Green Plum Gummies

◎ Childhood friends / mutual secret crushes

Shu Li has a secret: she likes her childhood friend, Lin Chaohe.

Unfortunately, Lin Chaohe only cares about studying.

Clutching a hair tie, she secretly vows to confess after the college entrance exams and put her hair tie on his wrist.

For her seventeenth birthday, Shu Li wants Lin Chaohe to go to a museum with her.

That day, she eagerly follows his plans, struggling to read the words at the entrance. “The Museum of Broken Hearts??”

Lin Chaohe taps his watch. “Didn’t you say we’d go home and do some practice tests after the museum? This is the closest museum. Let’s hurry.”

Shu Li thinks back. “I clearly said we’d go home and open the present you gave me...”

Lin Chaohe crushes her hopes. “The present is a complete set of practice tests with no answer key. Once you open it, you have to do them.”

Shu Li: “...”

A slightly frayed hair tie is displayed inside the museum.

The label reads:

The first gift you gave me when we were together.

The first thing you returned to me when we broke up.

Shu Li thinks of all the hair ties that keep mysteriously disappearing and decides this is a sign from the heavens that they’re not meant to be.

Until one day, she goes into Lin Chaohe’s room and sees a box of hair ties neatly arranged on his desk.

Shu Li’s eyes turn red in an instant. “?”

“How many girls’ hair ties have you collected?”

Lin Chaohe raises an eyebrow.

“Not many.”

“Just yours.”

◎ Lin Chaohe:

My childhood friend seems to have a crush on someone. She spends all day fiddling with a hair tie and wanting to put it on his wrist. It’s childish and gets in the way of studying, so I trip up every guy she likes.

Only later do I realize I’ve been sabotaging myself for three years.

*Sweet girl x top student. No dating before adulthood.

[Please add my next novel, "Mint Rice Wine", to your collection!]

[My childhood rival has secretly loved me for ten years!]

Zhou Qingyi never imagined that one day she would make a documentary with her longtime rival, Jiang Qingyan.

Thinking back to the brief time she stayed at his home, he was still called Jiang Qingyan.

The handsome, free-spirited boy was rebellious to the core and believed in gods and Buddhas, going through all kinds of hardship just to get a fortune told.

The fortune teller said his fate lacked water, so he changed his name to Jiang Qingyan.

She found this deeply puzzling, and it also made her dislike the Buddhist beads on his wrist.

The two of them maintain a very deliberate distance on set.

-

At a cast dinner, Zhou Qingyi hears that Jiang Qingyan has complete faith in the fortune that led him to change his name. Curious, she asks, “Was that fortune about changing your name really accurate?”

His gaze is hard to read. “Of course.”

She offers him a polite compliment. “So your success as a director is thanks in part to your new name bringing you good luck?”

He swirls his wine, neither confirming nor denying it. “Back then, I wasn’t asking about my career.”

She’s puzzled. “Then what did you ask about?”

A smile plays on Jiang Qingyan’s lips. “Love.”

His fate lacked water, but what he lacked was the three water strokes in Zhou Qingyi’s name.

*Sharp-tongued little mint x tipsy sweet rice wine

*Oblivious cultural relic restorer x B-king director who figured out his feelings way too early

[Check out my completed novels in my author profile!]

"You’re My Downfall": A matching profile picture she used with her ex has been dug up.

"Thorny Moonlight": A secret crush comes true / second chance at love, they get straight back to it when they reunite.

2021.06.05 / Archived on Weibo

Theme: Become a better version of yourself alongside the person you love