Independent designer who "doesn't fall in love" × Financial elite who "no one has ever treated me like this"
He came out of the orphanage, relied on a scholarship to finish college, and named himself "Shen Zhou". She was left by her father when she was a child and vowed never to give the key to anyone. They agreed to only be bed partners and not talk about feelings - until he drove for half an hour at two o'clock in the morning to make sure she was still there, until she set the door lock code to his birthday, until a bowl of over-stewed pork rib soup became the first "home" between them.
There are no bloody misunderstandings or pretentiousness here. There were only two adults who admitted on the phone late at night that "the rhythm of your breathing has changed because I am thinking of you"; on the faded sofa, one said "You are not a sinking boat, you are a ferry", and the other wrote the word "home" over and over in her palm.
The intimate scenes are explicit but not vulgar, and the emotional lines are delicate but not protracted. Every chapter has dialogue that makes your heart beat faster, and every paragraph has tenderness that makes your eyes swell.
This novel is not about love myths. It tells how two people who have been screened out by life find belonging in each other.
