Caught in the Tide

[Complete. My next novel is Quietly Asking the Holy Monk. It's available for pre-order in my collection.] On a rainy day, Jiang Ji's stomach hurt, so he ordered some stomach medicine for delivery. When he opened the door, there was not only medicine but also a drenched, beautiful young man. His name was Xiao Zhou. His life was just like his name: drifting without a home for the first half of it. His eyes always seemed wet. He wasn't very good at cooking, but he was well-behaved when he ate, taking tiny sips of piping-hot porridge before breathing out the damp warmth. He wasn't used to using a hair dryer. When his hair dried naturally, a stray drop of water would sometimes fall onto Jiang Ji's hand. He just seemed to have that damp, rain-soaked quality about him. Even though Jiang Ji could think of so many things about him, he still felt that he and Xiao Zhou were worlds apart. After all, they were completely different in personality and lifestyle. Take arguing, for example: Professor Jiang was sharp-tongued and had made a name for himself across the whole department, while the beautiful young man was gentle and slow to speak, saying nothing until morning. But all their friends said they couldn't be more suited to each other. The sexual tension between the long-legged older man and the gentle, sweet young man never faded. Besides, without this beautiful young man who'd dropped out of the sky like a snail maiden, wouldn't Jiang Ji, a sharp-tongued workaholic who knew nothing about everyday life, have died alone at home one day? That's what his colleagues and friends thought. Then they visited and discovered that Jiang Ji was the one cooking in the kitchen and the one feeding and walking the dog. And honestly, his cooking was almost as good as a five-star hotel chef's. :) 1. Jiang Ji used all those qualities of rain to describe the sweet, reserved Xiao Zhou. Only at the end did he realize: Love is a flood, unstoppable. 2. Jiang Ji was a literature professor. For the first half of his life, all he had was research. Then he found love, and his love matched his research perfectly. “Xiao Zhou sails away, and Jiang Ji entrusts the rest of his life to rivers and seas.” Reading notes: ① A short-to-medium-length story about a sharp-tongued, domineering literature professor x a gentle, sincere, puppy-like sweetheart. ② I'm writing a story in the genre I personally feel most comfortable with. If it's not for you, please stop reading in time. Everyone's reading preferences deserve respect. ③ “Xiao Zhou sails away, and Jiang Ji entrusts the rest of his life to rivers and seas” is from Su Shi's To the Tune of Linjiangxian. Theme: Unexpected encounters in life can open the door to a whole new beginning.