At thirteen, she met him and declared war! Xiang Nuan moved into the Zhou household and, right in front of sixteen-year-old Zhou Yu, tore his handwritten 23-article “Family Pact” to shreds. Then she whipped out a red pen and added Article 24: “The final interpretation is mine!” Their childhood-friends romance began with a battle of wits and barbed exchanges. At sixteen, he used “five-star standards” to make her tidy her room, then secretly photographed the starry-sky doodles she had painted all over the hallway and locked them in an encrypted album. At eighteen, he gave her a top-of-the-line computer and told her to “pay him back with her future.” But when she insisted on living alone, he handed her a survival test full of “impossible demands,” secretly teaching her how to face the dangers of the world. When they meet again at work, she is a newcomer making her way through sheer ability, while he is the icy Mr. Zhou. He dumps “doomed projects” in her lap and calls her “useless” in public, taking their daily sparring to the battlefield of the workplace. Xiang Nuan thinks all the tenderness between them was just her imagination, until a USB drive on her desk reveals the truth: detailed analyses of failed projects, Morse code spelling “hang in there” hidden in a coffee sleeve, and his silent protection as he takes the blame for her at the cost of a year's promotion opportunity. She gives as good as she gets, retaliating with dishes made from houttuynia cordata and making him watch silly romance dramas with her. Yet when his stomach hurts, she scolds him for bringing it on himself while making him soothing congee. From their snarky doodle wars in the school hallway to their clashes in workplace meeting rooms, they learn each other's softer sides through humorous bickering and help each other grow through every “fight.” A story of mutual redemption that begins with banter and laughter, blossoms into love, and ends with them staying by each other's side. The tenderness hidden beneath all the strictness has always been their own secret language of love.
