Whale Swallow

[Complete. The author's new novel, Mistakenly Climbing, is now available next door. Feel free to visit the author's homepage.]

[Extremely controlling, cold, paranoid, ambitious schemer x gentle, obedient florist]

On the day of the art exhibition she'd spent years preparing for, Chu Songyi once again trended because of a post calling her arrogant. She only smiled and paid it no mind, then went to her appointment as usual.

She had barely sat down when her friends burst into laughter. One of them had taken a liking to a flower seller.

Chu Songyi wasn't interested. She stayed for half an hour to be polite, then was about to leave when she looked up and spotted a man walking toward them with flowers in his arms, his expression cool and detached. She stopped.

She decided not to leave just yet. She might as well stay and watch the fun.

One of her friends glanced at her and laughed. "Interested?"

Chu Songyi shot her a look. "Do I seem that easy?"

Her friend fawned over her. "Fair enough. He's just a flower seller, and only decent-looking. He'd be fine as a lover, but he's not good enough for you."

Chu Songyi didn't reply. Under the hazy lights, the flower seller's gaze met hers for an instant.

That night, Chu Songyi drove to the home of Lin Yu, the man her friend had called just a flower seller and only decent-looking.

Water pattered in the bathroom. Looking at the flowers on the kitchen island, Chu Songyi suddenly remembered the scene earlier and felt inexplicably annoyed. She casually tossed the flowers away.

Standing by the window, she lit a cigarette and slowly let her mind go blank.

The broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted man came up behind her, still damp from the shower, and embraced her. Unlike his cool demeanor before, he smiled as he took the cigarette from her hand.

"Smoke less."

Chu Songyi sneered. "What are we to each other?"

The meaning was simple: stop sticking your nose into my business.

Lin Yu rubbed her waist and murmured against her ear, "Lovers... bedmates... I don't know. Anyway, we're in some undefined relationship."

*

Chu Songyi was born into an illustrious family. Raised on money, she was a rarefied, highly particular person and extremely difficult to please.

Lin Yu, on the other hand, was thoroughly ordinary. His career, family background, and education all paled in comparison to those in her social circle.

No one would ever expect these two to cross paths. So when news of Chu Songyi's marriage broke, their circle was shaken. Everyone thought she'd gone mad.

Not just them. On the day she registered her marriage to Lin Yu, Chu Songyi herself thought she was crazy.

After all, who in their circle would choose to tie themselves down for life to a lover who wasn't fit to be seen in public?

But when she saw the older relatives in her family, still living in the feudal era, hopping mad with rage, she decided the marriage wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Literary version:

In her world, he was like one of the countless fish swallowed by a whale, as ordinary as could be.

I have to admit, I made a terrible mistake. You aren't ordinary at all. You're incomparable.

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Rich young master x nanny's daughter

Zhong Youyi was born into poverty, without parents. A childhood spent wandering taught her to use every means necessary to climb her way to the top.

During a kidnapping, she saved the Chu family's heir at the cost of one of her legs, and that became the turning point in her life.

The Chu family supported her financially, and she was adopted by their nanny. She no longer had to worry about making ends meet, and even received a good education and access to all kinds of resources.

Zhong Youyi was delighted.

The only problem was that Chu Xiangyuan, the only son of the Chu family's second branch, was incredibly difficult to deal with. He always watched her with sharp eyes, as if trying to dissect her and see whether she was good or evil inside.

Zhong Youyi always greeted him with a smile, treating the young master like an emperor. She did it for no other reason than to make her own life at the Chu household more comfortable.

Over time, everyone around them came to know that Chu Xiangyuan had a pretty little sidekick.

A natural-born favorite like Chu Xiangyuan never lacked admirers, and Zhong Youyi became the thorn in their side, someone they couldn't stand.

One day after school, she was locked in the art room overnight. When Chu Xiangyuan found her the next day, he wore a sour expression and looked utterly miserable.

Zhong Youyi was exhausted, but as usual, she tried to soothe him. "I'm the one who got locked up. Why are you the one with a sour face? Don't be mad, Young Master."

Chu Xiangyuan got even angrier and didn't speak to her for a long time.

But Zhong Youyi heard that the students who had locked her up that day all dropped out.

She suddenly realized that maybe Chu Xiangyuan didn't dislike her as much as she thought.

But she truly hadn't expected that Chu Xiangyuan might actually like her.

When she saw the drawer full of love letters to her in his room, Zhong Youyi stood there at a loss.

Looking at Chu Xiangyuan, who had just showered and was lounging against the doorframe, Zhong Youyi asked, "These are all for me?"

Chu Xiangyuan sneered and refused to admit it. "They're for a ghost."

Zhong Youyi was beautiful and kind, with countless admirers, but no one dared to pursue her for real.

Whenever anyone gazed at her for too long, a more sinister glare would fall on them.

Before long, everyone knew that Zhong Youyi belonged to Chu Xiangyuan, and was off-limits.

Chu Xiangyuan had been feeling irritated lately. Zhong Youyi kept going on about which celebrities were handsome and whose concerts were coming up, but she had completely forgotten that his birthday was only a few days away.

After his birthday, he would be an adult and could start dating.

So why hadn't Zhong Youyi confessed yet? Didn't she like him?

The young master was too embarrassed to ask directly, so he awkwardly tried to hint around it. "Christmas is coming soon."

Zhong Youyi's eyes lit up. "I know! The forecast says it'll snow the most that day. I've made plans to go see it with my friends."

Chu Xiangyuan scowled, held back for a moment, then said, "Have you never seen snow in your life?"

Zhong Youyi said, "I have. You took me to Chuandao to see it."

For some reason, the fire in Chu Xiangyuan's heart instantly went out. He snorted. "At least you remember."

Forget it. He wouldn't hold it against her.

He'd just have to be the one to confess.

So the young master, who had never lifted a finger around the house, spent several nights laboring over it. He wrote hundreds of love letters in a week and still wasn't satisfied with any of them.

When Zhong Youyi finally discovered them, he was both embarrassed that his secret had been exposed and regretful that he couldn't ever manage to say anything nice.

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Rising jewelry designer x profit-driven tech tycoon

Fake step-siblings | Foster-family story | Love grows over time

The year Zhu Yu's mother went to prison, Zhu Yu was only fourteen.

With no relatives to turn to, she was trapped at home by a group of debt collectors and couldn't get away.

Just as she was losing hope and sinking into despair, Xu Yanqing claimed to be her guardian, settled her enormous debts, and took her away.

Zhu Yu anxiously tugged at his sleeve and asked, "Will you abandon me?"

Xu Yanqing looked at her expressionlessly. "If you don't behave."

"I'll be very good. Mom always said I was the best-behaved child."

"...We'll see."

To him, whether she behaved or not, she was still a burden.

At the time, Xu Yanqing was just starting his business and was so busy he barely had time to breathe. He couldn't look after Zhu Yu and often forgot she was even there.

Just as she'd promised, Zhu Yu was very well-behaved. She quietly went to school, ate, and slept, sitting by the door every day, waiting for him to come home.

Xu Yanqing was pleased. He felt he could give her more attention as a reward for being so obedient.

But he never expected the girl to become emotionally dependent on him, or that being spoiled by him would make her so much bolder.

She used to timidly call him Uncle Xu and barely dared to look at him.

Now she dared to sit by his legs, light his cigarettes for him, then wrap her arms around his neck and snuggle into it as she coquettishly pleaded with him.

There was some element of flattery in it, but Xu Yanqing enjoyed it.

He never expected the little girl he'd watched grow up to become so spoiled that she'd get carried away.

Looking at the girl who had climbed into his bed, Xu Yanqing found he couldn't bring himself to scold her harshly.

He leaned over her. "I've spoiled you until you have quite the nerve..."

Zhu Yu gave him a challenging look. "You're the one who spoiled me."

The boldest thing Zhu Yu ever did was climb into Xu Yanqing's bed when she was twenty.

It wasn't the shameful act of climbing into his bed that was the problem. It was that she'd climbed into the bed of...

her Uncle Xu.

Even though they weren't related by blood and weren't registered in the same household.

When Xu Yanqing first met Zhu Yu, he had thought with a headache, What a nuisance.

Gradually, Xu Yanqing forgot that he'd taken in this "little burden" in the first place for the sake of profit.

Saved on 2024.12.05

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