[Forceful and stubborn × resilient and clear-eyed]
[Single-minded devotion / seven-year age gap / love at first sight]
Xu Shining first met Zhao Zhouyang in the director’s office.
The moment she opened the door, she saw someone seated across from the director. The man had his back to the door and was turned slightly to the side, as if looking at the old locust tree outside the window.
She thought nothing of it. She went in and set the documents on the desk. From the corner of her eye, she saw the man turn around.
Xu Shining would later wonder many times what might have happened if she hadn’t looked up that day. But she did.
His was a face impossible to forget. His gaze made her uncomfortable, so she looked away.
She didn’t know who he was, or that from that day on, she would never escape his grasp.
Later, when he happened to find out she had a boyfriend, he sent someone to investigate the man’s background.
Later still, he came to her rescue. “Break up with him.” Zhao Zhouyang moved toward her, stopping in front of her with his eyes fixed on her, leaving her nowhere to run. “Be with me.”
Faced with reality, family background, and social class, she chose to go abroad.
Four years later, Xu Shining returned to China as a product design director. Onstage at a new product launch, she was composed, professional, and flawless. The girl Zhao Zhouyang had once sheltered was now a grown woman who could stand on her own.
She thought she had put the past behind her.
After the launch, she was organizing documents backstage when the man walked in and casually closed the door behind him.
He leaned against the door without hurrying over, simply watching her with a gaze so deep it seemed to see through every moment of the past four years. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?”
His tone was calm, as if they had never been apart, as if those four years had never happened.
“Mr. Zhao, this is just work.”
She turned to leave. The next second, he pinned her against the desk. One hand gripped her waist while the other rested on the back of her head, drawing her into his arms.
They were so close she could smell the familiar cedar scent on him. She turned her face away and refused to look at him. “Zhao Zhouyang, we’re over.”
He lowered his head and fixed his gaze on her eyes, giving her nowhere to look away.
“Xu Shining, you ran away once, and I waited four years. Do you think I’ll let you run away a second time?”
[Reader advisory]
1. The characters aren’t perfect, and the female lead has some personal growth.
2. Entirely fictional. Please don’t compare it to real life.
Blurb written on March 25, 2026, and saved with a screenshot.
Theme: Grow freely.
