The Glass Doll

[My new novel, "Looking for the Sun in the Rain," is now underway. The blurb is at the end. Please add it to your reading list~]

Blurb 1:

Lately, the hottest topic among Qinghang's elite has been the marriage between the Chen family's eldest son and the Yu family's young lady.

Who would have thought those two, usually so discreet, would end up together?!

People discussed it for half a year, but the families still hadn't held a wedding. In fact, their relations remained as distant as before.

Six months into the marriage, Chen Jinbai was quite content with how he and his wife got along. She was gentle and considerate, and very understanding of his work. Every time he thought about it, Chen Jinbai felt he owed her something and thought he should schedule the wedding sooner.

Then the marital home was renovated, and while tidying up, Chen Jinbai unexpectedly found his wife's notes:

1. Finish my studies ✓

2. Find a job ✓

3. Get married ✓

Her life plan was exceptionally clear. But on the next page, the details of her marriage plan were written plainly: Get the marriage license first. If it doesn't work out, we can divorce.

When Yu Xi returned home that night, she sensed that something was off with her usually gentle husband. For example, he looked at her for longer than usual and took her marriage certificate. Most importantly, their nighttime exercise lasted twice as long!

Half-asleep, Yu Xi heard Chen Jinbai ask, "Why didn't we have a wedding?"

Yu Xi answered honestly, "Isn't it better if fewer people know?"

Chen Jinbai's face darkened at once. Fewer people knowing would make it easier to get divorced, right?

Blurb 2:

In Yu Xi's life-planning notebook, "get married" was just another item to check off.

After graduating from her master's program, she gave up the chance to continue her studies and chose to work in the conservation department of a museum.

The day before starting her job, Yu Xi successfully crossed off another item: work.

Next up: Find someone suitable and get married.

She calmly assessed her options and made her choice. Then, on a blind date, she said to Chen Jinbai, "Let's get married."

He was silent for a moment, then replied, "Okay."

The news spread, causing an uproar in their social circle.

Everyone guessed that the Chen and Yu families must have had an understanding for a long time, and that the two of them must have known each other for years.

No one knew they'd really met only once.

And even fewer knew that beneath his calm, unruffled facade, the moment Chen Jinbai accepted her proposal, he was struck by a tsunami of emotion he didn't even recognize at first: he had fallen for her.

Thus began a marriage that outsiders believed was "long in the making," while the truth was known only to the two of them.

Until one day, she leaned against his shoulder in her drowsiness and heard his heart pounding like a drum.

At last, she saw the truth:

Behind his restraint and good manners lay a deep-rooted love.

Every careful, rational step he took was an unconscious response to the feelings she stirred in him.

In the eyes of outsiders, she was the Yu family's reclusive young lady, quiet and translucent, like a glass doll no one dared touch.

Only he had seen her under the lamplight late at night, leaning over an ancient painting, her fingertips passing over silk worn away by time, a steady flame burning in her eyes.

She thought marriage was a rational step in life's blueprint, a partnership built on mutual respect and facing the future side by side.

But from the very first glance, he knew all his rational plans were falling apart.

He didn't want a partnership. He wanted her.

Only later did she learn that in his eyes, she really was like a "glass doll."

Not fragile, but a solid vessel tempered by intense heat. She seemed transparent and delicate, yet could refract countless rays of light and let the world pass through her. She might be scratched, but she could never be shattered or bent.

"I won't judge you or test you. I'll be by your side.

We're two trees, our roots entwined, our leaves touching, standing side by side in the wind."

◆ Cool on the outside, warm within, surgeon x clear-eyed and resilient art conservator

◆ Marriage first, love later / mutual healing / a slow, steady romance

◆ Inspired by "Flowers Growing Among Rocks" and "To the Oak Tree": "We share the cold fronts, the wind and thunder, the lightning; we share the mist, the flowing haze, the neon lights."

My new novel, "Looking for the Sun in the Rain," is now underway. Please add it to your reading list~

Heaven's darling VS stray dog from a poor neighborhood

Blurb 1:

Everyone at Yuncheng High knows that Jiang Youning is the moon in the sky, while Jiang Xu is the mud on the ground.

Jiang Xu has seen her surrounded by admirers, and knows they're from two different worlds.

Yet this moon insists on falling into the mud.

On a summer night in Yuncheng, beneath the ink-dark sky, Jiang Youning moved closer without thinking.

The girl's breath was only inches away. Jiang Xu's ears burned red, but he stubbornly met her gaze.

She blinked and teased him mischievously. "Jiang Xu, do you want to kiss me?"

"But your first kiss should be for the person you'll spend your whole life with."

Jiang Youning thought Jiang Xu was a strange person.

Through him, she finally understood that a person could truly have two sides.

And it was precisely his less admirable side that drew her in.

So one of them did everything possible to hide, while the other secretly watched.

She thought he was a sun shining in the dust. But when she got closer, she realized he was a rain-soaked blade.

Concealing the sharpest tenderness and the most burning restraint.

The rain in Yuncheng fell throughout their youth.

Only her umbrella opened up an entire sunny day for him.

"I won't be rained on forever. I have my sun."

She held out her umbrella and stepped into his rain. From then on, he would never again be left out in the rain.

Blurb 2:

If one phrase could sum up Jiang Xu's seventeenth year, it would be "sunshower."

A bright sun was rising in the sky, and yet a steady rain began to fall.

Everyone felt sorry for him and went out of their way to avoid him.

Until one girl came skipping in beneath her umbrella.

"It's not raining very hard. Want to share my umbrella?"

Yuncheng's summers were always rainy. Just when Jiang Xu thought his life was going to grow moldy, the sun shone on him without warning.

It turned out that every rainy season in life was a sign that the seasons were about to change...

Theme: Love takes experience. Finding a partner isn't the answer. Finding yourself is.