Winter's Damp Mist

When Xi Yuan was sixteen, she met her father's girlfriend, Yu Yanqing, for the first time.

Her father was away on a business trip, and she promised not to cause Yu Yanqing any trouble. She endured the discomfort of having a stranger in the house.

But Yu Yanqing deliberately teased her.

Xi Yuan had never met such an irresponsible adult. Suppressing her anger, she spoke in a cool voice.

"Are you a child?"

"Isn't it hard, holding it all in?"

Yu Yanqing suddenly sighed, sounding almost wistful.

"Kid, this is your home. I'm the outsider."

"If you don't like me, you can dislike me openly. You don't have to pretend."

"I won't go complain to your father."

After something happened to her family, Xi Yuan faced overwhelming pressure and grief. The lifeline she wanted to cling to was this very irresponsible woman.

"I still have two years before I'm an adult. Until then, I need a guardian."

"I hope you'll be my guardian. I've drafted a contract."

"You're a minor. This contract has no legal validity."

A faint smile rippled in Yu Yanqing's eyes.

She held the contract in one hand and picked up a pen with the other. Without uncapping it, she lightly pressed it to the paper and tapped twice.

"Kid, are you making me promises you can't keep?"

Yu Yanqing was beautiful, with a mature, voluptuous figure and a proud, aloof temperament.

Beyond her envy, Xi Yuan felt an uncontrollable fascination with her.

She tried to suppress this strange feeling inside her, only to find that the harder she suppressed it, the more it spiraled out of control.

She held back, tested the waters, made plans, and set herself a deadline, waiting for the day she would come of age.

Yu Yanqing vanished without a trace. Xi Yuan searched for her year after year, nearly driven mad.

She became like a machine. Apart from studying and working, she had no interest in anyone or anything.

Rational, dispassionate, and always putting profit first, she was respected and feared by everyone in her field, old hands and newcomers alike.

Until Yu Yanqing returned. The icy beauty CEO Xi, known to everyone, had red eyes like a rabbit.

At night.

Xi Yuan bent her knee and placed a devout kiss on the inside of Yu Yanqing's wrist. Her voice and movements were gentle, but her breathing was ragged.

"I don't have any experience. If I'm doing something wrong, teach me."

Yu Yanqing's eyes glistened with moisture and held the teasing amusement of someone playing with a child. Her pale lips parted, and she uttered two cool, crisp syllables.

"I won't."

But the response she received was an even rougher movement than before.

The girl, long since grown into an adult, now bent over, crouched beside her legs. Her slightly hoarse voice carried an unyielding force.

"Then endure it."

Reading guide:

1. Cold, calculating, scheming older woman vs. solitary, devoted, loyal younger woman

2. No romantic relationship while the guardianship is in effect

3. Fourteen-year age gap, later reduced to four years

Theme: As long as you persevere, the clouds will part and the moon will shine again.