Fair Weather, for a Limited Time

Jiangcheng was battered by torrential rain for eight days straight. The meteorological bureau worked through the night to investigate, eventually pinpointing the storm’s center: a dessert shop, and its owner, Wen Sheng, who was in a rather bad mood.

After three months of secret observation, the bureau had no choice but to accept an absurd fact: the weather in this city didn’t depend on air pressure or monsoons. It depended on the mood of dessert chef Wen Sheng.

When the corners of his lips lifted, the sky turned clear.

When his eyes reddened, endless rain fell.

When he dreamed of something sad in the middle of the night, the weather station issued twelve consecutive thunderstorm warnings.

The night someone stood him up, Jiangcheng was hit by the worst hailstorm in seventy years.

To prevent the next bout of extreme weather, the meteorological bureau secretly launched the “Artificial Sunshine Plan.” The person in charge was star broadcaster Ji Chiye.

The mission had only one instruction: Get close to Wen Sheng and make him happy.

Ji Chiye finished reading the briefing and raised an eyebrow. “How hard can it be to cheer someone up?”

Later, he was the first one to lose control.

*

All Wen Sheng knew was that the whole city had suddenly become unusually kind to him.

The coffee shop he frequented offered buy-one-get-one-free deals every day, always claiming the System had made a mistake.

The construction crew outside his shop made sure to avoid his lunch break. Even the drill seemed to know better than to test his patience.

And then there was the weather broadcaster who showed up every day just before closing time:

He ate the cakes Wen Sheng couldn’t sell.

He helped him look for his lost cat.

He took him to see Jiangcheng’s earliest sunrise.

Wen Sheng was full of questions. “Broadcaster Ji, do you have this much free time every day?”

Ji Chiye leaned against the counter, smiling brightly. “I’m not free. I’m observing the weather.”

Wen Sheng: “Outside the window?”

Ji Chiye: “Right in front of me.”

Before long, Wen Sheng started looking forward to his visits.

Jiangcheng enjoyed seven straight sunny days.

The first time Wen Sheng reached for his hand on his own, the sunset set half the sky ablaze.

When Wen Sheng’s ears burned after Ji Chiye kissed him, a sunshower fell over Jiangcheng.

The city’s twenty million people had no idea two of them were falling in love in secret, right there in the weather forecast.

That is, until Wen Sheng found the “Sunshine Plan.”

“So you only got close to me to complete your mission?”

Outside, the rain came down in sheets. Ji Chiye stood in it and didn’t deny a thing.

“Getting close to you was the mission.”

“Loving you wasn’t.”

He handed Wen Sheng his umbrella, along with a resignation letter he had already signed, while he himself stood there soaked to the skin.

“Wen Sheng, you’re allowed to be unhappy, to feel sad, and to let it rain over Jiangcheng for a whole month.”

“You don’t owe anyone a sunny day.”

“I never wanted to make you happy forever. I just wanted to hold an umbrella over us when it rains.”

Later, their relationship was unexpectedly exposed.

Wen Sheng thought the whole city would blame him. Instead, he received hundreds of thousands of messages:

[Cry if you need to. We’ll remember to bring our umbrellas.]

[It’s okay if the weather’s bad. Just take care of yourself.]

[Broadcaster Ji, we’ll give him back the weather. You give him your love.]

At the end of that night’s broadcast, Ji Chiye looked into the camera and announced, word by word, “Today in Jiangcheng: light rain turning sunny, with rainbows in some areas.”

He glanced at the person just beyond the camera and smiled.

“Let love follow the heart. Sunshine or rain, it’s your choice.”

[Sunny, sweet-talking, bright and passionate broadcaster gong]

[Gentle, soft and adorable, innocent dessert chef shou]

[Reader’s Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both pure, each other’s first love.

2. Happy ending, lighthearted and healing sweet romance, very sweet, no melodrama.

3. All setting details serve the plot and romance. Readers who insist on scrutinizing every detail, please don’t overthink it.

[Coming Soon] Concentration at One Hundred Percent [Showbiz]

Sheng Yi had a secret he couldn’t tell anyone: he could see the “concentration of genuine emotion” in an actor’s performance.

However, this ability only worked when people were acting. The rest of the time, he was just like anyone else.

After eight years of working his way up in the industry, he had become the most sought-after acting coach around, worth a fortune for every word of advice.

The highest concentration he had ever seen was 90%: an acclaimed veteran actor had cried so hard while filming the scene where his son died that he ended up in the hospital.

The lowest was 0%: every single scene performed by rising movie star Xie Sui.

Xie Sui had swept all three major acting awards and was hailed as a “born actor.”

But in Sheng Yi’s eyes, the star’s tears were worth zero, his smiles were worth zero, and even kneeling in a rainstorm to cry “I love you” was worth zero.

Every emotion was perfectly delivered. The only thing missing was sincerity.

In his mind, Sheng Yi tagged him as a hollow technician of an actor.

Later, Xie Sui’s production hired Sheng Yi as its acting coach.

In their first scene together, Xie Sui played a man who had secretly loved someone for ten years but never dared to confess.

The director gestured. “Look at Teacher Sheng and say your line.”

Xie Sui turned his head. His gaze passed over the camera and fell on Sheng Yi.

He had just one line.

“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”

The next second, the concentration of genuine emotion before Sheng Yi’s eyes shot from 0% straight to 100%.

His mind went blank. The thermos slipped from his hand, hit the ground, and rolled a long way.

The director clapped and shouted, “Perfect! Cut!”

Only Sheng Yi knew the truth: in that one second, the technical genius who had been acting for eight years had spoken from the heart in front of a camera for the very first time.

[Max-level acting, zero-level romance, genius star gong]

[Sharp-eyed, emotionally clueless, ace acting coach shou]

[Reader’s Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both pure, happy ending.

2. Each other’s first love, mutual pining.

3. Sweet and satisfying.

4. No third parties, coercion, or melodramatic misunderstandings.

5. All setting details serve the plot and romance, and do not allude to any real people or works. Please don’t assume otherwise or overanalyze.

Theme: Love doesn’t mean asking someone to stay sunny forever. It means letting them have weather of their own.