Wild Rose

[Reunion after years apart + worlds apart + mutual secret crushes + coming-of-age]

[A handsome, spoiled rich-boy menace who gets away with anything × a tough, quiet “good girl” who plays the fool]

1.

In Sheng’an’s circle of second-generation elites, Zhou Changzhan was famous as the kind of highborn young master who’d tear the roof off if he went three days without a beating. Handsome and a top student, he’d had the run of the place for nineteen years. Everyone said there was no one who could keep him in line. Then one day, someone spotted him standing outside Dai Qing’s home in the pouring rain, his eyes red-rimmed as he pleaded in a low voice, “What is it about me you don’t like? I’ll change, all right?”

2.

For the ten years they grew up together, Dai Qing was the daughter of the housekeeper in Zhou Changzhan’s home, dependent on others and always sweet and sensible. Faced with the arrogant, troublemaking Young Master Zhou, she indulged him without limits: standing up for him, helping him fight, and taking the blame for him. Zhou Changzhan thought everything Dai Qing did was only right and proper. Then one day, her family left. He stood forlornly in the yard where wild roses bloomed, and at the age when he’d only just learned to hold in his pee, he also learned what it meant to miss someone.

3.

When they met again ten years later, Dai Qing still gave Zhou Changzhan whatever he wanted. But it didn’t take long for him to realize she treated everyone that way.

Unable to accept it, Young Master Zhou decided to insert himself into Dai Qing’s life. He rented the place next door and deliberately caused trouble so she’d have to clean up his mess. His best friend said bluntly, “Are you in love with Dai Qing?”

Zhou Changzhan stubbornly denied it. “Am I crazy?”

Late that night, Zhou Changzhan admitted, “I really am about to go crazy.”