At sixteen, Xu Zhinian fell for an underground rapper.
She made illustrations for him, produced high-definition videos, and edited all kinds of clips to promote him and his music.
At last, one of her videos made him go viral.
She was glad that people had finally noticed him. Then, one day, he vanished without a trace. All his songs were taken down, too.
She wanted to know why he had disappeared out of nowhere, even though she had practically launched him into the spotlight herself. So she repeated a year of school and got into the university he had attended.
When she was twenty-two and nearing graduation, she was sitting in a required course for the third time after failing it twice. He appeared at the podium in a crisp white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses, introducing himself as the course instructor.
She couldn't believe her eyes. She checked the name of the instructor and realized it had changed...
He had also become completely different from the person she remembered.
Back then, to please his fans, he would stand onstage, winking and smiling sweetly as if it came naturally. Flirtatious lines came just as easily.
Now he stood at the lectern, stern and distant.
She wanted to get closer to him, but even with that stern expression, his face was enough to draw a crowd of students clutching their books and asking questions. The space around the lectern was packed.
She stopped at the edge of the crowd, gazing at him from afar.
The next second, he made his way through the crowd and stopped in front of her.
"Long time no see."
-
Xu Zhinian realized she was running into Gu Jingran more and more often.
At the library, she checked out two books that were next to each other. At the cafeteria, she looked up from her meal and found him sitting across from her. She even ran into him singing onstage at a live music bar...
This time, they were in an elevator. She lowered her head and found herself captivated by his white shirt, thinking of the abs she'd seen beneath one at a livehouse.
He felt her burning gaze and asked helplessly, "What are you looking at?"
She blurted out, "Your abs..."
Gu Jingran glanced at the textbook in her arms, adjusted his glasses, and said solemnly, "But I'm not a beast."
-
After graduation, Xu Zhinian returned to campus and happened to catch him just as his class ended.
In the empty classroom, he pinned her behind the open classroom door, took off his gold-rimmed glasses, and pressed his lips against hers with a possessive intensity.
Xu Zhinian breathed against his ear. "Didn't Professor Gu say he wouldn't be a beast?"
His kiss grew even more passionate, leaving her breathless.
"Miss Xu, I'm determined to be a beast this time."
The novel is tentatively planned to launch in late March or early April 2026, once more than 60% of the full manuscript is complete. It is expected to be 170,000 words, with daily updates tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m. The launch date will be confirmed in late March.
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