[Revised text, only the official Jinjiang edition is complete and error-free]
‖She thought he had been drawn to her looks at first sight. Little did she know that one glance had been cherished deep in his heart for a lifetime.‖
1
Everyone in Ancheng's upper circles knew that Fu Jinyu, president of the Fu Group, was aloof and cold-hearted. In a business world crowded with rivals, he was not only sharp-tongued, but his methods were also ruthlessly forceful in ways few knew about. When his keen eyes fell on someone, they always held a hint of casual indifference.
Only one young woman had ever seen him lose himself in a haze of intense desire.
Those eyes, normally as impassive as still water at the negotiating table, gradually turned red at the corners as she softly moaned, like blood-red poppies glowing with an obsessive, enthralled light...
2
Xiang Shan had always known exactly where she stood in Fu Jinyu's heart. So no matter how gently he comforted her or how meticulously he cared for her, she remained unmoved. Even when the Fu Group was in dire straits, she resolutely escaped his control...
3
Years later, it seemed as if all of Ancheng's major media outlets had made an agreement.
They all reported:
Fu Jinyu, president of the Fu Group, was a refined and reserved man, cool as jade at the bottom of a pool. Yet this proud, distinguished man was willing to lower his gaze for a girl.
To win her favor, he made a high-profile announcement that he and the Song family's daughter had been divorced for years, putting the Fu Group in dire straits.
Only those close to Fu Jinyu knew the truth.
During the years Miss Xiang was gone, Fu Jinyu bought a detached apartment building across from the house where she lived.
He hired people to take countless shots of her from behind, images that made him miss her until he was consumed with longing.
The woman's sweet smile, her troubled expression as she lowered her brows, and frame after frame of her walking barefoot were carefully kept on the man's desk.
They remained there year after year, bearing witness to the man's surging, tide-like love.
‖Love is not the sunset or the evening glow. It is you, in my eyes.‖
Those who read pirated copies, don't come to the comments section acting like you know everything. You can read the chapters by subscription.
***** The leads are each other's only ones. The male lead's daughter is not his biological child.
***** The male lead and his ex-wife had a loveless marriage of convenience. They divorced long ago.
***** The male lead and He Xiao never slept together.
▼Below is the blurb for the upcoming novel, The Secret in "To Be Honest"~
A sensitive, reserved, insecure girl? A rebellious, unruly, carefree prodigy.
In the second semester of her sophomore year in high school, Xu Zhiyi secretly fell for someone without Professor Ruan knowing.
Beneath a canopy of yellow camphor leaves.
The boy wore a black baseball cap, barely covering the wisps of hair at his forehead. His features beneath the brim were sharply defined, with high brows and slightly upturned eyes. His air fell somewhere between a delinquent and a model student.
Xu Zhiyi thought he leaned more toward... delinquent.
He stood straight against the light, his Nan High School uniform jacket hanging loosely on him. The collar of his white shirt was slightly open. The boy glanced at her from beneath his lowered lashes, then curled his lips into a smirk. "Why are you crying?"
The boy's rich, cool voice drifted past with the biting spring breeze, beautiful and captivating. There was also a faint hint of mockery in it:
"An eye for an eye."
"Don't get it?"
/
The girl's castle was as solid as a rock, yet it could still be shattered in an instant. As her feelings quietly grew, Xu Zhiyi was flustered, but also secretly delighted.
Day after day, the joy in Xu Zhiyi's heart became a tornado sweeping toward her. Wherever it passed, it left her youth in utter chaos.
But one day-
"I heard he goes to taekwondo practice every year for his girlfriend."
"His buddy says he has a girlfriend."
"Look at his Miso profile picture. Doesn't it look like a short-haired girl...?"
Rumors were flying everywhere, but the boy in question remained as cocky and carefree as ever. He neither denied them nor confirmed anything.
Xu Zhiyi still held on to a faint hope, until
On the night of the college entrance exams, the school beauty, Wen Wanxin, organized a graduation party.
Inside the KTV room, all glittering lights and drunken revelry, a group of people who had gotten carried away with the drinking shouted and egged him on: "Brother Yu, a bet's a bet! Pick one: kiss her or make it official. Don't tell us you can't handle it!"
Amid the crowd's ill-intentioned cheers, the boy sat in the dim light and faintly curled his lips. His Adam's apple bobbed as he gave an emotionless snort, leaned forward to stub out his cigarette, and then spoke nonchalantly. "All right..."
Xu Zhiyi wasn't there that night, but she saw the post on his Moments.
And so, her four-hundred-and-twenty-day unrequited love finally came to a sad end.
-
One afternoon after they reunited, cicadas chirred in the treetops, just like the boy's lazy, carefree voice behind her in their senior year:
"Teacher, this problem is wrong. You should extend EF."
Wind chimes suddenly rang outside the eaves. The brazen, roguishly handsome boy from her memories had become a hot new name in the business world.
Only the same wild, unruly arrogance remained in his eyes and brows.
He blocked her path by a vintage bar stool as if no one else were around. The cramped space grew cloyingly warm, and the faint scent of men's cologne seemed ready to drown her in his embrace.
Xu Zhiyi couldn't see his expression. She only heard him lean close to her ear, his voice hoarse and the corners of his eyes tinged with color, each word breathing warm air against her ear:
"You think I write love letters for just anyone... hmm?"
Theme: Born beneath the sea, with a heart turned toward the sun, walking against the light.
