Okay...book 4 begins with a girl throwing up. I don't know if she realizes this in the intro, but I'm going to tell you anyway--she's pregnant and she's got morning sickness. Then the scene changes and there's this man and woman sitting in a bar together having drinks. They seem to be discussing whether the woman is pregnant or not. Sitting behind a planter, the girl from the first scene is having a shake and listening in on their conversation.
The woman starts saying stuff like, "If I was pregnant, I don't know what I would do...I probably couldn't work anymore...it's going to affect my life, blahblahblah" But after a while the man coldly replies, "But according to the test you're not pregnant, are you?" The woman stares at him in shock. "How did you know??"
The man calmly sips at his drink and replies, "Well, if you were pregnant and you wanted to keep the baby, you would probably not wear high heels or drink alcoholic beverages the way you are now." The woman gets really pissed off, throws her cocktail in his face, and stomps off.
The man sits at the bar covered with drink and the girl behind the planter leaves.
Later the girl shows up at some kind of company party/meeting. This funny looking guy comes after her and starts fussing about her; she's the company's president's daughter, and she was supposed to be at this party/meeting instead of sneaking off to a bar. The guy is an employee of the company and it seems like he's a bodyguard type of person too (like it's his responsibility to watch out for her, etc). She tells him to deliver a shirt to the man in the bar.
The bodyguard person brings the shirt to the bar, where the man is changing out of his drenched one. The bodyguard person's acting all nervous and stuff, and asks the man (after giving him the new shirt) whether the woman (from before) was pregnant or not. It seems that he (bodyguard) had a short affair with the woman, and she was trying to scare him into marriage with a "threat" of pregnancy. He's friends with this guy (the one with the drenched shirt) and asked him to meet the woman in the bar and find out whether she was really pregnant or not. The guy (ok, the one with the drenched shirt's name was Shang Shan I think...) tells him what happened, and also asks where the shirt was from. The bodyguard-guy replies that the president's daughter sent it (both of these men work for the same company.).
Later on (I think my pace is going to be a bit slow...) what happens is, the president's daughter (her name is Guei He Zh in Chinese..) asks Shang Shan (I wish I knew the Japanese names) to take her to some construction sites. Her father's in the hospital temporarily, so she's filling in for him. Shang Shan can't refuse, so he has to take her. They end up at this huge mansion that the company had finished a year or so ago. Guei He Zh makes Shang Shan take her for a tour through the house, and they end up in the master bedroom where there's a Cupid motif. There she sets forth a proposition for Shang Shan: she wants him to marry her! She says her father is saving the house to give to her as a wedding gift. She's got a contract all ready; she's pregnant, but for reasons she cannot name, she can't be with the child's father. Her own father won't let her have the baby unless she gets married, so she needs a stand-in for her husband. She's done research about Shang Shan, and knows that he's smart, handsome, and really responsible. She also knows that he came from a single-parent family (his mother had him out of wedlock) and that he has always dreamt of being a manager or something. She tells him that if they get married, he can be promoted in the company (since she's the president's daughter). She also says that he is guaranteed a divorce after a year (or when the baby is born, I forget). She says she'll even act mean to him so everyone will be on his side when they get the divorce (so he won't be demoted by her father).
Shang Shan refuses. He knows what it's like to grow up in a single-parent household, and he says that it's no life for any child. He suggests that she have an abortion, and infers that she had the baby with a married man. He also tells her that in the bar, he was doing a favor for a friend and that he was uninvolved. (She thought he was the father of the woman's baby...and for some reason his cold response to the woman added to his allure...? I think she sees his coldness and thinks that because of it, he'll be calculating and agree to her proposal.) The girl gets pissed off and leaves.
After the encounter, both of them ignore each other. The girl requests some information about hospitals in other countries (America, I think it was) from the bodyguard-person. The other woman (recall scene in bar) overhears, and thinks that Guei He Zh and the bodyguard guy are having an affair.
At the company party that the president gives, the woman goes to the president himself and tells him that Guei He Zh is pregnant with the bodyguard's child. The president, infuriated, makes the bodyguard and Guei He Zh come forth for a confrontation. (it's funny, he starts chasing after the bodyguard with a sword...hehehe..) Both of them try to convince her father that the bodyguard isn't the father of Guei He Zh's child. When Guei He Zh won't reveal the name of the child's real father, though, the president becomes intent on having her get an abortion. She refuses again and again, and finally Shang Shan (who's been watching this whole scene, and thinking about how his mother really wanted to have him, and decided not to commit suicide because she wanted her baby to live...) exclaims that he is the father of Guei He Zh's child. He agrees to marry her, and they pretend that they're madly in love with each other so the father/president won't suspect anything.
So the two of them get married, and little by little (through various events...Guei He Zh blackmails some businessmen who were all involved in illicit dealings, and they try to get back at her but Shang Shan saves her, etc) they end up falling in love with each other. Shang Shan is intent on being the best father he possibly can be, because he knows what it's like not to have one. However, he's been promoted in the company and since Guei He Zh is often at home as her pregnancy develops and the president is still unfit to work, he has to take more and more of the workload on his own shoulders. The vice-president of the company gets pissed off at him, because he's so young and barely had to work his way up the ladder before suddenly being promoted to something like the president of the company. (He tries all sorts of methods to get Shang Shan demoted, to no avail.)
Finally there's a huge crisis, and the company just might go bankrupt (I didn't really get this part). Guei He Zh feels horrible for dragging Shang Shan into the whole messy business, so she brings out the divorce papers, signs her portion, and runs away. Shang Shan finds the papers, and decides to go after his wife (after delivering a speech at the vice-president, who I guess sees the error of his ways and decides to help the company regain its status from before--I think it was his fault the company was going down anyway). The tank ends with Guei He Zh delivering a baby in the hospital, while Shang Shan waits outside and wonders who the baby will look like...?
Then in tank 5...there's a prequel to the tank 4 story!! =) wah!
Guei He Zh is on her way to Hong Kong as a representative for her father's business. Supposedly her Chinese is as fluent as her Japanese, and a lot of people mistake her for Chinese when they see her. She meets this handsome young businessman on the plane, and they strike up a conversation. They part when the plane lands.
Guei He Zh receives instructions to meet with one of her father's company's agents at a certain place. She goes, but is kidnapped by this mob (...the Chinese mafia??) of gangsters who think she has the black list of all the people in the mafia, and demand it back. She, of course, knows nothing about it--and before she gets beaten up, in comes the head of the mafia--and who should it be, but the young businessman from the plane! ;) (Gee..I would never have guessed.) He takes her away in his car, telling her he knows she's innocent. It seems that he doesn't recognize her until then--and when he realizes that it's Guei He Zh from the plane, for some reason..err..he rapes her. (I know, UGH!) He takes her to an apartment somewhere, and tells her that she can't leave Hong Kong because the mob is still after her. She gets really annoyed staying there all day (even though the mafia guy gets her everything she wants...he's actually really sweet to her, and never touches her again) and demands to be taken out. So he dresses her up in a chipao, with heavy makeup and a fan to hide her face, and takes her out to a dinnerparty. There they meet a ton of other gangsters, and also some actual businessmen. Guei He Zh is standing alone, waiting for the mafia guy to come back from greeting some people, when she sees him with this Chinese girl. They look *really* friendly, and she gets pissed off--after all, she's supposed to be "his woman" [or something]. She gives him a really disgusted look and turns away. He looks confused. Just at that moment, the *real* mafia guy comes towards her from behind the other guy--the two of them look exactly alike!! (Ok, in the manga they look pretty different...seeing as how one's got slicked dark hair and one's got loose light hair) They all have dinner together, and she basically hides behind her fan the whole time because she finds out that this lookalike guy works for her father's company! His name is Shang Shan, and he's in Hong Kong for business. He tells the mafia guy, in reply to a question, that Guei He Zh is the daughter of the company president who disappeared mysteriously during a business trip to Hong Kong. He says that the president is devastated, because Guei He Zh is his only child. This brings a sorrowful look to her face, which the mafia guy notices but does not comment about.
As time progresses, Guei He Zh falls in love with her captor...he knows that she belongs back in Japan, though, so he goes to the place where the black list is actually kept (dude...I think he staged the whole entire incident, just because he fell in love with her on the plane...), and steals it back for her (he gets shot by one of his own men in the process--they won't let even him take the black list..). So he's got this bullet wound in the chest while he's driving towards the hotel he asked Guei He Zh to meet him at...and crashes! He's lying next to the car wreck, severely wounded, holding the book (the black list) and the key for the hotel suite. Shang Shan happens upon the scene, and recognizes him. He asks if there's anything he can do before help arrives, and the mafia guy gives him the book and the key, and tells him that "the woman" is waiting for him at such-and-such a hotel and for him to go and meet her. He also tells him, "Please tell her...that from the moment I first met her...I loved her.."
Meanwhile Guei He Zh is in the hotel room waiting for the mafia guy. She's been mulling her feelings over, and realizes that she loves him and that she's been horrendous to him during this whole time in Hong Kong. Just then, someone is heard walking through the hallway. It's Shang Shan, with the key and the book, but it's rather dim in there and she can't see (and even if she did, I doubt she'd really be able to tell the difference...seeing as how they're so similar and all). Before he can say anything, she holds him close and tells him that she loves him. He gives her the book, and she realizes what it is and that it means she has to leave Hong Kong as soon as she can--the next morning, is what she assumes. She'll never be able to return without danger to her life, so she tells him that they will never see each other again. She's weeping by now, and Shang Shan (I suppose) realizes the enormity of the situation and is deeply touched. (?) So all he tells her...are the mafia guy's last words. "From the moment I first saw you...I loved you."
The two of them spend the night together in the hotel, and Guei He Zh leaves early the next morning.
Back in Japan, Guei He Zh is welcomed back by her father and employees...she feels nauseated, and wonders what it could be--she shouldn't still be experiencing motion sickness from the flight back...
Then she realizes that she's pregnant...with what she thinks is the mafia guy's child...
One day at the office, she sees Shang Shan. Their eyes meet for a moment, and as they pass by and walk away from each other, she thinks, "Shang Shan...the man who looks exactly like -----" (I forgot mafia guy's name. Heh.)
The End of the prequel~
so you see~! it *was* actually Shang Shan's child!!! WAH! ^_^
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