School, Work, and Love

Cui Yan and Li Tong

The loveliest thing about student days is when the person you secretly love happens to like you back.

When two hearts are truly drawn to each other, even the homeroom teacher can't help smiling silently at their class meeting.

In early 2004, the taciturn Cui Yan “betrayed” Li Tong, the girl he had secretly loved for years, in the most decisive way: he left her with the words “Don't look for me again” and vanished without a trace. No one knew that the wound he got protecting her from a gang of street thugs on that rainy night was still bleeding. And no one knew that he had negotiated with a local tyrant's family, trading five years away from her for her safety.

Li Tong didn't believe his lies. For five years, she kept using the schoolbag he had given her, waiting for an explanation. When Cui Yan finally returned, the boy she once knew had grown up, armed with the thunderous methods needed to bring his enemies down. Yet in front of her, his eyes reddened. “I'm sorry, Tongtong... I came back too late.”

“You protected me through my youth. I'll wager my whole life on your love.” From school uniforms to the trials of adulthood, the fiercest love is hidden in the quietest devotion.