Burned to Ashes

[Rugged Village Party Secretary vs. Mischievous Trouble-Making Girl]

Nine-year age gap / Mutual salvation / Older man and younger woman / She pursues him / Straightforward girl

The first time seventeen-year-old Jian Fan met Song Ran,

she was disgusted by him, calling him a “country bumpkin” and a “hick” at every turn.

At twenty, she got into a fight for Song Ran’s sake, grabbing a boy who had insulted him and snarling, “Even if you looked exactly like him, you wouldn’t be worth a fraction of him.”

At first, Song Ran treated her like a child. Later, he could only hope that she would come home to visit him, the lonely old man.

She took everything from him, then abandoned him.

He sent her a message: “I’ll wait for you.”

What she didn’t know was that it had taken all the courage he’d built up over a lifetime to say those three words.

A grown man in his thirties is past the age of making promises lightly. He knows that people’s hearts can change, and that young lives are full of hormones. But he doesn’t want to cage a rose and watch it wither day after day.

Love is passionate, sincere, and brave. It is also possessive and single-minded.

But it can mean letting go, cherishing, and holding someone dear.