Spring Tide, No Crossing

1.

In high school, Tang Xi was passionately in love with someone from afar. He was the school's acknowledged heartthrob and top student, as pure as snow on a mountain and as bright as the moon between the clouds, someone she could admire but never reach.

Countless people had secret crushes on him, and just as many confessed their feelings, but every one of them met with failure, without exception.

During one evening study session, Shu Yanli leaned close to Tang Xi's ear. His voice was clear and cool. "Tang Xiaoxi, I heard you like me?"

Tang Xi trembled slightly, her ears burning as she pinched her fingers together and mumbled a denial. "I don't! You must have heard wrong! If I liked you, I... I'd jump out of the classroom building!"

Shu Yanli: ...

2.

At twenty-five, Tang Xi was forced into a lightning-fast marriage to appease her elders.

In the year since they got their marriage certificate, Tang Xi had barely seen her husband in name only, Shu Yanli.

They came face-to-face again at a script pitch meeting.

At the time, Tang Xi was still an obscure junior screenwriter, while Shu Yanli was already the heir to a corporate group, a high-powered figure in elite circles, so distinguished and chaste that no one dared cross him. He was also the deep-pocketed investor behind this film project.

When their eyes met, Tang Xi looked away first, pretending they didn't know each other.

Afterward, Tang Xi bit her lip and stammered out an explanation. "I didn't know you were coming."

Shu Yanli lifted his eyes and gave her a look. His thin lips curved faintly, his voice low and cool. "What, Mrs. Shu? If you'd known I was here, you wouldn't have set foot inside?"

Tang Xi: !

3.

No one believed Tang Xi and Shu Yanli's marriage of convenience would work, because the two of them were simply a mismatch.

The eldest daughter of the Tang family was certainly beautiful, but the Tangs were a fallen family among the wealthy. Her marriage to the heir of a top-tier elite family was an obvious mismatch in status.

Besides, Shu Yanli was as rational as a robot that never made mistakes. Beautiful women had thrown themselves at him one after another over the years, but had any of them ever gotten close to him?

Even if these two didn't divorce, there was no way they could be happy.

Until one day, people discovered that Shu Yanli, who had never attended private parties, was now showing up at all sorts of events with Tang Xi's hand in his. They were stunned.

Someone plucked up the courage to ask him why. Shu Yanli looked toward Tang Xi in the distance, an unbidden trace of tenderness in his eyes. "Because my wife wants to come."

Everyone: !

The drama-queen screenwriter vs. the refined, chaste powerhouse

Reading notes:

1. Mutual pining / switched identities / reunion after a long separation / married first, fell in love later. The focus is on the intense push and pull after their reunion; the school years won't take up much of the story.

2. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's first, happy ending.

3. Some of the settings may be a little unrealistic, and there are original worldbuilding details. The plot serves the romance.

4. Blurb written on 2022.12.15, revised on 2023.3.25, with screenshots saved as proof.

Theme: Every meeting in this world is a reunion after a long separation