Trickery

[Please add my next novel, "The Wind Rises in His Eyes," to your favorites ●3●]

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Cheng Sui first met Chi Chao on a country road in the mountains. He gave her a ride since he was headed that way.

The second time they met was at Chuntai Temple. Cheng Sui fixed him with a captivating gaze, twirling a metal lighter in her hand. Her red lips parted. “Fancy seeing you again.”

Chi Chao raised his eyes, smiled, and said, “What a coincidence.”

On the 1314 bus leaving Chuntai Temple, they ran into each other again. When they got off, they exchanged smiles.

One night, with the moon shining bright, Cheng Sui received a call on her phone from Cangnan.

“Miss Cheng, you left your lipstick with me.”

Cheng Sui raised an eyebrow. “When are you coming to pick up your lighter?”

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Chi Chao was born somewhere you could see the sea just by opening a window. Cheng Sui was born somewhere you could only see the river. She loved the sea and yearned for it.

So she went with Chi Chao.

Chi Chao had vodka, a band, and a courtyard full of flowers.

Later, Cheng Sui left without saying goodbye.

Chi Chao's band broke up.

One day, Cheng Sui suddenly received a letter. Inside was a single sentence and a withered rose.

Only because you and I made a promise first.

[Only because you and I made a promise first / Before I sleep forever, I will journey a thousand miles]

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*The last line is from Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."

Blurb for the next novel, "The Wind Rises in His Eyes"

After they parted at Tanzhe Temple, Ni Nan waited half a month before receiving a call from Zhou Qingshan.

“Miss Ni, I still can't remember ever taking your picture.”

The third master of the Zhou family, born into a life of wealth and privilege, kept his distance from worldly affairs and spent all day playing with his agarwood.

Ni Nan wanted to be the agarwood in his hands.

“I heard the magnolias at Peking University are blooming. How about I take a picture of you today, Miss Ni?”

Later, Ni Nan got her wish and became his agarwood.

So many spring days tempted her to lose herself, but even the wildest dream must eventually end.

After graduating from university, Ni Nan returned to the northwest.

The day Ni Nan said she was leaving, Zhou Qingshan opened the car door for her.

One day, Zhou Qingshan received a call from his alma mater, inviting him to give a speech as an honored alumnus at the school's seventieth anniversary celebration.

He stopped for a long while in front of the honors wall. In the second row, third from the left, Zhou Qingshan gazed at a photo. His former teacher followed his gaze and said, “This young woman looks a little like you, especially her handwriting.”

But his Ni Ni had said her handwriting was too ugly to show anyone, and she had never let him see it.

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Ni Nan sat on the lawn in front of her grandfather's house when she received a call from the capital.

“Miss Ni, summer is almost over. I'm coming to the northwest to find you.”

The northwest was so vast. If Ni Nan didn't tell him where she was, how could he find her?

But Zhou Qingshan said, “I've been there before.”

They say that when someone's body temperature reaches 38.6 degrees Celsius after meeting another person, there's an eighty percent chance they've fallen in love at first sight.

The first time Ni Nan met Zhou Qingshan was in winter, in Baihaba Village. She went home and had a fever all night. Her grandfather said she'd caught a cold from the wind.

She said she'd fallen for someone.

.Ni Nan x Zhou Qingshan

.Ten-year age gap

Theme: Neither freedom nor love will be forsaken