Synopsis
“You’re no good, and I’m no saint.”
A rebellious, world-weary good girl × a gentle pilot who’s cold on the outside, warm on the inside
Somewhere along the way, a bookstore called Nanyu opened in an alley next to No. 16 High School. Though it was right by the school, you couldn’t find a single test-prep book there. Of course, that wasn’t why it was famous at No. 16.
The shopkeeper was even more famous than the bookstore. She was a girl, or, to put it another way, a very beautiful girl.
There were only a few things that could catch the attention of a bunch of sixteen- and seventeen-year-old high school students: pretty, innocent, and cool.
Zhou Bei had all three. She was beautiful in the purest way. She loved wearing white dresses, so clean and delicate they made people want to protect her. But beneath those white dresses were countless tattoos.
Zhou Bei had tattoos, and of course she smoked, too. So whenever you passed the bookstore, you could always see a beautiful girl in a white dress lying in a deck chair in the courtyard, smoking. Sunlight shone on her face, making it glow. Even the tattoos winding along her forearm seemed to make her look cooler.
Guan Nan stumbled into the bookstore one Friday afternoon. The first thing he said to Zhou Bei was, “Do you have the complete set of Wusan?”
At the time, Zhou Bei was leaning back in an armchair, reading San Mao’s Stories of the Sahara. It took her a long while to lift her face from the book after hearing Guan Nan’s voice. Her clear, fawn-like eyes fixed on him for a long moment before she answered, “No.”
That one look was all it took for Guan Nan to fall for her. He went to the bookstore every Friday, and stopped going to internet cafes on weekends, just hoping Zhou Bei would say a few more words to him. But aside from the few seconds of hesitation when she first looked at him, Zhou Bei never treated him any differently.
Guan Nan knew Zhou Bei had a scumbag of a first love who had left her utterly broken. He knew that first love was why Zhou Bei had become who she was. But he always felt he was different from everyone else.
Guan Nan liked Zhou Bei, and he never hid it. He was always saying, “Look, even our names go so well together. One’s south, one’s north. Together, we make up the whole world.”
Zhou Bei always said, “Guan Nan, I won’t be with you.”
Guan Nan didn’t know why. He only asked whether she still liked that scumbag first love of hers.
“I don’t like him anymore.”
“Guan Nan, I like someone else now.”
After that day, the bookstore closed. Guan Nan couldn’t find Zhou Bei, and frantically tried to get news of her.
When they met again, Zhou Bei had become his junior at university. But now there was a refined, aloof man by her side. Guan Nan knew him: Zhou Jiaqiao, a celebrated figure at the aviation university a few years earlier and the young master of Jiaheng Group. As Haicheng’s largest shipping company, Jiaheng Group practically monopolized both sea and air transport.
Zhou Jiaqiao was famously difficult to approach. Countless heiresses from Haicheng’s elite families had pursued him, yet no one had ever seen him give any of them so much as a second glance. He was a rare genius at the aviation academy, as well as the dream man countless girls longed for.
Guan Nan watched helplessly as the man rumored to be impossibly unattainable dutifully carried Zhou Bei’s bags and took them up to her dorm. Zhou Bei followed him back down, then sweetly waved goodbye at the entrance. “Goodbye, big brother.”
The man shook his head indulgently and chuckled. He reached out, clasped the back of Zhou Bei’s head, and kissed her deeply for a long while before finally letting go. His thumb brushed over her crimson lips, gently wiping away the moisture there. Then he asked softly, “What did I teach you? How are you supposed to say goodbye?”
Only then did Guan Nan finally remember everything he had forgotten. Everything between him and Zhou Bei.
“Hi, I’m Guan Nan. Guan as in ‘close the door,’ Nan as in ‘south.’”
“My name is Zhou Bei. Zhou as in ‘travel the world,’ Bei as in ‘north.’”
After that, Guan Nan never tried to find out anything about Zhou Bei again. South and north: it turned out they had been destined to go in opposite directions from the very beginning.
There are memories the world doesn’t want you to recall, so you let yourself be led along, head bowed, pretending you aren’t afraid. You let the noise seal up the emptiness inside. So you would rather destroy it, tear it apart, abandon it, and walk on alone, until loneliness makes you strong and invincible.
Then you will meet another heart that has not yet fallen apart. Treading on the ashes of the person you used to be, you will smile at each other.
The Orphan’s Grudge
Reading Guide:
1. Don’t dismiss the heroine’s name as an afterthought. Her name came first, and the hero and second male lead’s names were both derived from hers.
2. Both leads smoke, which is a personal kink of mine and has been highlighted. They smoke infrequently and strictly observe social etiquette. If this bothers you, don’t read! Please don’t compare it to real life.
3. Both leads are each other’s only one. The heroine has an ex-boyfriend, while the hero is pure in both body and heart.
Theme: Heaven must have something else in store.
