Drunk on Hong Kong Nights

Marriage first, love later / Power couple arranged marriage

A refined scoundrel of a jeweler and a dazzling, spoiled gemstone agent

1. Ji Ninghua was doted on by her parents and older brother from the time she was little.

She inherited her mother’s beauty, with delicate features, a pretty face, and a stunning figure. She was successful in her career, charming and uninhibited, and did whatever she pleased.

After getting carried away at a ruby auction, she used the sunrise-red ruby she’d won as an earring and caught the eye of an exceptionally handsome man, then ran away.

A month later, at a matchmaking event arranged by her grandfather, she came face-to-face with the man she had seduced and abandoned. A faint smile played on his lips, and his whole body gave off a dangerous yet irresistible air. “Miss Ji, what a pleasant surprise.”

Ji Ninghua couldn’t help shrinking back. “…”

She used a ruby to trick a proxy bidder into a one-night stand, only for her one-night stand to turn out to be a wealthy heir who would become her arranged-marriage husband.

2. As the heir to the Qin Group, Qin Haozhou was refined and distinguished, aloof and restrained, with a face so exquisite it was almost bewitching. As soon as he returned to the country, he announced his marriage. People gossiped that it was nothing but a boring business alliance.

After they married, Ji Ninghua and Qin Haozhou attended a charity auction separately and sat apart, making the other socialites even more convinced that their business marriage had no affection in it.

Rubbing her aching legs, Ji Ninghua eavesdropped on their conversation and nodded along. That beast, Qin Haozhou, was a damn bastard. They’d definitely end up divorced sooner or later.

Ten minutes later, Qin Haozhou appeared beside Ji Ninghua without a sound. He lifted her hand and placed the Kashmir blue sapphire he had won earlier on it, admiring it. He leaned close and whispered in her ear, his breath sweet as orchids. “Trust me, our marriage will last even longer than this Kashmir blue sapphire.”

Ji Ninghua turned her head to avoid his advances. “Don’t think I’ll forgive your beastly behavior last night just because you gave me a blue sapphire. My poor back will need a whole week to recover.”

Qin Haozhou looked aggrieved. “I was wrong, Huahua. I’ll be gentler next time.”

Ji Ninghua glared at him. “There won’t be a next time! You still want a next time?”

The socialites sitting behind them: So this is a business marriage with no feelings? Are we supposed to hear talk like that? When will I get a man like him?

Little Scene

In a deserted, dark corner.

Qin Haozhou: “Miss Ji, do you know what happened to the last person who deceived me?”

Ji Ninghua folds her arms. “Even if I did deceive you, the ruby’s already been sold. I don’t have the ruby, so take my life instead!”

Qin Haozhou smiles as he slowly takes off his clothes. “I don’t want your life. I want you!”

2

After Ji Ninghua spends three days and nights unable to get out of bed, she goes to great lengths to find him an even bigger ruby in Europe.

She places the ruby and the divorce papers on the man’s desk. “Here’s the ruby you wanted. We’re even. Let’s get divorced.”

The man picks up the divorce papers at his leisure, then tears them to shreds. Step by step, he backs Ji Ninghua into a corner. His thin lips brush kisses against her ear, tenderness mixed with forcefulness, as he teases, “Huahua, you think one ruby settles our score? You’re so naive. I’m going to collect interest. You’ll never get even with me in this lifetime.”

Both leads are each other’s one and only, body and soul.

The novel officially goes premium tomorrow, March 1. Thank you all for your support.

Coming next

Today, Xu Muyao goes to meet the ninth man her mother has set her up with. She’s ready to get it over with like she always does, until she sees the man sitting by the cafe window.

Zhou Yuheng, the man she’s had a crush on for years.

She doesn’t know if he remembers her, so she puts away all her secret hopes and acts as if they’re meeting for the first time.

“I hear Miss Xu has been going on a lot of blind dates and is in a hurry to get married. As it happens, I’m looking for someone to marry, too. Do you think I’d suit you?”

It takes Xu Muyao a long time to manage a reply. “Don’t you have someone you like?”

The man doesn’t answer. Instead, he pushes the agreement he prepared toward her. “A two-year contract marriage. Fifty million.”

Xu Muyao takes a deep breath and signs.

Being able to marry her crush for two years really is a gift from heaven.

2

Everyone is shocked that in just two short years, the rapidly rising tech tycoon would marry an obscure art teacher.

No one has faith in this marriage.

His friends all think he got married in a fit of pique after failing to win over the woman he truly loved.

Yet after they marry, Zhou Yuheng still grants her every wish, the very picture of a devoted husband.

Xu Muyao gradually loses herself in the tenderness he surrounds her with, wondering if he might like her just a little.

But when the woman rumored to be his one true love returns to the country, he stays out all night.

Xu Muyao knows it’s time to give up the place she stole and return it to the real Mrs. Zhou.

She prepares the divorce papers and signs her name.

Zhou Yuheng returns home after being gone all night, weary and travel-stained. He sees the divorce papers on the coffee table, his eyes reddening as he backs her into a corner. “What do I have to do to make you fall in love with me?”

“Please don’t leave me, Yaoyao.”

3

A few months later, Xu Muyao sees a photograph he has hidden away in a corner of Zhou Yuheng’s study.

She wants to know who the person Zhou Yuheng once admitted to loving really is.

The person in the photograph is wearing a white dress and standing before the blue sea, where the sky meets the water.

It’s her at eighteen.

The contract marriage she thought she’d entered into was all part of the man’s long-laid plans. The love she thought was one-sided had been returned all along.

This photograph, so long in coming, is like his confession, long overdue.

Little Scene

Xu Muyao holds up the photograph of herself at eighteen and waves it in front of her husband, having found his weakness.

“So my husband liked me when I was eighteen.”

Exposed, Zhou Yuheng tries to snatch the photo.

Xu Muyao is quicker and pulls it back.

“Can I ask my husband to say the words I’ve wanted to hear most?”

Zhou Yuheng puts his arms around his wife. “Xu Muyao, I love you. For all my life, until death do us part.”

Theme: A woman’s personal growth