Peach Wine

* Chasing-the-wife-to-the-crematorium trope, night-blind heroine, love at first sight

* Sweet peach x heart-searing liquor

* Next up: the sweet little story Grape Soda. Scroll down for the blurb.

When Yu Tao first fell for Lu Ran, she was still in high school.

She never missed one of Lu Ran's races, always sitting in the very front row of the stands, waving her flag and cheering him on.

On the day Lu Ran graduated, Yu Tao gathered her courage and tiptoed up to kiss him under the deep night sky, only for his cold fingertips to press against her lips.

Lu Ran looked at her, his eyes devoid of emotion. "I don't like obedient little girls."

-

Later, the girl with a single ponytail, white dress, and sneakers was nowhere to be seen in the stands.

Yu Tao sat in the last row, wearing a bodycon dress and high heels, her wavy hair falling over her pale wrists.

A different man sat beside her at every race.

Lu Ran watched with cold eyes, until at one race, the man beside Yu Tao was his longtime rival on the track.

The long track stretched on, lap after lap, and Yu Tao and the man drew closer and closer.

On the final lap, as the wheels crossed the black-and-white finish line, Lu Ran saw that only the thinnest sliver of space remained between their lips.

She smiled at him, bright and beautiful, with a hint of defiance.

-

The legendary racer Lu Ran had taken first place every year for ten years straight, ever since he was nineteen. For the first time, the trophy slipped from his grasp.

He lost by a full half-lap. It was a complete and utter defeat.

After the race, Lu Ran took off his helmet, abandoned his car, and walked into the stands. He grabbed the young woman's wrist and cornered her where the cameras couldn't see.

His eyes burned like fire. Just as he leaned in to kiss her, her soft fingers gently pressed against his lips.

She said, "I don't like losers."

Blurb for Grape Soda:

After an accident in her childhood, Lin Tao developed aphasia.

The doctor said the cause was psychological. The Lin family adored their late-in-life little princess and spent more than a decade searching everywhere for a cure, but nothing seemed to help.

Until Wen Zhixian came along.

Wen Zhixian was different from everyone Lin Tao had ever met.

He was gentle and witty, and would secretly take her to the back garden to feed canned food to stray cats.

He would also slowly tell her through sign language, one word at a time: You're beautiful.

Yet the man who was gentle and composed by day was tormented by insomnia every night. After listening to other people's troubles for so long, Wen Zhixian had become anxious and unsettled, and could only sleep with the help of medication.

One more night, he woke from a nightmare with a splitting headache, smashed a vase, and clutched a sharp shard, stabbing the pillow again and again.

Amid a flurry of white feathers, a pair of frail, pale arms embraced Wen Zhixian from behind.

"Wen Zhixian." It was the first time Lin Pu had called him by his full name. Her voice was halting and trembling. "Hug me..."

No medicine could help.

Only Lin Pu was his cure.

-

Lin Tao had once been kidnapped. Another boy was locked up with her.

Taking advantage of a moment when the kidnappers weren't watching, they cut through the ropes binding their hands and feet and ran for their lives, only to end up in a dead end.

Footsteps drew closer and closer in the silent alley.

Lin Tao clutched the boy's hand, as cold as her own, like someone falling off a cliff clinging to the only lifeline.

The boy hid the tiny Lin Tao in a trash can. Before the last sliver of light disappeared, Lin Tao saw him look at her with gentle resolve and gesture for her to be quiet.

[Don't speak.]

Theme: Don't wait until you've lost something to realize its worth