Mint

♧ One-Sentence Summary:

I did what I had to do, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt.

♧ Blurb:

🍃 Bohe, a prosecutor who has turned thirty without making much of herself.

Her ultimate goal in life is simply to be a decent person.

And if she can, to do a few simple good deeds along the way.

She thought the rest of her life would more or less carry on like that.

What would make you say, "I never would have expected that"?

For Bohe, it was that summer, as she walked out of Prosecutor Wang's office. A blinding ray of light reflected in the glass at the end of the hallway, and everything was about to be torn apart.

So this was what it felt like to be chosen by fate: a jumble of conflicting emotions.

Bohe never thought that at thirty, she would formally say, "I do."

Those three words didn't marry her off. Instead, they meant she was "starting a new life."

She remembered the scene that day: the provincial procuratorate's chief prosecutor had come in person, with an extraordinary man in plain clothes standing beside him. He said, "Just call me Lao Liao."

Lao Liao opened his briefcase and slid out a stack of photographs.

The girl in them looked exactly like her.

"This girl's name was Hou Zike. She's dead."

"She was Wu Fei's girlfriend."

"Wu Fei, son of Wu Qichang."

"We need you to approach him under a false identity."

"Win his trust through love."

Bohe's mother stood up on the spot.

"We can't do this!"

Bohe set down the statement in her hands, damp with sweat and creased. In a quiet voice, she said, "I will."

From that moment on, she became someone else.

Zhang Sirui.

An orphan who had just transferred from overseas to the journalism school at Shenda University.

She thought the hardest part of acting was failing to look convincing.

Only later did she realize the hardest part was knowing she would hurt him, yet still smiling as she made her way into his heart.

♧ Reader's Guide:

A sharp, capable heroine vs. a restrained, devoted hero

Female prosecutor × male college student (identity reveal countdown)

Duty to country and family × love and affection (pure sweetness mixed with heartbreak)

A subtle, restrained romance, with no melodrama or characters losing their wits

Everyday warmth with a touch of mystery, with the career and romance plotlines running in parallel

♧ Tags:

Campus undercover / Literary suspense / Coming of age / Realism / Serious drama

♧ Preview:

"Are you afraid of me?" she asked.

"Will you hurt me?" he countered.

When she fell silent for a second, he answered for her. "If you won't, why should I be afraid?"

Do you know that your very presence is hurting him? Later, she would ask herself that question countless times.

What she didn't know was that even if he ended up covered in wounds, he would never regret meeting her.

Their first encounter was on the basketball court.

She was just passing by. He bent down to pick up the ball, then looked up. The moment his gaze swept over her, the world froze.

Their eyes met for more than ten seconds, a span as long as a century.

Then she heard someone beside her say three words: "What the hell."

Their second encounter was in the classroom.

Lin Jiayi brushed past her and tossed a remark into her ear: "You've just got a dead person's face. What's there to be so damn proud of?"

Zhang Sirui reached out and slammed the classroom door shut with a bang.

"You could hear that? Looks like your ears are more developed than your mouth."

Their third encounter was at the studio.

She handed him an osmanthus pastry and said, "There has to be some order of arrival, right?"

Wu Fei and Hou Zian both stopped what they were doing.

Ning Haiyang explained, "He... doesn't eat snacks."

But Wu Fei reached out and took it. "I do."

That night, Wu Fei sat for a long time, staring at the osmanthus pastry.

What kept replaying in his mind was the same sentence from three years earlier: "There has to be some order of arrival, right?" It was what Hou Zike had said to her brother the first time she met him.

Wearing this face, she stepped into his life. Every step forward landed on a wound that had yet to scab over.

In this world, some people are chosen by fate and go on to shine brilliantly.

She was chosen to act in a play, using a lie to trade for the truth.

Lying wasn't hard.

But getting into character was.

♧ Excerpts:

♡ "If a moth doesn't choose the flame, it can stay beside a warm lamp for much longer."

"Moths don't usually regret it."

"I don't know. But maybe the flame does. Its dazzling light can't have been meant to turn the wings flying toward it to ash."

♡ "When I found out I looked so much like someone, someone who mattered deeply to other people, I actually felt that fate had given me a gift."

"A gift?"

"If their feelings, left aside for so long, can find a home again, then I don't mind being that person."

[Story setting: 2016]

Theme: There are some things we do for our country and our people that must come before love. I did what I had to do, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt.