[High status x sweet on the outside, dark within, seven-year age gap, powerful man lowers his head]
"The flirt is innocent, while the abstinent one loses control."
The first time Sui Yang saw Ni Xiao was at a ball held for him by Yancheng's elite. Half of the city's high society had gathered, all hoping to make an impression on the man who stood above them all.
Among the roomful of custom luxury outfits and elegant guests, the young man stood out in refined, casual black. His features were sharp, his handsome face striking. He descended the golden spiral staircase with the bearing of someone born to wealth, every gesture graceful.
He was the second young master of one of the most powerful families in Beijing's upper circles, while she was merely the daughter of a small family workshop, insignificant as duckweed, easily overlooked.
The difference between them was like that between clouds and mud.
Young and unaware of her own limits, Sui Yang had dared to stop his car to save her family's small business from being seized to pay off its debts.
Ni Xiao agreed casually, without even getting a good look at her.
*
Seven years later, thanks to that offhand promise, the little workshop had survived and grown into a thriving company.
And the seed in Sui Yang's heart had grown into a towering tree, so dense that there was room for nothing else.
She had tried looking him up, but ordinary people couldn't easily glimpse the world above the heavens.
Besides, just hearing that there was someone by his side was enough to make her drop her guard, her heart aching unbearably.
They met again at a banquet hosted by investors. As before, invitations were scarce.
The wine was flowing when the man emerged from behind a golden-threaded nanmu screen. Against the backdrop of lavish Chinese-style decor, he was tall and long-legged, dressed in cool black with his collar buttoned to the top. He stood aloof and solitary, and no one dared challenge his edge.
Someone introduced her to Ni Xiao. "The rising star, Sui Ying."
He glanced over nonchalantly, paused when his eyes landed on her face, and said with a faint smile, "Why did you change your name? Your old one sounded better."
The heart she'd sealed away for years caught fire like a spark racing across the stars, until flames blazed across the sky.
Whether it meant giving herself to those with power or taking a shortcut, so be it.
She stopped his car again...
※ The heroine's name comes from the line, "Behold the Luo, where the waters flow vast and deep." She won't change her name; it is also the source of the book's title.
--Archived 2025.5.13
Theme: Love is a moment outside the rules.
