Island Diary

The print edition is coming soon

Blurb:

Si Piao keeps a diary recording all the unspeakable secrets of her girlhood:

When she was fifteen, she was withdrawn, fragile, and quiet.

Yet every day on her way home from school, she deliberately slowed her steps, listening to the roar of the motorcycle behind her,

waiting to see that carefree boy lean down, smiling with laughter in his eyes.

When she was seventeen, for the first time, she nervously and excitedly climbed onto the boy's motorcycle and rode away with the wind.

She lightly clutched the hem of his clothes, while the wild fire in her heart burned her to ashes.

But she was riding so close to him only to accompany him to meet the girl he loved.

When she was eighteen, she tried to be like the girl he liked: bold, capricious, and daring.

She cornered him against a wall and asked whether he would be willing to love her.

Yan Wenyu merely tapped the cigarette between his fingers. "Don't imitate someone else. It doesn't suit you."

After turning eighteen, Si Piao left the little island that held all her secrets.

When an old friend brought up Yan Wenyu, Si Piao only took a sip of wine and said,

"He was just a motorcycle punk I had a foolish crush on as a girl. It wasn't serious."

"Did he ever come looking for you again?"

"He did."

"What did you say?"

Si Piao pointed to the male classmate beside her. "I said this is my boyfriend."

"I like gentle, courteous men. Someone like him, a stray dog? Sorry, he's not my type."

After a few rounds of drinks, Si Piao picked up her coat but accidentally walked into the private room next door.

She raised her eyes and saw Yan Wenyu, whom she hadn't seen in four years, beneath the dim yellow lights.

Just like that night of torrential rain years ago, when he had charged alone into a gang's hideout with a baton and rescued her, standing beneath the headlights with a chilling, ghostlike stillness.

One second, he was the perfect gentleman: "Long time no see."

The next, his jaw was clenched as he pinned her in the darkness. "Say you love me."

*

Si Piao would always remember that torrential rain, when he charged alone into the gang's hideout and stood beneath the only streetlight.

Blood ran from his forehead past the upturned corner of his eye and down his sharp jaw, mingling with their kiss.

No one's first kiss was like hers: intertwined and passionate, bitter and bloody.

"Si Piao, listen to the waves in that seashell. Listen to the wind along the edge of the island. They're all saying, I love you."

Rebellious, aloof biker vs. warm, healing photographer

Unrequited love fulfilled, rekindled romance

Please note:

1. There are extensive school-life flashbacks.

2. The male lead has only ever loved the female lead. They are each other's first love.

3. There is a three-year age gap between them.

Upcoming story blurb

Lu Qin had known since childhood that he would one day marry the youngest daughter of the Lin family, a girl who couldn't do a thing for herself.

Lu Qin had never once given Lin Shuyou a proper look. He thought he would simply marry a pretty ornament to keep at home.

But Lin Shuyou seemed entirely oblivious, constantly hovering around him with gentle attentiveness, hoping to make him fall for her.

One day, he finally couldn't take it anymore. He harshly told the delicate young woman that they could never be together, then stormed off.

He walked alone into the rain beneath his umbrella, yet found himself thinking of the tear glistening in Lin Shuyou's eye as he had rushed out moments earlier.

Lu Qin rubbed his brow. Never mind, what had she done wrong? She was only so in love with him.

Lu Qin hurried back through the rain and was about to push open Lin Shuyou's bedroom door when he saw through the window that the girl who had just been red-eyed and frail now had half an apple in her mouth. She was lounging beneath a down comforter with one leg crossed over the other,

looking so pleased with herself as she bragged to someone on the phone:

"Your girl Shuyou never misses when she makes a move. Don't worry, I'll have that engagement called off in no time!"

Lu Qin: ...

So she'd been putting on an act for me this whole time?

After turning eighteen, Lin Shuyou had just two goals:

One: break off her engagement to Lu Qin as soon as possible.

Two: if she couldn't manage that, then just hang on until she turned twenty-three.

The inheritance agreement held by her uncles said that once she graduated from college at twenty-three, all the Lin family's wealth would go to her.

At the Lu residence, she played the role of the fake-sweet girl Lu Qin hated most, holding out until her twenty-third birthday. She packed her things that very night and was about to leave when a shadow in the doorway stopped her.

"Are you sure you want to leave?" Lu Qin asked, leaning against the table with his arms folded.

He tossed a stack of documents onto the table from behind him. "Lin Shuyou has graduated from college at twenty-three..."

"I know, I'm loaded," Lin Shuyou said proudly, cutting him off. "Now I'm nothing but beautiful and rich."

Lu Qin gave a faint laugh and curled his lips. "Lin Shuyou can inherit the family fortune if she graduates from college at twenty-three and marries into the Lu family. Are you sure you want to leave?"

Lin Shuyou: ... What?

She picked up the agreement and read it over several times.

"Wait." She hurriedly called after him as he turned to leave. "I think there's still room for us to work together."

Lu Qin put down the agreement, leaned back lazily, and stretched out on the sofa.

"Fine. Call me 'husband' first, and I'll see how much room there is."

Sharp-tongued romantic who can't help imagining things vs. long-suffering expert at calling off engagements

Green Robe

The day Nan Zhu met Jiang Yucheng, her father brought her before him. Her father bowed and scraped, smiling obsequiously as he called the other man Second Master Jiang.

Jiang Yucheng casually flipped through a collection of opera scripts without looking up. "Can you sing White Snake?"

Nan Zhu raised her voice to sing, her youthful tone trembling.

The Jiang family forgave the Lan family's debt. Her father left, leaving Nan Zhu behind in the attic of a courtyard house in Beijing's wealthy circle, where the Jiang family lived.

From the bamboo-framed windows high above, Nan Zhu saw Jiang Yucheng bring home celebrated opera stars and gifted performers, their songs drifting through the air as wine and sensuality filled the rooms.

Everyone knew that Second Master Jiang, the formidable power player of Beijing's elite, loved listening to the lilting, wavering songs of opera's leading ladies. The famous performers who accompanied him to events were never the same for long.

Word was, Second Master Jiang had recently acquired a new favorite: a down-on-her-luck young woman. The leading ladies of Beijing's elite were all waiting for her to lose his favor and be thrown out.

But the woman was cool and quiet. Once she stepped onto the stage, her flowing water sleeves moved with graceful ease, and her singing was mournful yet restrained.

Jiang Yucheng sat behind a beaded curtain. The cigarette ash burned his hand, but he didn't notice. He thought ruefully of something someone had once said: "A qingyi is a dream, the dream of every man."

He groomed her for stardom, and kept her by his side for three years.

The day Nan Zhu left the attic of the Jiang family's courtyard house, she packed everything she owned into the agarwood box Jiang Yucheng had specially made for her, knowing it was her favorite.

She had suffered too much at his hands in this life. She had repaid the debt her father owed. They were even now, and would never see each other again.

Jiang Yucheng lowered his eyes and glanced at what she had left behind, then drew another woman close as she murmured softly beside him.

"She's got plenty of backbone, I'll give her that. Too bad she's still green. This circle in Beijing isn't a place just anyone can make it in."

Who could have guessed that Nan Zhu would keep her word and cut all ties with him?

Jiang Yucheng was restless night after night, searching for the swirling hand movements and the subtle flutter of water sleeves.

On a whim, he bought a ticket to see Lan Qingyi, the renowned performer who had taken Beijing by storm. But Nan Zhu ignored the thousand spectators in the audience and never appeared onstage.

Jiang Yucheng held back his anger as he went to the dressing room backstage. When he saw the woman he hadn't seen in so long, he asked through clenched teeth, "Nan Zhu, why didn't you go onstage?"

Nan Zhu traced her slender brows in the mirror and answered coolly, "I told you, we won't see each other again."

"Second Master Jiang, I can no longer sing White Snake for you."

Beijing power player vs. celebrated qingyi opera singer

Theme: Study hard