Unable to Escape This Heartbeat

My next story will be The Secret I Can't Hide. Please add it to your collection. Here's the blurb.

In high school, Zhou Zhi was an excellent student, well-behaved and sensible, the quintessential "someone else's child." Chen Shiyu, on the other hand, was carefree, unruly, and reckless. He even had a criminal record for fighting. They belonged to completely different worlds.

After a chance encounter, the boy's image was etched deep in Zhou Zhi's heart. He became the unattainable one she thought about constantly.

Then, in her second year of high school, Zhou Zhi saw Chen Shiyu in her class again. The sound of her heart skipping a beat was crystal clear.

Zhou Zhi had seen him act carefree and reckless as he toyed with people's feelings, and had also seen him utterly dejected and heartbroken when no one else was around. Her friends said they weren't right for each other and urged her to stay away from him. But Zhou Zhi refused to believe he was the delinquent everyone thought he was, and resolutely sank into her unrequited love for him, unable to pull herself out.

On her eighteenth birthday, she gathered her courage and confessed. Chen Shiyu replied impatiently, "I'm sorry. If anything I've done made you misunderstand, I apologize. Could you please stay away from me from now on?"

--

Years later, they met again. Chen Shiyu was now a successful head of an aerospace materials company, while Zhou Zhi had become an excellent surgeon.

A small mishap brought them together by chance at a hotel. Zhou Zhi hid the last remnants of her feelings deep inside, composed herself, and spoke in a strictly professional manner.

Chen Shiyu knew she was treating him like a stranger. He took a drag from his cigarette, the smile on his lips slowly fading away.

At a high school reunion later on, no one expected Chen Shiyu, who never bothered attending any gatherings, to suddenly show up. Everyone surrounded him like he was a star, eager to buy him drinks. He entertained them absentmindedly, his gaze seemingly drifting toward Zhou Zhi.

Zhou Zhi couldn't be bothered to deal with him and simply walked away. But he wouldn't let it go and followed her outside.

Under the hotel's dim, suggestive lights, the man cornered her against the wall, his face irresistibly alluring. Chen Shiyu's voice was low and husky. "I take back what I said."

1. Both leads are each other's first and only, one-on-one romance. The male lead seems carefree and sharp-tongued, but he's actually attentive and sensitive.

2. The first half takes place in high school, and the second half in the city as adults.

[Unrequited Love Comes True, Reunited After Years Apart] Handsome, roguish, sharp-tongued man x sweet, sensible woman

++++++My next story will be The Secret I Can't Hide. Please add it to your upcoming reads. Here's the blurb.

When Lu Yuchen was fifteen, a filthy little girl arrived at the Lu family's villa.

The girl was named Liang Lu. She was fourteen, her father was dead, and her mother had run away.

From then on, Lu Yuchen had a little shadow following him around.

Lu Yuchen had a crush on the class beauty in the next room, and Liang Lu helped him pursue her, acting as his cover.

Lu Yuchen came in last in his class, so Liang Lu changed the score on her own exam paper to make it even lower than his.

Lu Yuchen got caught skipping class, so Liang Lu said it had been her idea.

In front of her classmates and his mother, Shen Junyan, the girl was always sweet, sensible, and good at getting along with everyone.

For that, Lu Yuchen often mocked her and played all sorts of tricks on her. Then, when he was seventeen, the girl's mother, who had been gone for years, suddenly showed up. As the girl was moving out of the house, Lu Yuchen grabbed her by the collar, his eyes desolate. "You're never coming back, are you?"

The girl smiled brightly. "Maybe not. You finally got your wish."

The boy stared blankly as she disappeared through the doorway. For the first time, he felt an emptiness somewhere inside him...

Years later, they met again at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new school building. Lu Yuchen stood front and center as the investor. As Liang Lu passed him with the tray of ceremonial scissors, he didn't even raise an eyebrow.

The principal warmly introduced her to him. "This is Teacher Liang from our school. She's an excellent Chinese teacher."

Lu Yuchen, who had been silent until then, flicked away his cigarette ash and suddenly remarked, "She is. She also writes excellent love letters."

One day, Lu Yuchen trapped Liang Lu in a corner after she'd repeatedly avoided him. He reached out and brushed the loose hair from her forehead, his voice low and husky. "Still trying to avoid me?"

Liang Lu struggled, her face flushed. "You've got it wrong, Mr. Lu. We have no grudge, and there's nothing between us. Why would I avoid you?"

Lu Yuchen lowered his eyes and smiled faintly. "Is that so? Then what about the notebook under your bed?"

When she was seventeen, she left in a hurry, and the notebook recording every secret in her heart accidentally fell beneath the bed...

A seemingly docile little lamb x a sharp-tongued, secretly flirtatious fake big shot

2022.12.2

++++++Liang Lu: I have a secret, buried deep in my heart, but one that must never see the light.

Theme: May I have your heart, and may we never part, even as our hair turns white