That Distant Her

Blurb:

Among young men, few are poor; the fine horses and clothes of Wuling's youth come easily to them.

Du Fu, Eight Poems on Autumn

Ji Ran's distinctive laugh earned her the nickname Ji Haha in middle school, shortened to Ji Erha.

Yao Yuan, who went to high school with Ji Erha, never dreamed they would get into the same university.

On the day they headed north to register, he clutched the high-speed rail ticket his father had changed for him, his face turning green. Why did he have to ride the same train as her?

His dislike of her was plain on his face, all because she was Principal Ji's daughter.

And his father was Principal Ji's chauffeur.

He had no idea that during the National Day holiday of their freshman year, Ji Ran held a first-class ticket in her hand and spent every day watching the ticketing website, hoping to exchange it so she could sit in second class with him on the way home. She could hardly sleep.

Later on.

Yao Yuan followed in Ji Erha's footsteps, chasing her from Pyongyang to Beijing, then to Lyon, and on to Nanjing.

He pursued her for five whole years.

But when they met again, he failed to recognize the once cheerful Ji Erha, who had gained thirty jin after undergoing medication for depression during their years apart.

And later still.

When she had slimmed back down to the Ji Erha of old and put on a wedding dress to marry him, Yao Yuan's beloved was finally no longer so far away.

A few content notes: The female lead's depression has nothing to do with the male lead, and he doesn't know about it. After recovering, she still has a few minor lingering effects, but with the male lead's care, her health eventually returns completely. The leads are exclusive to each other.

Coming next: Love Is Beyond My Control

Blurb: At sixteen, Jian Shu sent a love letter to Sheng Jun, who attended the sports school next door.

Pink stationery, carrying the faint scent of roses.

A young girl's feelings, there for all to see and smell.

When it was returned, it was crumpled and filthy.

Beside the elegant signature, "Jian Shu," four crooked words crawled across the page: You can't take a joke.

Years later.

During a break at a Chinese-French cultural exchange event, Sheng Jun barged into the simultaneous interpretation booth and pinned Jian Shu against the worktable. He pressed the tip of his nose to the curve of her ear and confessed his long-suppressed longing in a hoarse voice: "Jian Shu, I miss you."

Jian Shu's eyes, lined with delicate eyeliner, swept coolly over Sheng Jun. She blew a breath at his face without a trace of warmth. "You can't take a joke."

At nineteen, Sheng Jun won his first world taekwondo championship. A once-in-a-generation talent, as if the founding master himself had fed him every move, he was arrogant and never took the taekwondo principles his coach repeated every day seriously.

Until one day, Jian Shu announced on her own that they were over. In his daze, Sheng Jun suddenly remembered the eight words his coach often said: Master yourself, uphold propriety; persevere through every setback.

From then on, he treated them as sacred principles and repeated them eight hundred times a day. His teammates teased him: "Mr. Sheng only started learning the first lesson of taekwondo after retiring?"

Sheng Jun gave a bitter smile. "I missed that lesson back then. For that woman, I'll have to make it up sooner or later."

An elegant, erudite French interpreter versus a former world taekwondo champion, now CEO of an international security consulting firm.

Theme: Dedicated to those who still love life after seeing it for what it really is.