His White Swan

When Yan Rou was very young, a boy suddenly came to live with her family.

Her parents said something had happened to his family, so from then on, he would be living with them.

At first, Yan Rou was a little afraid of him. She thought he was cold and quiet. But after spending every day together, she grew used to him. Then, as she entered the first stirrings of romance, he became the boy she secretly loved.

When her brother came of age, he moved away. Yan Rou never told anyone that she cried that day.

Later, Yan Rou worked hard at her studies and got into the same university as Fu Luan. Less than a month after classes began, she ran into another girl confessing her feelings to him.

When she went home for the holidays, Yan Rou stayed shut in her room until her eyes were swollen from crying. When she saw Fu Luan again, she refused to speak to him.

Fu Luan asked, "What's wrong? Did someone bully you?"

But one day, he said, "Yan Rou, you're mine."

Next door: "Cicadas in the Noisy Summer"

The first time Xia Xingmian went to a bar, she met a boy in a dim alley. He was leaning against the wall, with pale, thin eyelids and a tall frame. Against his cool, fair skin, his lips had the faintest hint of red.

His bone structure gave him a strikingly dangerous look.

That night, he helped chase away a drunk.

*

Lu Ye came from a good family. He was cold and handsome, with a wild streak. People had to work up their courage for ages just to approach him and say a few words, yet he loved teasing Xia Xingmian.

Sometimes he pinched her cheek or tugged at her sleeve. Other times, he pulled her right up in front of him.

Whenever the two of them walked together, he never went in a straight line. Even when Xia Xingmian was practically pressed against the wall, he still edged closer. Every time, she reminded him, "Hey, could you try watching where you're going?"

Lu Ye smiled at her. His body instinctively chose its own direction, teaching him what it meant to be physically drawn to someone.

Lu Ye had been in plenty of fights. As a boy, he had hard fists and had more than once ended up with bruises all over his face. Yet when Xia Xingmian pinched his waist, he didn't even dare breathe in, afraid that if he tensed his muscles, she wouldn't be able to pinch him.

Even when the pinch left a bruise, he would still ask her, "Does your hand hurt?"

"..."

*

Xia Xingmian was gentle and mild-mannered. She was usually good-tempered and polite, but she either stayed out of trouble or made a huge stir when she did get into it.

One day, Lu Ye went to her house to see her and ran into her parents coming upstairs together. Then he caught Xia Xingmian kissing the one person she absolutely shouldn't have been kissing.

That night, Lu Ye cornered her on a path. He held a cigarette between his fingertips, his face frighteningly pale, and asked, "Do you even know what the hell you're doing?"

"I barely touch you, and you act all offended for ages. Then you turn around and mess around with him."

Even knowing it wasn't real, he couldn't stand it. That night, Lu Ye made Xia Xingmian say "I'm yours" over and over.

But the upshot was that Xia Xingmian's parents locked her in the house and wouldn't let her go out. All she could do was sit by the bedroom balcony, enjoy the air conditioning, and gaze out the window. Meanwhile, in the sweltering midsummer heat, Lu Ye stood downstairs, hopping around and making gestures to cheer her up. He even brought along the cat they'd raised together and told it, "Son, quit being lazy. Get moving and make your mom happy."

*

Just before graduation, Lu Ye went out drinking with his roommates. Later, one of them told him that a stranger had slipped something into his glass.

Lu Ye didn't think much of it at first, but when Xia Xingmian sat beside him, he started to feel that something was wrong with his body.

That night, he thought he'd drunk something tainted, and he and Xia Xingmian were alone together in a room.

But later, the doctor told him the test results were clear.

Lu Ye immediately said, "That's impossible! My body reacted!"

The doctor glanced at the girl beside him and said, "At your age, after drinking, a little psychological suggestion can be enough to cause that."

Lu Ye: "..."

Thinking back to what had just happened, he didn't dare look at her.

After two years apart, Lu Ye had changed a lot. He used to be bold and reckless. Two years later, he was steady and decisive, a rising star in the business world whom everyone wanted to curry favor with.

They met again at a class reunion. Xia Xingmian had too much to drink, and Lu Ye wanted to take her away while she was asleep. A female classmate stopped him, saying it was dark and that there should be boundaries between men and women.

Lu Ye pulled up a photo of their marriage certificate on his phone and showed it to them. "She's my wife."

His love was like solid rock, unmoving through thorns, fire, and flood.

*Happy ending.

*Pure one-on-one romance. The feelings are very much mutual.

Theme: Through the story of heroine Yan Rou's relationships with her older and younger brothers, and her pursuit of the person she loves and her career, the novel advocates developing sound values and a positive, resilient character as one grows up.