A Private Love for an Old Star

--

After starting work, Jiang Yinian was asked at a gathering whether she'd ever had a crush on a boy.

With a smile, Jiang Yinian said she had. In high school, her grades were poor, but because she liked the top student in the science track, she studied as hard as she could. In the end, she outperformed herself and got into the same university as him, all the way through to her PhD.

A coworker asked curiously, “Did he like you back?”

Jiang Yinian shook her head, then added, “I got over it ages ago.”

By then, the urban air mobility project led by Ji Shuwen had begun its pilot phase. He was now a renowned flight control engineer, and his name had been dominating the headlines on her news app for days.

In the report, Ji Shuwen wore a black suit as he delivered a speech in English at a global low-altitude economy forum. His features were striking, his manner reserved and aloof, and he seemed even more untouchable than he had ten years ago.

Jiang Yinian had known for a long time that they had never belonged to the same world.

/

In high school, Ji Shuwen had been the golden boy everyone admired, with a privileged family and a bright future.

Jiang Yinian was the most ordinary of the countless girls who liked him.

Before the college entrance exams, she finally worked up the courage to leave a note in his locker, asking if there could ever be anything between them.

He dodged the question, turning her down with tact and courtesy: “May the wind fill your sails and the waters lie calm. May your river run wide and your road stretch far.”

/

No one knew that in one draft of her doctoral dissertation acknowledgments, Jiang Yinian had written: “It was because I secretly still cherished that old star that I borrowed its light to come this far.”

Her unrequited teenage crush, along with those words, was left behind in a discarded document.

/

Jiang Yinian never thought she would see Ji Shuwen again.

That day, she was on her way to cover a meeting for her boss when a torrential downpour began. Her high heels splashed into muddy water, and she instinctively grabbed the sleeve of the man coming toward her.

Their eyes met. Beneath her raised umbrella, Jiang Yinian froze for a moment.

She couldn't mistake him, but Ji Shuwen probably didn't remember her.

“Sorry,” she said, then lowered her head and hurried on.

But the man grabbed her by the crook of her elbow, his gaze deep and unyielding. “Jiang Yinian, you see an old classmate and can't even say hello?”

/

Jiang Yinian had always thought Ji Shuwen's answer in their senior year had been a gentle rejection. It wasn't until they got together that he told her that, with the college entrance exams approaching, his family had gone through a crisis and he hadn't had the attention to spare.

She sat in Ji Shuwen's arms, the man's breath warm and lingering as his lips moved from behind her ear downward. “Who knew you'd change your mind so quickly? After we started university, you saw me and ran away.”

“Y Nian, don't you think you're being a little cruel to me?”

A crush comes true, and they're each other's first love

Sweet girl × aloof young heir

Junior civil servant × flight control engineer

Starts in school, then moves to the city. Neither lead is perfect. No need to tell me if you drop it.

Synopsis first posted on 2025.12.14, screenshot saved

Synopsis for "Marry Cecilia"

Yu Youzhi, a writer of once-popular domineering CEO romances, has hit a career slump and just been dumped by her boyfriend.

She earns only a few hundred a month. Her mother urges her to change careers and get married soon, so she can live the sort of normal life the older generation approves of.

Yu Youzhi makes up a ridiculous list using the male lead from one of her novels: “I want someone who earns tens of billions a year, has a PhD, speaks five languages, is cold and quiet, and will casually buy me a little island in the Pacific.”

She doesn't believe she'll find anyone like that.

A week later, her mother calls: “I've arranged for you to meet him this weekend. You'd better do what you said.”

Yu Youzhi: ...?

Could her CEO romance novels actually be realistic fiction?

/

At an expensive matchmaking restaurant, Yu Youzhi watches as Liang Cishen takes the seat across from her.

The man's features are stern, his bearing refined and aloof. He's wearing a custom-tailored suit, and the priceless cuff links gleam with a sharp, cold light.

She knows who he is: the man in charge of the Liang financial conglomerate, a powerful figure who can turn the world upside down and whom everyone fawns over.

They belong to completely different worlds. Their only connection is that when she was at university, she tutored Liang Cishen's younger cousin.

Yu Youzhi asks cautiously, “Mr. Liang, did you... sit at the wrong table?”

As far as she knows, he's cold and abstinent, and has never been involved in any scandals.

To her surprise, Liang Cishen lifts his eyes to her. “Yu Youzhi, which island in the Pacific do you like?”

Yu Youzhi is stunned.

Liang Cishen's voice is casual. “I need a marriage partner who won't interfere in my life. If you're willing, I can meet any material requirements you have.”

Yu Youzhi: “About that island you mentioned, could you give me the cash instead?”

/

“Yu Youzhi's Diary of Observing Her CEO Husband After Marriage”

Day 7: We got married because we each had something to gain. Neither of us likes the other. So why does Liang Cishen come home so early every day...?

Day 15: Hm? When did he add a rule to our marriage agreement that we have to chat three times a day?

Day 20: Wait, a CEO should wake up every day in a two-hundred-square-meter bed. Why does Liang Cishen insist on squeezing into the little bed in the second bedroom with me? Is he crazy? = =

Day 30: (At a class reunion. Entry missing.)

Yu Youzhi is dropped off downstairs by the school heartthrob she once had a crush on. When she discovers Liang Cishen waiting for her in the living room, she finally realizes something is wrong.

The man grips her wrist and pins her in a corner. “Zhizhi, Auntie said you wanted a husband like the male leads you write. Isn't there one more thing you left out?”

Yu Youzhi: ?

Liang Cishen leans close, his scorching breath against her ear. “Possessive. Jealous.”

/

Yu Youzhi always thought her relationship with Liang Cishen had started developing after they married.

Until one day, she found a whole lot of photos of herself from when she used to tutor on his phone.

And at the time, she hadn't even broken up with her ex yet.

It turned out that even a man like Liang Cishen, standing at the very top of the pyramid, could have a secret crush he couldn't confess.

When she discovers his secret, he isn't embarrassed. After the lights go out that night, he teases her mercilessly, then bends close to her ear and says, “Zhizhi, the first time I saw you, I knew we'd end up here someday.”

[Bonus scene]

Yu Youzhi finds her stride again, and her new book becomes a huge hit. On a whim, she writes several steamy bonus chapters for her readers.

To her surprise, one day she accidentally discovers that Liang Cishen is following her story.

Yu Youzhi: !!!

That night, embarrassed and furious, she confronts him. He pulls her onto his lap, his voice low and heated with mischief. “Zhizhi, you know so many tricks. Why have you never tried them with me?”

Yu Youzhi: #Actually I still like it better when you're as cold and distant as the CEO characters I write# Wait, Liang Cishen, I'm here to settle the score, stop kissing me, #

A heroine who only knows how to talk a good game × a devoted, calculating, paternal male lead

Older man / 8-year age gap / marriage first, love later

The heroine only ever held hands with her ex

The heroine's pen name is Cecilia, after the heroine of Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo"

Synopsis for "Too Clever"

Zhu Qiao is exceptionally bright but comes from an ordinary family. After placing first in the high school entrance exams, she receives a full scholarship to an elite private high school, becoming the school's golden name for boosting its overall scores.

Surrounded by rich second-generation students, Zhu Qiao is an outsider: proud, independent, and focused solely on studying. She wants nothing to do with anyone.

But someone insists on provoking her.

Xu Zongchuan is the foremost young heir in the capital's elite circles, unruly and extravagant. Even at a private school packed with the children of powerful families, he's someone no one else can hope to measure up to.

He blocks Zhu Qiao in a dim corridor, the corner of his mouth lifting as he speaks in a casual, careless tone.

“Good student, I lost a bet. They told me to chase you.”

Knowing that he and the crowd behind him are waiting to see her get flustered and blush, Zhu Qiao meets Xu Zongchuan's amused gaze and answers calmly, “Sure. Then go ahead and chase me.”

/

After the college entrance exams, Xu Zongchuan pursues Zhu Qiao with such fanfare that everyone knows about it.

There are no other girls around him anymore. He studies with her, makes her breakfast, and takes her to the mountaintop to watch a whole night of shooting stars.

In Zhu Qiao's senior year at university, at Xu Zongchuan's apartment, he holds her in his arms and kisses her as he asks, “Qiao Qiao, can you take any more?”

His eyes are full of laughter.

The next day, he learns that Zhu Qiao is going abroad.

Of everyone around her, he is the last to know.

/

The day they part, Xu Zongchuan grips the girl's wrist so tightly that his eyes turn red.

Snow falls thickly. Zhu Qiao's face is expressionless.

“Xu Zongchuan, you only chased me because you made a bet with someone. I never said I liked you.”

“Oh, and thanks. I paid for my studies abroad with the gifts you gave me.”

The designer bags, jewelry, and couture dresses she'd received were things she had never used.

Xu Zongchuan laughs in anger. “Fine, Zhu Qiao. You're really clever.”

He says each word distinctly. “Don't let me see you again.”

/

Many years later, they meet again during a business negotiation.

Xu Zongchuan has become head of the Xu family. His features are hard, his presence untouchable. When he looks at Zhu Qiao, the M&A consultant, it's as if she's a stranger.

“Ms. Zhu is very clever. But unfortunately, the decision is mine. I refuse this deal.”

After Zhu Qiao dumped Xu Zongchuan so publicly, no one thought he would take her back.

Even Zhu Qiao believes that from now on, all they can do is clash.

Until one day, a drunken Xu Zongchuan spends the entire night standing in the pouring rain outside Zhu Qiao's apartment.

In the end, Zhu Qiao's heart softens. She goes downstairs to give him an umbrella, only for him to pull her into his arms.

The man's voice is hoarse as he curses. “Zhu Qiao, in your eyes, am I worth less than a dog?”

If that's what it takes, he'll accept it.

He can be her stepping-stone or let her toy with him. As long as she turns back and looks at him once more.

--

A refined, self-serving heroine × a male lead who willingly lets himself be used

Cool and independent × a brash, fierce guard dog

Rekindled romance / starts in school, then moves to the city / imperfect characters

Theme: Keep moving toward the light.