Dawn and Dusk

[Age-Gap Pre-Registration: Green Mountains, No Crossing, Please Add to Your Library]

When Su Muy first met Xie Chaoyan, he was giving an academic lecture on stage.

People praised him as a rare gem in the medical world, pure and upright, gentle and easygoing with everyone and everything, just like the man himself.

Su Muy thought so too, at first.

Back then, she went with Xie Yu to meet his family. Among the many elders, Xie Chaoyan sat quietly, sipping warm tea.

But much later, he would go to great lengths for her alone.

In the dim light, his fingertips traced her slender, pale collarbone, inch by inch. He asked softly, "Muy, would you stay by my side from now on?"

Only then did she understand.

His gentleness was just a facade. He had been longing for her, his secret obsession growing, for longer than she knew.

-

Xie Chaoyan first saw Su Muy one summer night, just after he got off the night shift.

She and Xie Yu were sitting by the flower beds in the residential compound, enjoying the breeze. Under the evening lights, the girl's eyes shone with captivating clarity.

Her long skirt fluttered in the wind, her dangling feet swinging back and forth.

So delicate, yet somehow she seemed to swing right into his heart.

Xie Chaoyan gave nothing away, but that scene stayed in his heart for a long time.

Until, eventually, he fell into the mire completely.

#The First Time I Saw You Was the Beginning of My Plot#

Note: Both leads are each other's first, with a ten-year age gap. A slow-burn, sweet slice-of-life romance.

Blurb for Green Mountains, No Crossing:

An old friend asked Shen Boning to look after a friend of his. He was still wondering which friend it was.

Then he met Cen Wei and learned what it meant to be as pure as a magnolia, proud on its branch.

Cen Wei had just come of age when she moved to Beijing for university. She met Shen Boning at nineteen.

At the time, she was the daughter the Su family had yet to acknowledge, making her way alone and weathering controversy. When a rich playboy pursued and tormented her, she paid him no mind.

She met Shen Boning because people around her said he was aloof and reclusive, with a deeply influential background. Her brother had also mentioned him, saying he was utterly indifferent to others and would probably end up alone for the rest of his life.

But that was far from the truth.

Late at night, beneath the girls' dormitory, a black sedan waited, a silent reminder, perhaps, or the imposing presence of a predator on the hunt.

Shen Boning, eldest son of the Shen family, who had always kept clear of romance and was known for his cool temperament, waited in the car himself. His voice was low as he asked Cen Wei,

"Are you really going to date him?"

-

People in their circle were astonished by the relationship. Most said the ethereal beauty from the art academy had bewitched Shen Boning.

Others said that for a woman, Young Master Shen had fallen out with his family at the compound and never looked back.

They had no idea that he was the one who insisted on going with her, willing to risk everything for her.

Among the mountains upon mountains, Cen Wei never forgot where she came from, nor abandoned the ideals she had once held.

The only person she could not let go of was Shen Boning, in Beijing, amid all its splendor, bright as the moon atop a high terrace.

After thinking it over again and again, she still loved him.

When Shen Boning finally appeared in a remote mountain village a thousand miles from Beijing, having traveled tirelessly over a long distance, Cen Wei's eyes reddened as she saw the person she had missed for so long.

"Sir, we're not headed in the same direction."

"How can you know that if we haven't tried?"

He slowly drew her into his arms, his voice heavy with emotion. "Cen Wei, after meeting you, I never considered choosing anyone else."

-

To Cen Wei, he was a towering mountain reaching into the clouds, one she could never cross.

What she did not know was that one year, at the eastern entrance to a Beijing hutong, dappled shadows swayed beneath the trees. When he glanced back, he saw only a busy temple, where a beautiful woman prayed with utmost sincerity.

The car Shen Boning was riding in passed by her. He glanced over without thinking.

With that single glance, she entered his heart without warning.

He was the mountain, but she was the only crossing through it.

There was no need to cross the mountain. The mountain was hers alone.

A moonlit, high-status young master × a clear-minded, resilient female student

29 × 19

Shen Boning × Cen Wei

Theme: At life's crossroads, make the choice that suits you best.