A Short Road, A Long Love

[From the open road to the city / Over 200,000 words in total]

After her design was plagiarized, and suffering from pre-wedding anxiety, Sui Ning took her psychologist's advice and went on an extended leave to get away and clear her head. Xu Yuanchen couldn't get away, so she set off alone along the Southern Anhui Sichuan-Tibet Route.

Her road trip with just a dog for company was interrupted by torrential rain, flooding, and landslides, forcing Sui Ning to stay in Hongcun.

There, she met a man named Bian Xun.

At their premarital checkup, both Sui Ning and Xu Yuanchen were found to be perfectly healthy, which surprised her. They were both fine, so why had they repeatedly failed to get excited around each other?

The problem could only be Xu Yuanchen. With someone else, she wasn't cold at all.

Exhausted after a night together, Bian Xun heard that she had once suspected she was frigid. His inscrutable eyes reflected her swollen lips. "Do I have some kind of magic power? You can't even look at me without losing control?"

Sui Ning said nothing. She grabbed the cigarette pack from the bedside table and put a cigarette between her lips.

Bian Xun flicked his lighter and lit it for her. Watching her take a huge, choking drag, he laughed. "Don't put just anything in your mouth. You can't handle it, then you'll cry."

-

After her trip, Sui Ning returned to work.

The new design director had taken over her old office, and Sui Ning stormed over to confront him.

Her colleagues sat up straight, waiting for the show to begin. After all, the vice president had promised Sui Ning the design director position. The new arrival had come out of nowhere, and it would be hard to convince anyone he deserved the job.

Sui Ning lounged on the sofa with her arms crossed, confronting the tall man who had his back to her. "So what if you studied overseas? Who told you to have someone move all my things next door? I took a leave, I didn't quit. Are you declaring war on me?"

The man held a remote control. He suddenly turned off the office's glass walls, then turned around and calmly sat down. "There's only one set of desk and chairs in this office. Or... do you want to work sitting on my lap?"

"You're shameless..."

"You and Xu Yuanchen never broke up!" Bian Xun clenched his fists, his gaze turning icy in an instant. "Sui Ning, which one of us is shameless?"

[Can't we just be friends?]

[I don't make a habit of being friends with other people's fiances.]

"Meeting you was a flood that broke through the crumbling walls of my heart."

Content warning: Neither lead is an innocent, and both have other partners. Lots of potential triggers! This is realistic, not a sweet romance!

Since Jinjiang doesn't allow a female lead to cheat, the story establishes that the leads sleep together only after she tells her fiance, "I think we need to take a break." You can also think of it as the classic Friends bit: "We were on a break." The female lead's actions are like Rachel's: after breaking up with Ross, she quickly meets Gavin and falls in love with him. Ross keeps trying to win her back and tells people they never really broke up, but Rachel still chooses Gavin in the end, leaving Ross alone for the rest of his life. The female lead meets the male lead after telling her fiance she wants to break up, so this isn't a case of "they were already having an affair and just waiting for a chance." No matter how you look at it, the female lead doesn't cheat. She's just so charming that she finds a new love quickly. Besides... her fiance isn't exactly a good person either. They're as bad as each other, so don't criticize the female lead!

I began saving drafts for this story on April 27, 2024. The back end is set to automatically email me copies as proof.

Theme: Live in society, but don't let society dictate your life.