Roses Don’t Quench Thirst

[Modern sweet romance + doting love + long-laid plans + sizzling push and pull]

(A beautiful wild rose, unaware of her own charms, whose family has fallen on hard times × a cold-on-the-outside, sensual-on-the-inside, abstinent iceberg who keeps convincing himself he’s in love)

In high school, Gu Congshan and Song Zheng weren’t very close.

Their biggest connection came from a joke.

He was at the top of his class and came from a wealthy family. To teachers and parents, he was the perfect “heaven-blessed prodigy.”

She was high-profile and unruly, and her only shining quality might have been that she was “pretty enough.”

When Gu Congshan declared she was going to pursue Song Zheng, everyone said she was asking too much.

That it was nothing but wishful thinking.

*

When they met again, he was just as before, like mist atop an icy peak, there to be admired from afar but impossible to grasp.

She, meanwhile, had already fallen into the mud and quietly faded away.

She wanted only to protect her little corner of the world and asked for nothing more.

This time, he was the one who bent down first, gathering her into his hands and treasuring her day after day.

At last, one day, Gu Congshan could take it no longer.

“Song Zheng, you know that a forcibly picked melon won’t taste sweet, right?”

The man, who was twirling a strand of her hair, raised an eyebrow. His voice was indulgent and wildly confident.

“Why does it have to be sweet? When I pick a flower, I only need it to quench my thirst.”