Camellias in Autumn

The blurb for my next novel, the Chongqing road-trip story Tangerine Hotpot, is below.

A lonely mouse girl needs a romance with a repairman who comes to her door

Sweet-and-sour neighbors romance / size difference / food / childhood friends reunited after years apart

Adorable foodie streamer girl 🐹 x rough, cool guy 🐶🔨

Shanshan Cha's new neighbor moved in across the hall. He seems to be a repairman.

The new neighbor is 1.9 meters tall, with solid, sculpted muscles and a rugged, masculine face. He is quiet and taciturn, but even more impressive than the male lead in The Repairman and His Wife, a romance series she loves.

Shanshan Cha falls in love with her new neighbor at first sight and invites him over to fix something. He doesn't charge for repairs. All he asks for is a bowl of food she makes.

One day, watching the man across the table shovel down his meal, she cautiously asks, “Mr. Repairman, have we... met before?”

Late at night.

Her repairman neighbor's kisses fall all over her. “Shanshan, when you say before, do you mean a few days ago, or a few years ago?”

Shanshan Cha's eyes go unfocused. In her daze, the frail boy from her memories seems to overlap with the hulking, muscular man before her.

“...Li... Little Bean?”

Liang Qiu Li grips her chin and murmurs against her ear, “Shanshan, take a good look, then say it again. Is it little?”

Little scene:

As a child, Liang Qiu Li was looked after by his neighbor and was once given a meal by her.

When they meet again, the girl next door has become a married woman. She doesn't recognize him, but treats him just as she always did.

He reminds himself to keep his distance, but her husband leaves her alone in an empty room, failing to fulfill even the slightest part of his duty as a husband.

But he cannot control his own heart, and his feelings for her gradually deepen.

One day, emboldened by drink, he asks her with red-rimmed eyes, “If he's treating you like this, would you consider divorcing him?”

Thinking the man before her shares her particular tastes, she tests the waters: “Divorce? I will?”

The world spins. He presses down over her, and a fervent kiss sweeps across her lips and teeth. He steals her breath; her heart pounds wildly, and even breathing becomes difficult.

At last, she shoves him away with all her strength. “I'm not divorcing him! I'm not!”

Later, he looks at her, unable to restrain himself, and says hoarsely, “Shanshan, divorce doesn't count as a safeword.”

Misunderstandings between two sexually inexperienced leads

The camellia means ideal love.

The childhood friend and the new arrival are the same person.

Cute foodie streamer girl 🐹 x rough, gruff orthopedic surgeon 🔨

[Important]

*About the heroine's name, Shanshan Cha: She grew up in a loving family. Both her parents' surname is Shan, and camellias were blooming when she was born. They were also the flower associated with her parents' love. White camellias symbolize cuteness, ideal love, and pure, flawless affection.

*The hero's original surname was Qiu, and his original name was Qiu Li. After his parents divorced, he went with his mother, whose surname is Liang.

*Written in a fit of intense personal preference, inspired by the repairman x married woman dynamic. The leads are both sexually inexperienced, though there are misunderstandings. The drunken scene in the first two chapters is there to indulge that preference. Don't read this if you prefer stories about an overwhelmingly capable heroine!

*The heroine has mild psychological trauma from being socially ostracized at school. As a child she was outgoing, but as an adult she is an introvert. She stutters a little at first, but gradually gets better.

Reading guide:

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. Foodie streamer x orthopedic surgeon.

2. The hero changes a lot as he grows up, and the heroine doesn't recognize him right away.

3. They are three years apart in age.

Blurb captured on November 11, 2025

Next novel: Tangerine Hotpot

A Chongqing road-trip story | Love at first sight between strangers

Energetic, sweet-and-spicy girl x reserved, Japanese-style cool guy

Cheng Ye was going home for summer break. Since the fare was so expensive, she decided to join a senior citizens' tour group instead. It was really cheap.

The young man sitting beside her had a wolf cut, headphones on, eyes tightly shut, and lips pressed into a thin line. He looked like a somewhat melancholic, Japanese-style cool guy.

Cheng Ye's stomach growled. She glanced at him. In his slender, well-defined hands was a freshly opened pack of Oreos.

“Can I have some?”

The young man managed to open one eye and weakly murmured, “Mm.”

When he opened his eyes again, Cheng Ye had eaten the whole pack.

“Oh, I thought you were winking at me just now.”

The young man: “...”

Cheng Ye: “I'm kidding. I'll give you an orange in exchange.”

*

Yuan Suiyu thought he'd really believed the fortune-teller's nonsense, that going to Chongqing would turn his luck around.

Instead, he signed up for a tour with a group of elderly people, got caught in the rain and traffic, ended up with a terrible driver, and had to listen to a tour guide who loved telling lame jokes.

He was sitting in the very back, struggling not to throw up.

A lovely, clean hand reached out, holding an orange. Somehow, it miraculously cured his motion sickness.

*

From Hongya Cave to Jiefangbei, from the Yangtze River Cableway to Liziba, from the old stone-paved streets of Ciqikou to the viewing platform at Nanshan Tree, Cheng Ye rode her old scooter and took him through every one of Chongqing's fantastical, three-dimensional mountain lanes.

They stood shoulder to shoulder on Qiansimen Bridge to watch the two rivers meet, took shelter from a sudden sunshower in the stairwell of Baixiangju, and snapped a photo together in front of the mottled, crumbling wall at Eling Factory No. 2.

Cheng Ye laughed brightly and boldly. Yuan Suiyu's smile was faint, and the river breeze tossed his wolf cut into a carefree mess.

She dragged him into an air-raid shelter to eat old-style hotpot, mixed his dipping sauce, and taught him to swish tripe in the pot seven times up and eight times down. His eyes turned red from the spice, but he stubbornly said, “Mm, this is seriously delicious.”

Cheng Ye was like a summer day scented with citrus, a lively orange-scented warmth that appeared in his gloomy world.

Female athlete x male dancer

Blurb captured on May 4, 2026

Theme: Ideal love