Let Her Land

My other novel, The Wind and Snow Will Not Bring Him Home, is currently being serialized. Please add it to your library!

Zhou Zuan is an ordinary foreign-language student, while Yu Mengping is a pampered rich kid. When the two of them got together, it was inevitable that outsiders would think of those two words: gold digger.

That wasn't the case, but sometimes even Zhou Zuan found it hard to tell. It was true that Yu Mengping had helped this humble little sparrow from the countryside fly up to a high branch.

Later, Yu Mengping became obsessed with the life of keeping birds.

He taught her to speak with perfect diction, how to carry herself with an air of superiority, and how to be willfully spoiled.

What Yu Mengping never expected was that, in the end, he would teach this little sparrow to be even more heartless than he was.

When she left, she kicked him aside without even looking back.

*

Zhou Zuan went to Britain to study. Looking out at the vast expanse veiled in rain and mist, she thought of the first time she met Yu Mengping.

It was early spring. She had just been dumped by her boyfriend for being poor and cheated on, and was waiting for a ride by the roadside, looking a little forlorn.

Yu Mengping stopped his car in front of her and slowly rolled down the window. "Miss Zhou, heading back to school?"

Even after all this time, Zhou Zuan still remembered the handsome face with its deep-set features. His flirtatious, alluring eyes held a roguish smile, like a tulip.

Sadly, all these years, he had remained a shameless playboy.

*

On the day Zhou Zuan left, it rained heavily in the capital.

Yu Mengping hid in the opera house, listening to a performance.

Someone came to tell him that her plane had taken off.

Yu Mengping didn't answer. He watched the audience in their fine clothes and the performers' long sleeves fluttering across the stage, looking unconcerned.

Then he heard the plaintive lyrics, graceful as birdsong: "He taught me to let go of my resentment, put away my petulance, start anew, and change my ways. Not to yearn for the waters that have passed, but to leave the sea of suffering and return to life, and to recognize the good karma I had sown."

It was a portrait of him, and a lesson from Heaven.

Yu Mengping's heart clenched, and he thought of Zhou Zuan, as pure as a white magnolia.

*

What Zhou Zuan never expected was that this fickle yet coldhearted man would come all the way to Britain to find her.

Yu Mengping held her tightly, his body cold as ice and snow. He called her a heartless ingrate, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Then he asked if she had missed him.

Zhou Zuan wept, tears falling like pear blossoms in the rain, and at last her heart settled.

Yu Mengping heard her say, "I will always remember your kindness, sir."

Jingyuan once had an old magnolia tree that was over a hundred years old. When it bloomed, its blossoms resembled snow, peeking over the eaves and walls.

Later, just as Zhou Zuan wished, the area beneath the magnolia tree was filled with tulips, all lovingly tended by her.

Their getting together was no coincidence. It was intentional.

Seven-year age gap

The capital's famous playboy X a poor, beautiful heroine fluent in English and French

Both are sexually inexperienced. (Don't ask why the playboy is also sexually inexperienced. I currently like writing this kind of character. Remarriage stories are the exception. I can't promise I won't write characters who aren't, but I'll make it clear.)

The heroine isn't worldly-wise at first. She goes from idealism to realism, and has her own career-growth arc. The male lead is the opposite, and later becomes a bit of a lovesick fool.

"He taught me to let go of my resentment..." is from the Peking opera The Unicorn Purse.

Zuan is pronounced cuan, second tone.

-------------------- Blurb for the upcoming novel: Pregnant, I Want Five Million to Break Up --------------------

The news that Cheng Ji was getting engaged quickly spread through their social circle. Even Jing Zhi heard about it.

The others congratulated Cheng Ji, then hinted that Jing Zhi might not be easy to get rid of. After all, they all knew Jing Zhi came from a poor family and would do anything for money.

Cheng Ji shook his head with a smile. "She's not that kind of person."

But the very next day, Jing Zhi cornered him outside his office and tossed him a pregnancy test result. "I'm pregnant. I want five million as a breakup fee. Otherwise, I'll go make a scene in front of your fiancée."

Cheng Ji had no choice but to give her the money.

After Jing Zhi left, Cheng Ji received a notebook filled with the secret love she had kept hidden throughout high school.

Cheng Ji thought she would come back. But he waited and waited, only to see Jing Zhi walking hand in hand with another man beneath the sunset, doing the things she'd written in that secret-love notebook that she had wanted to do with him.

Cheng Ji's cold, unfeeling heart began to ache.

Later, Cheng Ji tried to win her back. "Jing Zhi, what do I have to do to get you to come back?"

Jing Zhi gave him a cold look and pointed at a nearby garbage dump. "Jump in."

Back then, she had been treated like the mud at the bottom of society. How could she ever reach Cheng Ji, that untouchable flower on a high mountain, untouched by dust?

Yet Cheng Ji didn't hesitate for even a moment. He jumped right in, covering himself in filth.

[I want the untouchable flower to go mad for me]

Theme: You have to lose someone before you learn to cherish them