Longing for Summer

Push and pull | Heroine's growth | Both leads are romantically inexperienced

*An unromantic woman x a scheming, sweet-talking man

1/

After a well-connected applicant takes the job she wanted, Xu Ling drags her suitcase back to her hometown and decides to start a business. By chance, that very night she runs into Qi Yanze again.

Four years have passed, and the hostility that once surrounded him has vanished, replaced by a gentle, refined demeanor. On top of that, he's drunk, so Xu Ling doesn't recognize him at first.

She wants to make up for her past mistakes, so she cautiously approaches him, testing how he feels about her.

But...

"Why does he keep doing things that give the wrong impression?"

"Why does he keep saying such inexplicable things?"

"Why does he have to tie his apron like that?"

"Why does he want her to help him take his clothes off?"

She never realizes that he's been carefully plotting every step.

2/

Later, Xu Ling succeeds in her career. The night she returns from abroad, she sees a familiar scene and suddenly understands. "So you got yourself drenched on purpose back then, just so I'd see you?"

The man's gaze darkens. He wraps his arms around Xu Ling from behind, lowers his head into the hollow of her neck, and kisses her softly. "What else? How else could I make you, Boss Xu, realize how irresistible I am?"

A trembling sound escapes Xu Ling's lips. "Boss Qi, you really know how to play your cards."

*Inspired by Shu Ting's poem To the Oak Tree

-------Next Novel-------

[Next novel, expected to launch in June]

◎ A couple who are always at odds

◎ A carefree, heartless bad girl x a cold, secretly unhinged, aloof and reserved boy

1/

At the end-of-term joint exams in her first year of high school, Lin Xia suffers a crushing defeat, losing her spot as the city's top student and her 3,000-yuan scholarship.

From then on, she sets her sights on He Song, the perennial runner-up she's always kept beneath her.

By chance, their schools merge, and Lin Xia thinks her opportunity has arrived. All she has to do is sabotage He Song's studies a little... Hehe, that 3,000 yuan will be hers again.

But later, she discovers that the spotless boy everyone sees is covered in mud in private.

2/

Lin Xia has a secret identity: she's the daughter of a wealthy family, but insists on pretending to be poor.

She keeps up the act for four years, until she meets He Song in her second year of high school and, for once, her secret identity is exposed!

The two stare at each other in a villa.

Lin Xia feigns composure. "Let's make a deal. Don't tell anyone about this, okay?"

He Song's voice is cool and imperious. "Beg me."

3/

After finally meeting his match, He Song starts paying more attention to Lin Xia.

The girl is poor, scraping together her tuition from all sides, and studies by candlelight at night to save on electricity.

She's had it even rougher than he has.

Perhaps out of pity, when the girl agonizes over whether to add a chicken leg to her lunch, He Song pulls out his meal card.

"Don't starve."

When she can't afford study guides, he quietly makes an extra copy of a practice test for her.

Lin Xia doesn't understand. "Why are you so nice to me?"

He Song: "Don't read too much into it. It's just the mutual respect of two strong people."

At some point, his pity quietly turns into an unspeakable feeling.

Then he unexpectedly discovers that the girl's father is the richest man in the country.

Thinking back to the budget meals they ordered to save money and the last buses they rushed to catch,

all of it now lands on He Song's face like a series of loud slaps.

"You lied to me for so long. Was it fun playing me?"

[Bonus scene]

One day later, He Song pins the girl against a wall, his dark eyes fixed on her lips, desire surging beneath his restraint.

What goes around comes around. At last, Lin Xia is the one in control!

"Want to kiss me?"

Lin Xia raises an eyebrow and lifts her chin, mimicking the tone he used back then.

"Beg... me."

First draft of the blurb written on December 22, 2025

Theme: Don't be a climbing vine