Any Books Suitable for Middle-Aged Readers? Smart Characters and a Light, Fresh Style 有没有适合中年人看的书？不降智，小清新
Translated by GPT-6 Luna
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501
Fate Is a Sunny Day 缘是晴天
Memories of youth, growing up, and heartbreak, buried by time and kept close to the heart. May the love shared by Xie Qiyuan and Jiang Ziqing touch your heart. Because they loved each other so deeply back then, their love turned into countless tears. Even so, at a fork in the road with no hope in sight, they would keep waiting for him to come.
15Reads8.2Score—Shelves
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502
Our Long River of Years 我们的岁月长河
Our Long River of Years is divided into three parts. Following the ordinary lives of three generations of Zhao Jiafu’s family, railway workers, it spans from the 1950s to the 2020s. It recounts the joys and sorrows, happiness and heartbreak, and everyday troubles experienced by the three generations of the Zhao family and the ordinary people around them over the long river of time. It depicts the turbulent lives of ordinary people as the times change and society develops. Time flows like a river
114Reads—Score—Shelves
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503
Wading Across the River of Life 趟过人生河
Ren Tianxing was born into humble circumstances, yet he defied the odds. Hoping to change his lot in life, he endured hardship after hardship... only to be left with regrets... This novel pays tribute to all those who spend years away from home, working to support their families. You work so hard. Like all of you, the protagonist Ren Tianxing lives far from home, drifting and wandering through a life at the very bottom, yet he keeps striving...
—Reads7.0Score—Shelves
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504
The Fleeting Years of Dusk 匆匆岁月暮
Siping and Meihui are deeply in love. However, while working as a family planning officer, Meihui's father, Shi Jianren, accidentally trampled Heituo's newborn son to death. Later, Shi Jianren was jailed for embezzlement. After his release, he mistook Siping's father for the person who had reported him and beat Siping's grandfather to death. On New Year's Eve many years later, Heituo carried out a revenge plot to avenge his son's death, but the police wrongly concluded that Siping's father had c
1Reads—Score—Shelves
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505
My Doctor Lin 我的林医生
[A blend of sweetness and heartbreak + slow burn + delicate prose + a working woman’s growth + episodic format] Radiologist Lin Xiaoya can see every bone in the human body, yet she can’t read the heart of the person in front of her. Other people’s love is a two-way journey, but theirs is a tale of mutual misunderstanding...
194Reads—Score—Shelves
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506
Rural Chronicle 乡村纪实
The little details of life, all those everyday moments, come together to paint a picture of a changing countryside. Generation after generation pursues its dreams, working hard in the mountain valleys. They make it through the winter, then the hills turn green in spring. Summer crops blanket the mountains, and autumn is always a season of joy.
235Reads8.4Score—Shelves
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507
Back in the Game: Cleaning Up Officialdom 重出江湖之整治官场
A mob boss shakes up and cleans house in the political arena! [No idiotic characters, no System, light mystery] Black is black, and white is white, but the two can also change places! Even the righteous may do shameful things, while the wicked may do good for the country and its people. What matters is how you see things and what you believe, and whether you can answer to your conscience!
33Reads—Score—Shelves
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508
Xue Mei's Story 雪梅的故事
Bare, barren loess hills. Ravines and ridges wind their way into the distance. This is where the story’s heroine, Xuemei, spent her childhood, grew into a shy young woman, and endured until she became a mature wife. She works hard, cultivating this poor yellow earth, and sings the praises of the diligence and simplicity of rural women in the new era.
98Reads—Score—Shelves
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509
Old Liu and His Daughter 老刘和他的女儿
Lao Liu is an ordinary, down-and-out farmer with nothing to be proud of. But his ideas about raising his children are completely at odds with the mainstream. After 18 years of perseverance, his daughter has given him his proudest reason of all. Is he happy or unfortunate? Everyone probably has their own answer.
338Reads—Score—Shelves
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510
Huang Gou and the Yellow Dog 黄苟与黄狗
Born in the countryside, Huang Gou leaves the impoverished land and the remote mountain ravines for the bustling city, all in the name of survival. Society, that great university, wears away the sharp edges of his youthful dreams, and in the end, he is buried in the yellow earth of the mountains. Just as the saying goes: in youth, you’re as fierce as a dog; in middle age, you’re worse off than a dog; and in old age, you’re lower than a dog...
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511
After the College Entrance Exam, He Wants a Divorce to Run to His White Moonlight 高考后，他要离婚奔赴白月光
After the Gaokao, He Wants a Divorce So He Can Rush Off to His One True Love
1Reads—Score—Shelves
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512
City Romance: 101 Heart-Pounding Moments 都市恋语：101次心动瞬间
In this bustling city, love quietly takes shape in a thousand different ways. Some feel their hearts race as they pass a stranger in a subway station. Some rediscover their courage after a chance encounter in a cafe. And some use words across a screen to keep each other warm through lonely nights... This collection brings together 101 short stories, each a vivid, self-contained glimpse of love. Some are sweet, some bittersweet, some absurd, and some healing. Together, they capture the excitement
1Reads—Score—Shelves
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513
The Beautiful Warrior of the Asylum 疯人院漂亮女斗士
A Pretty Fighter in the Asylum “Love is heaven, and killing each other is hell. We drift between the two, unable to escape.” Wen Yue and Yang Liang are locked in a love-hate battle, caught between fire and ice over a medical research breakthrough. Then a series of bizarre events begins: Professor Wen suddenly drops dead, Wen Yue’s daughter accidentally falls from a building, and Yang Liang forcibly sends Wen Yue to a prison-like psychiatric hospital... In the hospital, Wen Yue endures inhuman to
7Reads—Score—Shelves
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514
A Clash of Wolves 狼性的较量
The author enjoys putting stories told by the elderly into clear, accessible prose, turning spoken words into black and white on the page for readers to see, hear, and feel with their hearts. It is a way to experience the brutal years of Japan's invasion of China, and all those painful memories that can never be revisited...
1.3kReads9.2Score216Shelves
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515
Gray Sky 灰空
He was a passionate young man, a promising journalist with a bright future, and his life was going splendidly. His supervisor was just about to promote him when, in a moment of impulsiveness, he made a mistake, and his life took a different course. Misfortune and fortune go hand in hand, and this marked the beginning of an entirely different life.
2.9kReads8.9Score355Shelves
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516
The Three Treasures Pagoda and Purple Gold Mountain 三宝塔与紫金山
The story unfolds slowly between Sanbao Town in southeastern Yunnan and Nanjing, the ancient capital of six dynasties. Yun Kun, a young man from southern Yunnan, dreams of escaping the mountains. Through sheer perseverance, he rises from a poor boy to a faculty researcher at a military academy. Ning Xiang, who lives east of Nanjing, once enjoyed a peaceful, ordinary life, but the tides of the times bring a drastic turn: her household registration is falsified, and she is forced to move to the co
1Reads—Score—Shelves
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517
Reborn Under the Moon: I Am the White-Haired Woman 月下还魂，我是白毛女
[The 1960s, technology, major infrastructure projects, bridge-building, no horrible characters, no black markets, a love story like Romance on Lushan Mountain] An epic of perseverance through difficult times, A grand tale of the birth of a bridge, A group of builders in a special era, A romantic love story that crosses time and space... In the spring of 1960, Ma Susu woke up in a dilapidated temple. She was now a “drifter,” fleeing famine and heading for the lands beyond the pass. She’d fallen b
18Reads9.3Score—Shelves
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518
Middle-Aged in Shanghai: I’ve Hidden My Medicinal Wine Ability for 20 Years 上海中年：我藏药酒异能苟20年
In 2006, Shanghai was swept up in a wave of reform. Large numbers of veteran workers at state-owned enterprises were laid off, and a lifetime of stability vanished overnight. At forty, Zhang Jianguo saw his eighteen years of service wiped out. His buyout compensation was slashed, and in middle age he had no one to rely on while raising a young daughter. To feed his family, he took grueling construction jobs, did backbreaking labor, suffered wage deductions, and endured bullying, struggling eve
57Reads—Score—Shelves
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519
The City's Ultimate Player in Love 都市情场高高手
Lao Liu, an urban office worker, unexpectedly runs into the girl he had a crush on as a teenager. After much hesitation, he decides to pursue his youthful dream. Through a twist of fate, he ends up meeting his dream girl’s cousin by accident. Caught between the two women, he is confused and carried away by his feelings, yet too timid to act...
927Reads9.4Score105Shelves
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520
Smiling as I Ask the Pagoda Tree About the Past 笑向槐花问前事
(Sweet romance in the 1970s, cherished by everyone, educated youth sent to the countryside, traditional family medicine, special missions, upright values, deep love for the country and its people, childhood sweethearts, brothers who watch each other's backs, a golden finger used only for survival and convenience, viewed from the sidelines, not a strong female lead) A pair of watches became her space train car. After waking from a dream with seven days' worth of hazy memory fragments, she headed
925Reads9.1Score104Shelves
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521
The Retired Soldier King and His Sweet Southern Girl 退役兵王糙汉与南方娇软妹子
(Mutually faithful, one-on-one romance: a rugged former special forces soldier and a sweet, gentle girl from the south) Cheng Ye was once the king of the special forces. He was wild-looking and lived a rough, carefree life. After leaving the military, he started a renovation crew. Ruan Ruan was just like her name: sweet-looking and gentle by nature. What kind of story will unfold when a soft-spoken southern girl meets a rough northern man? Former Special Forces Soldier × Heiress to a Pastry-Ma
224Reads—Score—Shelves
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522
A Date with The Story of the Stone 相约石头记
Ouyang Jialun, a college senior, transmigrates to the Qing Dynasty and has an unexpected encounter with Cao Xueqin. Through a series of everyday interactions, clever piecing together of scattered clues, and fascinating glimpses into the past, he finally uncovers how Dream of the Red Chamber came to be, and even learns many stories from beyond the book that few people know. With two male leads, a clash between modern and classical ideas, and differing values across eras, this fresh and original p
193Reads9.5Score105Shelves
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523
A Lover’s Longing 妾意郎情
A love that crosses the bounds of marriage, a longing that tears at the heart and shatters the soul. Tormented love, unrequited love, secret love, obsessive love, anguished love, infatuation, devotion, tragic love, and a love you can't bear to let go; Romance, passion, friendship, family, deep affection, fervor, devotion, heartlessness, and tenderness without end; The tangled complexities of the modern workplace meet an unexpected affair, creating a longing, a doomed relationship, a lifetime
242Reads9.5Score—Shelves
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524
The Strange Life of Jin Xiaoli 金小鲤的奇异生活
During the summer after her final year of high school, Jin Xiaoli gets a spiritual spring, and her mother's illness is cured. She spends her days gardening, playing with cats, and studying. Life is blissful. Sure, she runs into little bumps now and then, but she's already got a golden finger, so there's no need to complain. No matter what, she has to keep giving it her all every day!
677Reads8.7Score—Shelves
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525
After We Broke Up, I Ran Away with a Demon Girl 分手后，我和恶魔少女私奔了
Qin Bo has fallen for a girl, but she’s cold toward him during the day and warm toward him at night, leaving him utterly confused! Qin Bo: “Who is she, exactly? Her name is clearly Xia Qingqing, but she calls herself Xia Wanwan.” Xia Wanwan: “You’re not allowed to like Xia Qingqing. If I find out you do, you’ll never see me again.” Xia Qingqing: “Hello, Mr. Qin. Have we met before? Yesterday, perhaps?” A depressed engineer falls for a mysterious girl with two souls. What secrets does she hold, a
2Reads—Score—Shelves
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526
Unemployment Costs Your Life or Your Money. You Choose a Blind Date and Throw Away Your Dignity? 失业要命要钱，你选相亲不要脸？
[Blind Dates + System + Comedy + Devoted Husband] The fun starts as soon as you see the blind dates. Cao Bi was a client representative stationed at a construction development company, but the company's collapse left him anxious. He had a beautiful wife and a chubby son at home, and now that he was unemployed, he feared his wife would run off with someone else. While clearing his head by the sea, he was bound to a System, which turned out to be a blind-date cashback System. It required him to go
8Reads—Score—Shelves
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527
Pomegranate Blossoms Meet a White Shirt 榴花撞见白衬衫
Intelligent, gentle tutoring-center teacher × kindhearted dentist CEO who defies the usual playbook [Love at first sight | The ultimate in doting and flirtation | Intellectual soulmates | Healing, swoon-worthy everyday romance] The prologue of fate began with an unexpected encounter outside a flower shop. As pomegranate blossoms scattered through the air, Lin Yifan, a 31-year-old dentist and CEO, heard his heart skip a beat. With just one glance, she threw his once-calm world into disarray. Bef
793Reads8.3Score—Shelves
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528
The Tail Fire Tiger and Kui Wood Wolf 尾火虎奎木狼
As the old saying goes: Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles; traveling ten thousand miles is not as good as meeting countless people; meeting countless people is not as good as spending every day with masters; and having an expert show you the way is not as good as reaching enlightenment on your own. Over the years, I’ve read plenty of books, traveled many roads, met many people, and experienced many things. I’ve also spent time with masters, and gained a fe
7Reads—Score—Shelves
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529
The Art of Imperial Politics: The Jiajing Era 帝王心术：嘉靖时代
This novel offers a profound look at Jiajing’s transformation from an energetic reformer into an emperor obsessed with Daoism. Daoist priests such as Shao Yuanjie and Tao Zhongwen used mysticism to manipulate his inner world; Yan Song and his son won favor with Daoist prayers and monopolized power for twenty years; Xu Jie bided his time before finally bringing down the treacherous ministers; and Hai Rui risked his life to submit a memorial condemning the ills of the age. Together, these vivid ch
1.2kReads6.9Score102Shelves
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530
A History of the Death of Idealism 理想主义消亡史
[No transmigration], [No cheats or System], [Realistic], [No feel-good wish fulfillment], [Deep-dive into the inside story], [Scheming] Medical investment is an obscure industry with a lot of hidden complexities. Yan Hui is a professional in the field, as well as an idealist. But as time goes by and circumstances change, his life and work gradually slip beyond his control. (A song will be included in the author’s notes for each chapter. It will relate to the chapter, directly or indirectly, obje
4Reads—Score—Shelves
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531
Tortured into a Locked Love 虐锁清欢
Leng Qinghuan was forced to marry the notorious Prince Yan. But she wasn't some naive, helpless girl. Crying and accepting her fate just wasn't in Leng Qinghuan's nature. She seized every opportunity, with the courage to burn her bridges, fought scheming women, fought the empress, opened shops, learned to solve cases, and more... Through her words and deeds, she proved herself. The woman Prince Yan had once sneered at ultimately became someone far beyond his reach!
167Reads—Score—Shelves
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532
Fragrant Across the Land: Blossoms in Jinguancheng 花重锦官城之飘香万里
When Lu Yang was seven, his parents died in a landslide. From then on, he and his sister relied on their elderly grandparents, and their grandparents on them. Years later, he deliberately failed the college entrance exam. Then, with a hundred yuan he had borrowed, he set off alone for Jincheng, the provincial capital. And so began his arduous yet extraordinary life.
137Reads8.0Score—Shelves
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533
Family Without Blood Ties 没有血缘的亲情
A family bond without blood ties
10Reads—Score—Shelves
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534
Little Seven, the Medicine Primer 药引小七
Little Seven, the Medicinal Guide
3Reads—Score—Shelves
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535
Dreams in the Garden Villa 别苑寻梦
Dreams in a Garden Retreat
1Reads—Score—Shelves
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536
The Soul Disperses Among the Bluebells 魂散风铃草
A Soul Dispersed, Bluebells in the Wind
1Reads—Score—Shelves
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537
I Planted the Bomb Myself and Blew Up the Scumbag’s Love Story 我亲手埋雷，炸碎了渣男的爱情梦
I planted the bomb myself and blew the scoundrel's dreams of love to pieces
2Reads—Score—Shelves
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538
Lan'er and I Found Eternal Life in Other People's Bodies 我和蓝儿在别人的身体里长生
The protagonist is clever, witty, a little wicked, and possessed of practical wisdom as well as the perspective of someone who has weathered life's storms. His actions reflect the thousands of years of experience he has accumulated. A traditional fantasy novel, with no System, no overpowered martial arts, and a protagonist who plays it cautious.
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539
Marital Crisis: The Wife’s Revenge 婚姻危机-原配的复仇
Marital Crisis: The Original Wife's Revenge
1Reads—Score—Shelves
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540
A Passionate Love That Began with a Bet 《始于赌约的热恋沦陷》
A Passionate Love That Began with a Bet
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541
The Intern’s Guide to Going Full-Time: Comes with One Boyfriend Who’s a Director 实习生转正指南：附赠总监男友一枚
A Guide to Turning Your Internship into a Full-Time Job: Comes with a Director Boyfriend
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542
A Woman's Journey Through Marriage 女人与婚姻的经历
[Female-Oriented + Modern Romance + Workplace and Marriage + Flash Marriage + Realistic Family Life] [Women, Love, and Marriage | A True Account of Marriage | Women’s Growth | Emotional Resonance] Before the grief of losing her mother had even faded, Xinyang was pressured by her whole family to get married and rushed into a flash marriage. She found her hastily chosen partner through a radio station and gave up the career she loved to throw herself into the daily grind of married life. She thou
41Reads—Score—Shelves
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543
Love, Hate, and Old Feuds Between Two Generations 两代人的爱恨情仇恩怨
She is determined to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death, but her stepmother and stepsister frame her, plunging her into danger time and again! She escapes certain doom, and is fortunate to meet business tycoon Qin Haonan, who falls for her at first sight and pursues her… People reveal different sides of themselves when it comes to love and family, and a single thought can lead to heaven or hell! Good and evil both get what they deserve, and fate always comes full circle! Those who commi
7Reads—Score—Shelves
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544
My Father's Era of the Fortress Villages 父亲的崮时代
Yimeng Mountain is a work of documentary fiction about the second generation of military-industry workers, telling the true story of the mysterious “Third Front” military factories. It retraces how the children of Third Front workers and their parents pressed on through successive waves of change. “Good people and good horses head to the Third Front.” The companies were reorganized and moved out of the mountains... They rose from the ashes as a red-culture base, as the home of China’s peaches, a
12Reads6.9Score—Shelves
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545
My Glory Days in Dongguan 我在东莞的高光岁月
My name is Chang Da Qiang. I was born in a small, underdeveloped county town in the late 1980s. My parents were farmers, and in those days, when everything was desperately poor, I graduated from a junior college and looked for work in my hometown. After hitting one dead end after another, I made a bold decision: I headed south to Guangdong to try my luck. Through hard work, I finally had the experiences that inspired this novel.
2.3kReads—Score145Shelves
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546
The Happy Years I Spent in Dongguan 那些年我在东莞的幸福往事
[Urban everyday life] + [multiple heroines] + [first person] My name is Hao Jian. I'm a college graduate who left a small inland county to make a living in Dongguan. A female classmate who'd been quite a flirt back in school introduced me to the city. I thought I'd find a factory job and earn some money, but things didn't go as planned. I ended up in a bar, and that's where my life took an unexpected turn.
10.3kReads5.9Score1.1kShelves
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547
The Swallow Who Crawled Out of the Dark Abyss 从黑暗深渊中爬出的燕子
Tell me, just how unlucky can one person be? Her own father married four women, and her stepmother treated her like a thorn in her side. In the prime of her youth, she was tricked by a villain and taken away. At long last, she found a little warmth and thought she’d found love, only for it to turn out to be another ill-fated relationship. She got married, thinking she’d found a home, but her life became a complete mess. And that wasn’t the end of it! One by one, all her loved ones disappeared...
198Reads—Score—Shelves
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548
There Was a Girl Named Xiaohua 有个女孩叫小花
My new work is here! You’re welcome to read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Your support inspires me to write, and I’ll do my best to tell every story well! This book captures some of the culture and food of rural northern Fujian in the 1980s and 1990s. Follow Xiaohua and her family as they work hard and lead warm, ordinary lives. No exaggeration, melodrama, or foolish antics. It’s not a feel-good power fantasy, and there’s no rebirth or transmigration. There’s no golden finger, just
37Reads8.9Score—Shelves
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549
Xu Xue’er 徐雪儿
The everyday work life of Xu Xue'er, an ordinary office drone and medical student, and the sweet romance that blossoms between her and engineer Zhou Dongyang... A warm, down-to-earth story filled with delicious food and all kinds of sweet, thoughtful interactions!!!
12Reads8.7Score—Shelves
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550
A Lifelong Project 终生项目
[Cozy everyday life + devoted affection + strong heroine and hero + happy ending] [A down-on-her-luck live-in tutor and her overbearing, devoted single-dad employer; older man, six-year age gap] Under the same roof, the live-in tutor and her domineering CEO employer share the cozy routine of a trial marriage. Xiang Wang is eager to shower her with tender care, but the goddess remains unwilling to entrust herself to him... So, alongside his many other projects, Lu Zerui takes on two more: first,
117Reads—Score—Shelves
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