Orchid

[The novel has been signed for a print edition. Two new bonus stories: Meilan and Liang Youyou pairings.]

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Li Lanyou took her severance pay of N+1 months and returned from a first-tier city to her hometown, the small city of Shanchun.

Shanchun's scenery was just as she remembered, but the old acquaintances had each built lives of their own.

Xiang Zhu, once her shadow and copycat, had married into one of the county's elite families and spoke with an air of superiority.

Guo Qingran, once the unnoticed kid with a runny nose in their class, now held an important position. Merchants big and small flocked around him, making him one of the most sought-after bachelors in the local matchmaking scene.

Only she seemed to have fallen behind. Nearly thirty, with no home, no car, and no family of her own, she was far from what society considered a successful, fulfilled life.

It would be a lie to say she didn't feel the gap.

At a class reunion saturated with boasting, Li Lanyou was stung into action. The ambition she'd lost in a fiercely competitive metropolis was quietly rekindled in this third-tier city.

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During the New Year festivities, Yu Liang met Li Lanyou at an elder's eightieth birthday banquet. She was beautiful and looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he'd seen her.

A relative jogged his memory: back in middle school, she'd come to his house with her father to borrow money. She'd been shy and reserved, barely noticeable.

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During the years when Li Lanyou loved Yu Liang most, he didn't even know she existed.

He also had no idea that his best friend and his rival were secretly in love with her too.

At first, Li Lanyou thought she liked Yu Liang because he was so unattainable. Later she realized she just liked having an unattainable man act like her dog.

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(The first part takes place at school; the second part follows their adult lives.)

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Content warnings:

* The main characters are imperfect, with very obvious flaws.

* This story is primarily about romance. The male leads are all hopeless romantics, and the heroine is the center of their universe. The author has never claimed, nor dared to claim, that this is a serious story about women's growth. At heart, it's a Mary Sue power fantasy.

* A handful of side characters behave in disgusting, upsetting ways. (The author promises that all the villains will eventually face justice, but readers with a low tolerance for this sort of plot should proceed with caution.)

Theme: Keep striving and make the most of life!