After I Dumped the Male Lead of a Period Novel

In an era of shortages, every summer, as soon as dusk fell, people would head out to "hunt for wild game." Six-year-old Xia Changmin clutched a glass jar and crouched beneath the roots of a willow tree. She watched a cicada crawling out of the earth, but made no move. The cicada slowly climbed up the tree after emerging from the soil. Someone suddenly thrust a bamboo pole out from the side, but the cicada flew away first. Han Yue'e was furious that she had failed to catch it. She scolded her daughter, "What's wrong with you? You saw a cicada nymph and didn't even try to catch it!" Xia Changmin finally looked away from the tree and turned to her mother. "Don't you think we're a lot like it?" Han Yue'e couldn't help taking a step back. What kind of monster had she given birth to? Years later, Xia Changmin still felt she was much like the cicadas of summer, struggling all her life not to be "eaten." She didn't want her parents to discipline her into sacrificing herself for her younger brother, so as soon as she graduated from junior high, Xia Changmin signed up to go work in the countryside. She had nearly been "consumed" by marriage, but in the end chose to study abroad instead. It was an ordinary day in 1986. Xia Changmin was immersed in the lab, ravenously absorbing knowledge about foreign locomotives: traction control, bogie design, heavy-load braking systems... "You are the male lead's first love and unattainable ideal in a male-oriented period novel..." A disembodied voice said this, then briefly recounted the unfinished novel. Xia Changmin knew the protagonist's name very well: Yan Yang. Thanks to her excellent memory, Xia Changmin could still clearly recall the way his eyebrows had lifted with joy as he prepared for their wedding, and the redness in his eyes when she decided to give him up and pulled her hand away... The voice went on at length about how the male lead had seized the opportunities of the new era, how successful he was now, and what a bright future lay ahead. Finally, it asked maliciously, "Xia Changmin, do you regret it?" Xia Changmin shook her head. The voice fell silent, like a chicken being strangled. -- A fellow sent-down youth from the same period used his daughter's birthday banquet as an excuse to gather their old friends. After a few rounds of drinks, everyone began speaking freely. "Look at me. I've put on a belly over the past couple of years!" The speaker patted his stomach, then looked toward the handsome, lean, and composed man at the other end of the table. He couldn't help feeling envious. "Unlike Yan Yang, who's still in top shape. He looks like he's always ready to be a groom!" "When Xia Changmin finishes her studies and comes home, maybe she'll regret it and beg you to marry her..." Someone else clapped a hand over his mouth to stop him. Yan Yang merely curled his lip in a cool smile. But he really had been keeping himself in shape on purpose. While people his age were getting fat, he never stopped exercising. Yan Yang wanted Xia Changmin to look at him with regret when they met again. He had imagined that moment thousands of times, but when he actually saw Xia Changmin again, all she did was smile and say, "You really do seem to be doing well." Her tone was casual, like the polite small talk of old friends who hadn't seen each other in years. He hated her. He really hated her. *Reading guide: 1. A resentful male lead, drowning in unrequited love, but always ready to be a groom. 2. The female lead has incredibly keen insight and the highest IQ in the whole story. 3. She had her reasons for starting the relationship and then abandoning him. To her, it was a way of cutting her losses in time. 4. They are each other's only partners, both emotionally and physically. Both are inexperienced. 5. A hard-hearted career-minded woman x a tight-lipped, love-struck man. Theme: Stay true to yourself and follow your own path.