My Ex-Husband's Allure

[Sharp-tongued little con artist x gloomy, obnoxious mess]

Tan Ning spent ten years as the Qi family's future daughter-in-law. Everyone said she was lucky: an impostor heiress, yet the Qi family had taken her in and was waiting for her to marry Qi Yizhou.

Only Tan Ning knew the truth. She was nothing more than an asset the Qi family had carefully groomed for a political marriage.

In public, she held Qi Yizhou's arm and smiled sweetly and obediently.

In private, she called him a perverted freak, then put on a sugary voice and coaxed him: "Honey, I love you more than anything~"

Qi Yizhou sneered. "Try acting a little harder."

His aloof, ascetic-looking face remained impassive, while his erection swelled another inch inside her.

Tan Ning thought: Fine. I'll keep pretending for as long as I have to. The day I don't need to anymore, I'll be the first to run.

*

Later, the real heiress came back.

Qi Yizhou's mother slid a check across to her, her manner fairly civil. "Miss Tan, thank you for playing along all these years."

Everyone was waiting for Tan Ning to fall apart. Instead, she smiled as she took the check, then drove off in the Cullinan Qi Yizhou had given her and moved into the luxury apartment she'd bought long ago. As she lay there with a face mask on, she thought:

To hell with this arranged-marriage script. I'm finally free.

*

Tan Ning became a carefree, wealthy woman who owed nobody anything.

Every now and then, she sponsored a few handsome young men, helped someone pay their tuition, or invested in the arts. Life was easy and happy.

Until Qi Yizhou returned to the country and heard she'd been missing for six whole months.

The day they met again, Tan Ning was leaving a hotel with one of her "little friends." Wearing a deep-V spaghetti-strap dress, she reached up to straighten his collar.

Qi Yizhou stood in the rain, watching her for a long time.

So long that Tan Ning finally noticed him and smiled in greeting. "Long time no see, ex-hubby."

The next second, someone scooped her up around the waist and shoved her into a car.

Qi Yizhou's eyes were red, and he ground out through clenched teeth, "Are you really that desperate for money?"

"If you want money, come back and sleep with me. One night gets you a black card. Spend until you max it out."

That night, the passenger seat was soaked.

Qi Yizhou bit her collarbone, his voice almost pleading. "I can do what they can."

"Ningning, why don't you play with me instead?"

#I'm just an ordinary rich woman. Why is he looking at me like he feels so sorry for me?

Theme: Freedom is precious.