Hard to Come By

Unrequited love from him | A long-planned romance | Reunited after years apart | Stealing her away | Bittersweet push and pull

Clear-headed and resilient × restrained and deeply devoted

1.

At seventeen, Nan Qiu's father brought home a strange boy.

The boy was quiet and indifferent, keeping everyone at a distance.

Nan Qiu didn't know the Liang family had just abandoned him. She assumed he was simply antisocial and kept her distance.

She also thought he didn't like her.

But one day, during a storm and power outage, she went out to seek refuge with her boyfriend. A gust of wind nearly knocked her backward, and in her disarray, Liang Qingyue arrived and supported her as they made their way through the endless darkness.

When she saw her boyfriend, she waved goodbye to him.

The boy watched her clasped hands with her boyfriend, his eyes lowered, his mood impossible to read beneath the streetlights.

Later, Liang Qingyue was sent abroad.

Nan Qiu didn't go to see him off, and thought they would never cross paths again.

Unexpectedly, seven years later, a mix-up forced Nan Qiu to live with Liang Qingyue again.

He had gone from an unwanted illegitimate son to the powerful CEO of a publicly listed company.

Nan Qiu knew Liang Qingyue had his reasons for sharing a place with her. Wary of his power, she carefully maintained her boundaries.

Until Nan Qiu caught her boyfriend cheating.

She fled in a daze, and someone grabbed her by the wrist.

Under the white lights, Liang Qingyue's skin looked terribly pale, but his eyes were black as if steeped in night. He stared at her, making her heart sink and leap. “So this is your type?”

That night, Liang Qingyue broke through the boundaries she had built with her own hands.

They began with an impulsive fling.

Adult relationships were fragile and fleeting, and Nan Qiu thought this was just another brief affair.

So later, when they disagreed,

she gave up without a second thought.

In the sweltering midnight heat, her voice cool, she said, “Liang Qingyue, while our feelings aren't that deep, let's cut our losses in time, okay?”

The man holding her said nothing for a long while.

Only after a long pause did he speak, his voice finally revealing a trace of pain. “Why do you always give them so many chances, but you're so stingy with me?”

“That's not fair to me.”

Only then did Nan Qiu learn that back then, as she lingered downstairs to say goodbye to her boyfriend,

the boy solving problems outside the second-floor study had accidentally torn the paper with his pen.

For thousands of days and nights, he had burned the midnight oil, all so he could return to her side.

2.

While studying abroad, Liang Qingyue's roommate was religious and dragged him along to a place of worship.

The priest handed everyone a piece of paper and asked them to write down the greatest worldly desire in their hearts.

Once they wrote it down and burned it, they would be able to let it go.

He wrote: Nan Qiu.

Nan Qiu. Hard to attain.

But when it came time to toss the paper into the brazier, he changed his mind and slipped it into his pocket.

His friend looked puzzled. He gave a lazy smile. “If it's a worldly desire, I might as well keep it. What if it comes true?”

*

The heir to all he could want, caught in a dark and hopeless unrequited love.

Theme: Someone is always loving you in silence