Defeated by a Flutter of the Heart

[The entire novel has been heavily revised. I guarantee it's completely different from pirated versions, so please support the official release~]

1.

Zhong Yi is a timid little beauty.

The evening she secretly delivered a love letter, a light breeze stirred the night air as she cautiously slipped hers into a pile of letters.

To her surprise, when she turned around, Duan Zexiao was leaning against the doorway, looking down at her. His voice was low and cool as he said, "All right."

"...Huh?" She froze.

The young man slowly came closer. His dark eyes swept over her as he picked her letter out of the pile and repeated, "I said all right."

2.

The day Duan Zexiao accepted her confession, Zhong Yi thought she was special.

The aloof Duan Zexiao had turned down every other admirer, yet agreed to let her be his girlfriend.

He was the near-perfect ideal of a man: gentle, handsome, and refined. His one flaw was that he didn't love her.

On the day they broke up, Duan Zexiao stood in the dissection room wearing a white lab coat. In response to Zhong Yi's questions, he calmly set down his forceps. "I never said 'I love you.' You made it all up in your head."

3.

Later, Zhong Yi graduated and truly left that city, leaving Duan Zexiao behind.

He panicked.

Red-eyed, he searched everywhere for her. "What do I do... I've lost Zhong Yi."

4.

Everyone knew that Duan Zexiao and Zhong Yi had parted on bad terms the year they graduated from college.

So when their classmates held a reunion a few years later, nobody teased them about being together.

It was Duan Zexiao himself who kept walking right into trouble, glass after glass of wine leaving him almost drunk. The man smiled and asked, "That day... was that guy your new boyfriend?"

Zhong Yi wasn't used to lying, so she could only force a bitter smile and change the subject. "Duan Zexiao, please let me go."

After a brief silence, he smiled too, a hint of helplessness and regret in his eyes. "I can let go of anything but you."

* Rekindled romance / The ex begs for her back / A gentle, kind-tempered healer x An arrogant, beautiful, powerful man who's anything but tragic

* Blurb screenshotted on 2020.08.12

-----Next book: Soft Words in Daylight-----

* Mutual healing / Friends with benefits become lovers / From school to the city / Rekindled romance

* Melancholy painter x Gentle beauty

1.

A mother and son moved in next door to Chi Xue.

The mother was gentle and virtuous.

The son was taciturn.

When Chi Xue first met Lu Xingcheng, she thought there was something predatory in his thin double-lidded eyes.

She later learned that it wasn't wildness. It was madness.

Lu Xingcheng was a complete and utter madman.

Since the day they first met, she had lost count of how many long nights he'd pulled her into his arms, played with her long hair, and whispered the most cliche declarations of love beside her pillow.

"Chi Xue, you're mine."

"Don't run away. You can't run away. You're not allowed to run away."

2.

They kept it from everyone and began an ambiguous relationship.

The proud young master cast aside all his self-respect, his heart and mind filled with nothing but her.

But later, she betrayed him.

After hurting him so deeply, she left his world for good without even saying she was sorry.

A bucket of cold water seemed to pour over him, and Lu Xingcheng shook his head with a bitter smile.

So, from beginning to end, he'd only ever been her pawn. He'd never truly made it into her heart.

3.

At the ball on the day they reunited, she stood beside another man, smiling as she held up the huge, vivid-red train of her dress.

She had no idea that nearby, Lu Xingcheng was gripping his wineglass so hard it nearly shattered.

The man swore to himself that whatever it took, he would make her come back to him.

Before long, he got his wish.

One of his admirers asked him, "I only just found out that you're in touch with that woman again."

"You lied to me. Didn't you say you hated her?"

He simply replied, "I do hate her. That's why I want to keep her by my side and torment her."

"We don't need a happy ending in the traditional sense. It's enough if we stay entangled forever."

* Blurb screenshotted on 2021.10.30

* Minor revision on 2026.08.01

Theme: Study hard and keep improving.