After Mistaking the Gloomy Villain for the Official Love Interest

Below is the blurb for the upcoming novel, "Will You Be My N+1?" Skip it if it's not your thing:

Tsundere heiress x scheming man with a dark side

Jiang Xu met Shen Shiheng at a matchmaking dinner arranged by their parents. In a perfectly tailored suit, he was refined and distinguished, like a breeze through pines or moonlight over water.

The Shen family's company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and they urgently needed a marriage alliance to save the family's fortunes.

Jiang Xu thought of him as nothing more than a handsome new ornament in her home. She signed a prenuptial agreement with him, and they began their marriage in name only. After the wedding, she carried on chatting with the male models numbered one through N on her phone and lived it up outside, while Shen Shiheng played the part of a devoted, honest husband. The two had nothing to do with each other.

A few months later, Jiang Xu unexpectedly saw the news that Shen Shiheng had rung the opening bell at Nasdaq with his company. Unable to believe it, she grilled her parents until she finally learned that it had been the Jiang family, not the Shen family, that was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Jiang Xu returned home in a daze. Shen Shiheng was in the kitchen, making her usual bedtime dessert of fish maw stewed in milk. His beautiful eyes fixed on her, dark and intent, as he wondered why she had come home so early.

Burdened with the responsibility of rebuilding the Jiang family, Jiang Xu steeled herself and tried to say something nice. Instead, she blurted out, "I think you're better-looking than those guys on my phone. Would you consider being my N+1?"

Half an hour later, the air in the room was thick with desire and unspoken tension. Shen Shiheng abandoned his usual restraint, biting down hard on her lips to stifle her ragged breaths. "You can't be my N+1. But we could be a proper married couple..."

From then on, Jiang Xu no longer had time to contact the guys on her phone. Instead, she was kept busy every night by the N+1 at home. Shen Shiheng always seemed like an honest man who washed his hands and made her meals, but in private he led her into all kinds of unmentionable situations with irresistible insistence.

One day, she learned by chance that Shen Shiheng had agreed to help the Jiang family and forbidden her parents from telling her the truth, all to get her to agree to marry him. As she wondered why he had gone to such lengths, a friend came to visit. Jiang Xu casually introduced them: "We got married five days after we met."

Shen Shiheng, who had been silent until then, calmly corrected her. "No. Nine years and five days."

Novel blurb:

A flirtatious, oblivious beauty x a possessive, twisted, and unhinged villainous minister

Zhuang Heng transmigrated into a book as the fourth young lady of the Duke's residence, the least favored daughter in the family.

The prominent Xie family in the book had two brothers: the younger, Xie Rongzhi, and the elder, Xie Rongyu.

Zhuang Heng assumed that Xie Rongyu was her destined match, so she deliberately approached him, hoping to find his protection. She wasn't particularly clever, and with her beautiful face she drew near him without any plan, yet somehow she always made his breath catch.

But she gradually discovered that this refined and peerless young man was ruthless by nature, his hands stained with blood. He was far less amiable than he seemed, and his gaze held a hint of murderous intent whenever he looked at her.

One summer night, she got drunk and barged into Xie Rongyu's room in a thin ruqun. She sat on his lap and accidentally left a lipstick stain on his neck.

He reached out. Those hands had just been covered in blood, but now they stroked the hair of the woman his younger brother loved. His eyes were dark as ink.

The day after she sobered up, Zhuang Heng happened to discover that she'd mistaken her destined match. The man she'd boldly gotten close to the night before was the twisted villain of the original story, a man guilty of every evil imaginable.

She saw the lipstick mark on his neck and ran away in a panic, then turned to the real match, Xie Rongzhi.

Every day after she ran, every moment she spent with Xie Rongzhi, Zhuang Heng felt a pair of eyes fixed on her from behind, brimming with desire. The sensation sent chills down her spine.

One day, after she and Xie Rongzhi had become engaged, Zhuang Heng opened the door and found Xie Rongyu smiling at her. Her future husband was bound on the floor, whimpering and begging for mercy.

Beneath the red gauze bed curtains, he untied her sash and held her slender ankle. His fingers traced every inch of her skin as he gazed at her with burning eyes. "If you try to run, he'll die. Stay by my side, or watch him die. Lingling, you choose."

Xie Rongyu knew he was full of schemes and would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. He and the simple, timid fourth young lady of the Duke's residence were worlds apart.

He had always treated her as a plaything, until he saw her leave him to get close to Xie Rongzhi, her eyes curved in a radiant smile. He had never seen her look so full of life. A few days later, he heard the news of their engagement. He clenched his teeth and unconsciously gripped his sleeve, the urge to kill his younger brother growing stronger.

So what if she was about to become another man's wife?

She could only ever be his.

Theme: Love can overcome every obstacle.