Warm Ember

Bai Ning, 23 years old, is the youngest soloist at the National Ballet of China. With an ordinary background and no power, in the Beijing circle where capital and power are intertwined, she is like a vine, having to find a scaffold to climb on her own. Fu Yu, twenty-five years old, is studying for a doctorate in law. She is a third-generation official, second-generation rich, and has a triple aura. Under her cynical skin, she hides the coldest, soberest and sharpest mind. He has always been frivolous, walking through thousands of flowers without a leaf touching him. At that charity dinner, she admired his resources and he admired her beauty. Everyone gets what they need and gets both money and goods. It should be the most cost-effective deal. She moved into his Xishan villa and took good care of him - the clothes needed to be convenient, the tea to taste, porridge in the morning, and lights at night. She is the gentlest interpreter of words and the most sober seductress. Fu Yu sank little by little in the gentle countryside, from being careless to worrying about gains and losses. He thought he was sincere, but he discovered through repeated trials that she always retained a sense of clarity and a retreat. Frustrated, he broke up. Bai Ning left simply, without crying or making a fuss, and stubbornly did not look back. But the resources were cut off, and the dance troupe was full of open and covert attacks. She spun over and over alone in the cold night, and finally realized at a certain moment - it turned out that she had been attracted to her for a long time, but her pride and inferiority prevented her from admitting it. So everyone in the Beijing circle watched helplessly as the beauty, who had always been as gentle as water, began her long journey to pursue her husband. But Fu Yu, the man who should have hated her to the core, was defeated every time she clumsily approached. When the company's crisis and the dance company's turmoil hit at the same time, they fought side by side for the first time. Only then did he realize that she was never a climbing flower, she was a kapok beside him. Purpose: Sincerity is never born from perfect calculation, but from the courage to break and rebuild. The novel begins with "Each takes what he needs". Bai Ning approaches Fu Yu for resources, and Fu Yu takes Bai Ning in for beauty. This relationship was initially a cold exchange of equal value - she used tenderness as armor, and he used aura as bargaining chip. But as the story progresses, the author raises a sharp question: When two people regard "not being hurt" as their first criterion, can they still have true intimacy? Bai Ning's growth line gives the answer. She has transformed from an orphan girl who "only dares to use but not love" to a brave woman who is willing to let go of her pride and pursue her husband clumsily; Fu Yu has learned to give up her sincerity in worrying about gains and losses from a playboy who "lived among thousands of flowers". What the novel wants to say is: The essence of love is not to find a perfect protective shell, but two flawed people who are willing to tear down their own walls for each other. Bai Ning is not a climbing flower, she is a kapok side by side with Fu Yu - this is the most ideal balance in modern intimate relationships: one can be soft and dependent, and can also fight side by side.