More Than a Heartbeat

[Complete; next novel: The Blushing Springtime] 1. Jiang Zhaoyi loved Pei Yan throughout her entire youth. In high school, he was bold and flamboyant, a proud, rebellious boy adored by girls. She, meanwhile, was quiet and reserved. They were parallel lines that would never meet. Before leaving to study abroad, Jiang Zhaoyi took the opportunity to write in everyone's yearbook and left Pei Yan a message: "Wishing you a bright future and a lifetime of success." Just as she had wished, he debuted and immediately won the Golden Melody Award, hailed by fans as a god. He was at the height of his fame. Seven years later, the two met again in a private bar in Berlin. Pei Yan came over and asked, as if casually, "It's too noisy here. Want to go somewhere else for a drink?" Jiang Zhaoyi asked him in return, "Will you be there?" Pei Yan paused, then raised an intrigued brow. "If you want, my room is available." 2. After one night on a cruise ship, Jiang Zhaoyi left without saying goodbye, treating their brief fling as a dream in which her secret love had come true. She never imagined they'd meet again, with Pei Yan turning out to be her fiance's cousin. On the night they arrived at the vacation resort, Pei Yan pulled Jiang Zhaoyi into his room, gripped her slender neck, and bent down to kiss her. In the midst of their passion, Jiang Zhaoyi heard her fiance calling for her and tried to turn her face away from Pei Yan's kiss. Pei Yan turned her face back and kept kissing her, his low voice hoarse. "Focus. I'm the one kissing you right now." 3. Hailed as a cello prodigy, Jiang Zhaoyi had a cool, moonlit beauty. From the moment she made her public debut, netizens called her the nation's first love. A reporter asked whether she'd been everyone's first love since her school days. Jiang Zhaoyi smiled and denied it. "I'm the coward who secretly loved someone else." That day, #WhoDoesJiangZhaoyiSecretlyLove# topped the trending searches, and countless netizens debated who could be the person the nation's first love secretly adored. An hour after the topic went viral, Pei Yan released his new song, "Zhaozhao," and posted about it with the hashtag: @Pei Yan: [The moon shines bright in the clouds, and my heart holds Zhaozhao. @Jiang Zhaoyi] -"It wasn't just a flutter. I had fallen deeply in love with you." *Cool, seemingly well-behaved heroine x unruly, uninhibited hero *Important: See the author's note in Chapter One for content warnings. Please click X if you can't accept them. [The Blushing Springtime - Blurb]: 1. Lin Xiran and Zhou Qiwen grew up together. Everyone knew she liked him, except Zhou Qiwen, who couldn't care less. When she was overjoyed to celebrate his competition win, he even told her in front of everyone, "Lin Xiran, I only see you as a little sister. Give up already." Later, Lin Xiran really did give up on him. Just then, her family fell on hard times, and she was sent to Qingwu City to stay at Liang Xiao's house. The boy had grown up wild and was feared by everyone. He and Lin Xiran, who had grown up sheltered in a greenhouse, belonged to two different worlds. Lin Xiran was afraid of him and quietly kept her distance. But when she was forced to attend Zhou Qiwen's engagement party with someone else and was humiliated, Liang Xiao showed up, wiped the tears from her face, and impatiently coaxed her: "What are you crying for? Come home with me." On the day she returned to Pingjing, Liang Xiao warned her, "Fine, go. Don't come crying and begging me to bring you back." Lin Xiran still left without looking back, and didn't return for five years. 2. When they met again years later, Liang Xiao had become the new head of the Liang family, while she was an unknown ballet dancer. At the reunion banquet, the man stood at the center, surrounded by admirers. When he looked at her, his gaze was distant and unfamiliar, no longer tender as it once had been. Lin Xiran's nose stung, and she hurriedly left. After a gathering a few days later, Liang Xiao pulled Lin Xiran into the back seat of a car. He held her chin and kissed her, grinning with roguish mischief. "Look what I've done to you. You don't even say hello when we meet now." 3. The news that the fallen heiress of the Lin family had married the CEO of Liang Corporation caused an uproar in their social circle. Everyone said they were worlds apart and wouldn't last. At a tech summit a few months later, they saw the usually arrogant Liang Xiao bending down to straighten Lin Xiran's skirt. Lin Xiran complained petulantly that he had clumsy hands. "Could you be a little gentler? You've wrinkled my dress." "It's just some lousy dress," Liang Xiao said with a helpless, indulgent laugh. "I'll buy you a hundred to make it up to you, okay?" The sight made Zhou Qiwen's eyes sting as he watched from the doorway. -"The first time I saw you, my face flushed and my heart raced. Then I spent my whole adolescence secretly in love with you." *Gentle and sweet-tempered x aloof and cocky, a ballet dancer x a conglomerate heir *Second male lead's regret arc / hero secretly in love and takes her away / from school to city life / reunion after separation / sweet romance / happy ending Theme: Redemption, growth, and dreams