Snell's Law

[The entire novel is undergoing a major revision. Pirated copies have incomplete plots. Thank you so much for supporting the official version~ *bows* Please leave a rating~]

Sensitive yet resilient sweet girl × chaste, devoted prodigy

First love for both | Bittersweet yearning | Reconciliation after heartbreak | Mutual pining | Healing

Blurb:

The boldest thing Ruan Nian ever did was secretly love Jiang Yushen for eight years.

On a rainy night in high school, she was cornered against a wall, trembling.

Jiang Yushen pushed through the crowd, took her cold wrist, and draped his jacket over her shoulders. He held an umbrella as he walked her home, tilting it toward her while the rain soaked his own shoulder.

In that moment, Jiang Yushen became a light she couldn't bring herself to confess to in the darkness of her youth.

Jiang Yushen: A brilliant prodigy, admitted to a top university without an entrance exam, a light admired by everyone.

Ruan Nian: A burden abandoned by her father, a speck of dust huddled in the shadows.

They meet again five years later, at a hospital.

Dressed in white, Jiang Yushen faces his patient with a stern expression, never looking up. "Where does it hurt?"

Ruan Nian digs her nails into her palm, her voice trembling. "My... head's been hurting a little these past few days..."

His pen pauses over the medical chart.

Jiang Yushen suddenly looks up, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment.

When he speaks again, a crack appears in his icy voice, and his tone turns impossibly gentle. "Have you been sleeping well? Have you been eating regularly?"

After that, she works up the courage to step into his examination room again and again.

Jiang Yushen always dims the lights if they're too bright, softens every question, and turns the sharpness of the examinations into the gentlest reassurance.

Until one follow-up appointment, when Jiang Yushen hands her back her chart. Their fingertips touch, but he doesn't let go right away.

The man leans toward her, his white coat carrying the clean, sharp scent of disinfectant, drawing Ruan Nian into a space that belongs to him alone.

"If your head keeps hurting," Jiang Yushen says, his gaze fixed on her evasive eyes, his voice low and smiling, tinged with unmistakable tenderness, "maybe it's because you keep coming to the hospital but don't actually want to see me?"

"I-I don't."

Ruan Nian's breath catches, but she doesn't dare say another word.

Jiang Yushen takes another step closer, trapping her between the examination desk and his presence. "I can explain every branch of the coronary arteries in medical terms, but I can't explain..."

"Why it hurts here... every time you deliberately avoid me."

Jiang Yushen takes her wrist and gently presses her palm against the left side of his chest. Through his white coat and shirt, his vigorous, rapid heartbeat pounds against her fingertips, again and again.

"It hurts."

Reader's note:

The story spans many years, from high school to the workplace. The early part is bittersweet; the middle and later parts are sweet, with a happy ending. The workplace is the main setting, with flashbacks to school days.

The story involves the pharmaceutical industry. The male lead is a doctor early on and is also involved in pharmaceutical research and development at a company. The female lead works as a pharmaceutical sales representative. Both of their careers change later on as they pursue their personal goals.

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Theme: Light bends as it passes through different mediums, but crossing a sea of people, I only want to change my course for you.