We Agreed to Be Neighbors, So Why Are You Blushing, Auntie?

[Younger man pursues older woman + slow burn + sweet romance + older woman/younger man + mature beauty + everyday city life + mutual devotion]

On the first day after graduating from college, Jiang Yu moves into an old apartment complex and catches the neighbor next door as she falls off a stool.

Zhou Ruoqing is thirty-two, with long, straight black hair and skin so pale it seems to glow. She is as aloof as a painting no one is allowed to touch.

An art teacher at a private elementary school, she has always been single and is known throughout the complex as “the icy Teacher Zhou.”

But Jiang Yu soon discovers that Teacher Zhou can’t change a lightbulb or fix a faucet, and when she tries to assemble a storage rack, she builds something that looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The one thing she can do exceptionally well is cook.

He fixes things for her, and she brings him braised pork ribs. Before long, she’s collecting his packages, and he’s taken over her kitchen.

Then she opens the wrong package and finds a pair of pink underwear printed with “What do you want me to do to you tonight?” Her face turns red, and she slams the door so hard the motion-sensor lights in the hallway flicker.

Jiang Yu thinks he’s never met anyone easier to flirt with.

“Zhou-jie, if I pursue you, will you think I’m just playing around?”

“You’re only twenty-two. You haven’t figured things out yet.”

“Then how about I figure things out while I pursue you?”

She says no, but her ears turn red all the same.

He says that’s fine. He has plenty of patience, plenty of skills, and a spare key to her place.

Auntie Wang from the complex says, “Xiao Jiang, your neighbor’s not an easy one to win over.”

Jiang Yu smiles. “Auntie, I’m not pursuing her. I’m coming home.”