★ A Must-Read Masterpiece by Chocolate Ahuatian, a Top-Zhihu Influencer with Over 1 Million Followers!
★ Rating 9.5, Best-Selling Salt Selection Column with 13.47 Million Views on Zhihu!
★ Single Article with Up to 65,000 Likes, Total Approvals of 240,000, Total Hearts of 240,000, and Total Bookmarks of 280,000!
★ Six Heavenly CPs, Six Heart-Stirring Love Stories! There's Something for Everyone!
★ Exclusive Bonus: A New 10,000-Word "Love Show" Spin-off, "The Demon's Kiss"!

This book is a collection of six novellas, including masterpieces such as "Into the Fire," "Dark Fire," "Fragile Relationship," "Rose in the Wilderness," "Finding a Branch to Rely On," and "Blossom Again."

Each novella revolves around a unique and captivating couple:

- The youthful and loyal "little puppy" Gu Yang vs. the career-oriented and emotionally distant senior executive Qin Zhao
- The carefree and talented university scholar He Yuan vs. the gentle and straightforward "soft girl" Meng Zhi
- The straightforward "little puppy" Wei Ze vs. the overworked and stressed senior executive Chen Li
- The stern plastic surgeon Jiang Yi vs. the shy and quirky programmer Tang Mianmian
- The straightforward younger brother Zhong Yinan vs. the beautiful and talented artist Jiang Miao
- The gentle and reliable "wild king" scholar Jiang Yuan vs. the insecure and humorous girl Lu Zhi

Each love story explores the growth and choices of women with different personalities in love, career, family, and the workplace:

- **Into the Fire**: Focuses on workplace sexual harassment and issues related to family of origin.
- **Blossom Again**: Explores women's anxieties about body image and appearance.
- **Fragile Relationship**: Addresses women's concerns about age.
- **Rose in the Wilderness**: Tells the story of how women can achieve self-worth and maintain independence in love.
- **Dark Fire**: Reminds women to cut their losses and avoid further losses due to sunk costs while encouraging them to pursue love boldly.
- **Finding a Branch to Rely On**: Set against the backdrop of the popular mobile game "Honor of Kings," this story is fresh and relatable to young people's lives.

The protagonists are strong, independent women who are fully committed to their careers but unexpectedly encounter deeply affectionate and persistent men, leading them into unpredictable romances. In their pursuit of true love, they remain true to themselves. Despite the challenges in love and career, they face difficulties decisively and solve problems actively. It is through their confident, optimistic, and independent qualities that they ultimately achieve success both in love and career.

Chocolate Ahuatian

Chocolate Ahuatian is a top influencer with millions of followers on Zhihu. She is a romance writer who loves sweets and excels at crafting atmospheric love stories with a fresh and romantic touch. She enjoys creating heroines with diverse personalities. On the Zhihu platform, she has authored several salt selection columns with over a million views, and many of her works have been published.

Finding a Branch to Rely On... 001

Into the Fire... 032
Into the Fire: Gu Yang... 079

Dark Fire... 087
Dark Fire: Beyond He Yuan... 118

Fragile relationship... 124
Fragile Relationship Extra: Fireworks after Marriage... 161

Blossom Again... 165
Blossom Again Extra: Before and After Marriage... 211

Rose in the Wilderness... 216
Rose in the Wilderness: Devil's Kiss... 256

[Trial Reading]

“Sis, I’ll die on your bed sooner or later.”

His voice was hoarse from the aftereffects of passion, tinged with a cloying sweetness that made his words sound even more intimate. Gu Yang had always had a flirtatious look in his eyes, and his handsome face, tinged with a hint of sensuality, could easily charm a crowd of young women and teenage girls. I was getting dressed, my white blouse already wrinkled and stained beyond use. I tossed it into the laundry bin and pulled out a T-shirt from the wardrobe.

“Don’t talk about death or anything like that. You’re fine,” I said, slipping on the T-shirt. I poured myself a glass of whiskey, mixed it with soda water, and rummaged through the fridge for ice cubes.

Gu Yang shouted behind me, “Stop looking! I put them all in my Coke yesterday.”

“Couldn’t you just freeze some more?” I glared at him, then decided to skip the drink altogether. I slammed the glass down on the table, picked up his clothes from the floor, and threw them at him. “Hurry up and get dressed. Let’s go. I’ve got a plan to work on, and I don’t have time for you tonight.”

“Sis, why do you turn cold as soon as we’re done?” Gu Yang ran his fingers through his messy hair and sat up with a look of grievance. “You can work on it tomorrow. I’m leaving for out-of-province training the day after tomorrow, and I won’t see you for half a month.”

I had already turned on my computer and snorted at his words. “I’d like to, but will your dad agree?”

“So that’s why I keep saying, just tell him about us. Then you won’t have to work so hard every day!”

“Absolutely not. Young master, I’m standing here on my own merit. If I let you blurt it out, it’ll look like I’m sleeping my way up by sleeping with the boss’s son.”

With a loud crash, Gu Yang kicked over a wooden stool and stood in front of me, eyes red with anger. “Sis, you always say that. What do you think our relationship is, anyway?”

I sighed inwardly. What else could it be? A bed partner. I had thought Gu Yang understood this from the beginning, but lately, he’d been dragging me to watch boring movies, visit amusement parks and aquariums, and even buying me cotton candy and writing love letters. I couldn’t help but wonder if the kid really wanted to date me.

Gu Yang was nineteen, a freshman in college, and the son of my company’s owner. My decision to sleep with him had been partly out of a desire for revenge. His father, Gu Zhengyang, had always used work as an excuse to touch my shoulder, pat my leg, poke my waist, crack crude jokes, and send me jewelry. To make it clear that I had no intention of becoming a stepmother to an adult man’s children, I had to develop some other kind of relationship with Gu Yang.

I joined this company the year I graduated with my master’s degree. I was twenty-five, and I stood out among hundreds of applicants, securing a salary of over half a million. It was enough to live comfortably in this first-tier city, as long as I didn’t support my family.

When I was fifteen, my parents had twins—a pair of younger brothers. They had a well-thought-out plan: “Qin Zhao, in seven years, when you graduate from university, your father and I will be old. Your two younger brothers will be in elementary school, and you can take care of them.”

I blocked all their phone numbers, ignored my mother’s cries that “your two younger brothers can’t afford school,” and my father’s curse that “a cold and vicious woman like you will never find a husband.” I removed them from my contact list. When I moved my household registration out of their home, I gave them a buyout of 200,000. From then on, I considered myself parentless.

In my second month at work, I was promoted early to a full-time position after a plan I proposed brought in millions of profits for the company. I became a project leader a year later. If it weren’t for Gu Zhengyang, my career path would have been smooth sailing.

Though Gu Zhengyang wasn’t young, he was well-preserved, with a good figure and excellent taste in clothes. He looked much younger, probably in his early thirties. Many single girls in the company had a crush on him, except me. I wasn’t naive. A man in his forties, using the influence of alcohol to confide in a twenty-five-year-old woman about how lonely and hard it was to raise his son after his wife’s death, and how he remained a man of integrity—I knew exactly what that meant.

Gu Zhengyang was attracted to me, but his attraction was far more about desire than mere infatuation. I wasn’t interested, even though agreeing to him might have made my career path smoother. Adults know their limits, and he didn’t push me. After all, aside from being young and beautiful, I was also a valuable employee who could bring in profits for the company. So he continued to assign me work normally while still trying to flirt with me, creating physical contact and testing my boundaries. I was fed up.

One afternoon, before Gu Zhengyang left on a business trip, he threw me a set of car keys and asked me to pick up his son. I drove to the entrance of the city’s top university, looked around, and couldn’t find Gu Yang. I had to call him.

It took seven attempts before he answered, his tone impatient: “Who is this?”

“Gu Yang, I’m an employee of your father’s company. He asked me to pick you up and take you home,” I said, maintaining a cold, professional tone and cutting him off before he could say anything. “Give me an address, or I’ll post a missing person notice on the school’s broadcasting station and forum.”

I found Gu Yang, drunk, in a bar near the university. The lights were dim, and the music was blaring. A few college students were singing Wang Lei’s “I’m Still Young” at the top of their lungs. I pushed through the restless crowd and pulled Gu Yang off the sofa. He was wearing a black hoodie, with short, fluffy hair and a diamond earring. His features were sharp, his eyes misty with drunkenness, his eyelids narrow and tinged with red from the alcohol, and his lips were bright red. Initially, Gu Yang refused to leave, but I smashed a bottle to scare off the rowdy kids around him and dragged him out. Gu Yang was tall, and by the time I got him into the car, I was sweating profusely.

Following the GPS, I arrived at the entrance of the Gu family villa. Suddenly, he leaned over, rested his head on my shoulder, and sniffed, “Sis, you smell so good.”

Human desires and evil thoughts often emerge in an instant.