Maple Latte

My next book will be Wild Wind Knows Me. It launches on October 2. Please give it a home. Love you all!

[Second Male Lead Takes the Crown, Scumbag Gets His Legs Broken, Girlboss Romance]

Su Bantang thinks that, with her education and looks, she's a respectable match as the girlfriend of Yan Mo, a wealthy young man in the imperial capital.

After three years together, she's gentle and considerate. Even when his mother pressures her to quit her job and stay home to look after him, she can only meekly plead, while letting Yan Mo's friends tease and mock her.

Then, one midnight, after searching the streets of the imperial capital for him, she finds him in a bar, drunk and laughing at her among a group of his useless friends:

"Su Bantang? She's only good for marriage. Why would I settle down for her? I like mature, interesting girls like xx."

The next day, Su Bantang drags her suitcase to the airport and flies to Canada alone.

#

After Su Bantang has been abroad for over six months, Yan Mo figures she must be ready to regret leaving him.

When he shows up outside her school, expecting her to come running to beg him for another chance with tears in her eyes, another young man appears behind her.

His name is Ji Feng. He has kept every creep away from her, and gently stayed by her side through all the moments Yan Mo was absent. Su Bantang depends on him and trusts him, and has blossomed back into a bright, vivacious young princess.

Unable to stand it, Yan Mo throws work and money at her, and even his useless friends try to talk him up:

"Come on, don't make a scene. If you get back together, we can work out the bride price and the marriage registration."

But she just pouts, her starry eyes full of cool indifference, then turns and throws herself into Ji Feng's arms with a coquettish whine:

"Honey, let's go. I don't know him."

She doesn't spare Yan Mo another glance.

#

After her breakup, Su Bantang once thought that tea always goes cold, flowers always fall, and ties between people are nothing special.

Until the boy from her past fought his way through every obstacle, crossed more than nine thousand kilometers, grew up at lightning speed, and came running to her.

In every darkest moment, he held her hand tight:

"Sis, I'm here for you."

Only then did she understand that all the neglect and indifference had simply been because she hadn't yet met someone who would truly cherish her.

The evening light is golden and far-reaching, and April's freshness is so tender. You are many years late, yet I am still glad you came.

Anna Akhmatova

[Reader's Guide]

1. They don't get back together after the breakup. The male lead is Ji Feng.

2. The female lead has a rough time early on, but there is no angst once the male lead takes center stage.

3. The male lead is four years younger than the female lead.

4. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. Happy ending.

Coming soon: Wild Wind Knows Me, launching October 2, 2025:

Shu Li lived a conventional life for fifteen years. During the year she was fostered by the Cheng family in the imperial capital, she did two reckless things.

First, as a fan, she fell for an unreachable movie star.

Second, as a foster child, she fell for her foster family's "older brother."

They were one and the same person: Cheng Fengzhi. Back then, he wasn't famous yet. When she fainted during military training, he bought out every bubble tea shop on the block to buy her silence. And on deep summer nights, he would hold her hand as they raced through the dark.

He taught her that "your future should be spent on what you love," but the year he became famous, he drew a line between them with his own hands:

"You're still young. You'll meet someone better."

From then on, the moon was no longer admired by only one evening primrose.

Later, in a torrential downpour in Jiangcheng, Shu Li brought her childhood friend into the building's entrance hall.

Headlights cut through the blinding curtain of rain. Cheng Fengzhi stepped out of the car, rain soaking his shirt and revealing the crescent-shaped scar at his collarbone. He grabbed the hand holding her umbrella so tightly that he nearly snapped the red cord on her jade pendant:

"Make him leave."

"Brother." Shu Li raised her eyes slightly and twirled the umbrella handle with her fingertips. "Is it against your rules for an adult to let a friend stay the night?"

The last thread of his self-control snapped. He leaned toward her, pressing a hand to the back of her neck and drawing her close:

"Rules?"

"Go upstairs, or come with me. You choose."

[I don't know how to describe this conflicted feeling. You're a precious stone I've kept close to my heart. I finally managed to warm you, only for you to be taken away and put on display for the whole world. You deserve to be seen, but I'm afraid that beneath the spotlight, you won't need me anymore. I'm afraid you'll become famous, and even more afraid you'll become too famous.]

On the first day she met Cheng Fengzhi, Shu Li wrote in her diary: "When the orange candy melted in my mouth, I tasted the Milky Way in summer."

Later, an advertisement for orange candy starring top-tier star Cheng Fengzhi covered the subway stations in the imperial capital. He posted a screenshot of that diary entry online: [@Su Li The galaxy is in the way I look at you.]

Reader's Guide: 1. Foster-family romance with a six-year age gap, from school to city life; both leads are each other's first love and are sexually inexperienced.

2. No real-life inspiration! Little entertainment-industry content; the male lead isn't an idol, so he's free to date.

3. A slow-burn story of personal growth, three parts bittersweet, seven parts sweet. Happy ending.

Theme: Tenderness may come late, but it will come.