"I hate you," Song Zhaolin said lazily as she lay in bed.
"Mm." Gu Huai pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "I love you too."
That summer, when she was twenty, Song Zhaolin ran away from home and met Gu Huai, a poor college student working in town during summer break after his junior year. His aloof demeanor made him seem like someone who would never bend for money.
Song Zhaolin refused to believe it and slapped a stack of cash down in front of him. "I want to keep you."
Unable to refuse for reasons of his own, Gu Huai lowered his head and accepted the money. That one transaction tied them together.
Song Zhaolin had a carefree, wonderful time in a world where no one knew her.
She ordered Gu Huai to run all over town in the rain at night to buy her strawberry cake, made him carry her along the coastline again and again, and insisted he set off summer fireworks for her on the beach every day as they watched the sun rise and set...
She realized that Gu Huai would never refuse any order.
"What am I to you, really?" Gu Huai asked on the day Song Zhaolin left.
She didn't answer. She left without looking back.
Song Zhaolin was always like that. She barged into his world without a second thought, then left just as casually once she'd had her fun, leaving him alone in that wonderful summer and keeping him there forever.
Seven years later, they met again. The poor student had become a well-dressed rising magnate. He wiped the lipstick mark she'd left on his lips and said, "I'll keep you. Let's see what your self-respect is worth."
Song Zhaolin rolled her eyes, grabbed her bag, and walked away.
He hated her for leaving him in a hell without her, for abandoning and forgetting him, for not loving him.
No one knew how he'd gotten through those seven years.
He'd done everything he could to earn the right to enter her world, to stand before her with his head held high and demand to know: Why didn't you want me back then?
Mending a broken relationship | Reversal of status, both leads grow powerful later | A bittersweet romance fueled by bitter resentment
A proud, difficult young lady x a proud, restrained poor student. Happy ending.
Theme: It was a wonderful summer
