Shu Yao x Shang Li [aloof, refined young master from the capital's elite circles x fake heiress and classical dance principal dancer; reunion after a long separation / mutual pining / winning her back / sweet romance]
During college, Shu Yao and Shang Li had a passionate romance. Shang Li, usually so detached and distant with everyone, had fallen into the palm of Shu Yao's hand. Their relationship lasted two years.
When they graduated, their breakup caused a huge scandal. Shu Yao seemed to become a different person as she looked at the young man kneeling before her and said, "I thought you were the real young master of the Shang family, so I dated you. Who knew you were an illegitimate son who couldn't be brought out in public?"
"For families like ours, nothing is more taboo than an illegitimate child. Shang Li, let's part on good terms." Shu Yao smiled, her expression utterly resolute.
Shang Li looked at her, pain and heartbreak written across his face. He asked, "Yaoyao, every plan I have for the future includes you. Can we please not break up?"
Shu Yao laughed freely. She forcefully pulled off the bracelet the young man had earned through his part-time jobs and tossed it in front of him.
She said, "Shang Li, let's end things here."
In the year Shu Yao started college, her parents arranged a match for her. She chose Lu Yu, the only son of the Lu family, because he was the most like Shang Li. She followed her parents' wishes and dated him, expecting to proceed step by step into marriage.
But a month before their engagement, she was told that she was the fake heiress. The real heiress had been sent abroad for an education back when Shu Yao was in high school.
At last, everything she had never understood had a perfectly clear explanation. The day Shu Yao learned the truth, she completely fell apart.
The fiancé who was supposed to get engaged to her tore up their agreement. In front of everyone, he humiliated her, just as she had once humiliated Shang Li. "For all these years, dating Shu Yao has been like being a monk. If our families hadn't been so well matched, I'd have dumped her ages ago."
"But damn, she's got a body like a dream. Before we split, I'm definitely going to get my hands on her." The usually refined Lu Yu dropped his mask.
His words pierced her heart like a blade. The pain was unbearable. So this was how she had treated Shang Li back then.
But just as she was about to step out from behind the screen, the man standing by the door casually held a cigarette between his fingers. In a low voice, he asked, "I heard every word through the private-room wall. Which idiot said that?"
The man's low, hoarse voice made every breath hurt. Shu Yao remembered Shang Li's voice even in her dreams.
What followed was chaos. The two men fought, and Lu Yu was beaten until he begged for mercy. Even Shu Yao was dragged out.
Their eyes met. Shang Li wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his fingertip, looking as defiant as ever. "Shu Yao, all these years later, you still have the same garbage taste in men."
He taunted her in front of everyone. "How did you get worse and worse at this? Each man you find is worse than the last, huh?"
Shu Yao was so provoked that her eyes reddened, but what did it matter? She had been the one to give up Shang Li all those years ago.
Falling from the clouds and being ground into the dirt, Shu Yao felt her petals being stripped away one by one. Resigned to her fate, she packed her things and moved out of the Shu family home, becoming everyone's laughingstock.
In the bitter wind, she watched her nominal fiancé stand before her, holding Shu Li's hand.
"Shu Li, congratulations on beginning a new life." Shu Yao shivered as she spoke, but the smile on her face was dazzling.
She had never thought that a life so harsh and degrading could ever come to an end.
Dragging her suitcase, she wandered aimlessly until she spotted a familiar Bentley. Shang Li stopped and looked at her tearful face, giving a derisive snort. "You should have cried in front of Lu Yu. Maybe he'd have taken pity on you and gotten back together with you, huh?"
The man before her felt both strange and familiar. Shu Yao called softly, "Shang Li," but he didn't even look back.
Yet the moment he heard a body fall behind him, Shang Li almost instinctively shouted for the car to stop.
Even in her sleep, the sick Shu Yao kept calling his name. It nearly broke Shang Li's heart. Did the Shu family even know how to raise a daughter? How could they let her waste away until she was this thin?
Later, nearly everyone in their social circle knew that the head of the Shang family had gone back to an old flame, and was completely hooked all over again.
Once he was lost in her again, he all but bit her ear as he warned her that she could only ever fall into his hands in this lifetime.
Tips:
1. Reunion after a long separation; both have only ever been with each other
2. Fragile beauty with a tendency toward obsession x scheming CEO
3. There was a reason for the breakup!
Theme: A happy romance.
