A Dream in Floating Capital

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The day Lan Zhu met Jiang Yucheng, her father brought her before him. Bowing and scraping, he smiled ingratiatingly and called the man Second Master Jiang.

Jiang Yucheng casually flipped through a script without looking up. "Can you sing "The Legend of the White Snake"?"

Lan Zhu raised her voice, trembling with youthful inexperience.

Second Master Jiang helped the Lan family through their crisis. Her father left, and Lan Zhu remained behind, living in the attic of the Jiang family's courtyard home in Huaijing's wealthy district.

Through the bamboo window high above, Lan Zhu saw Jiang Yucheng bring home famous opera performers and celebrated actors, their songs floating through the air amid wine and sensual pleasures.

Everyone knew that Second Master Jiang, the formidable head of the Jiang family in Huaijing, loved listening to the lilting, delicate tunes of the leading ladies in traditional opera.

No one expected that one day he would bring home a young, inexperienced woman unlike the lively, coquettish actresses he had always favored.

Lan Zhu was quiet and distant, but her eyes were as clear as autumn waters.

Once onstage, her long water sleeves flowed gracefully, and her singing was sorrowful without being despairing.

Jiang Yucheng sat behind the beaded curtain. He didn't even notice when ash burned his hand. Lost in thought, he recalled something someone had once said: "The Qingyi is a dream, the dream of every man."

He championed Lan Zhu for three years.

On the day Lan Zhu left the attic of the Jiang family's courtyard home, she packed all her belongings and every last bit of money she had into the fragrant sandalwood box Jiang Yucheng had specially made for her, knowing how much she loved it.

She had suffered too much at his hands in this life. She had already repaid the debt her father owed. They were even now, and would never see each other again.

Jiang Yucheng lowered his eyes and glanced at what she had left behind. "You've got a lot of backbone, I'll give you that. But you're too green. Not everyone can make it in this business."

He let her leave, certain that once she spread her wings, she would come meekly back.

Who knew Lan Zhu would keep her word and sever every tie between them?

Jiang Yucheng spent night after sleepless night searching for the turning flourish of her hand and the flutter of her water sleeves.

Almost as if possessed, he bought a ticket to see the famed Huaijing Qingyi Lan, only for Lan Zhu to refuse to take the stage in front of a thousand spectators.

Jiang Yucheng restrained his temper as he strode to the backstage dressing room and saw the woman he hadn't seen in so long.

Almost grinding his teeth, he asked, "Lan Zhu, why aren't you going onstage?"

Lan Zhu drew her slender brows in the mirror and said coolly, "I told you, we would never see each other again."

"Second Master Jiang, I can't sing "The Legend of the White Snake" for you anymore."

1. This is not a Republican-era story. Happy ending.

2. The male lead is a playboy.

3. The passage about the Qingyi being a dream is from the internet.

Coming soon: "In the Southern Wind's Mist". Please add it to your reading list~~

Chen Zhou has a secret she can never tell anyone:

Every evening at dusk, she holds her breath, looks around, and makes her way to the same car at the back gate. From the school sports field, she can see the lights come on in a particular penthouse across the street.

Falling in love with Shen Fangyi is the most outrageous thing Chen Zhou has done in her nineteen years.

She puts on his white shirt and copies him, slipping half a cigarette between her lips.

His hand, hanging at the side of his suit jacket, sweeps in and snatches the cigarette from her mouth. He puts it between his own lips and smiles wickedly. "You're so young. Why learn something bad instead of something good?"

She watches him snuff out the cigarette. With a bland expression, she leans against the floor-to-ceiling window high above the street, watching couples walk together across from the school. A boy rides with a girl, sending cherry blossoms scattering like rain. She asks casually, "Shen Fangyi, do you have a bicycle?"

He stands motionless in the night, tilts his head back, and swallows. He is still as charming and dangerous as ever. "I've got plenty of cars in my garage. You can pick whichever one you like. As for a bicycle..."

He smiles, unhurried, his voice gentle and indulgent, as if soothing an innocent young woman. "I really don't have one."

Chen Zhou smiles along with him.

Later, when she turns twenty-one, the lights in that towering penthouse stay on night after night, but she never steps inside again.

Happy ending.

Theme: Equality and respect