Adoration

Cool, scheming older man × straightforward, levelheaded little princess

Ten-year age gap

Mu Huai has a younger sister who loved following Sheng Ling around and playing with him ever since she was little.

Then, when the girl was in high school, she suddenly told Sheng Ling she liked him.

Sheng Ling assumed she was too young to know better and was just fooling around with him. He always laughed it off.

The last time Mu Tao said something like that was the day after her college entrance exams. Sheng Ling gave his usual crooked smile and looked up at her, lounging casually as he said, "Xiao Tao is always teasing her big brother. Why not pick one of your suitors to be your little boyfriend instead?"

He thought the girl would sulk for a few days, just like before, then show up in front of him again with her usual bright smile.

Instead, someone not only put him on her blacklist, but from then on treated him like a stranger whenever they met.

2

The day after learning that Sheng Ling had always seen her only as a little sister, Mu Tao quietly blocked his contact information. Whenever they crossed paths, she didn't even greet him.

At a gathering some time later, someone jokingly brought up Mu Tao's childhood, saying she'd wanted to be right on Sheng Ling's heels every day.

Mu Tao arched an eyebrow and laughed it off.

"Oh, really? I don't remember that at all."

Then she lifted her lashes and smiled at Sheng Ling, seated across from her.

"Sorry, Brother Sheng Ling. I was so young back then. I didn't know any better."

"It won't happen again."

She smiled casually, carefree as ever, unaware that the cool and aloof man had unconsciously clenched his hands beneath the table.

The smile that had been on his lips had frozen, too.

After the gathering, Sheng Ling braced both hands against the wall and boxed Mu Tao in behind the door. His every movement carried the mature, cool composure of a man grown.

Perhaps he'd had a little to drink. His gaze was deep and hazy.

He lowered one hand to grip the soft, slender waist in front of him, leaning closer, unable to stop himself.

He rubbed her lips almost obsessively and called her in a hoarse voice.

"Taozi."

"You really don't see me as your brother anymore?"

3

Lately, a man has been turning up beneath the women's dormitory at Qing University.

He has an exceptionally handsome face and a prominent brow.

His expression is simply a little distant. Standing ramrod straight in front of a wooden bench, doing nothing at all, he still gives off an imposing presence.

One day, the usually aloof and refined man blocked a young woman from passing.

Mu Tao raised an eyebrow and asked, though she already knew the answer, "Who are you?"

The man took a card from his wallet and said in a soft, low voice, "One of Miss Mu's many admirers."

Theme: Be independent and self-reliant, and strive to be a well-rounded young person of the new era.