimate relationships with both the male lead and the second male lead, and the story depicts her intimacy with the second male lead directly. Please proceed with caution if that is not for you.

3. Both leads have tragic backgrounds, and the story includes a true-versus-fake heiress plotline.

4. The male lead is described as "law-abiding but ruthless": he obeys the law and does not break it (important), but he is self-interested, divides people into allies and enemies, and maximizes his gains, resorting to somewhat unscrupulous methods.

Theme: Always hold on to your sincere zest for life