01
The day before starting university, Shi Qi had nowhere to stay, so her kind benefactor invited her to live with their family.
A woman opened the door to greet her, apparently the benefactor's wife.
After Shi Qi awkwardly greeted her, the woman smiled and showed her around the house.
The woman took her through every corner of the house except for a locked room on the second floor.
Just as Shi Qi was about to ask what was different about that room, she heard a faint click.
She followed the sound with her eyes, and a dazzling head of blond hair filled her view.
Below it was a pair of clear, dark eyes.
The woman introduced him. “This is Tang Cunmo, my son. He's a few years older than you.”
Shi Qi nodded and looked toward the second floor again, but the blond hair had disappeared from view, and the door was firmly shut.
The woman smiled apologetically. “Sorry, he's a bit rebellious.”
02
After dinner, Shi Qi knocked on the locked door upstairs.
“Hi, I brought you a gift.”
The door opened quickly. Tang Cunmo leaned lazily against the frame. Maybe he'd just lost a game, because he didn't seem very interested. He mumbled, “Just give it to me.”
Shi Qi saw his porcelain-white palm and a few strands of hair falling over his shoulder.
For some reason, she reached out without thinking and tidied them for him.
When she was done, she realized her ears were burning. She didn't dare look up, so she naturally missed the faint blush that briefly appeared on the young man's face.
The silence was awkward enough that even the most oblivious person would have noticed something was off.
In her fluster, Shi Qi looked into his green eyes and tried to break the tension. “Your eyes are really beautiful.”
A smile touched the young man's lips. “Do you know what that means in the West?”
“Huh?” Shi Qi thought about it, but none of the books she'd read mentioned it, so she couldn't figure out the answer.
Tang Cunmo reached out and wound a strand of hair that had fallen against Shi Qi's chest around his finger, again and again. “It's flirting.”
03
After they got together, Shi Qi leaned against Tang Cunmo's shoulder and asked, “I heard that in the West, you have to take your husband's last name when you get married. But I don't want to be a Tang. How about you take my last name instead?”
Tang Cunmo glanced at her, sounding openly dismissive. “Boring.”
That evening, Shi Qi opened her phone and saw a pinned message.
[Shi Cunmo says to come downstairs for dinner.]
Content warnings:
1. Neither lead is perfect; both have flaws.
2. A silly, sugary Mary Sue romance focused on the two leads.
Theme: Breaking down cultural barriers
