Tenderly Held in Your Arms

Wen Ruan, the beauty of A University's photography department, and Yu Huan, the heartthrob of its finance department, got together, causing a sensation across campus and becoming a celebrated couple. Several years after graduation, Yu had become CEO Yu, while Wen still had no steady job. Whispers gradually began to circulate about the couple's married life: CEO Yu was too busy with work and neglected his family; The goddess of yesteryear had fallen from her pedestal. Had she given up her career to cook for the man she loved, or was she content to remain quietly unknown? Did the legendary Yu regret his choice? If he had chosen the top student from his own department, they might have been a power couple, taking their careers to even greater heights... It wasn't until the university's anniversary celebration, when CEO Yu was invited back to give a lecture, that the packed auditorium got some answers. During the Q&A, someone asked, "Many successful people have a mentor who recognized their potential when they were first starting out. Senior Yu, did you have someone like that?" "My wife, Ms. Wen Ruan." "Senior Yu, how did you achieve so much?" "Achieve? I'm not even one ten-thousandth as accomplished as my wife." "Senior Yu, could you recommend a book?" "My wife is a book in herself, but I won't recommend her to you." Under the campus poplars, someone spotted the usually composed CEO Yu gently feeding spoonfuls of mango ice cream to Wen Ruan, just as he had back then. I'll build you a warm nest to come home to, and I'll be the wings that let you fly fearlessly into the sky, and the shelter that protects you. The person I love will be free and unrestrained, with nothing forbidden to her. When Wen Ruan won the most prestigious award in international photography, the "Free Spirit" trophy, she blinked her catlike eyes and held her red lips just out of reach of Yu Huan's nose. "You can take half the credit, Senior Yu." CEO Yu's breathing grew heavy. In the dim corridor backstage at the awards ceremony, he shed his dignified, reserved facade. Bending down, he said, "Then I won't hold back." Their sweet promises as teenagers had been to travel across magnificent landscapes and gaze upon the dazzling stars together. But the busyness of daily life had gradually worn those dreams away. "Yu Huan, you owe me a destination wedding, a cruise around the world, and a date beneath the Egyptian pyramids to photograph the sunrise..." "Ruan Ruan, have you arrived? Book the best hotel. Don't sleep outside, okay? Ruan Ruan, remember to call me when you get off the plane. Ruan Ruan, come home soon." Everyone had seen Yu Huan's calm, composed CEO persona, but no one knew that he spent every day worrying himself sick over one "restless" woman. All CEO Yu wanted more than life itself was for that person to open the front door with a radiant smile and tell him, "I'm home!" My wife can torment me a thousand times, and I'll still love her like it's the first time. "Who was your first love?" "...You." A heartwarming, hilarious married life featuring a [Spirited Outdoor Photographer] x [Steady, Devoted CEO] P.S.: 1. This is a companion story to Deep Affection in Her Eyes (complete, available in my author's column). Wen Ruan is Su Yingshi's cousin. The two stories are entirely separate, so there's no need to have read the other one. 2. This is a sweet romance! A sweet romance! No angsty love story and no misunderstandings. 3. The male and female leads are already married when the story begins, with sweet memories from their campus days woven in. [Weibo: Tang Wan] Tang Wan's upcoming BL historical fantasy novel. Please check it out and show your support! Link: Taking In My Deceased Best Friend's Disciples My best friend was the most popular immortal lord of the Canglan Sect. I was the least popular. My best friend had five direct disciples, and every year, candidates fought tooth and nail to join Shouyuan Peak. Meanwhile, my own doors were deserted, and newcomers were terrified even to hear my name. My best friend died, and the sect leader wanted to "adopt" his five disciples into my care. I'd fantasized about having disciples devoted to me and a harmonious master-disciple relationship, but I was in a bit of a bind. Those five brats hated me. Ying Xuan was the first disciple of Immortal Lord Shengyang, a dignified, trustworthy senior brother admired by the younger generation of the Canglan Sect. Ying Xuan was reborn in the second year after his master's death. He and his fellow disciples were sent to serve under Wen Chixue. During the great battle between immortals and demons, Immortal Lord Shengyang and Immortal Lord Chixue sacrificed themselves in the Abyss of Bright Bones. When Ying Xuan charged through the barrier, he saw his master's robes in tatters, his flesh and blood mangled, yet his eyes still fixed on Wen Chixue, whose ink-black hair hung loose and whose bloodstained robes were utterly indifferent, as if he meant to see right through him... Before his soul dissipated, his lips moved and he uttered two words... Snow blanketed the sky. Where the myriad blades passed, bodies vanished, and blood stained the heavens. That was unmistakably Wen Chixue's signature killing technique. He couldn't mistake the way his master had looked before fading away. He knelt before the sect leader's peak for seven days and seven nights, but he couldn't understand why this man could walk out with his dignity intact after entering the Hall of Discipline and taking the Heart-Questioning Curse. The sect leader said he was blameless. Then who was guilty? Was it his master, who had died for the sect? His master was dead, yet this man could still be hailed as a revered immortal lord who had saved the world. The Great Way was unjust. Ying Xuan lay in wait at Wen Chixue's side for seven years. He still hadn't found proof that this man had caused his master's death; he still hadn't figured out the two words his master had spoken before dying... Then Wen Chixue died. He died saving Ying Xuan. In his previous life, when the sect leader asked whether he was willing to join Immortal Lord Chixue's household, he had glared furiously and gritted out, "Only if I'm dead." In this life, under the astonished gaze of his fellow disciples, he bowed before the white-robed Daoist and said, "I will." He still had too many unanswered questions. This time, he absolutely could not let this man die first. (P.S. The gong was originally the shou's best friend's disciple. After the friend died, the gong became the shou's disciple.) [Shou: The cold, abstinent, devastatingly beautiful living weapon who reigns supreme in the immortal realm x Gong: The Canglan Sect's first disciple, a shining example of the righteous path, gentle on the outside and single-minded within] Shou's POV, younger gong, happy ending Tang Wan's upcoming BG contemporary romance novel. Please check it out and show your support! Link: Gracefully Into My Heart Shu Pianran was taken in as a child by a governess and raised in a music house. The governess cared for her and secretly taught her to play instruments, sing, and dance, but made her dress in drab clothes to hide her talents. She was to be no more than an ordinary maid who swept and cleaned, living out her life in peace. But then war broke out, and barbarians breached the city walls. Hiding inside a rice jar, she watched the girls from the music house die horribly. In the end, she couldn't escape either, and used the dagger the governess had given her to take her own life. When she woke again, she was greeted by a pair of beautiful phoenix eyes. A handsome, refined-looking boy with a brash air about him shouted, "Stick out your thumb! Once I register your fingerprint, you'll be able to come and go from this house whenever you like!" Shu Pianran was terrified. Had she failed to die, only to be sold off to the barbarians after all? Jiang Di had a splitting headache because of the daughter of his mother's late friend who had just moved in. First, how could he explain to his mother that he hadn't bullied her, made her call him "Young Master," or asked her to bring him hot water for his feet... Second, how could he explain to his classmates and teachers that he hadn't bullied the new transfer student, sent her to buy food, carry his bag, or massage his shoulders... And finally, how could he explain to this little shadow that he didn't need her to help him bathe or get dressed, and had absolutely no thoughts of making her serve him in that way... Heaven knew that although he got into fights, skipped class, and wrote detention essays, he was a good kid with sound values and no particularly bad habits. At school, Jiang Di had always done whatever he pleased without a care. But now things were different: he had a little shadow by his side. She was prettier than the school belle, yet went out of her way to dress as dowdily as possible; she was soft-hearted and cried at the drop of a hat, and would look up at him with gentle, watery eyes to say thank you, as if she couldn't manage without him. Yet in the blink of an eye, she'd take the imported chocolates he'd given her and offer them to the top student class monitor, gazing at him in admiration... In an empty classroom after school, Jiang Di braced one arm on the desk, trapping her in her seat. His face twisted as he snarled, "Tell me, what's so great about that bookworm?" "He's good at studying." "...That's it?" Jiang Di was stunned. He tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. "What's so impressive about being good at school? How shallow can she be!" He picked up a book and flipped it open. "Am I really going to study for her?" An hour later, he switched to another subject. "Damn it." After clawing his way from the bottom of the grade rankings to the top, he knocked on the bedroom door across the hall in the middle of the night. This time, he softened his voice and asked quietly, "So, who do you think is the best now?" * Shu Pianran thought: If she'd had someone like Jiang Di by her side in her previous life, would life have been less difficult? Now she did. [The Sharp-Tongued School Heartthrob and His Classical Dance Fairy] Theme: Love and freedom are indispensable.