A Kiss of Deliberate Passion

[Publication rights acquired]

The second male lead gets the girl, the nation's first love, a gentlemanly scoundrel

Cheng Weiyue first met Zhao Hancheng at her father's retirement banquet.

Her father was well into his cups, patting the man on the shoulder and calling her by her childhood nickname. “Ningning, this is Dad's most outstanding student.”

Zhao Hancheng chuckled at that, his narrow eyes carefree and unruly. The eighteen-year-old girl lowered her head, heart racing.

Later, in the busy city streets, the man who had once been the pride of heaven held a gorgeous woman in a shadowy corner and passed smoke into her mouth. He caught sight of Cheng Weiyue from the corner of his eye and drawled with a smile, “Ningning?”

Falling for him was inevitable.

But the playboy never changed his ways, and their breakup was ugly.

On the day they split, Cheng Weiyue, the belle of Peking University, slapped Young Master Zhao twice in front of everyone. He turned his face away and didn't move for a long time.

No one knew that inside a discreet business sedan, Zhou Jingwei, the Zhou family's most proper and decorous head, a legend in the legal world, was gripping the girl's delicate chin and kissing her fiercely.

After a long while, he brushed his thumb over the tears at the corner of her eyes. His refined, dignified face remained gentle as he asked, “Had your fun?”

Cheng Weiyue had seen Zhou Jingwei at his gentlest.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, in heavy snow at Ling'an Temple in Jingcheng, the world swathed in soft flakes and filled with bustling crowds and curling incense, she went to pray for a match with Zhao Hancheng.

Then Zhou Jingwei came toward her against the flow of people and put a marriage charm in her hand. “What you wish for isn't always what you get.”

He paused, then added, “Ningning, when you've had your fun, come back.”

The Buddha says that turning back is salvation. That day, Cheng Weiyue kept looking back, and every time she saw Zhou Jingwei standing behind her, his gaze unwavering amid the sea of people.

The Buddha truly never speaks falsely.