This book has three stories: one about lawyer Xu and Jiang Xuci, one about Zhou Wanqiao and Li Yanheng, and one about Dai He. I hadn't planned to write a sequel for Dai He, but by the end, I was emotionally invested too. Life is hard enough as it is, so giving everyone a happy ending can't hurt. Dai He may be cruel, but those three years were hard for him too. He worried himself to exhaustion, and in the end, he received the punishment he deserved. He also has the right to find happiness.
Ten years ago, family pressure forced Xu Nanjia to break her promise to Jiang Xuci, burying her youthful feelings deep in her heart.
Ten years later, determined to see him again, she goes to the city where he lives and reenters his world as a lawyer. Their disheveled reunion outside the courthouse leaves him treating her like a stranger, his coldness cutting to the bone.
But Xu Nanjia has never been one to back down. She will make amends for the regrets of the past with her own hands, and lay bare every feeling she never voiced. Faced with his hard, distant manner, she proceeds carefully, hoping that ten years of unwavering devotion can thaw their frozen relationship.
Later, beside the rust-spotted brewing vats in an old distillery, Dai He asks, “Nanjia...” His voice trembles like paper crumpled by the wind. “Do you regret it?”
“Regret what?” Xu Nanjia asks in return, her fingers rubbing the strap of her bag.
Dai He swallows. “Regret saving me.”
