The Gentle Night Tide [Marriage Before Love]

An elegant, haughty qipao designer × a gloomy, scheming tycoon with eight hundred tricks up his sleeve

Ruan Linglong is the most distinguished young lady in Pingjiang City.

She lives in a century-old private garden and runs her family's qipao shop, making clothes exclusively for the wives of the city's elite.

After a downpour, water still dripped from the roof tiles.

A man walked into the courtyard over a carpet of fallen crabapple blossoms, his bearing remarkable as he stood gracefully in the light and shadow. "I'm here to pick up the qipao Lady Ye ordered."

She lifted the bead curtain and handed it to him. He froze as he took it.

"Palace-grade xiangyun silk?"

"You have a good eye, sir." Linglong smiled. Her brows and eyes brimmed with the pride of a young lady from an illustrious family, eclipsing all the flowers in the courtyard.

They met again at the pool of a private club. Her leg cramped and she began to drown.

In a daze, she felt an arm wrap around her waist and pull her to the surface.

Linglong coughed and opened her eyes. He was soaked through, but his gaze burned with startling intensity. "We meet again, Miss Ruan."

Later, the Ye family pressed him to marry. His elders rambled on about photographs of eligible young ladies, but Ye Lansheng tuned them out, staring instead at the graceful figure having her measurements taken behind the screen. "Why look farther when what I want is right here?"

In the dead silence, he glanced at Linglong with a faint smile.

"I think Miss Ruan would be just fine."

That night, she was "invited" into his study.

The man calmly unfolded a yellowed land deed and a prenuptial agreement, then removed his glasses and leaned close. "Miss Ruan, choose."

Linglong didn't even look up. "Mr. Ye, I sell qipaos, not my body."

"Is that so?" He pinned her against the desk.

The cold frames of his glasses traced her cheek, then moved lower.

"Under the water, you clung to me so tightly I almost lost control. You weren't nearly so... tough then."

[Little Scene]

On a damp, rainy night, he cornered her on the second floor of the qipao shop.

The man slowly ran his hand over the fabrics lining the walls. "Choose a color."

She retreated warily. "What for?"

He hooked a measuring tape around her wrist. "To take your measurements..."

"For a wedding dress."

He came to collect a qipao, but what he really wanted was to marry her.

Reader's Guide:

1. The 1.9-meter-tall older male lead is gloomy, obsessive, and unhinged.

2. From the unattainable female lead's perspective: marriage first, love later, and a domineering pursuit. From the determined male lead's perspective: a long-laid plan.

3. Five-year age gap / off-the-charts chemistry / 1v1 / HE / both leads' first time

Coming next: Morning and Evening, You're Mine

Gorgeous, badass female director × elegant, unhinged CEO | Rekindled romance

On the first day of the new EVP's tenure, he publicly rejected Yan Yan's proposal.

The man sat at the head of the table in a bespoke suit, refined and aloof. He glanced at her with an easy grace. "Director Yan, have you ever been in love?"

The room fell silent.

"That's why your proposal feels so... cold."

From then on, the office became a battlefield dividing morning and night.

He nitpicked everything, and she refused to back down.

The whole company said they were astrologically incompatible, and that every meeting nearly ended in a fight.

But only Yan Yan knew that in public, he was an aloof, untouchable boss, while in private, he was a possessive, unhinged bastard.

Later, during a company outing, someone asked him about his first time after a few drinks.

The man swirled his glass and glanced toward Yan Yan in the corner. After a long pause, he smiled.

"On a foggy night... in London."

Everyone teased him about the romance of it. Yan Yan was the only one who felt as if she were sitting on pins and needles.

She remembered that year, in a bar near Westminster Bridge.

She had easily coaxed this refined young gentleman into bending over to play the bow for her.

As he fingered the strings, his gaze was utterly seductive.

A man in a suit, paired with a classical cello: restrained, yet tantalizingly sexy...

When the song ended, she stood to leave.

He chased after her in the dark and stopped her. Their breaths mingled, the moment just right.

She was the one who rose on tiptoe to kiss him first. "Don't ask my name..."

He gave a helpless laugh, held the back of her neck, and kissed her fiercely.

That night, they ran through the streets at midnight and clung to each other until the fog lifted. But when dawn broke, she disappeared without a trace.

He searched all of London,

only to find that all his efforts had been in vain...

[Little Scene]

In the top-floor conference room, Yuan Jinyan blocked her way.

In full view of everyone, he murmured a tempting threat that only she could hear.

"Director Yan, if you defend him one more time..."

"I won't mind kissing you right here, in front of everyone."

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Theme: Independence and growth in love